Page 65 of To Pleasure a Prince
He snatched his hat and greatcoat from the footman without even bothering to put them on. “Not that it concerns you, but I’m going home. I’ve had all of Almack’s I can stomach for one night.”
“You can’t leave until we have a chance to talk,” she protested.
“Did you wager with Simon that you could turn me into a gentleman?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then there’s nothing to talk about. You won the wager.” He spotted his carriage arriving and walked down the outer steps to meet it.
She followed him. “Marcus, please listen to me.”
Without bothering to answer, he leaped into his coach and tossed his coat and hat onto the other seat. But before the footman could close the door after him, she clambered in and sat down, right on top of his coat.
He glared at her. “I would advise you to get out of my coach, madam. I’m leaving now, so unless you plan to go for a ride—”
“You wouldn’t drive off with me in your coach,” she said stoutly. “You know it would ruin me. Come back to Almack’s so—”
“John!” he called up. “Drive on!” As the carriage rumbled off, he scowled at her. “Now’s your chance. I’ll tell him to halt, but only so you can get out.”
She swallowed and nervously glanced out at the rapidly receding lights of Almack’s. Then a stubborn look came over her face, and her gaze shot back to him. Thrusting out her chin, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ll have to throw me out then. Because I’m not leaving this coach until we talk.”
Damn her. The fact that she had cared enough to come after him was already assuaging his anger, but if she started spouting excuses…
No, it didn’t matter what she said. She wanted to bring him to his knees—that’s what she always did with men. Whatever she’d won in her wager would be the last winnings she’d get at his expense. He would make sure of it.
Chapter Fourteen
Be warned that men are waiting to ruin your charge the moment your back is turned.
—Miss Cicely Tremaine,The Ideal Chaperone
“Suit yourself,” Marcus retorted. “Stay in the coach if you please. I don’t give a damn.”
Regina winced at the vitriol in his voice. Her impulsive act would surely come back to haunt her, but if she let him go now, she would almost certainly never see him again. She simply couldn’t bear that prospect.
After witnessing his expression of betrayal when Henry mentioned the wager, she refused to let Marcus continue thinking that she had used him so abominably. She couldn’t blame him for his reaction, but that didn’t mean she would let him shut her out of his life for it.
“Nowcan we talk about this?” she asked.
“Nothing to talk about,” he grunted, shifting his gaze to the window.
Drat him. The dragon was back, protecting himself with scaly armor and fiery breath while he retreated to his cave.
She didn’t have time for that. Even a duke’s daughter could not ride off unchaperoned with a gentleman. She would be compromised if anyone discovered it, which they were sure to do if she didn’t resolve the situation swiftly.
“I think there’s plenty to talk about.” Somehow she must provoke him into discussing this. “For one thing, you as good as told my cousin that I’d accepted an offer of marriage from you. And we both know that was a blatant lie.”
Though he stiffened, her words didn’t get the rise out of him that she’d hoped for. “Feel free to set your cousin straight. I don’t care what you tell him.”
The man was so stubborn! “And if I tell him that he misunderstood about the wager? That you were never my ‘charitable project’?”
“Tell him whatever you please.”
“Drat it, Marcus, you know I don’t see you that way.”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “I know how you see me, madam. I just don’t care.”
Oh yes, he did, the sullen devil. No amount of his new-found formal correctness could hide that. “How can you think I would agree to a courtship just so I could take on some sort of ‘charitable project’? Surely you realize I have better things to do with my time than try to mold a man as stubborn and surly as you into my image of a gentleman.”
