Page 38 of A Duke's Temptation Poetess
Deborah looked as lovely as ever. Like Colin, she was dark-haired and had light blue eyes. However, since he had seen her last, a few strands of white had appeared in her hair. There were a couple of new wrinkles around her eyes. Russell looked at her with utter adoration in his brown eyes. Watford completed their party, having arrived earlier than expected.
“It is so lovely to see you,” Aunt Matilda said as they dined together.
“And you, Aunt,” Deborah replied. “I am glad you could come so far from London.”
“The trip was not so terrible, and we did have some rather pleasant company,” Aunt Matilda said.
Lady Clarissa. Colin silently praised his own fortitude for not sighing at the very thought of her. Surely, she was abed already. The hour was late. He wondered if she had read his letter yet, and did she recognize the significance of that last name?
If not, had she set out to learn what manner of poetry Venus St. Clair wrote? The thought of her smiling face made everything inside him feel coiled and tight.
The distance was supposed to make himnotlinger on Lady Clarissa, but it seemed as if it was instead having the opposite effect. Colin took a sip of wine in a vain attempt to cool his arousal. He had only imagined herface! It was ridiculous for a man to want so badly to bed a woman, and besides, he must keep reminding himself that Lady Clarissa was a woman that he could not have. He must be strong and resist temptation.
“I am glad you had company,” Deborah said. “Long rides can be so terribly dull.”
“Especially in the countryside,” Watford said, “where everything looks the same. It is so easy to lose one’s bearings.”
“Indeed,” Russell agreed. “That is why I try to avoid long rides whenever possible, unlike a certain person at this table. Why, I am surprised that His Grace has not decided to sell his townhouse and estates and simplylivein the ducal carriage.”
“Or in the mountains in Snowdonia,” Watford said. “He could be like the prophet Jeremiah, wailing from the woods.”
Russell smirked, and Colin had a feeling that, perhaps, introducing his best friend and his brother-in-law had been a terrible mistake.
“I have asked you to forego my title many times now,” Colin said to Russell. “You continue to resist me.”
“So you have,” Russell replied, his eyes shining with mischief. “Apologies for forgetting.”
It was almost a game between them; Colin insisting that his own family had no reason to hold him at such a cold, formal distance and Russell teasingly forgetting every single time they encountered one another.
“We may have also invited Lady Bentley and her daughter to your ball,” said Aunt Matilda.
“She did,” Colin clarified.
Deborah shrugged. “I do not mind. If the ladies have your approval, Aunt Matilda, they certainly have mine.”
“Anything to please Aunt Matilda,” Russell said, grinning.
“Especially if one of the ladies is young and lovely,” Deborah said, giving Colin a sly glance.
He sighed. “I have no inclination to marry.”
That was unfortunate, though, because Lady Clarissa certainly inspired some passionate feelings within him.
“Nor does she,” Colin added.
He desperately needed the conversation to change course. Thinking about marriage and Clarissa only made him think about the activities which logically occurred on one’s wedding night, and now was the worst time to think about those. He imagined that she would laugh if she saw him now, the alleged rake desperate to avoid talking about women because he could barely contain his own arousal at the thought of bedding her on their wedding night.
“You never know,” Deborah replied, her eyes sparkling with sympathy and fondness. “I find marriage to be quite tolerable.”
“Charmed, my Lady,” Russell said. “I am pleased to hear that I am tolerated.”
Deborah raised her glass to her husband in a mocking toast.
“You did have that dance with Lady Clarissa, as I recall,” Watford said. “You seemed to enjoy it.”
Colin very narrowly avoided admitting that he had only danced with Lady Clarissa to please Aunt Matilda. “She dances as well as one would expect a proper lady to dance,” Colin said instead.
He tried not to think about Lady Clarissa’s slender body in his hands and arms and pressed against him. Colin swallowed hard and took another mouthful of wine. It was doing nothing to calm his passions.
