Page 32 of Tempting Mr. Townsend
“So did you,” she said, stung at the implied criticism.
A grunt of self-derisive amusement escaped. “I waited at least another five minutes.”
Despite weariness and bad temper, she laughed. Odd how Anthony could do that.
She had no trouble diagnosing the root of his crankiness. She suffered the same malady. A bad case of sexual frustration. She'd lain awake all night, restless and longing for more kisses.
For more than kisses.
“You think they'll be all right?”
“I'm only away overnight, and the place is packed with servants—including Penny, who won't let them get away with any mischief, however ill she is. And they both know they've escaped lightly after their escapades. They're on their best behavior” He drew the horses to a halt under a spreading oak and faced her with a serious expression.
“What is it?” she asked, suddenly nervous. “Why have we stopped? Is something wrong?”
“I hope not.” A wry smile quirked his lips. “I'd like to talk to you.”
She frowned. “The boys.”
He shook his dark head. “No. Not this time.”He subjected her to a searching look. “I have a proposition.”
Oh, dear Lord. She knew exactly what was coming. Forbidden excitement shivered through her. “Mr. Townsend…”
For once he didn't object to the formal address. Instead he went on in a measured,reasonablevoice, as if what he suggested wasn't purest madness. “You mention scandal, but nobody except the staff at the Beeches know where we've been these last days. Nobody at all knows where we are now. We're free in a way we won't be free once we resume our daily lives.”
“Freedom doesn't mean license must rule.” She twined her hands together as an army of elephants started capering in her stomach.
This time he smiled properly, and the elephants thudded down into a heap, before jumping up to start prancing again. That smile was a deadly weapon.
“Perhaps not, but it means if a virtuous lady felt the urge to…stray, she could do so without fearing gossip.”
All the way from Hampshire, she'd cursed the carriage's close confines. Now it seemed as narrow as a child's pencil box. She gulped air into her lungs and wondered why she didn't slap this presumptuous cad's face and tell him to drive on. Or push him out onto the dusty grass verge and leave him to walk off his lust while she fled back to Mayfair and sanity. After all, she'd itched to take the reins ever since she'd first stepped into this stylish rig.
“You make too much of a moment's foolishness.”
He surveyed her from under the curling brim of his stylish beaver hat. “Do I?”
Reluctantly she met that probing dark brown gaze, and saw that he already guessed most of her secrets. The most mortifying being that she wasn't virtuous at all, but starved for a man.
Not just any man. This one.
So instead of issuing a ringing denial, she responded in a quavering voice unworthy of a worldly woman past thirty. “I've…I've never done this before.”
The tenderness that always proved so fatal to her resolve softened his eyes. “I know you haven't. I also know I've got a deuce of a cheek asking. You only met me two days ago, and it's clear you won't give yourself lightly”
No, she wouldn't. She'd shared her body with one man. Losing him had nearly destroyed her.
Anthony's offer belonged to a completely different world from her youthful adoration for Henry. But she had a sinking feeling that if she accepted this lunatic proposal, she wouldn't give herself lightly this time either. “You're making my arguments for me”
“Nor do I take this lightly. I wanted you the moment I saw you. That attraction has grown every moment since.”
“Surely not.” She strove to read his expression, but those rugged features didn't give much away. “You were furiously angry when we met.”
“Angry, aye, but also attracted. It made for an uncomfortable mix, believe me. Now I find myself quite…desperate.”
Still she examined that overtly masculine face. “You don't look desperate.”
“I'm trying not to terrify you.”
