“Yes, you absolutely do.”
“I desire you, Fletcher. Do you desire me?”
“Like a man on a hot day desires a glass of water.”
And then they were kissing again, despite Fletcher’s protestations.
He was fully dressed for the afternoon, wearing a crisp white shirt, beige waistcoat, and a black jacket and trousers. And even through all those layers of fabric, Louisa could feel the heat of his body when she put her hands on his shoulders.
Heat. She felt hot everywhere, but she welcomed it.
Fletcher pulled away again and sighed. “You’re really testing me.” Then he pulled her close. He placed a hand on the side of her head and gently pressed her against his chest. He was quite a bit taller than she was, so her ear pressed just below his shoulder. He held her there for a long moment.
She trusted Fletcher implicitly. She felt safe with him. They’d never really touched this way before, but something in Louisa understood that he would never push her farther than she was willing to go, and that he’d take care of her if she needed it. Hell, he’d been doing it their whole lives.
“You remember when we were children,” Louisa said, mostly into Fletcher’s shoulder. “Some summer in Cornwall, the Earl of Courtland was visiting, and he had a daughter who wasabout my age. So we were playing outside, but she was really mean. She kept calling me ugly and skinny and we ran out to the pond.”
“Oh, I remember this,” Fletcher said. “She tried to push you in the pond.”
“Said I belonged with the other toads. And you saw her chasing me, and you ran out to intervene. You talked her down and you took me out of there. You saved me.”
“Not my greatest feat of strength.”
“Perhaps not, but it meant a lot to me at the time. Especially when youaccidentallystumbled and sent her into the pond instead.” She smiled at the memory. “Or the time you told Amelia Featheringworth where she could put all the ostrich feathers in her hair when she said my gown was hideous the night we went to seeDie Zauberflöte.”
“She was just being petty. As I recall, the shade of green she wore that night was reminiscent of mushy peas.”
“My point, Fletcher, is that you always come to my rescue and you always defend me, and I think those are admirable traits in a husband. And when I kiss you, I feel all…hot and bothered. Kissing Daniel is cold, nothing like the heat I feel with you.”
Fletcher hugged Louisa closer. “Never speak of kissing Daniel again.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Unspeakably.”
Louisa laughed softly and put her arms around Fletcher’s torso.
“I want you to know,” Fletcher said, “that money is no object. There are a lot of things I will do to make sure you marryme instead of Rotherfeld. I’d pay a fortune. I’d fight a duel. Hell, I’d fight a war.”
That warmed Louisa. She knew Fletcher was not kidding because he’d been her protector and defender for years. “Thank you. Let us hope that it does not come to that.”
“What if he says no?” Fletcher asked, stroking her hair. “If I offer him the money and he won’t sell? It may come to a war. I don’t run very fast or punch very hard, but I’m a pretty good shot.”
“Please do not commit a crime on my behalf. I can’t imagine it will come tothat. Can it really be worth it to keep me captive? Surely he can find some desperate heiress to be his wife. I’d far prefer some kind of civil agreement before it escalates to violence. Because you may be a good shot, but it’s possible Daniel is, too.”
“He may not like getting jilted right before the wedding that he announced so publicly.”
“Do you see how he’s been laying this trap?” Louisa pulled away from Fletcher so she could look at his face. “He announced the engagement publicly to discourage me from ending it, because everyone at the Rutherford ball, who is basically everyone who matters, knows about it. He made the deal with my father so my father wouldn’t let me out of it. But I won’t be trapped.”
“No. I daresay you’d rescue yourself if you could.”
“I’ll say no at the altar if it comes to that. I won’t marry him. Or I’ll run off to the Continent. I have a little money. How much can a ticket to France cost?”
Fletcher laughed softly. “Take me with you to France, if that is the case.”
“I thought you wanted to do this right. You didn’t want to elope.”
“I don’t, but we might get desperate. Let us exhaust all the other options before we re-stage Waterloo and have to raise armies to end it.”
