She cast him a smug smile, turned and then started toward the door. “But if you think you need to numb your heart after the few hours spent with me as I am now, bundled in four layers of clothes, then just wait until you see me in the gown I’m goingto wear to Lord de Wolfe’s dinner party this evening. That gown will pop your eyes right out of their sockets.”
He put his strong, steady hands around her waist to lift her into the carriage. “Lettie, you could wear a burlap sack and still make my eyes pop,” he said with a wickedly seductive grin, and then his voice turned gentle and husky. “My eyeballs still haven’t recovered from the first time I set eyes on you at Woodburne on this last visit.”
She gasped.
He plunked her in the carriage and climbed in after her, settling opposite her as usual, but this time he leaned forward. “But if you think that displaying a hint of your perfect breasts– and they are damn perfect, by the way– will weaken my resistance and make me kiss you, then you are sadly mistaken.”
She leaned forward as well so that her cold, pert nose almost touched his aristocratic, aquiline nose. “Is that a challenge? Because I’ll have you know that I will bring you to your knees in surrender. You will kiss me.” She put a gloved hand to his cheek and caressed it. “And do you know why?”
“Because I’ll find you irresistible? I always have. It isn’t about your clothes, Lettie. It’s always been about you. Kisses are dangerous things. They quickly lead to other dangerous things. And that’s why I shall never kiss you.”
“You will,” she said softly, “because I will discover who you are. You’ll know your family before you leave here in three days’ time.”
“Two and a half days left.”
“And it won’t matter whotheyare, because you’reyou. And the Brynne I know is the only man I will ever–”
“Damn it, Lettie!” He drew back as though she’d stuck a lit torch in his face. “Don’t you dare say what I know you’re going to say. I’m leaving here in two and a half days.”
“You’ve already reminded me. Youkeepreminding me, as though I could ever forget that in fifty nine hours, to be precise, you’ll walk away and I shall never see you again.”
He sighed as she began to sniffle. “Don’t cry.”
“I’m not.” But her chin wobbled and her eyes grew misty.
He sighed again. “Come here, you impertinent nuisance.” He drew her into his arms and held her close for the entire time it took the carriage to bounce and spring and roll its way to back to Wolverton Grange.
But he didn’t kiss her.
Not once.
Chapter Five
Brynne was thefirst one downstairs and ready for Lord de Wolfe’s dinner party, but that was to be expected since he only had the one formal black tie attire while the ladies had a dozen gowns from which to choose. He stood beside the long windows in the parlor, gazing out into the moonlit night. Half the sky was covered in clouds but the other half, where the moon shone in its full, silvery splendor, was clear and bright.
It was as if a line had been drawn across the heavens, the silver moon and a myriad of stars gleaming in diamond brightness against the black sky on one side, and snow that fell to the ground in soft flakes from the gray clouds on the other. “The world cut in half,” he muttered to himself, knowing Lettie belonged on the moonlit side, for she was a diamond of the first water, while he belonged on the cloudy side that hid the secrets of his family from view.
He continued to stare into the darkness, lost in his turbulent thoughts. The fire that had burned in the parlor fireplace for most of the day was on the verge of dying out. The fading embers barely cast enough light to illuminate the sofa in the center of the room but nothing more beyond it. He’d be lost in shadow where he stood, unnoticed unless he declared his presence. Except Lettie would know where he was, for she had that connection to his heart that always seemed to guide her straight to him.
He heard light, bouncy footsteps on the stairs and knew it had to be Lettie approaching. By her eager steps, he realized she was now dressed in her daring new gown and couldn’t wait toshow it off to him. “There you are, Brynne. I almost didn’t see you standing there.”
She came to his side and took his hand. “Come into the light and look at my gown. Tell me what you think of it.”
He allowed her to walk a few steps ahead of him, wanting a moment to look at her and steady his leaping heart before she could fully see him. She walked into the well lit entry hall and turned to face him. He stopped in his tracks.
She smiled at him.
The breath fled from his lungs.
“What do you think, Brynne?” Her smile slipped a little when he didn’t immediately respond, mistaking his silence for disapproval. He disapproved all right. He didn’t want any man looking at Lettie the way he was looking at her right now or feeling the explosive hunger now rocking his body.
“Nice gown, Lettie.” He clasped his hands behind his back to hide their shaking. He was actuallyshakingwith desire as though he were an inexperienced schoolboy about to have his first taste of a woman.
“Nice gown, Lettie,” she mimicked. “I am going to crack something very heavy and guaranteed to elicit maximum pain over your thick skull if that’s all you’re going to say to me.”
He had plenty to say, but wasn’t going to.
Her gown, a shimmering silk that wasn’t quite white but one of those fancy colors close to white that modistes had fancy names for, wasn’t daring so much as tantalizing. It fell just low enough on her chest to show off the perfect swell of her breasts, but wasn’t anywhere near low enough for those same perfect breasts to spill out.