FROM CHAPTER EIGHT
She slowly rose from the chair and lifted her plate with a shaky hand. She turned toward him. “How dare you accuse me of doing something so appalling?”
“I didn’t accuse you. I said I would wonder,” he clarified.
This was war and she was ready to do battle. Caroline narrowed her gaze. “That your mind even went there is disturbing enough!”
Elijah’s eyes narrowed as well. “Benjamin Bennett is a ladies’ man and you’re his next intended conquest.”
“Is that so? What happened to trusting each other?”
Elijah stood silent as if mulling over his thoughts.
“Is your faith in me so little that you have to warn me away from a man I barely know? A man I don’t even like?”
“I trust you,” he finally answered.
She rose on the tips of her toes to appear taller. “You do?”
He responded with a nod. “I do. But I don’t trust Bennett.”
Caroline laughed. “My word, where is this coming from?”
He tipped his head back and Caroline could see the muscles of his throat working. The tension extended to his jaw as he brought his head forward.
“Answer me! If you trust me, then I want to know why you’re thinking this about me?”
“I don’t believe that you’ve gone to bed with him, but I do know that’s his intention. He was most likely fawning over you and you probably enjoyed it. Am I right?”
Elijah unfolded his arms and grasped the edge of the counter top with both hands. His chest broadened and suddenly she lost the ability to breathe. With only one foot of space between them, Caroline cautiously leaned around him to put her plate in the sink. Immediately she realized her mistake when her arm brushed along his taut belly. Slowly she straightened. She began to step away when he reached out and grasped the arm that had so innocently touched him.
“Am I right?” he asked her again.
She couldn’t let her husband think the worst of her, so she relayed her conversation with Benjamin word for word.
Elijah freed her arm from his grasp as he patiently listened.
When she got to the part about Benjamin’s offer, Elijah’s fists clenched at his sides. Once she finished, she stood still as a statue and waited for him to respond. She’d chosen to be truthful and he appeared to appreciate that, considering the softening of his features.
He lifted her chin with the tips of two fingers and used his other hand to cradle her right cheek as he searched her eyes, and then gradually leaned forward.
Caroline watched his mouth come nearer until she couldn’t see it any longer. “What, what are you doing?” she stammered against his lips.
“Kissing my wife,” he informed her, and pressed his warm mouth against hers.
She didn’t expect this reaction. Elijah was usually so…prudent, but the kiss was anything but chaste. At first, the whiskers of his mustache tickled her upper lip, and she was tempted to giggle, but then his mouth lured hers into a spirited dance of advance and retreat until she pressed her mouth hard against his. Whiskers forgotten, her fingers disappeared into his hair, grasping at his scalp while he pushed her backward into the kitchen table. The palms of his hands landed on the tabletop for support as his body forced hers to bend back.
She didn’t want to leave the sweet essence of his mouth, but she wasn’t in the most comfortable of positions. She wrenched her mouth away from his, “I’m going to fall,” she insisted.
“I’ll catch you.” He clutched the back of her head with one hand and brought her mouth back to his.
“But—” Caroline forgot about complaining once his mouth touched hers again. He started to deepen the kiss when a knock came upon the door.
“Ignore it,” he said.