Sophia stopped, digging her heels into the gravel. “And I am just as certain that it was you, Your Grace.”
“You don’t strike me as unintelligent. Nor easily led about. If I am accused, shouldn’t I know my crime? What did I say for you to throw caution to the wind and follow me outside?”
Sophia clenched her fists. Fine. Roxboro would hear it all, even though it made her seem pathetic and something of an imbecile.
“You—told me that you had admired me from afar,” the words came out in a halting manner. “After seeing me in the park. You were taken with me. Ridiculous, of course. I can see that now. You claimed—you wished to court me and meant to speak to my father.”
Roxboro went completely still.
She turned and took several steps away from him, unwilling to allow him to see her after such a confession. “I should have known better, given your reputation. You see, I am not as intelligent as you imagine. Lady Brokeburst and her eyesight are not entirely to blame.”
Roxboro took her arm once more, gently pulling her beneath the tree.
“No wonder you are so angry, Lady Salmon.” The words were soft.
Sophia bit her lip. “Now you’re just making names up.”
“I am guilty of a great many misdeeds,” he breathed into the night air. “You’ve heard the stories, no doubt. But there is not one in which I debauch a girl of good family? Never. I avoid—”
“Ladies of my ilk.” Sophia looked down at her slippers. The gossips were clear on Roxboro and his pursuits. Drinking. Gambling. Deviant behaviors. Women too numerous to count. But he was correct. There were no tales of him pursuing a girl such as herself. “Perhaps I was the exception.”
“It wasn’t me,” he murmured. “I can prove it.”
“This is madness, Your Grace. There simply is no one else it could have been, no matter how you protest. You are…unique in your looks. Difficult to mistake.” She raised her chin. “But very well, how do you intend to prove that it was not you?”
“Like this.”
Roxboro grabbed her around the waist with one arm, the fingers of his other hand sinking into her hip until she was secured against the long muscular lines of his torso. Bergamot, stronger now, filled her nostrils.
I didn’t realize he was so tall.
That was her last coherent thought before his mouth descended on hers, warm and full of so much heat Sophia’s knees buckled. A wave of—dear God, I may faint—pure fire lit along her skin. An ache filled her, the sort they only spoke of in romantic novels.
Now this…her mind whispered.Is a kiss.
*
Damnable troublesome twit.
The scent of roses came from her hair, mixing with the aroma of the flowers in the garden. Delicious and full of thorns.
I don’t mind thorns.
A sound left her. A delicate whimper before her lips partedbeneath his. He pulled her closer, running the tip of his tongue along the bottom of her mouth just as he had longed to do every time she hurled an insult, or called him a sot. Sophia tasted of wine. Innocence. Blistering irritation.
Alexander swallowed all of it. Begged for more.
She gave a brief, fruitless struggle, all the while her fingers curled into the edges of his coat, so that all Sophia succeeded in doing was to rub that generous form along the already hard ridge of his cock. Each one of her curves softened against him, molding until they fit perfectly together.
A soft groan, whether from him or her, filled the air beneath the tree.
This…thiswas the sensation he chased in every glass of brandy or scotch. At a game of hazard. Or the women he bedded. A sense of pure, unadulterated bliss that left room for little else. A complete emptying of Alexander’s thoughts so that nothing else mattered but the physical ache of awareness. The prickle of his skin. Arousal and unadulterated lust pulsed between his thighs, threatening to strangle his cock.
Christ, I might swoon.
Sophia returned his kiss, enthusiastically if not with a great deal of experience. She followed the movements of his tongue, making soft, feminine sounds that sent another wave of longing down his body. Each breath urged him for more. Tiny teeth nipped at his bottom lip. Alexander pushed her back to the trunk of the tree, pinning her to the bark.
“Sophia,” he said against her mouth, pressing the hardened length of his cock directly between her thighs.
