No words formed in her mind. She could think only of the heat that had sprung up between the two of them, the shock of his body so close to hers, and the strange desire to remain this close. With no other man had she ever felt anything like this. She hadn't believed, after what had happened with Jonathan in her past, that shecouldfeel like this.
But she didn't want to push him away. If anything, she wanted to draw him closer.
His eyes searched hers as if looking for a sign, as if he sought some form of approval. She didn't know what he was looking for, but in the moment before the kiss came, she understood beyond doubt that he had found it.
Then his lips were on hers, a tender question that Victoria found herself answering eagerly.
She forgot what they had been discussing. She forgot that they had been having an argument at all. She forgot the fact that it was his intention to marry her off. All that mattered at that moment was the kiss, and the hope of prolonging it as much as she could. She didn't want him to pull away.
But eventually, of course, he did just that. He looked at her for a long moment, as if waiting for something.
"I don't have feelings for Benjamin," Victoria breathed. "I don't know how you could have thought that I did."
He didn't speak. After several moments, he turned and walked away, leaving her lips stinging and her thoughts in a storm.
CHAPTER 31
"Do you see that man?" James asked. "Isn't that Lord Harbury?"
"I don't know," William said. "Whoever he is, I don't know the fellow. A friend of yours, is he?"
"Hardly," James said. "I got a bad feeling about him the first time I met him. He took an uncanny interest in the duchess."
"Uncanny?" William raised an eyebrow. "I have to tell you, James, anyone taking an interest in that lady seems perfectly sensible to my mind. She's lovely, you know."
"Oh, not you too!" James had come out to the gentlemen's club today in hopes of forgetting about Victoria. He didn't want to devote more time to talking about her, and he certainly didn't want to hear from William about how lovely she was. "She's nothing to you," he informed his friend sharply. "Don't get any ideas."
"So defensive! I don't have ideas. You know I'm not looking for a marriage at the moment. But that doesn't mean I can't notice a lady is attractive, surely? All I'm saying is that if your viscount took an interest in her…"
"He isn'tmyviscount."
"Whatever he is. I'm only saying that I would find that easy to believe. I don't know why it gives you a bad feeling about him."
"I simply don't trust his intentions," James said.
He tried not to think too hard about the accusations of jealousy that Victoria had levied against him, but it was difficult after the kiss the two of them had shared. There was something to the idea that he might be feeling jealous, and he knew it. He didn't know how else to account for the fact that he felt close to igniting with rage at the thought of anybody else kissing her like that. It was hard to imagine anything that would make him angrier.
But seeing Lord Harbury certainly wasn't helping matters. He couldn't help but recall the viscount sitting beside Victoria at that dinner party, leaning in to speak to her with that sickening smile on his face. And then Victoria, too, smiling back at him as if he was bringing her great joy with his conversation. James wished powerfully that the man wasn't here tonight, that he hadn't had to see him again at all.
"Oh, God," he realized. "He's seen me. I think he's coming over here."
"What of it?" William asked. "We'll say good day to him and then he'll be on his way, easy as that."
James wished he could have his friend's faith that it really would be that easy, but he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was something about this man that had never sat well with him. Could this feeling truly be nothing more than simple jealousy?
"Your Grace," the viscount said, a smile on his face. It did look like an earnest smile, and yet James didn't trust it at all. "May I join you?"
"Was there something I could help you with?" James asked. "It's just that I'm enjoying drinks with my friend at the moment…as you can see, I'm sure. I'm not here to conduct business."
"Oh, this isn't business," the viscount said. "Well—I suppose it is related to business. You see, I don't know whether you know or not that your late uncle and I had some business ventures together."
"I did not," James admitted. "But if you need to look at his papers, we'll need to arrange for that to happen some other time. I'm hardly prepared for such a thing today."
"No, no, that isn't it," Lord Harbury said. "It's just that I take an interest in the affairs of the dukedom, as an associate of the late duke, and I do feel that there are certain things I owe to your uncle and to his estate."
"What are you talking about?" James asked. "You don't owe us anything…unless money was owed, of course, and if that is the case, I forgive your debts."
"That's generous."
