Page 16 of Seven Swans a Swimming

“No, I haven’t,” said Nathaniel in a low voice.

“Yes, you have,” Arabella insisted. “And I tell you straight, Lord Nathaniel, ’tis tiring. You think I am happy to just wait around for you to decide whether or not I am suitable as a bride?”

He laughed darkly at that. “You have somewhere else you would rather be?”

“Yes,” Arabella said bluntly.

That surprised him. A look of momentary shock flashed across his face, but Nathaniel was able to readjust his face almost immediately.

A little shame sparked at Arabella’s heart, but she could not help it. Well, really! Did he think she had no other family nor friends with whom to spend the Christmas season? Did he think her desperate, perhaps choosing to come here because there was nowhere else to go?

The very idea!

“I think at the very least, I should know on what criteria I am being judged,” Arabella said, a little calmer now. “I believe that only fair.”

It was with a glare that Nathaniel turned to her, and only then was Arabella aware of just how very close they were standing. Why, there were but a few inches between them.

Yet she could not step back. There was something intoxicating about being this close to him, a man who appeared part gentleman, part laborer.

Nathaniel’s light eyes looked down into hers, as a sardonic smile crept over his face. “You do?”

Arabella nodded, struggling for a moment to find the right words. “I…I do.”

Why was it that she was so painfully reminded of the wedding vows in that moment? It was almost as though they were promising each other something, despite the tension between them. Though no wedding, Arabella was sure, would have swans as the only witnesses.

“Well then, Miss Arabella Fitzroy, this is what I think,” said Nathaniel softly, not looking away from her eyes. “It may surprise you to know that few gentlemen jump for joy at the thought of being handed a bride as though one had ordered a pipe. I had hopes…have hopes of meeting a woman who is bright and intelligent and beautiful. Who understands nature as I do, who believes as I do that…that…”

She watched him swallow, watched him struggle to find the words.

It was perhaps the longest speech that Nathaniel had given since she had arrived, and Arabella was astonished to hear real feeling in his tones.

He was…frustrated. Irritated, as she had been, that this whole arrangement had been planned. If she was not mistaken, Lord Nathaniel Cartier was a romantic.

The thought astonished her, taking Arabella’s breath away. She had never met a gentleman who was a romantic. She had always assumed it was only ladies.

But he appeared genuinely injured that his ability to choose his own mate for life, as perhaps Nathaniel would put it, had been taken from him.

Arabella swallowed. “It…this whole situation is perhaps not one that either of us would have chosen.”

Nathaniel laughed gently, his gaze dropping to her mouth. “No. What I think you forget, Miss Fitzroy, is that a marriage is a long time, and in my mind should be a true partnership. A meeting of hearts. A meeting of minds. A meeting of bodies.”

A cool breeze whistled past them, and Arabella shivered, but she knew her movement had nothing to do with the weather.

A meeting of bodies.Heat seared through her as Arabella thought for a moment of what it would be like to kiss that man. A man who infuriated her so much, and yet tantalized her in equal measure.

“And bodies,” Nathaniel said in a quiet voice, lowering his head slightly so that their lips were mere inches away from each other, “know what they like without the mind interfering. That’s nature, Arabella. That’s primal. That is something one cannot organize from the cradle. A man’s needs are exquisite, and I need…I need to give and receive pleasure openly and sweetly with my wife.”

Arabella could not take her eyes off him, the man who was saying such deliciously terrible things, things she wanted to hear more about. Unconsciously, she leaned forward, leaned toward him, sought to close the gap between them.

“Just one kiss,” Nathaniel said, dipping his head lower so that his lips brushed across hers without applying any pressure. “That is all one needs to know. Know whether the tension between two people will explode into pleasure.”

Arabella could not help it. She moaned slightly and leaned up on her tip toes.

At that exact moment, Nathaniel stepped back. “And so, I hope you can see, Miss Fitzroy,” he said in a normal voice, turning to look at the swans, “that I consider this match naught but something written on paper. I would be grateful if you would leave me alone, rather than seek me out as my parents have evidently instructed you. Good day.”

He strode away without a second glance, and Arabella stood, all senses heightened, skin tingling, lips desperately crying out for the kiss they had not received.

Chapter Five

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