"I?" he asked with raised eyebrow. "Insult you? You malign me. Did I say that I shrank from contact with your breasts? On the contrary, my dear. I felt a distinct thrill of desire."
"You are insufferable!" she said, her cheeks aflame. "Return me to my mother immediately, sir."
He stopped dancing, made her a mock bow, and offered his arm. But he led her to an alcove across which curtains almost met.
"If I returned you to your mama in your present agitated state," he said, "she would do me the injustice of agreeing with you. Besides, this seems to me to be an excellent opportunity to discover just what those lips really do taste like."
"Don't you dare touch me," Vera said, backing away from him into the alcove. "You...you rake!"
He threw back his head and laughed. "Tell me," he said, "why are your cheeks flaming quite so red and why is your bosom heaving as if you had just run several miles? Is it all outrage, or is it partly excitement? If you are totally honest with yourself, do you find that perhaps you want to be kissed? I find it hard to believe that what I am feeling can be entirely one-sided."
He had been moving toward her so that he now stood directly in front of her. She stood flat against the wall, her hands splayed against its surface on either side of her. She stared up at him, her eyes wide, and said nothing.
He laughed more softly. "You are incurably honest, are you not, Vera?" he said. "You cannot deny your own feelings of desire, yet you would not for the world admit them. So you stand mute."
"I will not be trifled with," she said. "I will not be used for your amusement so that you can boast of your conquest of an aging, plain spinster. I will not." Her voice was trembling.
"Vera!" he said. "Are you talking about yourself? Aging? How old are you? Two-and-twenty? Three? Four? My next birthday takes me into the next decade, you know. And plain? I might have agreed with you after our first meeting, though your eyes have always set your appearance above the ordinary. But it is some time since I have even had any reservations about calling you beautiful. Your fashionable new hairstyle has greatly changed your appearance. You cultivate a prim expression that tends to make one assume you are plain. But any sort of emotion transforms you into a quite remarkable beauty. And I do frequently arouse emotion in you, even if only indignation, do I not, my dear?"
"Don't," she said. "Don't make mock of me."
He shook his head slowly. "I don't," he said. "And I do not trifle with you. I want to kiss you. May I?"
"Will it make any difference if I say no?" she asked, some bitterness in her voice. "You will do as you please anyway."
"I will tease you and shock you to my heart's content," he said, "because I suspect that doing so brings me closer to the real Vera. But I will not interfere with your person against your will. Had you not realized that about me?"
She shook her head. "I am not used to light flirtation," she said, "and I make no apology for my lack of experience."
He smiled. "You are procrastinating, ma'am," he said. "Will you be kissed?"
"Yes," she said almost defiantly. "Yes, I want you to kiss me."
She came into his arms and held up her face to his.
He gazed into her eyes, which were looking full into his. "Ah, you feel right," he said. "Slender and yielding. Now, how do they taste, Vera?"
He lowered his head and opened his mouth over hers. She jerked back in some shock, but when he waited for her without moving, she lifted her arms up around his neck and put her lips against his again. And she gave herself up to his embrace, allowing him to bite at her lips, to part them with his tongue, and to take possession of her mouth. Instinctively, without thought, she arched her body to him. She lost touch with her surroundings.
Roger did not. He broke the embrace slowly after a couple of minutes. "Mmm," he murmured, his mouth against her ear. "Every bit as tasty as I suspected. God, how I want you."
"If I might interrupt!" a clipped voice said from the opening in the curtain.
Vera pushed in panic against Roger's chest. Lord Beauchamp himself turned lazily.
"Ah, Stanley," he said. "You have damnable timing, my lad. Can you not see that I am occupied with important business at the moment?"
" You are all too frequently involved in important business, Roger," Stanley said coldly. "When one wants to talk to you, one just has to interrupt. You are usually occupied with the sister, though, are you not?"
Roger's eyes narrowed on his cousin. "Your meaning, my boy?" he asked.
"You are pawing one sister almost in full view of a roomful of people," Stanley said, "and bedding the other in secret."
"I think," Roger said languidly, turning and taking Vera lightly by the elbow, "that we should not bore Miss Burton with this strange conversation, Stanley. Perhaps we can talk later? Or tomorrow? Come, ma'am, I shall help you find your mama."
"What do you mean?" Vera was very white. Her eyes were fixed on Stanley.
"He is an impudent pup, ma'am, who has not been taught how to behave in society," Roger said, grasping her elbow more firmly and trying to steer her past his cousin.
