She waved her hand. “If you must.”
He rubbed his hands together gleefully. “You must look like you wish to be carried about by me. And you must look as if your dearest wish in the world is to have me irritate you.”
“Impossible man.”
“I’ll settle for this.”
She looked up at him with laughing eyes, ready for the joke.
He suddenly did not feel funny, and when he spoke, he found there was more truth in it than he’d intended. “Touch me as often as you can and look at my lips like the only thing you can think about when I’m around is kissing them.”
She blushed and looked away. “I… I can do that.”
He’d not expected such quick capitulation, and he found himself without a ready retort.
They walked in silence long enough for Devon’s mind to find a bothersome question.
“Your father has always scared me,” he admitted, “because he’s a boisterous, formidable man. But I never got the sense he was overly protective of you. Never seemed the look-at-my daughter-and-die type of fellow.”
She tugged her earlobe. “He’s usually so wrapped up in his ideas that he doesn’t notice me. It would take an explosion to bring his attention my way.” She laughed. “Itdidtake an explosion to remind him I might be in some danger from the nefarious scoundrel he left in his workshop. The Reputation Ruiner.”
Lord Devon held up his palms. “I'm neither nefarious nor a scoundrel. I did not ruin any reputations. At least not on purpose.”
“You kissed me.”
“You kissed me back,” he growled, “and then told me not to stop.” He offered his elbow. “Shall we be peaceable with each other? We do need to speak sensibly about weighty subjects.”
“Yes. Truce for now. Have you discovered any ways to avoid this whole mess? I assume, since you announced our intention to marry to your family this morning, you have not. But hope is difficult to kill.”
“Avoid? No. We were caught red-lipped, mauling one another.”
“Perhaps we can argue the explosion… Hm.”
“Hmis right. Where was that argument going? Are we to say the explosion addled our brains? Are we to claim temporary insanity of the lust-crazed kind? And just who is addled to lust after an explosion? Did the near-death experience shake us so soundly?”
“Something like that,” she grumbled.
“No, we cannot avoid this whole mess, as you term it, but we must find a way to live with it. With each other.” Arthur had been right about that.
She shook her head slowly. “You do not want to marry me, and I do not want to marry you. How are we to move on from that?”
He scratched his cheek. “It’s a tangle, that’s true. Outside of my attempts to right Lady Jane’s reputation through marriage, it has not been a state on my mind. At all. But you… you have been pursuing marriage with a very specific man who is not me. So, this leaves me confounded. Because first, marriage to me will ruin your marriage to him.”
“Naturally,” Lillian said.
“Second… you kissed me.”
“I did.”
“You should not kiss men you do not intend to marry, particularly when you have thoughts of marrying an entirely different man.”
She rubbed her finger and thumb in circles around her other wrist. “I am aware.”
“Why him?” Lord Devon asked. “Why Littleton?”
“Because he is all that is proper. When you rub elbows with theton,while hailing from the very lowest rung of the ladder, they will allow to flit before their eyes, you need all the help you can get. Lord Littleton is… help.”
“Hardly a romantic answer.”
