Page 34 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
Max blinked in disbelief. “Who are you and what have you done with my cousin?”
Lionel scoffed. He couldn’t exactly blame Max for being so disbelieving. Even he was having a hard time of getting his head around what was going on. After all, he had never allowed himself to be quite so interested in a woman of theton,not even pretending to do so for the sake of his parents or the other family members who appeared so desperate to see him wed.
“I assure you I am as in shock as you are,” Lionel said with a deep, begrudging sigh. “I do not know if it is just her or if it is this wager we have between us, but now I am fearful that because of it, she will force herself away from me.”
Max silently watched Lionel for several moments, looking as though he was trying to reach inside his mind and pull out all the stupidest thoughts he had ever had on the matter. Then he shook his head. “I thought you were adamant to stay away from all women of theton. I thought it was one of your stronger rules.”
Lionel’s stomach churned at his cousin’s words, mainly because he knew that they were right. And he didn’t need a reminder to know that he was breaking his own moral code. But the fact was, Miss Lloyd was like nobody he had ever met. She made him feel things that he had never experienced before. And that wasn’t something he was willing to give up just for the sake of his own morals.
It appeared that he did not need to explain that to his cousin because Max suddenly gave an exaggerated inhale and exclaimed, “You have feelings for her, don’t you?”
Grumbling a curse under his breath, Lionel furrowed his brow at his cousin. He would have thought that much was obvious from the simple fact that they were even having this conversation.
Closing his eyes again and screwing up his face, Lionel admitted, “I fear that I might.”
When he opened his eyes again, Max was shaking his head at him firmly. “Cousin, I do not believe that there is any might about it. I have seen the way you look at her.”
Lionel’s insides twisted and his jaw clenched with frustration all over again. “That is exactly my problem. It does not matter how she may feel about me. She made it quite clear that she will never let me win this wager.”
“What exactly is the wager you have set?”
“That I shall be able to seduce her by the end of the Season,” Lionel admitted, and as soon as he said the words, he realised how utterly stupid and childish it sounded. He had been such a fool to think that a wager was the best way to approach a woman such as Miss Lloyd, who had all but adopted the nickname she had been given of ice-queen.
“Lionel, you are a real charmer when it comes to women, but even you cannot entirely seduce a woman in a matter of a few days,” Max chuckled, rolling his eyes at him. “You have the rest of the Season to win this bet.”
“That is the problem,” Lionel huffed back. He yanked the loose thread from his jacket, snapping it far easier than he would have expected, and started to swirl it between his thumb and forefinger. “I do not have any interest in the wager. I would happily lose it.”
“Then I do not see the problem,” Max said, chuckling with great amusement at his cousin’s hardship.
“The problem is that I wish to seduce her with or without the wager and now that the wager has been made, I fear that doing so shall be even more difficult than it might have been if I had not opened my stupid mouth,” Lionel ranted, panting for breath the moment that he had finished. Miss Lloyd had left him so exasperated that he felt quite ill.
Again, surprise flashed across Max’s face. He shook his head and sighed deeply before finally speaking, “Lionel, you have called yourself many things over the years, but stupid is not one of them. I fear for what this woman has done to you.”
“As do I,” Lionel admitted, cringing at doing so. He had never had the need to talk about his feelings before, especially not when they were about a woman. Usually, his affairs were simple, just about the thrill of the chase and the sex at the end of it.
But this… this was so much more than that. Lionel could actually see past that moment, see through to the future that he might actually have if he were able to get Miss Lloyd to admit her own feelings towards him. And that scared him more than anything ever had in his life.
Under his breath, he hissed, “I never should have kissed her.”
“Hold your horses!” Max exclaimed. He leaned forward as though he did not wish to miss anything as he asked, “What did you just say?”
“I said…” Lionel paused to stare into his cousin’s eye, wondering whether he should actually admit the secret aloud or if it would be best left unsaid. “I should never have kissed her.”
Max’s eyes started to bulge all over again and before Lionel could say another word, his cousin started to shake his head with disbelief. “No, no, you didn’t. You couldn’t have.”
Lionel was surprised at his cousin’s words. Of course he had. He had been there. He could still feel the tingling sensation upon his lips from having kissed her. He could still feel the sting in his heart from having watched her run from the library.
“I did,” Lionel insisted through gritted teeth, angry that his cousin would ever try to say otherwise. “I followed her up to Frost’s library. When I found her there, I could not help myself.”
“Well, cousin, this changes everything!” Max insisted and although Lionel stared into his cousin’s eyes for several moments, he could not quite meet the same conclusion.
“How so?”
“The fact that she allowed you close enough to even attempt to kiss her is a feat that no other man of thetonhas ever accomplished!” Max explained, his voice almost shrill enough to remind Lionel of an overexcited lady.
Lionel shook his head. The last thing he needed right now was the hope that his cousin might be right. He was best to imagine that Miss Lloyd was entirely unattainable. At least then he would not be disappointed when she won their little wager and proved him wrong.
“Oh, come on, Lionel!” Max insisted, slapping Lionel on the knee in a friendly and brotherly gesture. “Lighten up a little.”
