“You might have thought about that before you locked the door.”
With a pained wince, she rolled out of his arms and climbed to her feet, searching for her clothes.She gathered up her skirt and petticoat, casting about for her undergarment before finding it hung on the flared wing of a side chair.Pushing himself up to the edge of the sofa, Aylesbury watched her for a few moments, reading her anxieties and doubts quickly enough.Passions spent, Fiona was likely reanalyzing every moment of the afternoon.
“Let me take you home then.”
Her eyes darted from his face down to his bared assets, her cheeks flushing as she shook her head.“No, no.I can make my own way.It’s just two streets away, after all.”
He stood, naked and half-aroused, but she studiously kept her eyes averted, her blush deepening.“With what happened, I couldn’t possibly let you go alone.”
“One of the stable lads, then,” she countered.She could hardly bear to face her brothers after how she had spent her afternoon.It would be even harder with Harry by her side.
Reaching for his trousers, he jerked them on.“I will take you.”
“A footman.”
“Me.”
“No, Harry, I...”
Aylesbury caught her by the upper arms, stilling her with a little shake as he looked down at her sternly.“I said I will not press you, and I meant it.Nevertheless, I will not be pushed about like some lackey, either.After what happened with Piper, I will always take better care with what I love.And I love you, you infernal woman.God help me,” he muttered under his breath as he turned away to retrieve his shirt and jacket from where they had been flung.
Fiona blinked hard, realizing that he had misunderstood her reluctance.Her lips quirked before she pressed them together to bite back a laugh.Hardly a peep escaped her, but it was enough to recall his attention.
He lifted a supercilious brow as he shrugged on his shirt.“You think this is amusing?”
Something as close to a girlish giggle as she’d ever expressed escaped.“A bit, perhaps.”
Harry rolled his eyes and knelt, searching beneath the sofa for his stockings.He confessed his love for the woman, and not only did she not reciprocate, she laughed at him!
As if she could read his thoughts, she said just then, “Perhaps next time a young, impressionable eighteen-year-old Scottish lass professes her love in a moonlit garden, you’ll remember this moment before you break her heart.Rejection is a bitter pill, is it not?”
Standing with a sock in each hand, he raised a questioning brow.“Is that what this is?Revenge?Repayment for an ill-considered response prompted, I will remind you, by what was to me an utterly shocking confession?”
“Perhaps just a wee bit.”
Still grinning, Fiona moved closer, running a hand under his still-open shirt and spreading her palm on his ribs and around his back as she pressed against him.She nipped at the bottom of his chin, licking away the sting while her other hand smoothed over his neck and urged him to look down at her.Her green eyes were dancing with amusement.
His were not.
“I’m glad you finally love me, Harry.For some reason, what you said there, thatGod help me,assured me that you truly do as no other words could.”
Still holding his gaze, she caught his lips playfully with hers before her lips parted, deepening the kiss.Her tongue lightly traced his lower lip as her lashes fluttered and closed.Against his chest, Aylesbury could feel the warm, purring hum that began deep within her, hear it as it was released against his lips.The silken barrier that kept her bare breasts from meeting his chest as she brushed against him caressed and teased until his hands fisted around the stockings he still held, and his arms encircled her, crushing her against him and lifting her until even her toes didn’t touch the ground.
Parting her lips farther, he plundered her mouth more ardently, his tongue plunging deep before retreating, dueling with hers as she rose to match his passion.Both hearts quickened and his blood heated until it roared in his ears.Their hard breaths, the deep moan that came from him—her?Them both?—the only sound in the room.Her body softened, surrendering against him, and he lifted his head, breaking the kiss.Her lids were half closed, her green eyes burning with the fire so easily lit between them.Her lips were swollen with his kiss, wet and full.Parted as she panted lightly, trying to catch her breath.
How quickly passion could enflame them.Even after a long afternoon of making passionate love and exploring soul-shattering sex that they could want again so quickly!
With an agonized moan, he set her firmly away from him.“Now get dressed.We need to get you home and have a talk with your brother.”
Talk with Francis?Fiona wondered numbly, trying to pull her thoughts together.
Ever perceptive to her way of thinking, he clarified, “About the kidnapping attempts.You might not like it, but they have to be told.”
“Oh, yes.That.”
She bit her lip as she finished dressing and began looking for her hairpins.One by one, she found them, but by the time her hand was full, her mind was just as jumbled as the little stack of pins in her hand.Sitting on the floor, she stared at them as if they might somehow hold all the answers.
“How can I explain all this when I hardly understand it myself?I honestly thought it would stop after what happened yesterday.How can I be worth a man’s life to them?How can any of this be worth it?What are we going to do?”
