Ash laughed, the cheeky scoundrel. “Forgive me. I never thought I would see the day when my brother fell in love, and I must admit it is devilishly entertaining.”
“Go to hell,” he grumbled, aware he was flushing now, quite like a callow youth.
Which in some ways, he still was.
“But as much fun as it is to watch you squirm, my true aim is to assist you,” Ash continued. “Tell me, what did Miss Christabella say when you asked her to marry you?”
On which occasion?
Ballocks.He truly was pathetic, was he not?
“She told me she likes me,” he said, “but that she is not ready to marry just yet.”
“Intriguing.” Ash was still stroking his jaw, as if he were pondering.
Gill waited for his brother to say something, but his impatience got the better of him. “Well? Have you nothing to offer?”
“Have you kissed her?”
His cheeks went hotter. “Yes.”
“And she responded?” Ash pressed.
He thought of Christabella’s sweet, husky sounds. Her tongue in his mouth. The way she had climbed into his lap and changed his entire world. The slick heat of her cunny…
Blast.He could not continue in that vein of thought whilst his brother stood there.
“She responded,” he gritted.
Ash gave him a look of approval and clapped him on the shoulder. “Excellent, brother. It sounds as if the lady requires further persuasion.”
He had already kissed her. Often and prodigiously. Made her spend. Proposed to her.
What other means of persuasion existed? As a neophyte, he was lost.
“What do you have in mind?” he asked his brother.
Ash’s countenance turned contemplative. “I believe it is past time you made Miss Christabella come to you. A gentleman cannot do all the chasing, you see. Sometimes, the lady must see the error of her ways. If she has yet to realize what her heart is telling her, you must help in the oldest fashion there is.”
“Which is?” he prodded.
Ash flashed yet another devilish grin. “Jealousy.”
That would never work.
“Excellent idea if I were the sort of man capable of wooing the females in my presence.” He paused, thinking of his cursed affliction. “The only lady I want to speak with or court is Belle.”
“Belle?” Ash’s lips twitched as if he were attempting to stifle laughter.
He glared. “I cannot make her jealous, even if I wished to, which I do not. Have you nothing else to suggest? If so, run along so I can recall Martin to fix my cravat.”
His brother appeared to be contemplating once more, apparently running through his vast experience as a practiced wooer of the fairer sex for a winning strategy.
At last, a Machiavellian smile dawned on Ash’s countenance. “I believe I have just the thing.”
Chapter Ten
There was nosign of Gill.
