“What were you doing, carrying around such money?”
“Before I decided to try to fend for myself, I often had such sums.”
She sat up and gathered together the books she’d dragged from the armoire. She read off the titles. “You’ve a bookshelf right over there, filled with books I’m positive you’ve never read. But these are well-worn, well-loved tomes I hold in my hands. Why aren’t these books on the shelf?”
“They’re my books. The others were already here.”
“They came with the room?”
He nodded. “Some other duke or duke’s brother or uncle must have owned them before me.”
“Books owned by someone long dead are displayed on shelves while your own belongings are shoved into a cupboard, hidden?”
He shrugged as well as he could while lying on the floor. “I'm just a replacement.”
Lillian pushed to her feet with the books piled in her arms. “You arenota replacement.” Holding the books tight to her chest with one arm, she picked each book off the shelf and flung it behind her toward the bed.
He jumped to his feet. “What are you doing? You’ll hurt them!” He caught a book in the air and placed it safely on a table.
Impressive that, but she’d admire his athleticism later. When she had picked every book from the shelf, she replaced them with his own, organizing them neatly from left to right by the title she would most like to read to the one she would likely never read in her life. Too many books, too little time. She had standards.
Satisfied, she dusted off her hands and placed them on her hips. “There.” She turned to him. “Now for the rest of it.” She marched around him and gathered the rest of his belongings, then placed them in nice spots throughout the room. The boxing bill, she stuffed into the corner of the mirror. The spoon, she placed in a small vase like a metal flower.
He caught her around the waist and twirled her until she faced him, then he tightened his arms to press her belly against his. To stop her, or…
Her hands wrapped around his elbows, and she looked up, a challenge in her gaze. “You are not a replacement. Need I say it again?”
His mouth descended on hers like she and he were two necessary parts of a single machine, their only purpose in life to bend and mold to one another.
No matter how many times they’d kissed, it had never been like this before—urgent and necessary and so very raw, so full of promise, too. No wonder. This kiss was not the culmination of a day’s yearning, but the beginning of a night’s passion.
But she had to be sure. She ripped her lips from his and rested her forehead against his chest. His hands fluttered at her chin, trying to raise her face to his once more. She had to say the words before he stopped them short.
“Do you wish to go to your lodgings?” she asked. “I know we agreed this was best, but this room… it does not feel like yours. I won’t be appalled or… or snooty. Actually, I would quite like to see your apartment, to see you as comfortable in a home as you are in Frederick’s.”
“No. Trust me. It is old and dusty and a bit dangerous. And certainly shabby. It is merely a place to rest my head.”
She’d expected as much. She finally lifted her face to him. “Tonight, you may rest your head right here.” She patted her shoulder. “If you can shake out of the doldrums. We do not have to… do what we’re expected to do tonight.” She tried to keep the disappointment from her voice. “If you do not wish to.”
His eyes gleamed with a feral light. “There’s no backing out of it, Lil Bean. What doldrums? Everything is bright when I’m with you.”
She swatted his shoulder. “Too much charm. Stop that right now.”
He locked his arms about her waist and walked her backward until her legs hit the edge of the bed, and she fell. He fell with her, bracing his palms on the mattress on either side of her head. His grin turned wolfish.
She swallowed hard.
“Why will you not let me charm you?” he asked, his voice a low growl, a dangerous tiger’s purr.
“Because I have seen you at your worst. Therefore, I am immune.”
“Like hell you are.” He swooped down and claimed her lips.
And she had to admit, she was certainly not immune to his kiss.
“Do you know how hungry I am for you?” He nipped her earlobe.
“You should have eaten more at the breakfast,” she panted.
