Read Online The Sergeant's Lady by Susanna Fraser - Free Book Online

rough. Anna was lost to thought, lost to reason, lost to everything but the wonderful feel of his mouth on hers, hot and insistent, his hair, so thick and soft—she was pulling at it in her urgency—his hands at her back, crushing her against him.
    Abruptly he broke the kiss and pushed her away. She swayed on her feet and almost stumbled.
    “Bloody hell.” He ran a hand through his hair, stopping at the exact spot she had tugged at in her frenzy.
    Reality rushed back. She raised her hands to her face. “Oh, God.” Before he could speak again, she turned and fled for the safety of her tent.

Chapter Five
    Dazed though he was, Will watched to make sure she made it back to her tent. Then he staggered off into the deepest shadows, far away from the singers by the campfire or the sentry pickets, and leaned against a tree.
    If anyone had asked him an hour ago what he thought of Mrs. Arrington, he would’ve said he wished her well. He might have added that he was honored to have her consider him a friend. If pressed, he would’ve acknowledged her to be a beautiful woman—he wasn’t blind. But he hadn’t realized he wanted her. He had no business wanting her.
    But he could still feel her body arched against his. He knew that if he hadn’t stopped when he did, they would both be out here now, scrambling to push aside the layers of clothing that kept them from joining. They’d been just that hungry, just that heedless.
    He had known it was wrong to dance with her, especially to so bawdy a song. But he had put up only a token resistance. He’d been so glad to dance, so glad to have a woman in his arms—a soft, lovely, well-curved woman—that alone in the darkness it had been easy to forget that he was only a sergeant while she was the niece of an earl. And once the song was over it had seemed like the most natural thing in the world to kiss her.
    He was a fool. A reckless idiot. He’d known better and yielded to temptation anyway. He recognized the wild mood that had driven her to dance—death had turned her world upside down, and she was frantic to prove she was still alive, just like men who went drinking and wenching after a bloody action. He had taken advantage of her in a moment of weakness, and tomorrow he would have to make her an apology.
    But he wanted her. He wanted her so very badly.
    He stayed out there a long time. When he finally sought his bedroll, everyone but the sentries had long since fallen asleep. The ground was no harder than any other he had slept on, but he felt every pebble, every uneven patch beneath him, as slumber eluded him long into the lonely night.
    ***
    Mrs. Kent was a snorer, a loud one, but Anna didn’t even attempt to persuade herself that was why she lay awake. No, what robbed her of her sleep was the depth of her folly.
    Why had she not understood until the moment their dance began that she admired Sergeant Atkins as a man? The signs had been there. Her heart beat faster when she saw him, and while he was within her view she had eyes for no one else. She had watched him all day, admiring his tall, lean form and the graceful, loose-limbed way he moved. Of course she thought highly of him whenever she remembered how they had met. He had been so capable and calm while delivering Juana’s baby, and it gave her a guilty thrill to think of how he had stood between her and Sebastian.
    Yet she had been stubbornly blind to the possibility that she could admire so unsuitable a man, and so dulled to her own heart after two years of building a wall around it that she had almost forgotten what the first hints of desire felt like.
    In her blindness she had used Sergeant Atkins to fulfill her wild, whimsical urge to dance, never dreaming there could be consequences. She was heartily ashamed, and she burned with humiliation when she thought of that kiss and how it had ended. She had completely forgotten herself and all but thrown herself at him, desperate to satisfy the fierce hunger their dance