Page 48 of Sinful Persuasion of a Lady in the Making
Chapter Seventeen
“You know this isn’t appropriate, don’t you, Miss Jones?” he whispered, his lips just a hair’s breadth away from hers.
“Isn’t is?” she asked, an eyebrow raised, her voice rasping with want.
He let his tongue flicker out from his mouth, touching her lips briefly, teasingly, and she giggled, leaning forward in a bid for his touch again.
“We really ought to stop,” he whispered, his hand around her neck, his lips tickling hers. “This is not why I came here.”
“You’re so right,” she said, leaning in closer, pushing her chest out. “We really should stop.”
But then he pulled back, a finger raised to halt her getting closer.
“Miss Jones,” he warned, trying to stop himself from laughing. “Really, you are quite the temptress.”
“Temptress,” she said, scoffing and leaning back, a hand to her chest. “That is quite the accusation. Besides, it is quite clear to me that it is you who is tempting me!”
“All right,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I admit I cannot help myself. Not with such a sweet and beautiful young woman such as yourself.”
“Again with the charm,” she said, but she turned briefly at the sound of footsteps then turned back to Sebastian. “Well, you’ll have to find a way, now. The chaperone has returned.”
“So she has,” Sebastian said, looking up at Fanny as she stopped, hovering by the tree so as not to disturb them. “Probably for the best. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.”
“You know, Sebastian,” she said, smiling coquettishly at him, and he felt a shiver run through him at the sound of his name on her lips. So rarely did he hear it from anyone, normally only ever Lord Hartwood.
How perfect it sounds upon her lips.
“Yes?” he asked, he urged her to continue with wide eyes.
“I am drawn to you, and I have been since the very first moment I saw you,” she said.
She looked at him through her lashes in a coyness he suspected she did not truly feel. Her confidence was one of the things he liked most about her. Still, her words took his breath away and he had to force his lips together to stop himself from breaking out with a grin.
“Ah, yes,” he said, keeping his face as straight as possible. “I tend to have that effect on the ladies. They fall at my feet if I am not careful.”
“They do not!” she laughed, playfully slapping him on the arm.
“No, you’re right,” he said, looking down at his hands as he chuckled. “And neither do I want them to. There is only one lady for me, and she is sitting right in front of me.”
Jenny’s cheeks flushed a pale pink, so pretty against the warm tan of her skin. The sight of it made Sebastian’s heart skip a beat, and he promised himself he would make her blush as often as he could.
“I don’t quite know what to say,” she replied.
“I like that you feel comfortable mocking me,” he said with a renewed confidence. “It’s both refreshing and entertaining.”
“Really?” she asked, looking up at him with a glint in her eye.
“Really,” he said. “Because, the thing is, I’m rather drawn to you, too. I like you very much, Jenny. More than I have ever liked anyone in my life. You make me want to be a good man—a better man than I am now.”
“I suspected the attraction must be mutual,” she said. “There is no way I could have come up with such strength of feeling purely on my own.”
“Very astute,” he said.
“I suppose we ought to seal it… with another kiss, perhaps?”
Sebastian quickly flicked his eyes in Fanny’s direction, noticing she was somehow enthralled by the state of her nails, then turned back to Jenny.
“The chaperone, at least, is distracted, but—”
