Page 64 of A Wanton Adventure
Lady Clark smiled. “You do that.”
Chapter Nineteen
What had Dianabeen thinking? She should have let it go. Clearly, Devons didn’t want to talk about it. Goodness, what a fool she was. A soft knock startled her from her thoughts. She looked down. She was dressed in her wrap and nightgown. Sighing, she walked to the door and cracked it slightly. Her eyes widened. Devons stood there.
“Can you let me in, Diana? Before someone sees me.”
Her eyes narrowed. As if reading her thoughts, Devons added, “Only for a moment, if that is what you want.”
She opened the door and moved to the other side of the room, wrapping her arms around herself. “What do you want?”
“I want to apologize.”
Her chin jutted out. “I don’t need your words or your pity.”
He sighed and took his jacket off.
She tilted her head. “What are you doing?”
“I haven’t been honest with you,” he said, loosening his cravat and tossing it on a dresser.
Diana gulped. “I mean it, Sebastian. I release you from any misguided obligation you have acquired for me during this trip.”
He pulled his shirt free from his pants. “The thing is, I don’t pity you. I’ve spent most of this trip avoiding this pull between us. Frankly, it hasn’t done any good.”
Her stomach dipped. “It hasn’t?”
He sat on her bed. What was he doing? Her heart fluttered. He started to pull his boots off. “No. From the moment you fellinto my garden, I have wanted you. I have tried to deny it to myself and to you. Hell, I even convinced myself, briefly, that I finally reached the tipping point of my life of vice because of the many things I desired to do to you.”
“What type of things?”
He walked to her and grabbed one of her hands, kissing her fingers. “To touch you. To taste you. To be deep inside of you.”
A warm sensation pulsated through her body until it pooled at her most feminine place. “Why have you been trying so hard to deny it?”
His hand clutched one of her hips and he pulled her to him. “Because the need I have to bury myself in you over and over again, terrifies me.”
She didn’t understand what he was saying. She held his face in her hands. “Why?”
“I don’t want a liaison to ruin our relationship. We are neighbors, business partners, and, most important to me, friends. I don’t want anything we do to change that.”
Diana felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards. “Do you have these conversations with all your lovers?”
“No, but I haven’t been this tormented by a woman in a long time.”
Diana’s body hummed, feeling empowered by his honesty. “You have done the same to me.”
He ran his hand slowly up and down her waist and the curve of her hip. “I mean it, Diana. Someday, you will be married to another lord, and I will be back to running the Den. I don’t want to see you at an event with hurt feelings or awkwardness.”
Diana didn’t want to think about marriage or where Sebastian would be. She didn’t. “I vow that no matter what happens on this trip, we will end this adventure as friends. I want you to promise me that while away from London, we will embrace what this is and not focus on London or the future.”
He stroked her cheek. A bit of sadness flickered across his face. She frowned. “Sebastian—”
“I promise,” he interrupted her. Then he reached out and started unbraiding her hair. “I have hungered to see you with all of your hair down since that night in my garden.”
She wanted to ask him what was wrong. He shook her lush curls free. “Damn it, Diana. You are a temptress.”
Desire replaced concern. She ran her fingers down his chest and his stomach. He groaned. “We need to remove these clothes.”
