He felt her hesitation, but he also felt her desire as though it reached out to collide with his own.
Tightening his grip further still, he lifted her from her seat and pulled her onto his lap, almost groaning at the sheer pleasure of just having her sitting there.
“You think too much,” he said, lowering his head slowly toward hers.
“You only say that because you don’t think at all,” she argued but she tilted her head just so.
“You talk too much,” he responded, so close to touching her lips with his own he could almost taste her.
“Well, you—”
Alexander didn’t give her a chance to argue, yet again. His lips found hers, and he set about trying to remove any thoughts that weren’t of him from her busy mind.
They were goingto miss Jane andit was all his fault!
Olivia desperately clung to her irritation. It was just the defence she needed against the unrelenting, soul-consuming love for him that was lurking inside of her, waiting to pounce.
She couldn’t allow herself to love him.
No matter how many seductive words he said, or how heart stopping his kisses.
Self-preservation was key.
They were once more standing in the freezing cold only this time she was draped in his greatcoat as well as her cloak, and brain was the consistency of mush thanks to his shenanigans in the carriage.
If he hadn’t set her away from him with a black oath and an insistence that he needed to cool off in the freezing air, lord only knew what she would have ended up doing with him.
“What if we missed them?” she muttered crossly.
“Does it really matter?” Alexander asked from behind her.
Olivia swung round to glare at him.
“I’ve already told you that it matters,” she barked.
Alexander sighed and ran a hand through his hair, causing a stray jet black lock to fall over his forehead.
She wanted to brush it back from his face.
And then she wanted to cut it off because it had no business making her feel like she wanted to push it back.
God, this was infuriating; him, her feelings for him, his hair now too, apparently.
It was all far too much to deal with. She was confused and tired and freezing. and solve riddles at the same time.
“Can’t you just speak to her tomorrow?” he asked. “After all, it’s far too cold to engage in anything to ruinous this evening. Trust me.”
He was right, she knew.
She really didn’t want to get into an argument with him again. Especially because their arguments lately were ending with kisses, and they were confusing and wonderful and really, terribly inappropriate.
“I don’t want her heart broken,” she answered feebly.
Alexander studied her for a moment as though he were searching for something in her gaze. After an age, he took her hand and turned her toward the carriage.
“Come. Let’s get you home.”
“I’m not going home.”
