“Perhaps.” He leaned back and stretched his long legs before him. “The moment has to feel right. I’ll know it when I come upon it.”
“And you will kiss me?”
He cast her another Silver Duke smile. “Yes, Eden. I will kiss you till your toes curl, and it will be unforgettable.”
Her heart beat wildly for this. Forhim. For the hope of his kiss.
“Connor, if you are jesting about this, I will dust off my diary and scribble the most terrible things about you in it.”
He chuckled. “Just what awful things will you write?”
She laughed along with him. “That it felt as though I was kissing a frog. Or being licked by a dog.”
“And what will you write if you like the kiss?”
Chapter Eight
Since Eden insistedon staying with her father for what was left of the afternoon, Connor returned to Lynton Grange without her. But he chose to walk back on his own, leaving his carriage and driver at Chestnut Hill in the hope she would follow soon after him, since there was still the matter of her mother to address. The woman could not be sent back to Eden’s home while her husband was still there recovering from her attempt to do him in.
How did Eden endure the pair? How had she turned into the extraordinary woman she was despite all their attempts to damage her? Well, he thought sadly, they had done quite a bit of damage. They had left her wary and distrustful of marriage.
This was a terrible thing for Eden, who had so much love to give.
He strode briskly along the familiar path between their homes, breathing in the country air that was a mix of fragrant woods, damp earth, and salty sea breezes. The sun filtered through the rustling leaves and spread dots of light amid the shaded walk.
“What a coil,” he muttered as his conversation with Eden began to sink in.
He had agreed to kiss her. Not just agreed, but actually been the one to raise it first andofferto do it out of a sense of moral obligation and other feelings he did not care to think about.
Had he completely lost his mind?
Yes, he must have. How else was he to explain his profoundly apish jealousy? The thought of anyone other than him kissing Eden had his body in turmoil.
Yet a simple kiss between them would change everything, especially if things went further than an innocent touch of their lips.
Ha!There was nothing innocent in the scorching way he meant to ravage that delectable mouth of hers.
But what then? He could not in good conscience turn Eden into a convenient bed partner, much as he found himself aching to do so. “Hell and damnation,” he muttered, raking a hand through his hair. When had this come about? When had they gone from merely being friends to…whatever this was?
She deserved better than to be his mistress.Gad!That sounded awful. He had never had a mistress in all his years, nor did he desire to take one on now.
Not to mention, it could never be Eden. She deserved to be loved and adored. She deserved to be treated with respect. Indeed, there was no one more deserving than Eden, and no one he admired more. If he ever bedded her, it would be as his wife.
He could never be intimate with her on any other terms. She was his to protect, even from himself.
Was this not precisely how he had gotten himself into this coil? She had wanted a first kiss and meant for Lord Aubrey to be the one to provide it. But that wretch was going to break her heart—Connor just knew it and felt it in his gut. Eden could never let down her defenses and allow him in.
This was the primary reason Connor wanted to step in first and kiss Eden. She was smart, but innocent when it came to matters of love. What were Aubrey’s intentions?
“Hell if I know,” Connor grumbled, unwilling to consider the other reasons he needed to kiss Eden and keep Aubrey away from her.
Why was he so possessive when it came to her? Did she not have the right to secure a joyous future?
“But not with Aubrey,” he muttered, knowing that lord could not possibly be right for her. He was too slick. Too attentive. Too…wrongfor her.
His mother accosted him the moment he entered his home. “How is Eden’s father? Dare I ask? Is he alive?”
“Yes, alive and howling like a banshee as Dr. Weaver put stitches in his head,” he said as they hurried into his study before he was surrounded by the peahens vying for his attention. He closed the door to afford them privacy. “Evans had the presence of mind to have the doctor summoned immediately. He was already there when we arrived. Eden’s father required about six stitches on his forehead, but one would think he had to endure six hundred. The man is an infant. Speaking of which, how is Lady Darrow?”
