The Last Duchess (The Lennox Series)(27)
Rage took hold of her. Fascinated, he watched her eyes grow darker and her cheeks bloom with color. “I will not be unfaithful. I will not cuckold my husband, whom I’ve sworn to honor until I die. And I will not spend the rest of my life with only a bloody warming brick as a bedmate. I believed you understood, but it’s apparent that you do not. Take me home. Immediately.”
Michael turned the curricle from the main drive onto a meandering path through the trees.
“This is not the direction of home, Blixford. I insist you turn about, this instant.”
“We aren’t done, Lady Jane.”
“I am done. What you do or say is no longer of any consequence to me.” Her gloved hands twisted together, an outward sign of her inner turmoil, which belied the blank expression of her lovely face.
He turned the curricle once more and after a time, drew to a stop within a small, narrow clearing, the sunlit grass dotted with wee, white flowers nodding in the breeze. He set the brake and loosened his hold on the reins, allowing the horses to graze while he turned his attention to Jane. Reaching for the ribbons of her bonnet, he tugged until they were undone and removed it from her head, laying it aside before he grasped her shoulders and pulled her about to face him. She was so soft, so beautiful, her dark hair gleaming in the sunlight. Once again, she smelled of lemons. How had he never fully appreciated the scent of lemons?
“If you kiss me, I shall scream. Then I will slap you.”
“If you scream, I’ll kiss you again. If you slap me, I won’t care. For now, however, I have but one question and beg you do me the honor of answering honestly.”
She might have doused a blazing fire with her freezing stare. “One question.”
“Last night, you mentioned additional experiences. I believe you said they were illuminating additional experiences.”
“If you expect me to tell you anything at all, you’re not nearly so intelligent as I thought.”
“What I expect you to tell me is whether you responded in the same manner as you did with me, all those years ago in Lucy’s library.”
“No.”
He frowned slightly. “No, you won’t tell me, or no, you didn’t respond the same way?”
“Blixford, you’re a tiresome man! No, I didn’t respond in the same way. In point of fact, it was my total lack of interest which I found so illuminating. Frankly, I didn’t like it. While I’m certain this can only serve to fan the flames of your male importance and give you ammunition with which to wound me at a later date, I tell you only because you asked for honesty. Now will you take me home?”
His elation could only be disguised pride, surely. “As soon as I’ve kissed you.”
“You, sir, have been warned.”
His fingers tightened against her shoulders and he drew her closer to him. “You’re entirely wrong, you know. If I’m cruel, it’s never intentional.”
“Untrue, Blixford. You were deliberately hateful to me that night. That you could say such things, after ravishing me, is unconscionable.”
“I have apologized. You have accepted. I prefer never to speak of it again, but I’ll leave the subject by pointing out how very close I was to taking you on the sofa.” He drew her nearer still. “I’m not ordinarily a man given to losing my head, but I was half drunk, feeling rather sorry for myself, and there you were, in your dressing gown, more beautiful, more desirable than any woman I’ve ever known, and you were sneaking a peek at etchings of naked men. You’re an innocent, and have no comprehension of what this signals to a man. Had you not left when you did, we would be married four years now. I’d have bedded you right there in the library, and no amount of running away would keep you from marrying me.”
Her eyes were wide, her breath quicker. “You said those things because you knew it would make me angry enough to leave?”
“In retrospect, yes, I believe I did. It’s not my nature to be cruel, and truth be told, I find your choice of pastimes unique and intriguing, no matter the impropriety. So you see, all this talk of me finding you repugnant would be laughable, if you were not so convinced of it, and so certain I’ll be anxious to set you out of my bed.” He would be anxious to do so, but certainly not because he found her undesirable. Ironically, the exact opposite. He found her too desirable, too intriguing, and entirely too tempting in her manner and character. If he stayed too long with Jane, he had no doubt he would become attached, would fall in love with her, and it was simply not something he could allow.
“You do realize this casts you in something of a bad light?”