Page 87 of When the Marquess Was Mine
“There is a woman to see you, my lord.” Bigby’s face spasmed. “A young woman.”
Without a word, Rob leapt from his chair and rushed downstairs. His instinct was borne out when the cloaked figure in his hall peered out from under her hood with familiar green eyes that had been haunting his dreams.
“You may go, Bigby,” he said to the butler at his heels. He ushered Georgiana into the morning room and shut the door behind them.
As soon as he turned back to her, she flung herself into his arms. He caught her tight against him, lifting her off her feet as she kissed him.
“A good evening to you, too, Lady Georgiana,” he murmured when it ended. A bloodybrilliantevening, to him.
She smiled, betraying a tremor of her lips. “Was that presumptuous?”
“The kind of presumption I hope to see more of,” he told her, levity dissolving into concern as a tear slid down her cheek. “What’s the matter?” She appeared healthy and whole, but she wouldn’t have come to him like this on a whim.
“My brother has come to town.”
I’m not afraid of Sterling, but my brother is a different matter.Rob tensed. “What did he do?”
“I wrote to him that I had broken my engagement.” Another tear slid down her face and she dashed it away with an impatient motion. “He said I must marry Sterling or go home with him to Yorkshire.”
“The devil you must,” he growled.
“I refuse to do either!” Her eyes flashed; she was enraged, not despondent. “But Lady Sidlow believes he can tie up my dowry funds, and he says he won’t pay for the house in London any longer.”
Rob’s frown deepened. “Why does he want you to marry Sterling?”
“I don’t know.” She looked up at him with a determined gaze. Her tears were gone. “But I was hoping you would help me outwit him.”
He clasped her hand and pressed it to his heart. “My lady, I am yours to command, from now until the end of time.”
She smiled. Then she laughed. Rob grinned, and this time was ready to catch her when she threw her arms around his neck. “I love you,” she whispered, and kissed him.
It felt like a vital spark of life being breathed into his soul. He kissed her back, winding his arms around her waist and holding her against him. She went up on her toes, clinging to him, and opened her mouth under his.
God help him. This must be what the poets meant about sunshine in one’s soul and a fever in one’s blood. He wanted time to stop, to let him savor this moment, and he wanted it to run at double pace, because he couldn’t get enough of her in the normal seconds and minutes and hours of a day.
He kissed her eyes, her jaw, her temple, before devouring her mouth again. Her hands ran over his shoulders greedily, and his skin fairly burned to feel her touch. Her body arched against his, wrenching an almost feral growl from his throat.
“Right,” he rasped, tearing his mouth from hers while he had the strength to do it. “We’ll deal with Wakefield. But you... you should go home before I forget that I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
She pressed her forehead to his and curled her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. “I don’t want to go home.”
The rogue inside him stirred. Rob made one last effort to be noble. “Why not?”
Her hand drifted over his chest. “Because I want to stay with you.”
The rogue was winning. “For how long?” he whispered.
“How long will you want me?” Her eyes were dark, ocean-deep with desire, glinting with a hint of mischief.
“For the rest of my life,” he answered at once. “Georgiana Lucas, I want to marry you. Don’t stay now if you don’t want the same.”
She laughed, her color high. “Will we elope?”
“Perhaps, perhaps not, but it will be averyshort engagement.”
“That would suit me perfectly, Lord Westmorland.” She smiled shyly. “I accept your offer of marriage.”
The rogue roared in triumph. “Are you certain?” Rob asked, hardly breathing. “Very, very certain?”
