Page 67 of Wild Lily
“Don’t stop,” she urged him.
“I want to say…”
“Please tell me, Julian.” The light in the room did not reach her. But he could see her heart in her beguiling blue eyes. She was too precious to toy with or avoid her appeal.
“Lily, I have nothing. Soon, less than nothing. We Setons are on the verge of ruin.”
She blinked. “I am not enamored of money.”
“How wonderful of you to say.”
Standing, she clutched his jacket more tightly about her. “I don’t say what I don’t mean, Julian.”
He had to be as forthright. “You come with stipulations.”
Her eyes darkened. Her mouth thinned. “Not I. My father’s, you mean.”
“No—”
“It’s the shipping company. You object to…to what? American money?” She grew angry.
He winced. “I object to being bought!”
She sucked in a breath. Insult had frozen her. “And I to being sold.”
“We are two people who want someone whose circumstances offend their pride. What if,” he asked with bated breath, “we were neither sellers or buyers, but simply two people who were meant for each other?”
Shock limned her features. “Are you asking me to marry you, Julian?”
Could he ask for her hand in all good faith?
Her face fell. She whirled away toward the door.
He caught her by the wrist. “Don’t go. Look at me. I’m asking if—”
“Shouldn’t you first seekmypermission to marry, my boy?”
With a gasp, Lily spun, whirling back against Julian and facing their intruder.
Julian braced her. Outrage burned through him. “Why are you here, Father?”
The duke strolled toward them and Lily shrank backward into Julian’s embrace. The look on the older man’s face was no less than a sneer.
Her blood froze. Ashamed of her dishabille, shocked at the man’s hauteur in the presence of his son, Lily steeled herself for whatever confrontation the duke so obviously intended.
He removed his hat, casually ran a hand through his wind-blown silver hair and focused with lascivious brown eyes on her hold of Julian’s coat at her breast. “I told you, Julian, I wouldn’t approve of this match.”
“What?”Julian spat. “You did no such thing,”
The duke wiggled a finger, indicating Lily’s bodice. “Here’s proof why such a union is unsavory.”
“You lying basta—”
“He’s wanted you from the start.” The Duke of Seton was pleased with himself, cutting her with his disdain, strutting as he paced the room. “Did you know?”
She straightened, drawing away from Julian’s comforting body. Julian had been attracted to her, and she’d believed him in spirit and truth.
“Ah. I see you did not. He knows what you’re worth, girl. He needs your dollars.”
