“I would expect nothing else from you. Even if it isn’t something I particularly wish to hear.”
“But as it so happens.” He turned them onto the street and then steered around a slow-moving carriage. “I can help you with that.”
“This is why you told me I wouldn’t have to go to Scotland?” Her question wasn’t really a question.
“Yes.” He would have preferred to not be driving while having this discussion, but… “By marrying me, you will increase your brother’s standing considerably.”
Rowan’s words niggled in his mind. She’d told him no once already. It ought to have fulfilled his duty to honor.
She sat silently. Perhaps she was coming around as she wasn’t rejecting him outright.
His lungs seemed to squeeze inside his chest as the silence drew out.
Why am I pressing her on this?
“I was rather hoping you were going to offer me a teaching position.” She sighed.
“If I could convince Fiona to leave school, I might have considered that an option. As it is, I have no need of a tutor.”
“But… Do you actually wish to marry me or is this still because your honor compels you for kissing me that day?” Her question removed yet another barrier between the two of them. It made her vulnerable. It was raw and more than he’d expect from… anyone.
The kiss.
It was part of what compelled his proposal. The memory plagued him. He’d been taunted by the notion that he’d never experience another like it ever again.
She was not an unmarriageable woman, even if she was not completely marriageable. She didn’t fit into his rules. She definitely would not fit into his mother’s rules.
He moved the leather straps of the reins into his right hand and after a quick glance down, covered both of hers with his left, waiting to see if she would pull them away.
“A little of both,” he answered, his heart skipping a beat.
She wanted his honesty.
An unfamiliar energy sparked between them. Not completely unfamiliar—no—but he’d only ever felt it with her.
The power of it affected more than one of his organs.
“What does that even mean?” Her voice came out tight-sounding.
He stroked his thumb over her softly-worn gloves and the energy hummed even louder.
“I want to marry you regardless. But that kiss, yes. It is part of my reason.” Even in his own ears, he sounded like a lovesick fool. “Because I… rather enjoyed kissing you. Very much in fact. And I wish to do it again.”
This was not at all what he’d set out to tell her today.
She turned to stare at him, as she did so, her hands turned in his, embracing them. “Because you enjoyed…? You wish to…?”
Addison pulled the curricle to the side of the street, parking beneath a tree. The wind had picked up and a few leaves gusted around them.
He turned to meet her startled eyes and leaned forward. “I do.”
And he kissed her.
* * *
“Oh!”Collette parted her lips just as his mouth settled on hers.
Rather than answer her question, he was showing her.
