Read Online The Desires of a Countess by Jenna Petersen - Free Book Online

waited for your
approval, but the fact that I didn’t doesn’t mean I was trying to
steal the boy away.” He tilted his face closer to hers. “You know
that, don’t you? You know me well enough to understand
that.”
    She held steady in his arms as she
searched his face. For a brief moment he glimpsed the vulnerability
she tried so hard to hide beneath a tough exterior. Then she shook
free of his grip and turned away.
    “ I don’t know you. I
don’t want to know
you.”
    The sting of her words cut him as
deeply as a dagger, and he turned his face. When he spoke again, it
was with words designed to cut her just as deep. “Then why did you
kiss me?”
    Her spine stiffened as she slowly
turned to look at him. She opened and shut her mouth.
“I-I-”
    He smiled at the desire that flickered
in her eyes. Even if she denied it, it was clear his presence moved
her as much as she moved him. He wasn’t about to let her refute
that.
    “ I think you’re afraid.
Afraid of me, but not because of your son or the will or the
estate.”
    She swallowed and took a short step
back. “I-”
    “ That was the cause of your
fear at first.” He shoved off from the stable door to take a few
predatory steps toward her. Her response to him was undeniable,
from the slight glaze of her eyes to the way her skin darkened with
a telling, sensual flush. Perhaps it was madness to continue to
press her, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “But now it’s for another
reason.”
    In just two more steps he stood before
her. With aching slowness, he wrapped his hands around her upper
arms and pulled her closer, just as he had a few nights before. The
press of her full length against him was enough have him uttering a
quiet moan before he caught her lips for a slow, hot
kiss.
    She responded as fervently as she had
the first time their lips had touched, deepening the kiss before he
could take the lead. Molding her body against his, she gripped the
planes of his back with smooth hands that sent fire searing through
him.
    He pulled away, though it physically
pained him to do so. “Now you’re afraid because you want me and you
think that makes you guilty. Guilty of not mourning your husband.
Guilty for wanting to feel like a woman so soon after his
death.”
    He dipped his head again to catch her
lips, but this time her response was more measured, as if she were
allowing his accusation to sink in. To his dismay, she flattened
her palms against his chest and pushed back with all her
might.
    Her eyes flickered and her chin
stiffened. Once again, she’d erected a wall so high he had no
chance of climbing over it. At least not today. “You don’t know
anything about me, Simon Webber. Nothing at all.”
    With that, she rushed out of the
stable into the spring day. As she disappeared from his sight,
Simon touched his lips, which still throbbed from the intimate
contact. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand the woman at
all. But instead of discouraging him, that fact only drove him to
delve even deeper into who Virginia Blanchard was and why she was
trying so desperately to push him away.
    ***
    Ginny reached the crest of the hill
and looked down at the valley below. Westdale rose up in the
distance, as beautiful and regal as it had been the first time
she’d seen it. Maintaining the magnificent house had been one of
the only things to keep her sane during her years with
Henry.
    That and Jack.
    Her gaze drifted to the stable where
she’d left Simon. He probably wondered what was wrong with her, but
there was no way to explain to him what kinds of feelings he
inspired in her. Or that guilt was the last thing she felt when she
tasted his lips.
    With a shiver, she turned to look at
Henry’s grave. She sniffled and blinked back the tears she’d barely
managed keep at bay when Simon had spoken so kindly to
her.
    With a glare, she stared at the large
slab of marble that marked her husband’s grave. “I won’t cry, not
in front of you. I haven’t