Page 7 of All Scot and Bothered
He cleared his throat and glared daggers at his half brother, Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, who was too absorbed in the animated story of his wife, Alexandra, to notice.
Ramsay hoped if he simply glowered hard enough, the reprobate duke would come save him.
No such luck; Redmayne and the duchess busied themselves with their peers, doing their utmost to ingratiate the prodigal Countess of Mont Claire, Lady Francesca Cavendish, into select society.
Christ, Miss Teague was only invited to this blasted castle because she was longtime school chums with Lady Francesca and Lady Alexandra. The three women had been inseparable for decades, as he understood it, and hisbrother had married Alexandra knowing that Francesca and Cecelia were part and parcel of the bargain.
So why wasn’t the beguiling Miss Teague mingling withthemrather than tormentinghim?
The lady in question smiled a little ruefully and sank her teeth into the truffle, savoring it as a condemned man might his last meal. “I’m still sated from our sumptuous dinner, all told,” she said from behind the hand she held in front of her lips to protect her chocolate-filled mouth from view. “But I find my appetite for dessert forever unquenchable.”
Ramsay almost swallowed his tongue.Unquenchable.Like his ravenous, devious desire. His skin was sensitive, hot, and stretched very thin over his frame. Everything felt more sumptuous. Decadent. The velvet of the couch beneath him. The fragrance in the air.
This was dangerous. This moment. This lust.
This woman.
It was in instants such as this a man lost everything by making the wrong choice. Like asking her to dance, or to walk with him in the gardens so he could ruin her in the rosebushes.
He was not that man. He never would be that man.
Grinding his teeth together, Ramsay hoped that if he was taciturn enough, she’d merely wander away.
Ignorant of his lustful thoughts, the woman bent over again to select him a truffle. “You should take one. Alex won’t mind, if that’s why you hesitate. She’s endlessly generous.”
Ramsay flinched. Miss Teague blithely called the Duchess of Redmayne, lady of perhaps the longest-standing title in the empire, “Alex.” As if nothing had changed since their childhood. As if she were utterly secure in a room fullof ancient aristocracy, impervious to the fact that people went out of their waynotto talk to Cecelia because they considered her beneath their notice. She was neither titled nor rich, as far as anyone knew or cared. If anything distinguished her in this company, it was her lambent hair and uncommon height.
Was she truly as nonchalant over their rebuffs as she appeared? She must be, to eat three truffles in a room full of cruel opinions.
“Go on, have a try,” she prompted, extending the chocolate toward him.
“Thank ye, but nay,” he clipped, unable to school a husky rasp from his reply. “I doona indulge.”
“In chocolate?” She pulled back, regarding the truffle as though offended on its behalf.
“In anything.”
She gaped at him as though he’d committed treason, or a blasphemy. “Come now, my lord, one taste can’t hurt. Besides, I’ve already taken it from the dish and would be thought very rude to put it back.” A mischievous smile deepened the dimple on her cheek as she wriggled the sweet between her thumb and forefinger in a dainty dance of enticement.
“I canna imagine why ye want me to partake so avidly.”
“It’s obvious you’re ravenous,” she answered. “You won’t stop staring.”
Was it possible she was being coy? “I give ye leave to enjoy it on my behalf. I’ll not be tempted,” he said through clenched teeth.
Her mouth twisted as though she was deciding whether or not to frown. In the end, she shrugged and popped the delicacy past her lips, letting out a contented little moan of appreciation.
Christ, he was a bloody liar. He’d bloody well be tempted. He’d beentemptedby Cecelia Teague since he’d first laid eyes on her at Redmayne’s engagement soiree several months prior. Then again at the wedding.
They’d been introduced formally, and he’d bowed over her extended hand. Kissing it had felt wrong, somehow, because of the swell of lust even that innocuous gesture provoked.
Since then, he’d avoided her at all costs, not that it was difficult. They certainly didn’t share any social or professional spheres, but for the attachment to his half brother Piers and her friend Alexandra.
However, it seemed the duke and duchess were unnaturally attached to each other since their hasty wedding, so the tempting Miss Teague would be impossible to evade.
Ramsay let out an impatient breath and tried to focus on someone—anyone—else.
Heshouldbe pressing hands with visiting diplomats like the Count Armediano, an Italian businessman and shipping magnate with mysterious origins. Or perhaps discussing tomorrow’s address to the House of Lords with Sir Hubert, the Lord Chancellor, or probate taxation with the Prime Minister.
