Ashberry held his body rigid as he pulled away, and with his hands almost clenching into fists, stood up and moved to stand behind her. Her lips had been soft, softer than he had imagined, and she hadn’t tensed or resisted him. The thought was heady and it took him several minutes to recover. Ellie was grateful for the reprieve. After a long minute, she took a deep breath. Ashberry was behind her chair, but she knew he would still be focused on her. He had pulled away before his body had taken over the kiss and Ellie nearly thanked him for it, stopping the words only by covering her mouth with a quicker hand. Her lips tingled where they had met and the sensation was strangely pleasant—unfamiliar but pleasant. “Go,” he said roughly, the word low and urgent, but Ellie was intelligent enough to obey. She fled the study, the door closing behind her as she hurried into the music room across the corridor. She stood just inside the doors and caught her breath. This room was her favorite of all the rooms she had seen at Ashberry House, perhaps because it was missing entirely from the Whitney home.
