Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening (Summerset Abbey Trilogy) Read Online Free Page A

were slow and languorous, almost chaste, as if he was holding back. Then she realized why. He thought she was a virgin. She stiffened in his arms, but when he tried to pull away, she drew his head back down.
    He was going to find out sooner or later for they already had too many strikes against their marriage to play games. If they had any hope of making a real partnership, they would have to be honest with one another. So, her heart in her throat, she untied her dressing gown and slipped it off her shoulders. Then in one smooth movement, she pulled her nightdress over her head and discarded it on the grass next to the bench. Without waiting for an answer, he picked her up in his arms and lay her down in the soft grass.
    “Rowena,” Sebastian groaned “What are you doing?”
    She shivered as the cool summer air hit her body. She let herself fall on top of him, burrowing into his warmth. No, the body she lay against wasn’t Jonathon’s, but the lingering pulses of the music, the exultation of her flight from the house, and the feeling of his skin against hers had broken through her reserve. It had been so long, so very long, since someone had held her like this, wanting her. “I’m not an innocent,” she murmured against the base of his throat. He groaned as she unbuttoned his shirt and pressed herself against him.
    He ran his hands down the velvety length of her back and she held her breath. He rolled them over until he was on top, and she could feel him fumbling with the front of his trousers. She arched against him, willing him to hurry. “Please,” she whispered, “please . . .” But it was Jonathon’s name that suddenly came to her mind.
    Shock, like a bucket of cold water, washed over her. Suddenly, she was aware of the strangeness of the body on top ofher. The feeling of a twig poking her back. What was she doing? How had this gotten so out of hand? “No. Please stop.”
    She reached out her hand and grabbed her discarded nightclothes and pulled them against her chest.
    Groaning, Sebastian fell alongside her. She could hear the sound of his labored breathing, and tears stung her eyes. She was simply hopeless.
    He put his arm over his eyes and she hurriedly dragged her nightgown over her head and pulled her dressing gown on. He didn’t move. Taking a deep breath, she touched his shoulder. “Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine.” He sat up next to her. Handing him his shirt, she looked away until he had pulled it on. “But I don’t know if I understand what . . . what just happened . . .”
    “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice small. “I don’t know what came over me. I just wanted to . . .”
    “Don’t.” He put a finger to her lips. “Don’t apologize. We got out of hand and you rightfully stopped us. We should wait until our marriage.”
    She wanted to tell him the truth. Tell him she had wanted him, but was confused. That she still ached for Jonathon every night. But looking at his kind, handsome face, she knew she wouldn’t. He’d suffered enough heartache. She wasn’t going to add to it.
    But underneath her confusion and her disappointment in herself was relief. If nothing else, she knew from the intensity of their embrace that she could one day share a marriage bed with Sebastian . . . just not yet.
    Impulsively, she leaned forward and kissed him softly on the mouth. “Now, my dear future husband, how are you going to sneak me back into the house?”
    *  *  *
    Prudence Wilkes hurried up the stairs of her Camden Town flat, wondering how time had gotten away from her. She liked to have dinner already cooking when her husband got home from the docks. Hauling pallets tired him out so much that he could barely keep his eyes open through dinner as it was. If she didn’t have his food on the table early, he barely made it through his meal.
    He’d been working steadily ever since he had passed the examinations for the Royal Veterinary College. He didn’t say it, but