Page 43 of With Good Grace
‘And so,’ Jake said softly, saluting her with his brandy glass. ‘We are alone at last.’
Olivia felt ridiculously nervous and wanted to make some witty aside. Nothing sprang to mind and so she remained silent.
‘What is it?’ he asked, leaning across the space that separated them and taking her hand. ‘You are as nervous as a kitten. I have never seen you nervous before. Upset, yes. Angry…many times, usually with me. Argumentative, stubborn, determined…all of those things. But never nervous.’
‘You make me nervous, Jake.’ She sent him a defiant look. ‘I do not know what it is that you want from me.’
‘Oh, Olivia.’ He shook his head, sending a dark lock of hair cascading across his forehead. ‘What would you have me say? What is it that you want to hear?’
She looked away from him. ‘I don’t want to depend upon you, Jake, and yet you make it increasingly difficult for me to maintain my independence.’
‘I am not trying to control you, my sweet; merely keep you safe.’
‘And yet when I am alone with you, I feel as though I am in danger the entire time.’
‘You can trust me to behave.’ He chuckled. ‘Probably.’
‘What if I don’t want you to?’Ye gods, did I just say that aloud?
His head jerked back. ‘What are you suggesting?’
‘Oh fiddle-faddle, Jake, you know very well what I am saying.’ Olivia puffed air through her lips. ‘I had decided we would not have this conversation; not here, not now, perhaps not ever. But this latest evidence of my husband doing precisely as he pleased without a thought for the consequences, chasing his pleasures all over London and goodness knows how far beyond, has caused a change of heart. Unlike Marcus, I have behaved with decorum, yet I finished up becoming notorious, so I might as well live up to my reputation.’
She paused to moisten her lips, a defiant tilt to her chin, even though she was conscious of her cheeks burning with embarrassment. Jake fixed her with a look of such deep intensity, his rich brown eyes shooting sparks of awareness as he waited for her to continue. Oh for the love of God; now was no time to go silent on her! He really was going to make her spell it out; the cad!
‘You are the only pleasure that I desire. The only man whom I would ever consider as a lover.’ She sent him a defiant look. ‘There. I have made the admission. It does not have to be complicated. We are here, we desire one another, and there need not be any more to it than that.’
And there need not be. As always, Olivia had been over-analysing the situation when she ought to have allowed instinct to guide her. Jake continued to look at her with such deep longing in his eyes that her entire body responded with a violent tremble. He stood and in one fluid movement pulled her to her feet and into his arms.
‘You realise, I suppose,’ he said, whispering the words into her hair, ‘that there will always be more to it than that.’
Before she could ask what he meant, his arms closed more tightly around her, robbing her of the limited amount of air her tight stays permitted her to hold in her lungs. He covered her lips with his own with bold assurance, his tongue tantalising and teasing until she parted her lips and allowed him ingress. Desire overwhelmed reason and she gave herself over to that kiss, borrowing air from his mouth when her own supply seemed in danger of exhausting itself. Dear God, this was beyond exquisite. If time could stand still and the moment never end, she would have no complaints to make!
Jake broke the kiss and one of his hands skimmed her breasts through the silk of her gown. She gasped and pushed herself against that hand, causing Jake to emit a wicked chuckle.
‘Not here,’ he said. ‘Go up to your room. I will join you in half an hour, if you are absolutely sure.’
‘Annoyingly, I have never been surer of anything,’ she replied, huffing indignantly when she observed the triumphant light in his eye.
‘Of course you have not. You are mine, Olivia, and we both know it.’
‘We have our needs, Jake. Let us not read anything more into it than that.’
‘As my lady wishes,’ he replied, bowing as he opened the door for her and she swept through it with as much dignity as she could salvage after suffering the humiliation of pouring her heart out to him and getting so little in return.
He had known all along that the evening would end this way, she decided, as she lifted her skirts and ascended the stairs. He had always intended that it would, and she had not even made him work for it; impossible man! Even so, she did not have the energy to care. She would submit herself into his capable hands, just for this one night, and let the future take care of itself.
Chapter Eleven
Olivia’s floral perfume lingered in her wake as Jake closed the door behind her, resumed his seat and reclaimed his half empty glass. He drained the remnants of his brandy in one swallow and let forth a string of oaths, cursing his obsession with Olivia; an obsession that prevented him from thinking with his usual detached clarity. He had fully intended to behave himself that evening, even though he had not been looking forward to the uncomfortable consequences that were bound to result from that particular challenge. Resisting his scorching attraction towards Olivia was nigh on impossible at the best of times. The moment he observed the pain that flitted through her eyes when he revealed the extent of her husband’s duplicity, despite the fact that she had never loved him and claimed not to care what he did, he knew it was a battle he was destined to lose.
‘Fool!’ he muttered.
‘If you say so.’
Jake had not heard Parker enter the room and sent him a castigating look. ‘I won’t need you again tonight, Parker,’ he said. ‘You can go to bed.’
Parker chuckled. ‘As your lordship wishes,’ he said, managing to imbue the simple words with a variety of meaning.
