With Love (Blackwood & Friends #1)

Chapter 28: Alone

Chapter 28: Alone

"You are too much," Nicola told him, stepping over a fallen branch that lay across the path.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

Her look, even in the shadows, was exceedingly caustic, but she had to soften her expression to concentrate on not stumbling over the intrusive fronds of the bracken littering the floor of the woodlands. "I know where this path leads," she said. "You know where this path leads."

"And why is that a problem, exactly?" He caught her by the waist and hefted her over the log he had vaulted.

"First, I think you are teasing me." She encroached against his body welcomingly and Jason smiled down at her before taking her hand and continued up the gentle slope. "Secondly, your family will think we are doing something we shouldn't."

"Which is what exactly? The thing we shouldn't be doing."

"You know."

"Do I?"

"Jason."

It was difficult to not haul her into his arms. "Call it what is, my love." He adored the way she blushed so prettily. "Making love," he teased her, "amorous congress," her brow lifted then as she regarded him askance, "fucking."

Her lips pursed, but he could see the humour in her eyes. Nothing would offend her so easily and he enjoyed pushing those limits, watching her strip away at the boundaries she had steadied around her heart and her personality.

"Still, they will think terribly of us."

"They already think terribly of me," he told her. "They adore you, you needn't worry. Besides, they will only think what they want, and that is simply that we are taking a stroll. Also, my dear, your insinuation that we have wandered out here to have our wicked way with each other is duly misconstrued. Again, such a wicked creature you are."

"Oh, certainly, then what are we doing out here?" she demanded pertly.

But Jason only smiled, guided her further into the small clearing, where the pool rippled peacefully before them, to the location where he had chanced upon a box of letters that had changed the course of his life. He left her for a moment to light an old oil lamp he had placed under a hidden tarp- an item he had the foresight to leave in the vicinity after countless nights utilizing the pool to ease his frustration and not being unable to locate his trousers in the dark after.

"I wanted us to come here together," he explained, returning to her side as she studied the scene before her. Her profile was turned to him and her face wasn't readable. "It was my intention to drag you into that pool, have my wicked way with you, and then propose. But we seem to be doing things out of order."

"Is it not supposed to be," she began, her lips quirking, "propose, have the wedding, then have your wicked way with me?"

"Yes, you've certainly messed up the order of events."

"Me?" She gaped at him.

Jason unbuttoned his coat. "Indeed." He completed the act and shrugged out of the garment, tossing it onto low hanging branch. Moving to his waistcoat, he said, "For the first time in my life, I had every intention to do something right. Little did I know, my sweet proper Nicola Eversley had every other intention for me."

"I did not," she grumbled, watching him steadily as he worked the buttons of his waistcoat next. "What are you doing?"

"Disrobing." Jason added the waistcoat to the coat atop the branch. "Would you like to join me?"