He raised his brows.
“—mostly.”
“You’ve roused a great deal more than just my interest, Katherine. Do you really wish to slink away?”
“I do not slink.”
“You do. You’ve been hiding behind these ridiculous clothes, and now you are attempting to retreat into some darkened corner of your mind.”
Blast his powers of observation. “Bromton.” She, too, could shock with nomenclature liberties. “Every moment you spend under this roof puts me at risk.”
“Perhaps. Yet, where there is risk, there is reward. And, youlongto take up my challenge, don’t you?”
Yes. She sucked in. “Your presence also endangers Lady Julia. That, I cannot forgive.”
His searching look returned.
“None of us,” she pressed her advantage, “can afford another scandal. Markham must marry well so Julia can be presented at court.”
“Markham will marry. Lady Julia will be presented at court. And what, dear hellion, will happen to you?”
The way he said hellion intensified the ache between her legs.
“Nothing will happen to me. My life will remain stagnant.”
“Are you satisfied with stagnant?”
Satisfied?Satisfied? She was not satisfied in any sense of the word. How could she be? Bromton had awakened every part of her she’d labored to suppress. It would be a long time before simple would satisfy again, the wretch.
He answered for her. “You could never be satisfied with stagnant. Not a woman as vibrant as you.”
A quiver of panic fluttered at the base of her throat. “I am not vibrant. I am ordinary.”
“You are far from ordinary.”
She must have released the table, because when she looked down, her fingers were caught in his. She scowled down at her hands as if they were misbehaving children. Even through kid leather, his thumbs—slightly rough, very hot—explored her knuckles.
She looked up, still scowling. “And you are unsettling.”
“Not half as unsettling”—he angled his head—“as you are…to me.”
Histowas half kiss, and hisme, all pleasure. Sensation saturated her lips, sending spark-like shivers from her neck to her knees. Instinctively, she rose to her toes to meet him. He responded by deepening his claim. With his hand cupping her neck and his tongue parting her lips, all that had come before proved flicker to vivid flame.
If this was a kiss—a true kiss—then she’d grossly mistaken her experience. She had never been kissed like this before.
And she did not want it to stop.
“Katherine.” He caught her bottom lip between his—soft yet firm, like the skin of a sun-kissed grape. “Hellion.” Breath and smolder and crackle. “I want you to be mine.” And heat. So much heat.
“This cannot happen.” She curled her hands into tiny fists and shoved against his chest with all her might.
He barely moved.
“Bromton, please.” She slacked and whimpered. “Please,” she repeated. “Have you no honor?”
Suddenly, she was free. But she remained fixed by the ferocity in his gaze.
“I told you,” she said accusingly, “there could be nothing between us. Why didn’t you listen?”
