Maid for Scandal Read Online Free

her apron between her fingers.
    “Simply Jonathan, if you please.” His eyes were very green, looking into hers. “Yes?”
    The words tumbled out in a rush, before she could consider them too carefully. “Do you know a great deal about kissing?”
    His eyebrows rose. “Is that the favor you’d like? A kiss?”
    “Oh, no! I didn’t mean that at all.” She dropped her gaze and fiercely studied the pathway beneath her feet. “An explanation would be quite sufficient.”
    “Ah.” There was a wealth of amusement in his voice. “An explanation. Of kissing.”
    “Yes.” Heat blazed in her cheeks, but she must know. She simply could not disappoint Giles again. “I would like to understand some of the particulars, you see.”
    “Why don’t you tell me what your experience is? I don’t want to shock you.”
    She glanced up. “Can kisses truly be shocking?”
    “Indeed.” Wicked knowledge gleamed in his eyes. “But we digress. What kind of kissing would you like to know about, Anna?”
    “The usual kind?” Goodness, she couldn’t conceive what else he might be referring to. “You know. Where a gentleman—er, man—presses his mouth to a woman’s.”
    She couldn’t help it—her gaze fell to his lips. They looked surprisingly soft in contrast to his hewn features.
    He nodded. “Yes. Go on.”
    “Go on? I mean… what more is there, beyond the lips coming together?” She twisted the corner of her apron around her fingers.
    This, then, was what had disappointed Giles so—the something more. Whatever it might be. Oh, she did so want to please him! And she was protected by her disguise. As far as Jonathan knew, she was a simple country maid asking… well, asking a terribly awkward question, but there was no going back now.
    One of Jonathan’s eyebrows crept up, though his voice did not reveal any surprise. “I see the nature of your problem.”
    “You do? Oh, but that is marvelous.” She had been right to ask him, no matter how forward it made her seem. Maids were forward, weren’t they? “Please tell me—what happens next?”
    “Well. When the lips meet, that is often merely the beginning of the kiss. It deepens.” He gave her a level look. “The parties involved open their mouths. And touch tongues.”
    She halted and stared up at him. “What? That sounds dreadful.”
    “It’s not dreadful,” he said. “Rather the opposite.”
    She shook her head. Was this what Giles had been trying to do with her? It was unfathomable.
    “Well,” she said, uncomfortably aware of the primness of her tone. “Thank you very much. For explaining.”
    He threw back his head and laughed, a full-throated sound. “An explanation doesn’t do it justice. Would you care for a demonstration, so that you may fully understand?”
    “I…”
    Part of her was urging her to say no, to hurry down the path and leave Jonathan behind. But another part was clamoring yes, yes. This might be her best chance to learn, to please Giles. And who would ever know?
    Besides, she did not think Jonathan was the kind to take undue advantage. There was something almost gentlemanly in his bearing, despite his lowly position in the stables. They were almost at the dairy. If he pressed her too much, she could simply scream for help.
    A kiss—so that she might know exactly what to do. His reckless suggestion took fire in her blood. She mustered her courage.
    “Perhaps….” Her heart sped. “Perhaps you might show me, after all.”
    He studied her a long moment, and her resolve began to fade. Was her lack of knowledge so off-putting?
    “If you have changed your mind, I understand.” She turned her head away, so that she would not see pity in his expression. “I suppose I am not the kissable kind.”
    He lifted his hand and gently turned her face toward him. The feel of his fingers against her cheek made a thrill course all the way down to her feet. There was no pity in his eyes.
    “You are eminently kissable, Anna. I confess, I’m