There All Along by Megan Hart, Lauren Dane Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t know much about the other side of the mountains.” Just that it was fairly inhospitable and crawling with brigands.
    “I’ve got a meeting set for just after breakfast. Come down to the garrison offices and you can address my people. We’ll double our patrols. I’ve already doubled the sentries on the walls.”
    “Smart.”
    Jackson stood. “I need to get back home. Thank you for dinner, Verity.”
    She smiled at him. “Thank you for the sweets. And your mother. If she needs more of the poultice let me know. I’m teaching a few in town how to make them and it’s good practice.”
    He disappeared with one last nod at Loyal and a promise to see him the following morning.
    “Looks like Haldeman has an eye on you.”
    She looked Loyal’s way, one of her brows hiking. “Yes, I believe he does. Question is, Loyal, what are you going to do about that?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, you look like you just sucked on a lemon. Clearly you don’t like it that Jackson is sweet on me. And I’m asking what you plan to do about it.”
    She moved out of the kitchen, pulling her curtains closed here and there as she moved through the house. He wandered behind her, breathing her in.
    “I . . . Nothing, I suppose.”
    She spun, stomped over and poked him in the chest. “Nothing?”
    “Are you sweet on him?”
    “I’m on fire for you.” Her voice was low. Urgent. Full of emotion and it set his world on its end. “There’s no sweet on him, no room for that. Not when every time I think of you I can remember what it felt like to have your mouth on mine.”
    He licked his lips. Knowing he should step back.
Knowing it.
But he didn’t.
    “You shouldn’t be. He’s a better choice. Safer. He’s here. I’m not.”
    She made a sound, frustrated. “Since when does that sort of thing ever play into it? I’m not my sister. I can’t place my affections, my desire, based on a set of calculations about which man would come with more cows and pigs, who could chop more wood to keep my home warm through the snow. My desire doesn’t care about that. It cares about the way your voice changes, deepens when I stand this close. How your scent rises to my nose as your skin heats. Spicy like your cigars. How when I see your vehicle my entire system seems to come alive and I realize all the time when you are not here is gray. You make me feel alive, Loyal. So stand there, why don’t you, and tell me what you plan to do about Jackson Haldeman wanting to court me. Hm?”
    He should have told her to back off. Hells, he should have backed off himself, retreated to his room and closed the door.
    Instead, he slid his hands around her neck and yanked her close, his mouth falling on hers like he needed it more than his very breath. Which he was fairly certain was true.
    She sighed, her body molding to his, her posture softening, submitting to his control and that only made his need worse. The roar of it harder to overcome and so he ignored all the voices telling him to stop and continued to plunder the sweetness of her mouth.
    He sucked her tongue and she gasped and then moaned, arching. Irresistible. The need to show her what a real man could do in bed, how he could love her until she was boneless, raced through him. He wanted to show her that. He wanted to make her come so hard she sobbed, and the idea that anyone else wanted to do that, wanted to lay with her at night drove him on, drove him to burn into her memory just how much he desired her.
    Wanted her to never forget him.
    And it didn’t matter that he shouldn’t. It didn’t matter that he’d told himself for years not to let himself get carried away with what he felt for Verity Coleman.
    All that mattered was the need that beat at him, the way her breath hitched, the way her fingers had tangled in his hair, holding him close as he continued to kiss her.
    Knowing a kiss, even hours’ worth of kisses would not be enough.
    Her grip tightened in his hair, bringing a