Page 35 of Lord Trafford's Folly
Except … this time … it was he who pulled away, stepping back and releasing her with reluctance.
“What is this?”
She was panting. “I do not know.”
“I am a gentleman of leisure who seeks his enjoyments. And you … you are a gently bred woman.”
Audrey nodded, still breathless from their kiss. Too breathless to nibble on that lower lip, but he would wager she wished to do so.
He continued. “We should?—”
“We should collect ourselves and go inside,” she finished for him. “I will redress your wound, so you can prepare for your friend to visit later.”
Julius’s lungs were heaving as hard as hers, and he wanted to pull her back into his embrace, but he did not wish to take advantage of her. Perhaps they could share a wedding night before she departed for Stirling, but he had not informed her of his intentions. Mostly because … he did not know what to say when he made the proposal.
When they were wed, what would he do?
Would he continue living his life as he had in the past, while she lived in the country?
Or would he remain faithful even while they lived apart?
He had never planned to be a husband who was unfaithful to his wife, but that was because he had vowed to never marry.
Marriages were the source of great unhappiness, and Julius would never lock himself in a gaol of misery as his parents had done. The way for his marriage to succeed with Audrey was if they remained apart.
Julius needed to settle his thoughts on what this new future held, and until then, until he knew what he was offering her, he must keep his hands to himself. Audrey had become a close friend, and she deserved better than a hurried bedding.
CHAPTER 10
“I have met with some of them — very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools.”
Giacomo Casanova
Audrey bandaged Julius, both of them wordless after the kiss they had shared in the mews. The sensation of his lips was still imprinted on hers, and her mind drifted to the possibilities as her gaze ran over the defined muscles of his torso. Julius was a fine specimen of manhood, she marveled, as she followed the trail of blond, crisp hair that covered his pectorals and arrowed down to his buckskins, the bandage the singular marring of the ridged expanse.
Did the second tone of his hair, the brown, present itself anywhere else on his lean body? It was a salacious train of thought she could not help chasing. It was the physician in herthat was curious, she assured herself, nibbling on her lip and trying to not imagine joining him in his bed.
“You should go,” whispered Julius.
She nodded. Julius was as tempted as she was, and if she remained a moment longer, they would throw caution to the wind.
With great reluctance, she rose to gather her things before exiting his room without another word.
Down the hall, she entered the bedchamber she had been using since their second night at Lady Hays’s. In a bid to keep her mind occupied while Julius rested—certainly not because she would race down the hall and fling herself into his bed to discover the pleasure between a man and a woman—she crossed to the table and put her things down.
Rummaging through her father’s valise, she found the items she needed and placed them down on the surface. Focusing on what she was doing was an attempt to still her racing thoughts as she collected the birdcage from the corner and put it down next to her supplies with a distinctive clink.
She lifted Flapper from the cage and unwound the dressing on his wing. The starling was docile in her hands, fluttering his free wing from time to time.
Julius Trafford was a wild creature, like the starling which cocked his head around to look about the room while considering his path to escape. Could the tempestuous Corinthian be tamed, she mused while she worked.
When he stops resisting his future, he will settle down to some degree.
She hoped he would never be fully tamed, that his larger-than-life spirit would remain intact when he discovered his calling as a gentleman.
It was tempting to daydream about being his bride, the one who would seek out new adventures by his side long into thefuture. She would never be bored if such an event came to pass, but she was a fool to even hope that she would be the one to partially tame such a free spirit.
He was the epitome of the bedside memoirs. A Casanova who pursued excitement and floated upon the ebb and flow of the universe’s whims.
