“I’m very fond of Alice, but she’s a hopeless liar. She’d hate having to keep it a secret—and she’d probably botch it. Which would upset her very much.”
He was right. “Very well,” she agreed. “We’ll tell nobody the betrothal is a stratagem.”
Inside the ballroom the waltz was just finishing. “I’d better go in,” she said, rising to her feet. “I promised Mr.Grimswade I’d take supper with him.”
“Just one more thing.” Lord Thornton reached out and detained her with a light touch. “This agreement between us, there won’t be any kind of document to sign.”
“No, of course not.”
“So we’d better seal it in the time-honored way.”
“What time-honored—mmph!”
His mouth came down on hers, firm, warm and possessive. She was so surprised she couldn’t move or even think. She gasped and his tongue entered her mouth, hot, spicy and demanding.
By the time her brain had recovered from the shock, her body was pressing itself against him, her arms were twined around his neck, and she was kissing him back. He cupped her face in his hands, angling her mouth the better to explore her, to taste her.
Heat streaked through her in waves, pooling deep within her body.
Without warning he released her abruptly. She staggered back, struggling to gather her scrambled wits. It wasn’t the first time she’d been kissed, but she’d never experienced anything like... likethat.
Her whole body was tingling. She was panting, as if she’d run a mile instead of standing in a secluded corner.
His chest was heaving, too, she noticed. At least she wasn’t the only one.
Had he felt what she did? There was no way of knowing. His eyes were in shadow, dark, intense and unreadable. Her gaze dropped to the firm, unsmiling masculine mouth. Who knew that he could kiss like that?
As the silence between them stretched, broken only by their heavy breathing and the distant hum of people talking in the ballroom, all Lucy’s old insecurities came surging to the fore. Before tonight—even an hour ago—she would have sworn this man, this lord, disliked her. Only days ago he’d accused her of plotting against Alice. Then suddenly, tonight, he was talking false betrothals and trusting her. And now this?
A kiss too far?
Striving to sound calm and unflustered, she said, “What was that about?”
He said coolly, as if the answer were obvious, “As I said, it’s a time-honored way of sealing an agreement.”
His words, like a dash of cold water, brought her to her senses. This was what lords did. Take what they felt like, no care for anyone else. “Hah! So you kiss your horse coper like that when you buy a horse, do you? Or your wine merchant when he agrees to deliver wine?”
“Of course not. Men usually shake hands on an agreement, but ladies”—he grinned, a purely wicked grin—“ladies don’t shake hands with gentlemen, do they? So what else was I to do?”
She couldn’t think of a response. Truth to tell, she was still dazzled by the effects of his kiss. She tried for a withering look, but he stood there looking smug, handsome and annoyingly unwithered.
The buzz of conversation inside suddenly rose. Laughter and exclamations floated out onto the night air.
“The unmasking has begun,” he said. “I’ll go inside first. Wouldn’t do for us both to appear together, especiallywith you looking as though you’ve just been thoroughly kissed.”
She rubbed at her mouth as if he’d somehow branded her. What did “thoroughly kissed” look like anyway? She pressed her hands against her hot cheeks to cool them.
At the steps leading up to the ballroom, he turned and looked back. “And by the way, that permission-to-waltz thing? I’m fairly sure it applies only to Almack’s, not at a private ball.”
“Now you tell me—” she began wrathfully, but he was gone.
She sat back down, not yet ready to return to the ballroom and play her part. Some people had come out onto the terrace to cool down after the dance, but most would be going in to supper.
She was betrothed. To Lord Thornton.
It was the last thing she’d expected. No, the kiss was the last thing she’d expected. Why had he done it?
She removed her mask, ran her hands lightly over her hair and the circlet of vines, and checked the rest of her costume. She appeared to have lost a few leaves, but other than that, everything seemed quite intact.
