Wicked Temptations by Patricia Watters Read Free Book Online Page B

she was his for the afternoon, and he intended to take full advantage of it. He had his business offer to make to her, along with curiosity about what she'd been telling the women that had held them captive. He also intended to kiss her before the day was done. He had not seen her since he'd helped her uncrate her printing press, but from the look on her face, she was shocked with the bid her basket brought, or maybe because he was the one to aggressively go after it and prevail.
    He walked up to where she stood beside her basket and said, "Miss Phipps, I believe you will be joining me for the afternoon."
    Her mouth darted into a smile. "You have put up quite a bit of money, Lord Whittington," she said. "I hope what I have put together will not be a disappointment."
    He shoved the blanket roll tighter under his arm, picked up the picnic basket and offered his other arm for her to take. "I was not bidding on what is in your basket, " he said, as she slid her hand into the crook of his arm, "I was bidding on your company. And I propose we dispense with the formalities and you call me Adam, and I'd like very much to call you Priscilla." Her face flushed, and moisture brightened her eyes. He looked at her, curious. "I hope that intriguing response means you're in agreement with me," he said, escorting her around the side of the church, away from the gathering.
    She quickened her pace to keep up with him, the tapered gown causing her steps to be short and swift. "Intriguing response?" she asked, clearly befuddled.
    "Your eyes," he said, looking down at her as she walked beside him. "They are bright with tears, which I hope are tears of joy, not dread."
    She blinked several times. "They are neither, Lord... Adam," she said. "They are reacting to the... dust in the air. It stings my eyes and makes them water."
    Adam glanced around. "The day seems clear. And I would like to think your tears are tears of enthusiasm." He stopped at a secluded spot in the shade of a giant cottonwood tree and set the picnic basket down. "Shall we have our picnic here?"
    Priscilla continued to hold onto his arm as she looked around, brows gathered in a worried frown, and said, "We are out of view of the others."
    Adam smiled. "That was precisely my intent."
    She looked at him with alarm. "Why?"
    He patted her hand. "Because I'd like to spend time alone with you and not have curious eyes on us. It appears you have gotten the notice of Cheyenne 's first ladies—the mayor's wife and the wife of our territorial governor—as well as the wives of two of the men who will be running against me in the upcoming election for mayor. If we were to sit in plain view of them, they'd all be watching us closely, and the women would be only too eager to cast doubt on my character, and yours, by tongue wagging."
    "Not unless we gave their tongues something to wag about," Priscilla said. "I don't believe that was your intention when you bid on my basket here today, was it?" Her face flushed, and she looked up at him in anticipation.
    "But that is the problem," Adam said. He reached out and touched her face. "I have an almost irresistible urge to kiss you soundly, because that thought is also on your mind at the moment. Am I right?"
    Priscilla's flush deepened, and her eyelids fluttered like hummingbird's wings. "No, you are not right," she said. But her voice wavered with uncertainty, and the tip of her tongue came out to trace her lips, leaving them moist and inviting.
    "Then I'll hold that thought until I am right," Adam said. He unrolled the blanket and fluttered it across the ground and set the picnic basket on top of it. "I should have brought along folding chairs," he said, "but that escaped me. There's a nice covering of grass beneath the blanket though, so you should not be too uncomfortable."
    Priscilla looked down at the blanket, a perplexed frown on her brow, and Adam realized she was trying to figure out how she was going to sit down gracefully in the