Page 44 of Wild Lily
“Try it.”
“I can’t. You know I can’t. There’s no place. Not in London in the middle of Rotten Row in broad daylight.”
She’d look splendid in moonlight. “Ride at night.”
“That’s not—”
“Possible?” he objected. “Of course, it is.”
“Oh, no. I can’t take the chance. Not here. Carbury’s stable boys would talk. Or his butler. I’d be the brunt of more cartoons. I hated that. So, no, thank you.”
“Ride with me then.”
She frowned at him so deeply he was sure she questioned his sanity.
“My estate is through those trees.” He inclined his head toward the east. “My stable, too. And I have a stable hand who would never breathe a word about a lady’s riding habits.”
She shook her head. “You’re serious?”
“Quite.”
She bit her lower lip. “Why?”
Because I long to see you with stars in your eyes, your hair down around your shoulders, naked.He inhaled. She should spur that horse to a gallop. Run far away quickly. “I’d like to please you. Make you smile.”
For a fraction of a second, her blue eyes softened. But she blinked. “If I were discovered, I’d be ruined.”
“I’d guard against that.”
“Your intentions would be—”
“Honorable? Of course, they would.” He shifted in his saddle, his animal intentions totally shameful. He had only to look at her and he was entranced by her eyes. He had only to speak with her and he applauded her forthrightness. Her spontaneity, her humor undid him. The closer he got to her, the more she refreshed him.
“How do I know? What assurances would I have?”
“That I not touch you?”How could I not?
“That you wouldn’t spread rumors about me.”
“Why would I?”When I want you for myself.“I’d suffer no gain if I’d be known to have hurt you.”
“So we’d be house guests who ride together?”
“Friends who ride together,” he corrected her.
“Conspirators,” she breathed, her face alight with devilry. “Oh, superb. How could we do this?”
