“What a thing to ask,” he said as he bent to press his mouth to hers. “I want you, Faith. Because you are witty and wicked. Because you are argumentative and strong. Because when I think of any part of you, whether it be your eyes or hands or heart, I can’t seem to function.” He paused, fearing that he had exposed too much. He swallowed. “I just… I want all of you.”
He kissed her, and her eyes closed as she turned pliable in his arms. He was already planning what to do with her after her bath when she pulled back slightly and spoke.
“But marriage…”
“I’m not some villain, Faith, despite what you’ve thought of me.”
“I never…” she started but bit her lip, unwilling to finish her thought.
“Now granted, I hadn’t considered marriage as situation I would ever find myself in.”
“You needn’t still—”
“But as I’m not some bastard who uses people, I must propose it.” He found her hands and squeezed them. “I’m not a blackguard, Faith, and I can’t have taken this from you without doing my duty.”
“Your duty?” she repeated, almost as if she were offended. “As what? A solider?”
“As a man.”
“You needn’t feel obligated.”
“Idon’tfeel obligated,” he pressed, getting annoyed. “I mean, yes, I suppose I do in some ways, but did you not just hear all that I said? I want you, Faith. I want you and I want to continue having you.”
Her throat worked up and down, and Logan’s mind wandered back to the bed. God, how he wanted her. But she was probably too tender to try again tonight. His hands moved up her wrists, gently rubbing her arms. There were so many other ways he might bring her to ecstasy if only she’d let him demonstrate.
“And if I told you that you could have me as much as you liked without marriage, what would you say?”
Logan paused in his actions, drawing back to stare at her. He wasn’t sure why she was being so difficult. All he’d offered was marriage, and she was acting like he was trying to take her right arm. He might be offended if he weren’t so damn wild about her,but then a small, forgotten part of his past seemed to call out to him.
Don’t beg her to stay.
He had unwittingly fallen into the same situation his father had been in. Pursuing a woman who wanted nothing to do with him or Scotland. But this felt different. Faith wanted him; he knew it. He could feel it in how she reacted to him. But then why was she being so difficult?
Slowly and painstakingly, Logan let her go and took a step back. He would not beg her to stay.
“I would say that is generous. But no.”
A flash of shame and fury flickered in Faith’s eyes.
“Very well,” she said as she gathered her things. “Then I suppose this is goodbye.”
“I should escort you—”
“No,” she said, seemingly unable to meet his eyes. “No.”
Without another word, without even a nod, Faith gave one last, piteous look at the painting that sat behind him and left. Logan let her go, bitter about long-ago injuries from his past. He wouldn’t beg her to stay, not like his father had begged his mother.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, staring at the doorway through which she disappeared, but he was sure it was a long time.
At some point, he got dressed and began his usual haunting of the painting gallery. The longer he walked, the more annoyed he became with the situation. Why had she kept the truth from him? And why was she so determined to leave for London? He couldn’t imagine that her sisters were pleased with her plans. As different as the three of them were, Logan knew they shared a deep love for one another, and he doubted they were happy with Faith’s desire to go to London.
And why London? He supposed she probably had some friends there, but hadn’t she fled that city when she and her sisters had become the subject of some scandal? She might be ostracized upon her return, and what friends she thought she had might refuse to see her. And then what would she do? Go about a solitary life, shunned by polite society? She would grow old all alone, miles away from everyone who loved her.
It was contemptible, and what’s more, it made no blasted sense.
The idea of Faith leaving forever made him unreasonably livid, and by the time the servants returned to their duties around noon, he had all but decided to go to Lismore Hall and force her to marry him.
But, of course, that would be impossible. He had always sworn never to want a woman who didn’t want him, and now he found himself in that exact predicament. But this situation was different from his father’s—or at least that’s what he told himself as he readied his horse to venture over to Lismore.
