Page 23 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

He should have known his little lamb would never let him off so easily.

CHAPTER 9

Alice had thought that the conversation between Colin and her father would last longer, or that Colin would even want to talk to her afterwards. Why did he seem as if the very hounds of hell were nipping at his heels, then? Why was he avoiding her?

Well, if he was, then she was not going to make it easy for him either!

She smiled at his obvious discomfort at her sudden invitation. “The gardens are particularly lovely this time of year. Shall we?”

She did not give him any room to refuse as she stood up and walked over to the doorway, throwing him a saccharine smile over her shoulder. If he thought he was going to traipse away just like that without even conferring with her about this farce that he initiated, he was sorely mistaken.

Alice stared unflinchingly at him as he tensed. For a moment, she thought that he was going to refuse her right there in the parlor before her whole family.

She had thrown the gauntlet at him, but there was no certainty that he was going to pick it up.

“Yes, of course,” he acquiesced with a curt nod of his head.

Alice smiled inwardly as he followed her. She won this round.

She could feel the tenseness in his body as they stepped out into the lovely afternoon sun, the crisp air filling her lungs. All around them, the chrysanthemums were a riot of colors, but she knew that during this time of the year, the lotus pond was simply perfect.

It was also quite secluded, which would give them greater privacy to talk. Anna, the maid that her mother had ordered to discreetly follow them, would know well enough not to intrude upon her business and stay a short distance away, safely out of earshot.

As soon as they reached the pond, she angrily rounded on him. “Why did you have me lie to my family?” she demanded. “You know very well I have a great aversion to it!”

Colin crossed his arms over his broad chest and regarded her with an arched eyebrow. Even though he was the very picture of arrogance, she had to admit that she had never seen a more handsome man. At times, she found herself irritatingly torn between wanting to sigh over him like a witless mooncalf or murdering him with her bare hands.

“I had you lie to your father because he is a very sick man, little lamb,” he told her with implacable calm. “You saw how happy he was to see a suitor asking for your hand—do you even have the heart to disappoint him?”

“He will be more disappointed if he thinks all this is real,” she replied brokenly. “If he knew that this was just an arrangement between the both of us?—”

“He will be more disappointed in me once the betrothal is broken,” he corrected her. “You do not deserve his disapproval, Alice. Let me shoulder it for you, at least.”

“You-you?—”

He smiled at her. “You may think me a heartless cad, but I will not ensnare an unwilling woman into an arrangement that does not benefit her.”

Alice could sense that there was some other meaning to his words, but she just could not tell what it was. Something lewd, perhaps? The thought of it made her toes curl in her shoes, even as she roiled in confusion at the same time.

With Colin, she could never tell if he was flirting with her or patronizing her. It was highly frustrating yet thrilling at the same time. So much so that Alice wondered if she had taken leave of her senses if that was the conclusion she had come to.

“Very well then,” she muttered, quickly regaining her composure despite the heat flooding her cheeks. “I still do not appreciate you calling on us unannounced. I still do not know what to tell my family as it is. You should have conferred with me at the very least. And what do we tell the rest of the ton, anyway?”

“The same thing I told your parents.” He shrugged his broad shoulders with an air of extreme indifference. “It matters not what we tell them, really. The whole of Society will be far more intrigued with the idea of a Wolf actually getting engaged than to question the logic behind it.”

“Well, I still think we should get our story straight at the very least,” she argued. “It would simply not do if you said one thing and I said something else entirely different.”

“Well then, I can tell them what I told your mother—that I was entranced by you the moment I laid eyes on you in the Park—and you can tell them that you found me irresistible the moment you saw me.” He grinned mischievously. “Or you can tell them the truth—that you sneaked into my home, intending to rob me of my?—”

“You rogue!” she hissed. “How will I ever be able to find another suitor if I go about declaring something that will have me ruined in the space of a breath!”

Her words seemed to trigger something in him, for his blue-gray eyes shuttered immediately. The teasing glint in them faded, replaced by an aloofness that made her blood run cold.

“Then tell them whatever you think would further your interests best,” he snapped.

“Fine!” she huffed. “You know, Your Grace?—”

“Colin.”

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