Page 45 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
To her surprise, Rose sat up, a vague new glint in her eyes. "Yes, actually," she allowed. She managed to sound as if she were granting Pandora a large favor by gracing the picnic with her presence. "Yes, I shall like that very much."
Pandora nodded slightly. But she went away feeling a sense of deflation rather than accomplishment. She had not imagined that her picnic would arouse Rose's interest. But even more, she had wanted all the time alone with Emmett.
* * *
While the servants folded napkins and splayed the bowls of strawberries and wine, Rose took her place between Pandora and Emmett, properly wedged in their middle.
Pandora did not complain, how could she? It was she who had tried to lighten her sister-in-law's mood and outrightly invited her to join in on a picnic that she would have rather preferred be intimate. That is, between just her husband and herself. If Emmett was displeased, he didn't let on. He crossed his legs leisurely on the well-cut grass and asked his women about their day.
"I sipped on hot tea and wept over my rejection," said Rose primly. Pandora almost winced on her behalf, but at least the girl was openly talking about it, and she seemed to be in lighter spirits. That ought to be a good sign.
"Other than that it's been a swell day," she added. Emmett, although looking a bit amused, nodded his approval like a schoolteacher commending his star pupil. Pandora couldn't help but admire the protective love he had for his sister.
She watched the muscles flex in his arm as he rolled his sleeves, and she sighed at his sheer, gorgeous perfection. He dipped his hand into the strawberry basket and devoured half of it in one bite.What was he doing to her?He wiped his mouth with a napkin, running his tongue over his bottom lip, and Pandora averted her gaze. Something about watching him lick strawberry juice reminded her of the bold swipe of his tongue swirling around her puckered nipples last night, sending her spinning into pleasure's arms.
Pandora sat straight and reached for a strawberry of her own. She lifted her gaze to the warm sun, then back again to the sweeping fabric of her skirt, anything to hide the hot flush in her cheeks, the one that was also running down her spine and setting her skin on fire from the inside out.
"And you?"
She turned to Emmett. "What?" She had got lost in her thoughts.
"I asked, how did your day fare? Dreary without me, I imagine."
Pandora laughed. A husky and open laugh, the kind that only Emmett could ever squeeze out of her. "Yes, very dreary. I was counting the seconds until your return."
He arced a haughty eyebrow. "No less than I'd imagined."
"And yearning for my matchmaking days too." She surprised herself by admitting that. But her thoughts wandered too often to her little secret whenever she was spending time with Emmett.
She didn't enjoy sneaking behind, running around hosting her matchmaking parties under Edward's guise at Danvers Manor without his knowledge. She did not want to keep secrets from him, and she felt somewhat frustrated that he was making her do so. They were harmless parties, and if a pair or more ended up walking down the altar from there, all the more win for all. Why couldn't he see that?
"Still on about that, aren't you?"
"I could not be. And you said you'd think about it."
"I did," he agreed and said nothing more, busying himself with a glass of wine. Pandora huffed but said nothing too.
So be it. She couldn't believe she had felt even a shard of guilt at keeping her ongoing parties a secret from him. If this… gorgeous… stubborn mule of a… tall, the keenly muscled man refused to grant her wishes, she would grant them herself!
"Whose acquaintance was it you spoke of last night?" she asked, to bridge the silence. Emmett's gaze lifted to hers, but so did Rose's.
"What?" he said.
"Last night when… before we–"
"In the garden, yes."
"I spoke of meeting an old face and you said likewise."
"Oh. That." She watched his fist curl tightly over a strawberry, then, after a moment release it with all the precious carefulness in the world, more than she would have thought such strong, powerful fingers were capable of.
"Victoria, my brother's formerly betrothed."
"Oh," Pandora said carefully. She could tell, from the new stiffness in his jaw, from the way that his gaze rose above hers, refusing to meet her directly in the eye, that this was a difficult subject for him.
Rose perked up beside her brother. "You ran into Victoria?"
"As chance would have it."
