Page 57 of The Proposition
“You should know that I have taken the counsel of books and thinkers wiser than I and sworn off love.”
“Indefinitely?” He grinned.
“Do not smile. Do not laugh at me!” But he did, only gently. It was not a mocking gesture, for how could he mock such a decision after all Boyle had done? He himself had done the same. Many times. “I have sworn it off.”
“Could you be persuaded to reconsider?” Audric asked, schooling his expression to one of seriousness, which she noticed.
“I…maybe. How did you find me?” she asked.
The fire beside them was growing cumbersomely hot, and Audric’s chest was already simmering with another sort of heat. He guided her away from the hearth, back to the sofas, fetching them both a measure of fortifying sherry before sitting beside her and watching the flames over her shoulder turn her reddish-blond hair to fiery gold.
“It’s all around the club that your brother and his wife have become Lady Veitch’s favored companions. It occurred to me that you might be dragged along to her salons too.” Audric was intent on schooling himself back to a state of reason, but he couldn’t help but reach out and touch one of the dangling locks framing her face. It was gratifying to see her blush.
“Mm. Just how long were you waiting there in the rain?”
Audric stuffed his nose down into his glass. “Your charms are many and not to be underestimated, Clemency, but you will never know the answer to that question.”
“Then I will draw my own conclusions.” She smirked. “And I have concluded that you were there for hours and hours, gripped with melancholy devotion.”
Oh, if she only knew what he really desired in that moment, to meet her impertinence not with a sneer or a kiss, but with a lover’s forceful ardor, taking her to the floor beside the hearth and shredding her damp gown.You would retract those cutting words, miss, if I had you at my mercy.
Audric growled into his cup.
“Believe whatever pleases you best, Clemency.”
“I quite will.” She smiled, very happy with herself indeed. After a sip, she pressed her lips together tightly and he wondered if they shared the same thought—that their kiss and the liquor made for an intoxicating combination. Given the sudden flush creeping up her neck, he trusted it was so.
“Tansy and William will worry,” she said softly, and with clear regret. “If they arrive home before me there will be questions.”
“It would be terribly impolite of me to keep you,” replied Audric, almost relieved. If she stayed any longer, he might tell her what was in his mind, what he imagined for them, and then, knowing her, she would insist on staying. Or perhaps she would be scandalized. Either way, it was time for her to be respectfully returned to her family. The assembly was near, he assured himself, and then those lusts could be sated. “However much I wish to keep you.”
Placing her empty glass on the table before them, Clemency stood and smoothed her rumpled skirts down her thighs.Her hands trembled. Did she suffer as he did, ready to snap and laugh at caution and propriety and all the rigid expectations keeping their clothes on and their bodies apart?
Of course she did. She must. He had recognized the hunger in her eyes. He still couldn’t say if he had kissed her first or if she was the instigator.
“And however much I want to stay,” she murmured.
“How much is that?” he asked, watching with eager eyes as she slid her hand around the arm he offered. Her touch put a torch to that kindling at his feet. It was hopeless.
Clemency giggled softly, and the blaze threatening to consume him spread. “Well, your charms are many and not to be underestimated, Audric, but you will never know the answer to that question. After all I have promised myself not to love and not to marry.”
He crowded her against the wall just to the left of the door, a portrait of an ancestor above her head, gazing down at him in dry amusement. Kissing her, he swallowed the light gasp that escaped her throat. Again she rested her hands on his chest and again he wondered how long his restraint would last. Paper-thin, that restraint. Flimsy, and ready to tear.
As he stepped away, Audric managed to school his expression into one of stern consternation. Predictably, the unflappable Clemency simply smirked.
“Was that a warning, sir?” she breathed.
“Not a warning, no,” Audric replied, leading her to the door. “But a promise. You will love again, that much I know.”
They encountered Ralston half-asleep in a chair in the foyer, slumped back with his head against the wall. He gathered himself quickly and pulled on his coat, then hurried to look awake near the front doors.
“See that the driver takes Miss Fry home with all haste,” Audric instructed him.
Ralston snapped to action, plunging out into the continuous rain and whistling, the clip-clop of hooves on the cobbles coming a moment later.
Now that they were no longer alone, Audric observed all expected courtesies, bowing at the waist while Miss Fry gave her curtsey, their eyes lingering over each other before she gave him the scantest, strangest smile and then left. Ralston went after her into the rain, the dark and the mist swallowing them faster than Audric liked.
The step behind him creaked, and he blew out a tired breath through his nose.
