Chapter Ten #2
“Right,” she said faintly, stepping around the anvil as though this was a perfectly normal day, and she absolutely wasn’t approaching a half-naked man in her forge. “Right.”
“I hope you don’t mind,” Henry said, a teasing smile dancing across his lips as he spoke seriously. “It helps to keep cool, as you can imagine. And it is remarkably hot in here.”
“Remarkably so,” breathed Minny, coming to stop just before him.
He turned to face her, the anvil to the side, giving her clear access to—
Minny forced her hand to return to her side. This was not happening! Handsome, muscular men did not pay to be in her forge, play with her anvil, then start removing their clothes!
Except they did. At least, Henry did.
And now she could not draw her eyes away from the hair scattering down his neck, his chest, toward his breeches—
Minny swallowed, hoping to goodness she had not whimpered aloud. She was no expert, far from it, but there appeared to be a…well. A large iron rod within his breeches.
“You’re still looking at me,” Henry breathed.
Minny’s eyes snapped to his face. “I…I am?”
He nodded.
She tried to breathe, she really did—but every breath only inhaled his scent, that warm, heady scent that only came with hard work from a particularly delicious man. It overpowered her, sending tingles of anticipation for a kiss she knew she could not have roaring through her.
And words she would in any other situation have thought, let alone said, slipped out. “Well, you do not appear to be any cooler than when you started—though I admit, there have been times when I have wished to remove a few layers to keep cool.”
Minny saw, she was sure, a flicker of longing. “I’m not stopping you.”
It was all Minny could do not to throw herself into his arms. She would control herself!
Probably.
“Can I help you, by the way?”
Minny blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
Help her? The only help he could surely give her was the kind that whispered of tantalizing pleasure and a bed and—
“You left your stool and came over here,” Henry pointed out, closing the gap between them to place himself a mere inch from her own body. “Did you…want anything?”
Minny swallowed. Heaven help her from temptation. Strike while the iron is hot? There would surely never be a situation more alluring than this!
But she had to stay calm—maintain what little dignity she had left.
“Oh, nothing from you,” she said as airily as she could manage with lungs entirely devoid of breath. “No, I just—just wanted a hammer, that was all.”
The rack of tools behind him was far too convenient. In any other situation, Minny would never have been tempted to do something so outrageously forward. But then, he had been the one to start taking off his clothes, hadn’t he?
And it was not as though she was some fancy lady with a reputation to ruin…
Minny leaned forward, heart in her mouth. Her hand reached for the hammer behind Henry, and it was just complete chance that her hand brushed against his arm. It was scalding, or it scalded her.
A moan rumbled in his throat, and it was too late.
Minny gasped as Henry pulled her into his arms and kissed her, all her senses overwhelmed by him, and she did not care.
This was what she wanted.
She clung to him, one hand tangled in his hair and the other gripping his arm, pulling him closer. Nothing was close enough as his lips roughly parted hers and his tongue claimed her, pouring pleasure that made every part of her tingle.
Minny moaned, desperate for more as Henry responded, his hands tight on her waist.
Oh, it was heavenly, feeling the rough hair of his chest brushing against her! So intimate, the heat that poured between them, the heady knowledge that this was forbidden and yet so right!
Minny swiftly lost herself in the kiss, his tongue teasing sensual delights from her so swiftly, she was overwhelmed, head spinning, heart pounding.
“Minny,” he murmured, pulling back only to trail warm wet kisses down her neck.
And all she could do was tilt her head back, safe in his arms, achingly longing for more yet not knowing what it could be.
“Henry, more,” she gasped, her hands inexplicably drifting down his back and toward his buttocks.
He moaned as her fingers tightened. “God, I would give you everything, I—”
“Minny? Minny, is that you?”
Minny and Henry sprang apart as though burned. The voice just outside the forge was rough, full of the country lilt from the next village.
“Y-Yes?” Minny managed, astonished she was able to make any noise after such heady kisses.
Somehow Henry had released her, and it was agony to be apart. Not just the lack of his physical presence, which was pain in itself, but this ache within her now had nowhere to go, nothing to do.
Minny’s eyes flickered to Henry who was hurriedly pulling his shirt on. His eyes danced with wickedness.
“Next time, I will have to make sure to lock the damned door,” he breathed before stepping out of the forge and the kitchen.
And not a moment too soon. Mr. Chapman stepped into the smithy with a broad smile and his hat in his hands. “I thought I’d find you like this.”
Minny tried to smile as she leaned back against the rack of tools, as though they would provide support for her frantically beating heart and quivering body.
“Like this?” she repeated.
Mr. Chapman nodded. “Here, in the forge. I wanted to talk to you about something, just a suggestion of course, but I think it will satisfy us both.”
Minny blinked, trying to take in his words. Satisfy her? Nothing would ever satisfy her now other than knowing the taste of every inch of Henry Everleigh.
“Minny?”
She tried to laugh, though it echoed awkwardly. “I am so sorry, Mr. Chapman, I was momentarily—I was distracted, only for a moment, but you have come across me when I wasn’t…suggestion?”
The farmer appeared nonplussed. Clearly, Minny thought dryly as her mind whirled, Mr. Chapman considered women as nothing more than flighty things.
“Yes, a suggestion,” he continued blithely. “Well, I thought I have a number of horses that need shoeing, so I thought you could come over to the farm for a day—I’ll send a cart if needs be—and that way…”
It was a good idea, even Minny had to admit. It was good business sense, good for her, and easier on the horses, too.
And she would give it some proper thought, the moment she could erase the memory of being held in Henry’s scorching arms, receiving his scalding kisses.