She couldn’t imagine him finding anything too bold for a certain sort of woman—the sort he doubtless preferred.
Did her lips look scandalously pink?
She tried to scrub off the rouge with her handkerchief, but it mostly remained, and now her lips were redder from the scrubbing.
She shook her head and turned her mind to her brother.
She must find Norris and, if he wasn’t with Miss Weathersted, make it so. As for Sellerden, she had her arrangement for tomorrow and didn’t want to seem in hot pursuit. Any wealthy, titled bachelor in Town had to know he was a tasty quarry, and he might take flight.
Norris, however, might need a little help.
A glance in the mirror showed her lips still too pink, but she couldn’t hide away forever. She emerged from her room and startled to find Kynaston in the corridor frowning at her. “Are you hiding, Lady Ariana?”
“Of course not. What are you doing up here?”
“I was concerned for you.”
Was that a deliberate echo of what she’d said to him in Albemarle Street?
“Why?” she asked. “And why up here?”
Then she wondered if he remembered more about her London season than she’d thought, and knew that she’d often hidden away when she could. That intolerable thought brought heat to her cheeks and anger to her aid. “As usual, you are being impertinent, sir, but nothing is amiss.”
He’d placed himself between her and the main stairs. She could turn and go down the servants’ stairs, but be damned to that. She pushed past him.
He stopped her with a hand on her arm. It was a mere touch, nothing forceful, but she did stop.
“My lord?”
“Your situation troubles me, Lady Ariana.”
“As I’ve tried to make clear, my lord, my situation is no concern of yours.”
“I’m not claiming a right,” he said slowly. “More of a need.” He raised a hand and touched her cheek. “I wouldn’t want to see you unhappy.”
Ariana tried to ignore that butterfly touch. “I’m not unhappy....”
“In the future.”
“I won’t be unhappy in the future. Please, my lord...”
He took a step closer, cradled her head in his hands, and kissed her. Shock dissolved in an instant under a wash of pure pleasure. And satisfaction. She’d wanted this.
She’d been kissed before, but not like this. Though his lips were gentle, her whole body responded with warmth and then with weakness, so she had to clutch the sleeves of his coat.
And then he deepened the kiss. He tilted his head and his tongue teased at her lips, coaxing her to open. The intimate heat shocked—she’d never been kissed like this before!—but instantly excited, and then delighted. She leaned into him, wanting to be closer, ever closer....
Her breasts suddenly tingled and the heat everywhere intensified into hungry need.
She must have pushed forward, for he moved back against a wall. A strange growl came from her own throat. Or perhaps from his. Or both. They were crushed together by desperate arms, but trying to get closer, ever closer.
But then he pushed her away, his eyes dark and wild.
“My lord. I apologize!”
“What the devil for? I started that.”
“I should have rebuffed you from the first.” She stepped out of his hold and fussed with her gown. “We will forget this, if you please.”
