Page 24 of Persuasions of an Earl's Daughter

“You try arguing with Mrs. Lambert.” August felt a shiver wrack her and drew her into him with a hand to her back.

He hadn’t even planned to really, but he couldn’t very well lie here and let her freeze to death. Knowing Lilly, she’d come back and haunt him if he let anything happen to her. She resisted at first. Then slowly, in tiny increments, he felt her muscles soften and the rasp of her breaths upon his neck slowed.

August smoothed a hand up and down her back as the warmth between them built under the blanket. His own breaths eased, and he focused on the dark curls against the cream pillow. He dared not look at her, dared not try to meet her gaze. If he did, she might spot something. Might figure out that he had no idea what he was doing. Embracing women wasn’t just unusual for him, it was entirely incongruous.

It was also more pleasant than he might have expected.

The heat of her skin met his fingertips through her shift. He was aware of the slightness of her combined with a physical strength he had tried not to spot when he aided Mrs. Lambert. It created a tantalizing intrigue. The women who usually clung onto his arms and fluttered their lashes at him were often curvaceous and dressed to enhance their charms. They assumed because of his reputation, he’d be more than willing to take them to bed.

They’d been wrong, of course. He couldn’t take that risk.

But something about the way she curled into him, the way she fit perfectly and consented to the protection his body offered; even though she did not need it, muted every protest his brain could make.

His wild reputation benefited him in many ways. It let him keep women at arm’s length because no one would expect Lord August Beresford to settle down. It ensured no one was surprised when he slipped away from parties quickly or escaped the clutches of an interested widow. After all, surely he had another lover tucked away somewhere?

Heat stirred in his body, and he couldn’t blame the twin blankets. He needed to cease thinking about how perfectly she fit against him and how much he wanted to see more of her, to stroke fingers along the lines of her arms and down her torso then up to cup breasts that would fit delicately into his palm.

“Your Aunt Sarah,” he blurted. Thinking of the woman’s elderly escort would surely put a stop to his erroneous thoughts.

Her head jerked upward. “Aunt Sarah?”

“I forgot to tell you she came to the inn.”

“Oh good. Is all well?”

“If you do not count her fretting for you, yes.”

“Poor Aunt Sarah.” Lilly tugged her bottom lip under her teeth. “I didn’t mean to worry her. We’ll have to find her as soon as possible.”

“I’m certain Mrs. Lambert will not let you leave until she is assured you are well.” He tried to keep his gaze from her lips, the bottom one now plump and slightly pinker, and failed. “Neither will I. But your aunt may well catch up with us.”

And if that thought was not enough to stop these blasted thoughts, nothing was. Mrs. Knighton was not the most traditional of escorts, but no aunt would be pleased to find their niece in bed with a man nursing the most painful erection of his life.

Which was where things were headed right now.

All he needed to do was breathe and remind himself precisely why he did not embrace women. He needed to think of his father and the vows August had made to himself over and over again whenever temptation to break them hit.

Nothing tempted quite like holding Lilly, though. He couldn’t fathom why. He didn’t even like her, and she most certainly loathed him.

Her breaths stilted, the sound loud in his ears as though her every inhale was vitally important to him. When he met her gaze, he saw her pupils darken. Her lips parted.

An inch would be all it would take. He could lean in and—

She rolled away suddenly, and he grabbed her shift to prevent her from tumbling off the bed. Her wary gaze shot to his. “I’m not that sort of a woman.” Her gaze drifted downward.

August jumped from the bed. One of the blankets tangled about his legs. She’d felt it. She’d felthim. What an idiot. He tore the blanket off and flung it over her and Lilly tussled to draw it up over her body, bunching it in whitened knuckles at her neck.

“You’re a woman,” he said, feeling like he had gravel in his throat. “And I’m a man. It’s only natural.” Before she could respond, he held up a hand. “And it means nothing, Lilly. Nothing at all.”

Chapter Nine

This was ridiculous.

Lilly tossed the blankets aside as soon as August left the room. She’d taken a brief dip in a river and suffered a mere scratch. All this tending to her and treating her as though she was going to catch her death of cold and…and embracing her.

Entirely ridiculous.

Well, she wasn’t going to stand for it any longer. August was right. It was nothing. It meant nothing. She’d been around her married sisters for long enough to know that sometimes a man got aroused and it was entirely to do with nature and nothing to do with real feelings.

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