All thoughts, including the impending encounter with Lord Percy, fled from her mind. The only thing Priscilla was capable of focusing on was the soft press of his lips against her own. It was as if everything in the room around her faded. She knew instantly that she was in trouble.
West was lost. Nothing in the world existed other than the feel of her soft lips and the press of her body against his. When she pulled back a mere centimeter and looked at him with shock widened eyes, he fell helplessly into their depths.
“Cilla . . .,” he whispered.
He was still somewhat dumbfounded when Lord Percy’s bumbling intruded upon the moment, snapping them both back to attention. Lady Priscilla jumped back as if his arm, which had come around her back at some point, had scalded her.
“I’m so sorry, Your Grace,” Percy said, stumbling backwards—clearly shocked to have come upon her in an embrace. “I did not realize you were seeing anyone. I will leave you with your sweetheart.” The man departed hastily, looking a bit dazed.
“Oh dear,” she said in a small voice, lifting a hand to press her fingers against her lips. “I’m afraid I acted without thinking. I only meant to deter him, but now he believes you are courting me.”
“So, let him think it,” West managed to say after his breathing returned to normal. He could still feel the ghost of her lips and was loath to use his own should it quicken the fade of the sensation. But more than anything, he wanted to reassure her. “He should leave you alone for a while now, no harm in that.”
“Yes, but . . .,” Lady Priscilla was clearly still distressed, so he reached out to place a hand on her arm and ground her. The touch was electric and had the opposite of his intended affect. Her eyes jumped up to his as she pulled her lower lip between her teeth, causing his gaze to focus there.
“Oh, what a mess I’ve made,” she cried, turning away from him. “Yes, I did want him to leave me alone—I want them all to leave me alone—but I didn’t mean to implicate you. I acted without thinking, and now we’ll cause a scandal for being so brazen in public.” She turned toward him again, and he could see how agonized she truly felt by the furrow of her brow. “And if people believe you are pursuing me, you’ll not be able to pursue another.”
Nowthatwas a thought. West shook his head, forcing himself to focus so he could see the beginnings of an idea through.
“What if they did believe that?” he said slowly, thinking out loud. “What if we continue to let everyone think we are seriously considering one another? Surely the word is already spreading. You know as well as I do how quickly gossip moves at a ball. It would already be difficult to counter, so let’s not even try.”
Lady Priscilla looked puzzled. “But you don’t wish to be with me. We both established the other evening that we are the last people the other wishes to consider as it would please our families too much.”
“Exactly,” West said, fully seeing how it could work. “Itwouldplease our families. If our mothers believe we are pursuing a relationship, they will leave us alone. And the men who are after you only for your status and wealth will be deterred. No more pestering.”
Lady Priscilla’s distressed expression faded as understanding set in. “I’d be free from worry of compromise or pursuit of gentlemen I don’t desire,” she said with a gleam in her eye.
“Exactly. Let’s simply pretend to be in a relationship so we can have some space to breathe and not need to deal with others’ expectations.” The more West thought about this idea, the more he liked it. His mother would stop suggesting he find a wife now that he held the title, and he wouldn’t need to be on guardaround those who might be looking to land him. It was true he had less to recommend him than Priscilla did, but as she had said to him at the Weston’s, he was an eligible marquess.
Now he just needed to convince Lady Priscilla, whose worried look had returned.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to pull it off. It means we would have to attend severaltonevents together and be seen out and about in society.”
Better and better. The thought of being around her, as his body was still awakened by her kiss, sounded like an appealing prospect.
“I think it could work, but I understand if you want time to think it over,” he told her. “Why don’t we meet in Hyde Park tomorrow afternoon and we can discuss it them? We should be able to talk things over a bit more freely there than in a crowded ballroom.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I’ll meet you at four in the afternoon tomorrow, and we can decide how to proceed.”
CHAPTER 9
“Don’t eat that, you won’t fit into your wedding dress!”
Priscilla quickly pulled her hand back as her mother unceremoniously attempted to smack away the pastry she was holding.
Looking at her mother with a raised eyebrow, she nonchalantly replied, “I have no idea what dress you’re talking about, since I have no intention of marrying anytime soon.”
“Then why have multiple people informed me that they saw you kissing Lord Hampton last night?” Her mother deftly raised her own eyebrow back at Priscilla in a silent challenge.
Sothat’swhere she had learned it.
Knowing her response would rile her mother, and honestly that was part of her motivation, she deliberately took a bite of the pastry before answering. “I’m a widow now and am hardly in need of having my innocence protected. Can I not kiss a man without the entire world believing it must lead to marriage? I’d rather like to spread my wings a little before thinking about settling down again.”
Her mother’s face heated steadily as Priscilla spoke. Through thinned lips and a tightly held jaw, she said, “You will not do anything to shame this family, young lady. The Wrexham namehas been held in esteem for generations. I will not have that besmirched by you behaving like a common hussy.”
“Mother, calm down,” she said with a sigh. Picking up a napkin, she calmly wiped the crumbs from her lip, giving herself a moment to regain her calm center. “I’m hardly about to go around kissing everyone in sight. It was merely a moment with Hampton last night, it hardly means we should rush to the altar.”
Priscilla still didn’t know what had come over her last night. Despite what she had just said to her mother, she was not in any way intending to cause a scene or set others to whispering about her. Kissing Lord Hampton had truly been an impulse. If she’d had time to think of any other way to defer unwanted attention she certainly would’ve chosen a more discreet method. Looking to explore her own desires and causing a scandal were two very different things and she did not intend to cause a stir with her activities.
