Page 59 of To Resist a Scandalous Rogue
They had agreed to avoid each other, and yet here he was. In her most personal, private space. What was it about her that constantly made him throw caution to the wind?
Now, as she wrung her hands, her gaze darting from the closed door to his face and back again, he wondered ifsherepresented his undoing. It wasn’t the secret of his birth, or his past of cavalier bachelor exploits. It washer.
And despite that knowledge, despite her warnings, Finlay didn’t want to fight the forces compelling him to claim her anymore.
“I’d heard you’d returned home, and…I wanted to assure myself you were well.” A ball of lead had dropped into his stomach when he had learned the news, and it had dissipated only when he saw her face around her door.
Her mouth twisted. “I’m assuming Lady Flora divulged my direction.”
She had, but Finlay wasn’t about to bring her into the argument Charlotte was obviously looking to have. He shrugged.
She flung her arms wide. “As you can see, I’m quite well, my lord.”
He’d allowed himself a brief moment to admire her svelte figure, when she stomped her foot. The effect wasn’t the same, considering she wore no shoes.
“Stop that!” Her eyes blazed blue fire.
He blinked. “Stop what?”
She pointed a finger at him. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” he asked, just barely containing the smile threatening to slide over his lips.
Pink washed over her pale cheeks. “Like you’re imagining me with…oh, never you mind.”
Finlay took a step closer, unable and unwilling to contain a teasing grin. “No, don’t stop. I’m imagining you…how?” When she held her silence, he continued. “I imagine you in a lot of different ways. Laughing and carefree. In red silk and black lace.” He dropped his voice until it was a rasp and stepped closer still. “In my arms. Your skin against mine. Your body beneath my own.”
Charlotte whipped away from him and went to the window, reaching to shut the pane. Once she secured it in place, she rested her head against the glass. “Why must you make this so hard?”
Coming up behind her, Finlay resisted the urge to press his lips to the back of her neck, where he remembered she was sensitive. Instead, he inhaled her fresh, comforting scent. “It’s hard for me, too.”
“You know this will never work. I refuse to be your m–mistress,” she managed, and then abruptly sliced her hand through the air. “I absolutely refuse to occupy that position.”
“That’s good because I had no intention of offering it to you.”
Charlotte looked over her shoulder at him, a frown marring her visage. “You didn’t?”
“Of course not. I have too much respect for you to ever even make the offer.”
She regarded him skeptically before looking out the window. “Then why do you insist on seeking out my company? You’re so far above me…even before you stood for Parliament. Before you needed to find an impeccably bred, politically connected bride. Before I ever drew breath, our very different circumstances placed you as far from me as the earth from the stars.”
“Because I…” Finlay halted, all thoughts evaporating like mist in the sunlight. Catching a lock of her hair, he twirled it around his finger and whispered, “Because I can’t seem to stay away.”
Her shoulders trembled, and he gave into temptation and snaked an arm around her waist, drawing her flush against him. “Since that night at Belling’s, you’ve always seemed like an apparition. Like a happy memory that existed where the night gives way to the lightening of the horizon.”
Finlay ran his nose along the shell of her ear, and she gasped. “Seeing you again at Little Windmill House was like having a second chance.”
“Second chance?”Her voice quivered.“ How can you say that knowing my lowly beginnings?”
Pressing his face into her hair, he squeezed her. “Your beginning, your experiences, made you the person I find so fascinating today.”
“Pretty words, my lord.” Charlotte pulled out of his arms and spun to face him. Her face was a mask of steely regard. “You’ve always had such pretty words in your arsenal. I’ve felt foolish for trusting them in the past.”
Unease crept under his skin. “Why? Have I given you reason to distrust me?”
She sighed, and he felt it brush across his face. “No. No you haven’t.”
“Then why have you felt foolish?” He pulled her slowly into his embrace. “I would never hurt you.”
