He did not know how to reply to that. What was she to him? His lover, his mistress… his plaything?
Reaching over to his renewed cup, Edward replied, “I simply thought it to be a nice gift.”
She spluttered, “Anicegiftis a bouquet of flowers or a set of gloves for the winter, not a set of jewels fitting for an Indian maharajah’s wife! Are these your family’s jewels that you had the jewelers re-shine or did you buy them?”
His chest twisted, knowing she would hate the next words that came out of his mouth; she practically would not stand for it.
“I purchased them.”
“For how much?”
“Ten… thousand pounds?” he almost asked in approval.
Alice gaped at him and as his words hit her, blood slowly began to drain from her face. Eyes narrowing, Edward watched as the pallor spread across her delicate features; he was out of his chair and around the table in a dash the moment her knees buckled under her, and she slumped in a faint.
With her head braced on his upper arm, Edward carried her over to his chaise and laid her there. Plucking his cravat from his neck, he doused the cloth with water from an ewer and rested it on her forehead.
“Wake up, little mouse,” he coaxed her while mopping her forehead and temple. “Come alive for me. Let me see those lovely eyes of yours.”
He kept on with the soft, amusing murmurs until she blinked her eyes open. “There you are!”
When her gaze focused, she whispered, “What happened?”
“You swooned, sweetheart,” he grinned, pulling the cloth from her temple. “No sudden movements yet. Let me pour you some water or tea.”
Her eyes flickered between his, “I… fainted because you told me you purchased those jewels for ten thousand pounds. I— I cannot fathom how much money that is.
“The ten pounds rent from my parent’s old cottage is what is sustaining Penelope and me while we live with our aunt.Ten thousand—” she sucked in a breath, “—is a fortune…”
“It is,” he noted while handing her a glass of water. “But I want you to have it, Alice. It would soothe my pride if you would take them and wear them.”
She bolted upright and shook her head. “I cannot.”
His gaze smoldered into hers. “You don’t like them?”
Her lips thinned. “They are gorgeous, but that is beside the point. I can’t accept them.”
“Whyever not?”
“Aside from the fact that it is too expensive,fartoo expensive of a gift,” Alice breathed, “I am nothing to you to justify this gift. That is a present you give to your intended, or—or your wife… and I am neither. So, no, I will not accept your gift until you can give me a reason why you would do such a thing. What do you want from me, Edward? What do you want with me?”
The question was one he’d expected to come—but even with that, he still had no firm answer to it. No amount of rewriting sentences and dashing lines could allow him to answer it with any sort of conviction.
“Can’t I simply do something nice for you?” he asked. “I do admire you, you know.”
The exasperated look she shot at him told Edward that she knew he knew he was circling the issue. “Do you want to marry me, Edward?” she said flatly. “Do you… do you love me?”
His hesitation spoke more than any word that could have passed his lips. Squeezing shut her eyes, Alice got to her feet.
Edward’s grip closed firmly around her wrist, halting her retreat.
“Stay,” he said, voice low, roughened with something dark and commanding. No teasing now. No questions.
His free hand cupped her face, his thumb tracing along her cheek with devastating slowness. His eyes—stormy, burning—held hers as if daring her to look away.
She couldn’t.
Not when he dipped his head and brushed his lips against her neck, the barest whisper of heat against her skin. Not when his mouth pressed lower, tracing the flutter of her pulse, his breath fanning over her collarbone as his grip on her waist drew her closer.
