“Then I shall leave you.”
Demetrius turned to walk away but he only took a few steps before he stopped. He needed to know how badly he had ruined things between them.
He turned back and approached. “I am sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” she asked slowly as if she wasn’t certain.
“I should not have kissed you. I forgot my place.”
“Your place?” she asked as if truly puzzled.
“Your standing in Society and I am a solicitor.”
She tilted her head and studied him. “You think such is important to me?”
“I simply assumed…I overstepped with not only the kiss but the embrace.”
“Are you apologizing because you are truly sorry that you kissed me, or because you assume that you should apologize?”
Demetrius was not certain what she was asking. “I am not sorry that I kissed you. Never that. But it was not right that I did.”
She gave a nod which offered not even a hint of what she might be thinking.
“Well, if that will be all…” He turned to walk away again, still confused but not certain what else he could say.
“Why did you kiss me?”
He stopped.
He could make any excuse and beg her forgiveness but if anything, he was honest. “Because I desired to do so. I desired you.”
“Desired, but no longer.”
He nearly snorted and turned to face her. “Lavinia, at the risk of being replaced by another solicitor for your brother, I have desired you from the moment we met.”
Her eyes widened as she gasped and took a step back, hand over her heart.
Now he had truly gone and scandalized her but he was not going to lie and it was important that she know.
Demetrius reached forward to grab Max’s collar, though it was likely the dog would not go with him.
“Do you still?” she asked quietly.
“That has not changed. In fact, it has only grown stronger.”
He glanced into her blue eyes and realized that there was confusion and uncertainty, which was something she rarely expressed.
“I thought …well…”
This hesitation was so unlike Lavinia that Demetrius was not certain if he was more concerned or curious. “What?” he asked.
“I have never been kissed in that manner and assumed…well…that I had not done it properly.”
If she weren’t so serious, he would laugh. That bloody kiss had kept him awake half the night. “There was nothing wrong with the way you kissed me,” he assured her. In another instant he realized what she had said. She’d been married yet had not shared a passionate kiss with her husband? How unpleasant had her marriage been?
“I also was not expecting you to kiss me.” The loveliest shade of pink spread across her cheeks as Lavinia glanced away.
“You appeared upset when I left you. You simply told me goodnight.”
