Page 11 of A Lady Igniting Wicked Passions
“That is no concern of yours!” Arabella sounded exasperated. “Many siblings have quarrels. It does mean I wish to see her heart broken.”
Aaron laughed. “I doubt that is the case. I doubt it is even possible. She has her eyes on the opportunity that marriage to a duke will bring. As I have my own eyes on the prize of a fortune. For what reason are you marrying?”
Arabella stepped back, half turning away. She did not say anything but then shot him a look, face deep in shadow.
“It has been arranged, as Helena’s has. He is a good man and respectable. A good match,” she said.
“You sound even less happy about yours, than I am with mine.” Aaron pushed, stepping closer.
He wanted her scent in his nostrils again, wanted to be close to her. In truth, he wanted to touch her, to kiss her and to hold her. It could not be, it would be entirely inappropriate and a contravention of every convention of polite society in the nineteenth century.
“I do my duty,” Arabella said in a voice thick with resentment.
“As do I. To my family. I sacrifice myself to an age of discord and continual strife.”
“For what is marriage forced but a hell,” Arabella provided the beginning of the quotation, taken from Henry VI.
Aaron smiled, frowning in puzzlement.
“Now it is not often that any but my dear uncle is able to exchange quotations with me. You have knowledge of Shakespeare?”
“Knowledge. His writing is my passion,” Arabella enthused. “There is no darkness but ignorance.”
“Twelfth Night,” Aaron said. “I do desire that your sister and I be better strangers.”
Arabella laughed aloud. The sudden sound which bounced from the stone wall next to them took her by surprise and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“As you like it, Your Grace,” she said with good humour.
“Does this make you warm to me somewhat?” Aaron said.
“Was it all an attempt to win me over then?” Arabella asked.
“Of course it was. I can think of no better motivation. To be badly thought of by you would be a hell worse than a forced marriage,” Aaron replied.
“I am not so easily swayed. After all, I know that you are the kind of man who would marry for money.”
“And love for no other reason than love,” Aaron said.
There was a moment in which they simply looked at each other, eyes locked and both made dark by the shadows. Then both burst into laughter at the same time.
“Does that work very often?” Arabella said, tilting her head.
“Never. And I swear I will never say it again. I will take my leave now lest I embarrass myself further,” Aaron said, turning away.
He said it only half in jest, kicking himself for allowing his tongue to run riot. It had been an idiotic thing to say.
“No!” Arabella said suddenly and reached out.
Aaron felt Arabella’s fingers entwine with his own. As soon as she had taken hold of his hand, he felt her releasing her grip, as though it had been an impulsive move which she immediately regretted. In that moment though, Aaron’s entire consciousness became focused on the tiny area of congruence between them.
The parts of them that had come into contact. Time stretched impossibly. He stepped close and drew her hand down, entwining his fingers more firmly with hers and then reached up with his other hand to cup her cheek. He kissed her.
Chapter 7
Arabella did not know what made her reach out to him at that moment. It was reckless and inappropriate. She was standing in a dark corner of the Eversden grounds with a man who was, to all intents and purposes, a complete stranger. Not only that but he was promised to her sister.
She should have left the moment he appeared, seeking well-lit and populous areas. Seeking her own fiancé. But she did none of those things. As Aaron prepared to turn away from her, she realized that more than anything in the world, she did not want their encounter to end.
