Page 81 of Three Weeks with a Princess
Her scoff indicated she was well aware of his profound mental lapse.
She studied him for a few moments with a skeptical twist to her mouth. “Jack, do you truly want me trolling events such as this one?” she finally asked. “Because that’s the only alternative I can think of at the moment.”
He jabbed a hand at her. “No, but I am not helping you find a protector.”
She jumped to her feet and stalked over to him, her lovely breasts jiggling with the force of her stride. “Then how in God’s name am I to support myself and Granny? Every other suitable avenue has been closed to me, thanks to my mother andyours.”
He winced. “Yes, I know. And I am sorry about that, which I’m sure you realize.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to help me achieve the necessary ends.” She shook her head, looking somber. “I’m the child and grandchild of courtesans, Jack. My course in life was marked out long ago. All I want now is do the best I can in a situation I can no longer avoid.”
He dragged his hands through his hair, tugging on the ends. It was that or he might drag Lia across his knee and spank her for putting him in so untenable a position. “You really expect me to do that, as a sign of friendship?”
Studying him, she crossed her arms. God, he wished she’d stop doing that. Every time she did, he had to wrestle with the unholy temptation to yank down her bodice and feast on her gorgeous breasts.
Lia unleashed a smile that could coax angels down from the heavens. “All I ask is that you assist me in drawing up a list of qualifications and perhaps identify a few suitable candidates. You must know one or two gentlemen who would be willing to consider me. In fact . . .”
She stopped and frowned, as if already reviewing a mental lineup of potential protectors. The very notion set off a series of rapid-fire explosions in his brain.
“In fact, what?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said with an airy wave.
“Do you already have someone under consideration? Someone like Sebastian Sinclair?” he ground out. He’d seen the way the bastard looked at her.
She blew an exasperated breath out one side of her mouth. “He’s already turned me down. It’s a bit of a shame because he’s a very nice man. Too nice to take a mistress, I suppose.”
The sizzling explosions in his head coalesced into a fireball that seemed to blow the top right off. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her straight onto her toes, her mouth level with his.
“You want to learn how to be a courtesan? How to seduce and control a man?” he growled.
She let out a squawk. “Jack, what are you doing?”
“Let’s start with this and see how you like it.” He tugged her mask fully off, then clamped his lips over hers in a hard, desperate kiss that breached his walls and lay him open to his worst enemy.
Himself.
Chapter Eighteen
Lia clung to Jack’s shoulders, her eyelids instinctively fluttering shut. One minute they’d been sniping at each other and the next he’d swept her clean off her feet and into a hard embrace. She could barely think or move with his tongue filling her mouth in a hot sweep, his kiss drawing the breath from her lungs. No doubt she would soon faint from lack of air—or from the shock of Jack actually kissing her, and enthusiastically, too.
This was no decorous kiss between friends. This was a tempest, unleashed upon her with the force of a thunderstorm rolling down from the craggy Yorkshire dales. It knocked every sensible thought out of her head.
Digging her fingers into his coat, she tried to find purchase. She needed to push him away, if she wanted to retain a particle of sense in her frazzled brain, because any second now Jack would come to himself and no doubt pull away, horrified and guilt-ridden for losing control.
It felt like passion, the luscious taste of his mouth, the nip—oh—of his teeth on her lower lip. But this surprising, impetuous,scorchingkiss wasn’t passion. It was anger and the need to teach her a lesson. It wasn’t desire or love or even lust. It was Jack, the most easygoing and patient man on the planet, finally reaching the end of his rope. And once he clambered back up that rope, he would be mortified by what he’d done.
And she would be utterly devastated when he rejected her—again.
Push him away—now.
She breathed a sigh of regret, then flattened her hands on his chest and shoved. It wasn’t easy because her toes dangled above the floor and his muscled arms lashed her close with startling strength. Jack seemed reluctant to release her, even though he’d surely made his point. In fact, when she wriggled, trying to put some daylight between them, the growl from his throat sounded more like a feral dog than a man trying to impart a scold. Even more amazing was the feel of one of his hands sliding down her spine to clamp onto her bottom, tucking her tight against him.
Lia froze, completely shocked. She was a maiden but hardly naïve. She knew what happened between men and women and knew that a certain degree of enthusiasm was required to complete the deed, especially on the man’s part. To say that Jack had reached such a state of enthusiasm would grossly understate the case; his erection pressed against the softness of her belly with insistence. It also pressed against other parts that no respectable young woman generally thought about.
Of course, that wasallshe could think about at that moment, and it triggered a desire to squirm just a little bit closer and a little bit higher, so that her—
Stop.
