Page 25 of The Gentleman Was Right
Her heart started racing.
What was wrong with her? Had she learned nothing from her past mistakes?
When he’d asked her to marry him, it had been easy to say no, but now that she’d experienced his kiss and spent the day with him, she wanted to throw caution to the wind and say yes. How reckless could she be?
Working to strip the emotion from her expression, she couldn’t help noticing that he wasn’t trying to do the same. He kept viewing her with the same unguarded hunger even though he retreated several steps, fluffed his hair, and adjusted his cravat.
Trying to reconstruct the skepticism that kept her safe, she plastered a wooden smile on her face. Even if her feelings were snarled, she was determined he wouldn’t notice. When she finally forced herself to meet his gaze directly, their eyes locked, and he gave her a dazzling smile.
His thoughts remained patently clear.
He wanted her.
Had he no sense of self-preservation? Did he not realize how vulnerable he was making himself? What sort of man allowed his emotions free rein?
The sort who believed he’d won.
Coldness seeped into her heart. Was he manipulating her? Did he believe he’d convinced her to marry him? Did he truly think a single kiss would be enough for her to risk a lifetime?
She smiled weakly in return, and for a brief moment, she struggled to separate him from Basil. They were eerily similar in some ways. They both had confidence and utter certainty in themselves.
In other ways, though, Edward was completely different. Unguarded. Earnest. She didn’t know what to make of the differences any more than she knew what to make of the similarities.
“Isabelle will be wondering where I am,” she said, as evenly as she could.
“Yes of course,” he said, offering his arm once again. “Shall we find her?”
Unwilling to give him any indication of her muddled thoughts, she took his arm and allowed him to guide her back to the assembly.
* * *
Edward wanted nothing more than to pull Violet back into his arms. Kissing her was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It made him lose his head. It made him reckless. He knew better than to tryst where anyone might stumble upon them.
Ruining her reputation and smudging his own would only cause strife between them, so he’d pulled away, and instead of kissing her again, he harnessed his lust and escorted her back to the assembly so she could find her sister.
It was the right thing to do.
The sensible thing to do.
Especially since she was so obviously trying to pretend she’d been unaffected.
It wasn’t the appropriate time to confront her about what had changed between them. They’d need true privacy for that sort of discussion. And he needed a better handle on how his motivation had shifted over the past day before he discussed his feelings.
When he’d recklessly offered marriage, he’d hadn’t considered anything except for his need to be helpful. That need had not faded, but it had been joined by a genuine appreciation for Violet Shaw’s company. And a startling amount of fiery attraction.
He liked her. As a person. And as a woman.
Until he kissed her, he hadn’t truly considered what marriage would actually mean. The intimacy. The trust. The familiarity it would yield. She was a vibrant, lively, passionate woman, and he’d been too focused on his quest to be useful that he hadn’t once pondered the logistics of what would happen after he saved her from Basil.
Basil would be gone, but they would bemarried.
He felt like an idiot.
He’d witnessed what happened when two strangers married, and while Sebastian and Emmeline were proof that it could eventually work, they were also proof that courtship existed for a reason.
He hadn’t had time to court Violet.
Or woo her.
