Page 45 of The Truth About Lord Stoneville
She arched one eyebrow. “Except respectability.”
“To hell with respectability,” he ground out.
“That’s easy for you to say. You lose nothing. I, on the other hand, would lose everything.”
He looked ready to devour her whole. She shifted nervously on the seat.
“I’d make sure you were cared for,” he said, his voice ragged and deep. “That you had a roof over your head. After Gran gives up her mad scheme, she’ll return to supporting my siblings and I can live on my income. We wouldn’t need much—a cottage in Chelsea. You could use as little of your inheritance as you wanted once you came into it. At least you wouldn’t be bound to a bastard like Hyatt, who didn’t even have the courtesy to send a letter to you when he changed his address.”
That stung. “Perhaps he couldn’t,” she said, voicing the worst of her fears.
“He took his leave of London Maritime in person,according to Freddy. Freddy also told me that Hyatt’s rent at the lodging house was paid up. That doesn’t sound like a man who went missing after meeting with foul play.”
Curse Freddy for his loose tongue. No telling what other secrets he’d revealed while Oliver had been shuffling him off to a club.
“You don’t know Nathan. He wouldn’t . . . he couldn’t . . .”
“Abandon you without a word? Apparently he could, and did.”
His blunt words drove a stake through her heart. “I’ll have you know, Oliver, that I don’t need himoryou. If he really is running away from marrying me, I’ll inherit Papa’s money and I can do as I please with it.”
“Once you get it. But until Hyatt shows up or can be declared dead, you’ll be in a sad state financially. It could take years to have your estate untangled.”
“I-I’m sure Papa made provisions for that.”
“Yes—like the one he made for buying you a husband.”
“He didn’t buy me a husband!” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He didn’t.”
The hurt in her voice seemed to spark something desperate in Oliver. He leaned forward, his eyes lit with an unholy fervor. “Even if he had made provisions and you got the money soon enough to beat the wolf from the door, what would it give you, except a life as a chaste and respectable spinster?”
“I could marry,” she protested.
“And you’d never know if the men courting you wanted you for yourself or your money.”
“That’s no worse than being wanted for my body alone.”
“It’s not just your body that I—” He broke off, clearly agitated by what he’d almost revealed. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to have a passionless marriage. My parents had one. The only emotion in their marriage was resentment. Between arguments, they barely breathed the same air.”
Slowly he peeled her gloves from her hands, his gaze immobilizing her. “And now I’m watching you head blithely for a marriage to some fellow who will set you up on a shelf with his other possessions, and take you down only when he has a use for you.” Tossing her gloves onto the seat, he took her hands in his, kneading the backs with his thumbs. “Ifyou even see him again.”
The words struck at the very heart of her fears about Nathan—that he desired her only because of how she could serve his ambition. She didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want Oliver so close, reminding her that he alone made her heart race and her blood rise, when Nathan should be the one to do so. She didn’t want him touching her, making her want things, making her yearn.
Jerking her hands from his, she slid over to the window to look out. “How far is this dress shop, anyway?” she choked out.
Oliver reached past her to yank the curtains closed, then moved to sit beside her. She stiffened, but didn’t resist as he looped one arm about her waist to pull her back against his hard body.
“You don’t even know what you’re giving up,” he rasped,“what it’s like to shatter beneath a man’s touch. If you knew, you wouldn’t be so eager to throw that away for the cold comfort of a respectable marriage.”
She closed her eyes against his words, but they were designed to tempt her, and tempt her they did. Last night had only roused her curiosity. Now, with the spicy scent of his cologne in her nostrils and his breath warming her cheek, she wanted to know more,feelmore.
His voice lowered to a whisper. “Let me at least show you what you’d be missing.”
She felt rather than saw him shrug off his cloak, leaving him in his shirtsleeves. That sent a wayward thrill down her spine.
“Have you forgotten that I’m deplorably a virgin?” she said, attempting to regain control over the situation.
“No. And you’ll still be one when I’m done.” He pressed his lips against the bit of neck below her bonnet, making her shiver deliciously. Then he untied her bonnet and tossed it onto the opposite seat so he could press a kiss into her hair. “I only want to give you a taste of passion, sweetheart. Enough for you to see what it could be like between us.”
