Page 58 of Project Duchess
Jerking free of him, she strode across the clearing to stand next to the stone bench. When she turned her back to him, her shoulders shook. “That would hardly prove anything. You’ve already demonstrated you’re perfectly capable of feigning desire when it suits you.”
“Damn it, I was not fei—” He dragged one hand down his face. Stalking up to her, he slipped an arm about her waist from behind and lowered his voice. “I know you felt the same things I did when we were dancing.”
Her body trembled in his arms. “Yes, you’re a master at seduction, so good that you get caught up in the illusion. But if you had a choice, a man with . . . with your experience would not—”
“My experience is what has taught me how rare a woman you are.”
Damn, he couldn’t believe he was spouting these things. How his brothers would laugh! Yet the thought that she believed herself incapable of tempting a man beyond reason, that he could have wounded her so deeply . . .
He tightened his hold on her, aware she didn’t resist as he wrapped his other arm about her waist to pull her against him.
Her voice fell to a ragged murmur. “I’m a nobody to you.”
“Clearly not.” He untied her bonnet, then stripped it from her head and dropped it onto the bench so he could nuzzle her hair. “Do you think I tramp about the woods every day with nobodies? Or spend hours teaching them how to dance?”
“When it suits you,” she whispered.
“Initially, Sheridan wanted to be the one to help with your come-out lessons, so he asked me to spy on your brother. I persuaded him to letmehelp teach you instead of him. Do you wish to hear why?”
“Not particularly,” she said with a sniff.
“Because you’d already made me want to know you better, with your teasing and tart remarks and impudence.” And later, her sympathy for his feelings. “How could Inotbe intrigued by a woman with so many talents?”
She uttered a self-mocking laugh. “What talents? The ability to train dogs? I daresay you have twenty such men in your employ. And I’ve already shown that I’m woefully inexperienced in social etiquette.”
“Anyone can learn such niceties.” He bent his head to kiss her ear, then her cheek, reveling in the stuttering breath that escaped her. God, she made him harder than stone. How could she not see that his desire for her was genuine? “But your other talents are part of your character. Like your loyalty to family, your deft ability to manage tradesmen, and your knowledge of how an estate works. You’ve kept this household going ever since our family came here and without antagonizing any of them. Given the fractious nature of my relations, that’s quite a feat.”
As she softened against him, he gave in to the urge to cover one of her breasts with his hand. He rubbed it, then lowered his other hand to rub her between her thighs.
When she moaned, he caressed her more eagerly through her clothes. If only he could strip them from her, urge her onto that bench, and seduce her like the heedless rakehell some thought him to be. “I desire you with a maddening intensity.”
She laid her hand over his as if to move it aside, but instead urged him to stroke harder, her body undulating against him. “If you desire me . . . it’s only because you wish . . . to make me your . . . mistress.”
“God forbid.”
She pivoted in his arms to glare at him. “So I’m not even good enough for that.”
He caught her head in his hands. “You’retoogood, more like. You deserve better than ruination.”
“How can you say that when you can’t even bring yourself to offer marriage?”
The pain in her voice tore through him. “Won’tbring myself. There’s a profound difference. It’s a choice I’m making because . . . because . . .”
“Of Joshua,” she whispered, her expression shadowed.
“That has naught to do with it. I just know I can’t be the husband you want and need. No matter how much I might wish to.”
Temper flared in her wide, soulful eyes. “Then why do you keep touching and kissing me, knowing it will come to naught? I can see only one reason—you’re hoping to get me to betray my bro—”
“It’s because I can’t keep my hands off you, damn it!” he cried, then cursed himself for admitting so much. “Do you think I’m proud of that? I assure you I am not. I’m known for my self-control. It’s the reason the gossips spin tales about me—because they’re hoping to see me squirm.”
Bending his face to hers, he murmured, “Yet each time you and I are together, I want . . . I need . . . I have to have . . .” He took her mouth in a hard, hungry kiss before pulling back. “You. With me.”
At his words, Beatrice felt a flutter in her chest, then despaired at her susceptibility. How could the man so easily melt her bones? She wanted his mouth on hers again, his hands stroking her, she wanted . . .
The same things he wanted, apparently. If she dared believe him.
He continued in a hard rasp, “And it has nothing to do with your brother or Sheridan’s theories about murder.” He slid a hand down the front of her, skimming her breast, then her ribs, then her hips before snaking it behind her derriere to tug her against him so she could feel the arousal in his trousers. “It has only to do with you and me. How much we desire each other.” Brushing her lips with his, he murmured, “How much we desirethis, as unwise as it is.”
