Page 49 of Unforeseen Affairs
Over the wall in the mews, one groom called out to another to water some horses. Somewhere nearby a coach was passing, the tack jangling and the wheels crunching against the street.
Miss Sedley looked to the wall where his hand was and appeared to study it, allowing Colin a moment to do the same with her profile. So elegant and remote, in the fading light shelooked like a spirit herself. And then she turned to meet his gaze, her eyes black as night.
“You were correct. We did not practice,” Colin murmured, recalling his own failure. “We ought to have practiced. I am at fault for that.”
At the séance she’d twice pressed her leg into his, and she’d jabbed him with her knee at least three times. But he’d only seen her face—her glassy eyes and slightly parted lips, as though she were on the verge of tears. He’d been thinking only of his concern for her, his protective nature running roughshod over his attention to the task at hand. He’d only wished to comfort her.
“I wasn’t thinking of the plan,” he admitted. “Only… you appeared to be in distress.”
“What?”
A flash of emotion flickered in her eyes. Anger? Worry? Embarrassment? But it was gone in a moment, out like a lamp as quickly as it had appeared.
“When Mrs. Kitson spoke of the child—children—she’d lost.” He paused, wondering how to put it all. He was not used to speaking this candidly about such a delicate subject, and he did not want to say the wrong thing. “You seemed… dismayed. Well. I wonder…”
“Was I?” she challenged, her face aggressively blank.
Colin wanted her to open up to him, he realized. He wanted to help her. But she would not yield. He wet his lips, feeling a failure on more than one front.
“I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to assume. And in doing so I lost focus. Forgive me.”
She watched him silently for what felt an eternity.
It wasn’t her rash decision that had driven a coach and horses through the entire thing; it was his own damned forgetfulness.“We ought to have practiced,” he repeated, his body so taut and anxious he knew not what to do.
“Why did you not wish to practice?” she finally asked, dropping her gaze to his mouth.
“I… I did not think it a good idea.”
She looked back to his eyes. Hers were wide open, searching.
“Why not?”
“Because you… you are a charming, handsome young lady with many prospects and… we are barely acquainted, and I… for us to be so close, so intimate like that, I… I…” Something was drawing him closer, some unseen force pushing him forward, so gradually that before he could mark it his face was perilously near to hers. He swallowed as he hovered inches away, his hand still braced against the wall beside them. “And… it would be…”
“Would be what?” A small, mischievous grin just touched her lips.
What was it about her demeanor that could make him forget everything he strove for, everything he thought mattered in life? Just who was Miss Charlotte Sedley? Why did he feel this curiosity, thisyearning? And all the while she was so placid, her thoughts well-concealed.
Of all the women in the world. Of all the times.
“Improper,” he whispered feebly.
She reached for him, her hand steady as it came to rest upon his shoulder. His gut tightened into a tiny ball as he felt an exhilaration he’d never experienced before. Miss Sedley slid her hand up his neck to his jaw, where her thumb caressed the faint stubble of his night whiskers, her fingers ghosting along his cheek.
He closed his eyes against it, relishing her touch.
“And is this,” she said in a hushed voice, each word dripping with tension, “improper, Sir Colin?”
Yes. Extremely so.
His mind reeled, rattling off every possible negative outcome if he did not put a stop to this immediately.Tell her! Say it, and cease this madness!But he didn’t.
Instead, he caught her about the waist and kissed her.
Chapter Fourteen
Gatheredupagainsthischest, with his hand cradling the small of her back, she ceased to be Charlotte Sedley anymore. She had become a formless, nameless entity; a lonely, lost soul searching for another, wishing to be subsumed by another. By him. She pressed into Sir Colin, digging her hands fiercely into his shoulders and back. Her mouth was wet and hot, taking his and allowing him to take hers in turn.
