Page 41 of A Lady Igniting Wicked Passions
She lifted that foot and rested it atop Aaron’s leg. He reached down, catching her bare leg behind the knee and pulling it higher, until her foot rested against his knee and her thigh lay stretched across him.
Arabella giggled, enjoying the sensation and the feel of his hand upon her naked skin.
“Do we just let them find us here?” She asked.
“No. That would be too much,” Aaron replied. “I am not ashamed but I have a sense of propriety. Besides, I have a lasting memory of being discovered by a father in a compromising position with his daughter.”
Arabella lifted her head. “Really? What an adventurous life you have led.”
“It did not feel like an adventure at the time. I thought I would bleed to death. I still bear the scar.”
He touched a part of his stomach, on his right side.
“He tried to kill you?” Arabella asked.
“No. He challenged me to a duel. This occurred when I refused. You see he was a high-ranking Spanish officer and therefore an ally. I would be court martialled for killing a man such as that.”
“So, he stabbed you when you refused to fight?”
Aaron sighed. “Again, no. His daughter stabbed me when I refused to fight for her. She was an agent for the Partisans, the guerrilla resistance fighting the French occupation. And, as it turned out, a very fierce young woman.”
Arabella laughed, letting her head fall back to his chest. “Well, I am not so fierce as that. I promise not to stab you. But my father will not challenge you to a duel either. He may make you race for my hand.”
“That would be entirely acceptable, provided I can ride that magnificent animal down there,” Aaron said.
Arabella smiled to herself. It was ridiculously gratifying to hear Aaron echoing her own thoughts, showing the same values and interests. She realized that there were few people in her entire life whom she could honestly say shared her interests. Certainly, she was unique among the women that she knew, most of whom had more in common with Helena than her.
“So, how will we do it?” She asked. “To free ourselves of blackmail it must become public knowledge. Our affair, if that is what you want to call it.”
Aaron sniffed dismissively, “I do not, frankly. But I will use the word as shorthand. I had thought to simply ask your father permission to marry you…”
He seemed to hesitate, almost as though waiting to see if she would react to the word he had used. She did not, because she did not want him to retract or row back on what he had said. If she reacted, he might take fright and pretend it was simply a slip of the tongue. If it was a slip of the tongue, her reaction might make him see it and panic.
From the conversations she had overheard with Helena and her vapid friend, certain men could be relied upon to run for the hills at the mention of marriage. Aaron was not one but a small voice at the back of her mind worried that, as she had given him so much of herself, he might simply move on, considering the chase over.
“It is good that you did not spring to your feet and run at that word,” Aaron said, echoing her unspoken thought as he often seemed to.
Arabella held him tighter, rubbing her cheek against his chest and smiling, happily.
“My father will refuse. And insist that you follow through on your commitment to marry Helena,” Arabella predicted.
“It means nothing, I do not need his permission and he cannot force me to marry Helena. But I should like there to be no question. No choice. It does not feel exactly honourable but…”
“It is only dishonourable if you believe that what we have done is somehow…wicked. I do not think that it is.”
“Nor I,” Aaron said softly. “If I did, then I should not have done it. There have been many women in my life, you realize that.”
“I expected it,” Arabella replied.
“But I did not rape. Nor did I seduce. Or pay. Each woman I have loved has been…loved.”
“I think I understand. There is a difference between you and…”
“The Earl of Bredwardine,” Aaron replied.
“I have not met him,” Arabella said.
“He is a good friend but considers women the same as the deer he hunts on his estates. They are prey to be pursued and then forgotten. The chase is all that interest him.”
