Moonlight on My Mind by Jennifer McQuiston Page B

him to have such a physical confirmation of his need. She was warm and pliant, and his control was like a curtain being yanked from its moorings. He sought a more complete claim to her mouth, his tongue sweeping against hers.
    And that was when she pulled back. Her hand was a gentle reminder against his chest, though the flush on her cheeks and her accelerated rate of breathing provided pleasurable testimony to her body’s reaction. “I trust this is adequate compensation until the vows are completed?” she said softly.
    The muted tenor of her voice was comical, really. She might as well have shouted.
    She’d been inexperienced during their first kiss, though even untutored she’d been beautifully responsive. But that had been a restrained sort of kiss, an exploration of what she could learn to be. This was a fulfillment of the promise. Because the woman who had just wrestled control of the situation into her own small hands was not the same green girl she had been eleven months ago, experiencing her first kiss. Julianne knew the lay of the land now, and she was shouldering her way along a well-trodden path.
    As his palms fell away from the temptation of her night rail, he tried not to think of how she knew this, or from whom she had learned it. She was a coquette and a flirt. It should not surprise him that she knew something of matters between a man and a woman.
    Had she kissed his brother this way, once upon a time? Eric had certainly regarded the delectable Julianne Baxter in a proprietary fashion. They had even argued over her in the minutes before the accident that took Eric’s life.
    He shook his head clear of those damning thoughts. Claiming now the woman his brother had wanted then was just one more egregious sin to add to his mounting tally of reasons to burn in hell. And no matter his dislike of the idea of her recent experience with kissing or worse, the issue was moot, given the pressing need to dismantle the danger she posed to his family and his future. She would be a willing participant in the marriage bed, that much was clear. No shrieking, no hysterics.
    He lacked the audacity to think he deserved anything more.
    “It will do for now.” His voice, thankfully, retained its faculties, even if his head felt pelted by lust and doubt. He stepped back, breathing hard. She made him feel unhinged, and that made him uneasy. The thought of knocking her off her composed pedestal once they finally tumbled into bed gave him a dark pleasure he didn’t care to examine overmuch.
    “But make no mistake, I expect a complete marriage, Julianne. If you marry me, you shall be mine, and no one else’s. I refuse to be a cuckold.”
    He could almost see the cogs turning in the depths of those green eyes. There would be no outside lover. No opportunity for a later annulment. He was reminding her of who he was, and what he expected they would be.
    Miraculously, she nodded by way of an answer.
    “My father will not be happy we’ve done it in this manner.” She inhaled deeply, flattening her palms against the front of the night rail he had just been contemplating removing. “But I suppose it is a match he will not be able to dispute. You possess a title, certainly. He was good friends with the late earl, and your father certainly believed in your innocence.”
    He searched her eyes for some kernel of truth. Her kiss had convinced him that a marriage would not be all jaw-gritting duty, but neither did it tell him what he needed to know. “And what of you, Julianne? What do you believe?”
    She looked startled by the question. “I believe I shall enjoy being a countess.”
    Patrick held himself steady, but he could admit some disappointment in Julianne’s ready evasion. So this was how it was to be. He was to marry a woman who believed him capable of murder. Of course, without that bit of it there would be no need to marry her at all, so why was he warring with his emotions on this matter? He would spend the rest of his