"Oh, and, dear, please call me Alice. We're both to be duchesses very soon. There's no point in being so formal."
Simon nearly groaned.
Twenty-Three
Lily muttered to herself as she walked through the garden. All she'd wanted was to coerce the duke into spending more time with Oliver. Yet here she was— ruined, engaged to the scoundrel, and still just as confused about Oliver as she had been before she made the trip.
Lily kicked a stone in her path, sending it skittering into the grass. She wished it was Simon's head.
She'd just spent a perfectly horrid afternoon and evening with the duchess. For all intents and purposes, the duchess was probably a splendid woman. But Lily felt grossly inadequate around her. It wasn't even that she felt inferior to the woman. It was because she obviously knew something Lily didn't.
Throughout dinner, every time the duchess began to talk about the marriage, Simon had efficiently changed the subject. It was almost as if there was something he didn't want her to know.
She stopped and kicked a bench beside the path. Once again, Simon was her target, but this time she imagined the chair leg to be his shin. "What am I missing?" she muttered to herself.
Lily paced back and forth along the pebbled path, wracking her brain, trying to find the missing piece of the puzzle that was Simon. She kicked the bench again.
"Do I need to step in and save that piece of furniture from your wrath, Lily?" Simon said as he stepped from the shadows.
"Don't be silly, Simon." She fought the urge to roll her eyes.
"I do believe my furniture will be much worse for wear once you're a permanent resident. The pieces indoors seem to have a hard time staying upright, and now I find you beating the poor bench into submission. Poor thing," he crooned to it. "And she seemed like such a wonderfully docile woman just a few days ago."
This time, Lily wasn't able to stop the rolling of her eyes, nor could she avoid the frustrated sigh that escaped her lips.
Simon's eyes narrowed. He caressed the back of the bench. "Don't worry. I won't let her hurt you," he said to the furniture.
"I have no plans to attack your furniture, Simon," she snapped, one hand fluttering in the air as she dismissed his complaint. "You, on the other hand, may not be so lucky."
"Lily love, I'm not at all sure I know what you mean." The look of innocence he tried to feign was far from genuine. He took her fingertips in his hand and tugged her over to the bench. "Come and let the poor bench do its job." She flopped down much more heavily than she knew was ladylike. "It will think you don't appreciate its talents, since you were determined to do it harm."#p#分页标题#e#
Lily found it difficult to concentrate on her conundrum with his thumb drawing little circles on the sensitive skin between her forefinger and thumb. His thigh touched hers, and she felt the heat of him all the way to her toes. And everywhere in between.
"Are you trying to distract me, Simon?" she asked.
"From your pursuit of the poor bench, which you seem bound and determined to torture? Of course, I am. What did it ever do to you?" His grey eyes twinkled, and the corners of his mouth twitched up.
Lily groaned. Insufferable man!
"Simon, stop teasing me."
"But I do enjoy it so much."
"Yes, I can tell." She could tell how much he liked annoying her. As though it were a sport. Perhaps that was the reason for the subterfuge she could sense in the background. Did he simply think she was something to play with? To entertain him?
He sobered. "What's bothering you, Lily?"
"Nothing." She stared into the garden.
He leaned close to her, his breath blowing across the sensitive ridge of her ear, and said softly, "Liar."
Lily sniffed and pulled her hand from his. He immediately reached to capture it again. And didn't let go.
"One thing we need to be very clear about is that you are never to pull away from me. I might annoy you to the end of time, but you mustn't take yourself away from me. Not any part of you. From your hands to your feet. In fact, I believe we should solidify this rule right now."
Lily's heart jumped in her chest. "Rule?" she was able to choke out.
"Yes. You may beat my furniture. You may even strike me when you're so frustrated with me you just can't tolerate any more, but you will never take away what's most important to me. And that's you."
Where was all this coming from?
"You say this to all the women, don't you?" she countered. "That's how you earned your reputation. By wooing unsuspecting females."