Forever My Love(20)
"He does please me," she choked, trying to twist out of his lap.
"Like hell he does. Look at you—you're panting and I haven't even kissed you. If you don't have the
look of an unsatisfied woman, then I've never seen one before."
Outrage cleared Mira's mind with a wintry blast. She tried to slap him but the motion was stopped in midair as his large hand closed around her slim wrist. "Don't lie to me," Alec said quietly. Mortified, Mira made an effort to calm herself.
"I'm not lying to anyone. Let go of me."
"Look at me and tell me honestly that you don't want me to—"
"Let me go," she interrupted, breathing hard with anger, "you prinking, conceited cloak-twitcher of a—" ,
The barrage of invective might have continued for some time had Alec not heard approaching footsteps.
"Quiet. Someone's coming," he said, dumping her out of his lap, clapping a hand over her mouth, and dragging her across the hallway into his room. Mira struggled in his grasp, pulling at his wrist as the door closed behind them. "Stop squirming and listen," he hissed into her ear. Mira relaxed slowly as she heard footsteps pass by the door. Her eyes widened as the heavy feet went up the turret steps. "Sackville," Alec muttered grimly. "Come to take up where I've left off, no doubt."
"I've got to get out of here!" Mira said tightly.
"He'll ask about what I've been doing.”
"Don't worry—you can tell him you were in the middle of considering an interesting proposition."
She tried to pull away from him, her confused flurry grinding to a halt as his arms locked around her waist. "Let me out before he starts to look for me!"
"When I'm finished with you. I want to know how you came to be Sackville's mistress. Obviously it wasn't because of the physical attraction he holds for you. So tell me how and why—"
"No!" As Mira found that her glare was met by impervious gray eyes, she tried to soften her answer. "There… there isn't time."
"You have all the time you need," Alec purred. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Oh, do stop this!" she said desperately, pushing at his chest.
"Can't wait to get up there with him? My, my… perhaps he should thank me for having stirred you up like this."
"You're detestable!"
"The clock is ticking. And you're not going anywhere until you tell me how your arrangement with Sackville came to be."
"Name of Satan!" she exclaimed, her eyes on the door. "All right, I'll tell you this much. I've been his for… I've been here for two years. Since I was eighteen. I met him after I left France and came to England."
"Alone?"
"Yes, alone. I had no money and no employment, and I was well on the way to starving to death. It was September, a very cold one. I caught a fever and became too sick to look for work or find food. I curled up in the back of a hay wagon in Dover to sleep—and I suppose I fell unconscious, because the next thing I remember is waking up here. Lord Sackville is a very compassionate man. He took me in, paid money out of his own pocket to keep me fed and clothed and taken care of until I was well again."
Alec waited for her to continue, arching a black eyebrow as she remained stubbornly silent. "So you ended up in his bed out of gratitude?" he asked.
"I became fond of him."
"As well as his money and living on his estate."
"Yes," she snapped. "Now is your curiosity satisfied?"
"No. Why did you leave France in the first place?"
Exasperated, Mira let out a stream of smothered curses, her face so animated and her tone so venomous that Alec's expression became less harsh, his eyes starting to twinkle with amusement.
61Lisa Kleypas
"Either you let me leave this room now," she threatened, "or I will sprinkle powdered rhubarb in your wine and steal your chamberpot!"
Alec gave a muffled laugh, reluctantly withdrawing his arms from around her.
"Since you ask so charmingly, I can hardly refuse," he said, giving her a small bow and opening the door with a flourish. As Mira skittered away indignantly, Alec closed the door. "Good Lord. I've been threatened with knives, bullets, fists, swords, and good hands of cards—but never rhubarb," he mused, and began to laugh again.
Mira went up to her room, smiling guilelessly as she saw that Lord Sackville was still there.
"Hello, my lord," she said.
"Where have you been?"
She was a convincing liar when she had to be. "I've been conversing with Mrs. Daniel in the kitchen. Have you been waiting long?"
"No, not long at all," Sackville said, refusing to meet her eyes. "I came up here to… well, inquire if you were in any way distressed by this evening. You took it very well, but still I wanted to be certain…"