Page 8 of The Lord Next Door I Wished For
Blast. He sounded as weary as he felt.
She considered him for a long while. “Are you going to accuse me of trying to throw myself in your path again?”
His nostrils flared. But he deserved that, he supposed. “Why did you come here, Jane?”
Her lips parted and her eyes grew wide, and…and just like before when she’d stared up at him like this, when he’d thought her a stranger…
He was overcome by the urge to pull her into his arms. To kiss her senseless.
But instead, just as he had before, he found himself speaking more harshly than he’d intended. “Do you have any idea what could befall a young lady like yourself here alone?”
“I didn’t…”
“You didn’t think,” he finished for her.
She winced, and he felt an answering stab of guilt in his gut. Lud, he did sound like his father, didn’t he?
The thought did not improve his mood.
“Come,” he said, already turning to the door. “We must get you home.”
“I don’t need your assistance getting home,” she said. “I have plans.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Plans? What sort of plans?”
Her little chin hitched up higher and her eyes sparked with that fire that was so particularly Jane, it was a wonder he hadn’t recognized her by that alone the moment she’d stumbled into him.
The memory of that moment, of how she’d felt in his arms, of how she’d gazed up at him as if in wonder…
His chest did that unsettling tightening move again and he found himself growling at her. “What plans, Jane?”
Her lips clamped together tightly, and her nostrils flared. But then her brows hitched up in a haughty look. “Certainly not to trap you, if that’s what you’re still thinking.”
“I didn’t…I wasn’t…” Blast it all, this girl was driving him to distraction.I didn’t realize it was you!That’s what he ought to say, but she was too quick.
“I’m not here looking foranygentleman to marry,” she said with a look of hurt pride that he could practically feel. “But certainly not you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Oh yes, he was just stoking the fire now, and for the life of him he couldn’t say why.
“It means I have no desire to marry, and even if I did, you would not be the man I choose.”
He ought to placate her. To make her smile the way she had when she’d first seen him. The way she’d smiled was almost like…
His heart writhed in his chest and clattered against his ribcage.
Almost like she was truly happy to see him. Like she honestly cared about him.Him. Luke, the boy she used to wade in the stream with and not the new Marquess of Northbridge, heir to a dukedom.
But she wasn’t smiling now as she moved in closer and jabbed a finger against his chest. Rather like a bear being poked by a mouse. The thought brought a flicker of amusement that he squelched.
But not quickly enough.
“Are you laughing at me?” Her shoulders went back and her chin came up with a huff. “Good evening, my lord.”
She whirled away from him, her skirts smacking his legs with her flourish. She walked away so quickly he was left with the intoxicating scent of her and the vague sense that he was missing something. Something crucial…like a limb.
Before he could call her back, he lost sight of her. Like a ghost she vanished into the sea of people inside.
Should he follow her?
