Page 13 of The Dangerous Love of a Rogue
‘They have not served supper yet.’
‘I know, Papa, but my head hurts.’ Her fingers pressed to her temple. It throbbed with the pain of bottled-up tears. She wished to cry over her insanity.
His brow furrowed and his fingers stroked her upper arm. ‘We will get you home.’
‘I need to use the retiring room first.’
‘Very well, you go up. I shall have the carriage called for and tell your mother. We will wait in the hall.’
Mary left him. Her head was pounding; that was not a lie. She felt sick as she climbed the stairs. The retiring room was quiet. Her mother’s maid was not there; she must have been told they were leaving. Mary used the chamber pot behind a screen and left the room quickly.
The landing was silent. Her thoughts screamed.
‘Miss Marlow.’ Her arm was gripped firmly and she was pulled into an alcove, pressed back against the wall and Lord Framlington’s mouth came down on hers.
Instinctively she kissed him back with a longing that raged through her and took away the pain in her head. Then, almost as quickly, common sense prevailed; she held his shoulders and pushed him away. ‘What do you think you are doing?’
‘You have been playing a good game of ignoring me, but we both know you cannot. As I cannot ignore you.’ The scents of wine and tobacco were on the breath that brushed over her lips.
She moved to turn and leave him, but he caught her wrist and held her still.
‘Miss Marlow. Mary. Darling. Do not deny this. I know what you feel, because I feel it too.’
‘I feel nothing.’
‘And that is why you kissed me a moment ago, and at that garden party. You feel this too. But I cannot come to you in a place like this, so, if you want what I can give you, you must come to me.’
‘What can you give m?—’
‘Kisses, darling. Happiness. A life filled with moments like this. I am looking for a wife.’
‘Gentlemen do not look for a wife in the shadows of a hallway or on a narrow garden path.’
‘I am not seeking any wife, though, I want you, and your family will not let me court you openly. If you wish to explore what we might be, you must come to me.’
‘No.’ She pulled her wrist free, turned away and, her heart pounding, walked quickly to the stairs. Her parents would be waiting below.
‘You may run now, but I know you will come back.’ His voice was low, but she heard him.
* * *
Drew watched her hurry away. He knew she was scared but interested despite her better judgement. She had kissed him back. Her denial was pretence. He’d felt her attraction in her body, her breasts had pressed to his chest, as her slender arms had clung about his neck in the moment before she’d pushed him back.
A sigh escaped his lips. The force of her emotion had caught him off guard. At the garden party she had answered his kiss hesitantly. Tonight, in the first instant when shock had silenced her fears, it was as if she had longed to kiss him again.
He smiled and his palm rested at the back of his neck for a moment, then fell. What if he had been the first man to kiss her? God, that thought pierced his chest like a spear surging through him. The first to press his tongue into her mouth. She had kissed him naively on both occasions.
Lord…The smile lifted his lips higher, as the novelty of it bloomed, uncurling in him like a shoot from a seed, it grew. Hope.
He walked along the hall.
She had already reached the stairs and disappeared.
She was becoming more essential to his future by the day. No other woman would do. He would not be deterred. She simply needed time to fall for him. There was only one way he knew how to woo women, and that was with his body. He could teach her things she could never have imagined. She would fall. He would give her the gift of sensual discovery, and he would have her then.
But if she was running from kisses, he needed to be patient. Let her feign disinterest, he could feign it too, and he would see who gave in first. He would give his little fish more line. Let her have some time to contemplate her choices. He doubted any of her young beaux made her heart race. He had a strong feeling she had never kissed any of them.
He would reel her in in a week or two when she’d had a chance to realise his kisses were better than a hundred dances with those childish fools.
