“You are not quite what I expected either,” she whispered, her eyes wide, her pupils full, obsidian and large in the vibrant green of her gaze.
Her eyes were the fresh color of spring shoots emerging from winter’s dead earth.
“And what did you expect?” he forced himself to ask, his voice thick. Hoarse.
He wanted her.
Wanted more than a kiss.
Hell.
“I expected you to be…heavens, I do not even know. I was prepared to tell Longleigh I would not bow to his plans regardless of his threats. And yet, with you, it is somehow different. I feel as if I know you already.”
She paused, pressed her fingers over her lips as if she feared she had just unleashed a guarded secret.
He swallowed. He felt as if he knew her, too. But that was not what he must feel. He could not afford to develop any emotions for this woman that were stronger than base lust. He was here for a purpose. He had a goal. This was a business transaction between them.
Freedom, Adrian reminded himself. That was what he was buying.Freedom.A new life. A new chance. More funds than he could ever earn, more than he could claim. It was a seizing of the birthright which had been denied him.
But to his shame, his future was not what was foremost in his thoughts just now. Nor was his vindication.Desire.That was what was clouding his mind, distracting him. Prompting him to touch her again.
His hand on her jaw. That was all. And yet, it turned into another caress. Her face was a marvel of stark lines, of strength and quiet beauty. His thumb passed over her cheek, then her lips. “I feel the same, Tilly,” he admitted.
And it was neither a lie nor an attempt to seduce or woo or sway.
It was truth.
He was shaken.
This was not meant to happen. The Duchess of Longleigh should not rock him to his core. Should not make him question his plans.
She swallowed, and he absorbed the delicate sensation with his splayed fingers on her cheek, her throat. Her pulse was pounding. So was his, as if in a race.
“We should get some rest,” she said. “I cannot…tonight…it is too soon, I fear.”
He tried to stifle the frustration rising within him. Had it not been his intention to merely offer her a chaste kiss this evening, to leave her wanting more? Of course it had. She had to be the one to control the pace of this madness.
And the slower they went, the easier his plan would be.
Thirty nights of bedding her without ever spending inside her would be deuced difficult to explain.
He nodded. “I have no wish to press you. I am at your disposal for the next month, to do with as you please.”
Adrian did not miss her reaction to his words.
Her lips parted. The pupils of her eyes further dilated.
She wanted him. That was good. He wanted her, too. That was also good.
So why did his stomach fill with dread? And why did he hate himself for the perpetuation of Longleigh’s despicable lies?
“Thank you, Robin.”
The false name and her gratitude bored into his heart, into his conscience, and felt like a leaden ball within his gut.
“You need not thank me, Tilly.” He kissed her forehead. “Sleep well.”
Unable to maintain another moment of this falsehood between them, he rose and slipped from the library.
