Page 41 of Loving a Beast of a Marquess
Evangeline rather fancied she wanted him to lose control. Aside from that first time, when she had fled, he had always been the one to stop them. He had always held his control in tight reins.
Evangeline wanted to eliminate it. She wanted to be the reason he could hold himself back no longer. She wanted to feel the full force of his desire for her as manifested in his mouth, his wandering hands, and the bulge that even now remained at his crotch.
“We could return indoors,” she suggested, “if kissing in a garden displeases you.”
He turned to face her again, such ravenous hunger in his face that it made her knees weak. “We would not stop at kissing,” he said hoarsely. “The things I want to do to you—” He broke off and shook his head, cursing under his breath. “You should return to the house, Evangeline.”
She approached him slowly as she might a fleeing horse. “Will you stop avoiding me if I do?”
“Do you really intend to test my self-control that much?” he asked, but the expression in his eyes softened, and he brushed a curl back from her face. “If you wish it, I will not avoid you.”
Before she could help herself, she reached up and kissed him again, one hand on his cheek, the other on his shoulder. He kissed her back tenderly this time, and her heart squeezed, even as she broke away and hurried back to the house.
ChapterSeventeen
On the surface, little changed after the garden tryst. As agreed, Zachary stopped avoiding Evangeline, and he did his best to appear as though he was at ease around her. In reality, she had become the sole focus of his attention. He was barely able to sit beside her without becoming uncomfortably hard, something she seemed aware of by the way she allowed her knee to sometimes brush against his.
No woman had ever done this to him before. He wanted to push her against the wall and kiss her until he forgot the rest of the world existed. He wanted to pull her skirts up and take her, to be the first and only person to know what she felt like as he sank into her.
He wanted to know what it was to wake up beside her in the morning and to have all the time in the world to make love to her in a way he had never done. Every stolen moment they found where he explored her lips and denied himself the opportunity to explore further, speared her further into his heart. His world shifted until it orbited around her. Evangeline.
His love.
Yet, she still accepted callers with a smile and still allowed her suitors to flirt and compliment her. She let Percy walk with her in the garden and dance with her at balls, and she never once gave any indication that if he were to ask her to marry him, she would accept.
And so, Zachary locked his feelings deep in his chest, knowing that he was falling in love with her, and that she could never love him, for he was but half man, half beast. Another reason he denied himself: if she was to see him as he truly was again, she would despise him.
“Harley!” Percy entered the library and strode toward him, a smile on his face. “Lady Evangeline said you would be in here.”
“She seems to have a remarkable ability to know where I am at all times,” Zachary said dryly, laying his paper on the table before him. “It’s a place I can have some peace and quiet in this house.”
Percy nodded at the brandy sitting by Zachary’s elbow. “Pour me some, will you? I’ve got reason to celebrate. Or at least—I hope to have reason to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?”
“My forthcoming marriage.” Percy accepted the glass and raised it. “I have no answer as yet, but given my position and social standing, I can see no reason why it should not be favorable.”
Zachary’s mind took a moment to process the words. “You are confident of a favorable answer from whom?”
“Why, Lady Evangeline, of course.” Percy laughed as though it had been obvious. “Who else have I been pursuing?”
Zachary spat his brandy across the table. “You mean to say you asked her to marry you, and she did not refuse?”
For the first time, a frown touched Percy’s eyes. “Are you quite well, old friend?”
“Tell me, Riffy—what did she say?”
“She thanked me for the honor of my proposal and asked me to give her some time. I presume she wishes to wait for her father to return, and I confess I wish he would, too. A damned uncomfortable business, waiting for a man to return, so I can ask his permission.”
Zachary stared sightlessly at his half-empty brandy glass. Evangeline hadn’t accepted Percy immediately, but she hadn’t refused.She hadn’t refused. She had asked for time. A few days in which she would make her decision.
“Harley.” Percy put his glass back down on the table. “I thought you’d be pleased for me. She’s a damned fine girl as I’m sure you’ll agree.”
“Don’t speak about her like that,” Zachary said through gritted teeth. “She is not a prize to be won.”
“Of course not, but you can’t deny she’s a beautiful lady and the daughter of a Duke.”
Never mind beautiful—Evangeline was the most exquisite lady Zachary had ever had the pleasure of meeting.
