Page 25 of Beyond Scandal and Desire
It should have been, yes, but in retrospect it hadn’t, not really. “I was quite taken by surprise.”
“Surely you knew my intentions,” Kip said.
“Yes, but I wasn’t certain when you might ask.”
“Now we have a wedding to plan,” the duchess said. “I suppose we should have an engagement ball. Here. At Hedley Hall.”
She could see the anxiety in her guardian’s face. “Perhaps a dinner. A small one. Intimate.”
“I like that idea,” Kip said, smiling warmly at her as though he recognized she was striving to spare his mother worry.
“Yes,” the duchess said. “We’ll discuss the particulars tomorrow. When would you like the wedding to take place?”
“We haven’t really discussed it,” Aslyn said.
“I’ll leave it to you ladies to work out the details,” Kip said. “I must away.”
In disbelief, disappointment and ire, Aslyn stared at him. “You’re leaving?”
“I must make the most of the bachelor days that remain to me.”
“You can stay longer,” the duke said.
“No,” Aslyn said, suddenly in want of time alone, to ponder her feelings, to what she had agreed, to wonder why there was not a livelier air of celebration. Because it had all been expected? Because there had been no anticipation? “It’s quite all right. I’m actually rather exhausted from all the excitement and merrymaking that took place at the ball once Lady Lavinia announced my good fortune. However, I shall walk you out.”And have a word in private.Setting aside her snifter, she rose and took the arm he offered.
Once they were outside on the steps, with the door closed behind them, she took a deep breath, released it slowly. “Do you really wish to marry me?”
“I’d have not proposed otherwise.”
She studied the face she’d loved for years, searching for the truth, for something more. “You haven’t even kissed me.”
“I suppose I’ve spent so many years keeping my desire for you tamped down and on a short leash that it’s become a habit.”
She hated that his words gave her such hope, that words were needed to give her any hope at all. Shouldn’t love communicate in other ways? “You desire me?”
“Without a doubt.” He cradled her cheek with one bare hand. When they’d arrived home, he’d removed his gloves, had yet to put them on. His skin was smooth, his palm without calluses. Warmth radiated from his fingertips, but no heat. “Aslyn, I intend to do right by you.”
“Would a kiss be wrong, then?”
He grinned, glanced back over his shoulder to the windows. “I don’t think anyone is watching.”
But if they were, what would it matter now? They were betrothed. He could compromise her all he wanted, and the outcome for their futures would not change.
He lowered his lips to hers. Her eyes slid closed at the warmth, the gentleness, the way his mouth moved softly over hers. Slowly he drew back. “I shan’t sleep tonight, thinking of you.”
“You shan’t sleep because you’ll be up to no good.”
He flashed a grin. “I have an appointment with cards. Not another lady. Know this, Aslyn, for me there is no other lady.”
Her heart tightened, tears pricked her eyes. “You’ve always been the one for me, Kip.”
“Don’t set a date that’s too far off.” With that he tweaked her nose, before dashing down the steps.
The man certainly knew how to ruin a romantic moment, but then he’d tweaked her nose ever since she was a girl. There was a familiarity and a lovingness to it. But she feared the gesture was more appropriately directed toward a younger sister, not a wife, not a lady a man wished to bed.
They were to marry, and yet she felt like a child playing at pretend, not a woman anticipating the days—and nights—to come with relish. She’d been brought up to always feel calm and steady, but at that moment she desired only to feelmore.
Chapter 7
