For this reason, he and Fiona had never lost touch.
And now she was determined to marry some worthless clot becausehe—the duke that every other woman in England wanted—would never marry while she remained available.
He understood the logic of her reasoning and was infuriated by it. “Do not ruin your life simply thinking to save mine,” he said with a growl.
She frowned at him. “Why not?”
“It won’t work and you’ll only make yourself miserable.”
“I won’t.”
“Fiona, you will.”
She sighed. “You are the most stubborn person I know.”
He frowned back. “Oh, no. You are.”
“No, you are.”
They laughed at the same moment, for they both sounded like children.
“Truce?” she asked.
He nodded, although he had no intention of giving up on her. It would be a different matter entirely if she truly did not care for him. But what had once been a true friendship had turned recently into something more.
Something far deeper.
There was heat between them, and not only coming from him. She felt those fiery sparks as much as he did.
Dexter lumbered up the terrace steps past them, pausing to toss Fiona an angry and insulting look.
Rob was about to step forward to wipe the insolence off the drunken sot’s face, but Fiona put her hand back on his arm. “He isn’t worth it.”
“I could have told you that before you ever walked out of the ballroom with him,” he grumbled, knowing he was being unfair to her.
“Are you done scolding me?”
He let out a breath and nodded. “Just do me a favor and stop encouraging those clots.”
“Then you must do me a favor andstartencouraging those debutantes.”
It wasn’t going to happen. And Fiona knew him well enough to see the refusal in his eyes.
“So this is how you are going to play your hand, is it?” She peered into the ballroom. “Ah, there’s Lord Wilton. He’s recently widowed. I think I shall go forward and throw myself at him.”
“Damn it, Fiona. Don’t.”
“How are you going to stop me?”
With a kiss,came to mind.
A hot, toe-curling, swallow-each-other-up sort of kiss that scorched one’s soul into eternity.
He’d been wanting to do this for months already.
She saw the heat in his eyes and groaned. “Rob, we cannot go on like this.”
“Like what? Never touching each other and pretending we are not meant for each other? There’s an easy remedy.”
