Page 71 of Anything But a Duke
Aidan came forward with such a look of determination that Diana almost stumbled back.
He cupped her face in his hands and swept his thumbs across her cheeks. He studied her lips, traced the edge with his fingertip. He was stoking her like a fire, and just when she thought she might burst into flames, his mouth came down on hers.
Not a gentle kiss. A hungry, searching joining. He dipped his tongue inside to taste her, stroked his fingers along her cheek, down her neck.
She wrapped one hand around his lapel to pull him closer and slid the other over his chest, all the way up to the taut muscles of his neck.
When he lifted his head, they were both breathless.
“First of all, stop calling me Mr. Iverson.” He dipped his head to kiss her again. “And secondly, sometimes isn’t good enough. I’d prefer you like me all the time.”
“That seems a great deal to ask.” Diana placed a hand on his chest, felt the firm swell of his muscles beneath. Relished the wild thrash of his heart, beating every bit as fast as her own. “And do you truly think a kiss is the way to convince me?”
His hand came up and settled over hers, as if he wished to keep her touching him for as long as he could.
“I’m willing to consider other suggestions.”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway and Diana’s heart skipped a beat. She jolted back out of Aidan’s arms.
“We’re ready to resume,” Miss Ives said from the threshold before retreating back across the hall.
Aidan made no move to leave.
Diana stayed too. Not because she was uncertain of what to do. She knew what she should do. She had an instinct for practicality and knew exactly what a sensible young lady would do.
But not with him. He brought out some other part of herself that she rarely set free. A side driven by feelings and impulse, and emotions that frightened and thrilled her.
“We should join the others.” Getting the words out was the first step, but she still hadn’t taken the next and moved toward the doors. “Bess will wonder why we’ve lingered here.”
“I have no more desire to return to that room than you do,” he said from over her shoulder.
“But this is the deal we made.” Clinging to their agreement seemed a shield she could hold up to protect herself from risking everything. Her heart. Her future. Her work.
And his future too. A noble wife was what he wanted.
She frowned as she turned back to him. “Why do you wish to marry?”
“Diana—”
“Why were you so eager to do so that you made a deal to fund a device you don’t even believe in?”
“I believe in you. And now that I know what you’re capable of, I believe in your device too.”
His words were like a balm she didn’t realize she desperately needed. It felt good to simply hear someone say he believed in her. It felt extraordinary to hear Aidan give her that assurance.
But she still wanted an answer. “I assume that as an untitled gentleman, you want the connections that marriage to a noble bride will bring.”
His jaw tightened as he held her gaze. “Yes. That’s what I wanted.”
“I’m not a noblewoman, and I don’t want the things that ladies like Sophie and Grace do. I can’t bring you what you want.”
“I remember our deal, Diana.” There was such disappointment in his gaze that her breath tangled in her throat. Moving past her, he strode toward the room across the hall, but midway he stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder. “Perhaps I’m just not content with the terms anymore.”
Chapter Twenty
For a week after the séance at Lady Elizabeth Thorndyke’s home, Aidan did what he did best: he buried himself in work and did his damnedest not to think about Diana Ashby and the deal they’d made.
He was a fool for wanting what he could not have, especially when the opportunity to have what he’d longed for—connections, status, access to places of power that would always be closed to a commoner—was in his grasp.
