Payton looked at him as if he were a madman. “I give you my word, it was all my doing at the Old Ship. I took her on a tour of the second floor, and then I decided to try a quick kiss to see if we suited.”
James didn’t like the jealousy that rose upon hearing his friend casually testing out a kiss, even if he’d already seen it for himself.
“And I thought we did suit well enough,” Payton continued. “It was a sweet kiss.”
“Stop talking about kissing her.”Sweet?And the man calledhiman idiot. Kissing Glynnis Talbot was like dancing in a lightning storm and being struck over and over. His body was always heated and charged and ready with the barest whisper of a kiss from her lips. There was nothing sweet about it.
“Anyway,” Payton said, “she told me she couldn’t marry me, and I know she won’t be marrying you.”
“Why not?” James demanded, thinking himself ready to duel the Welsh baron at sunrise.
“She is in love with Aberavon. She told me so just before you brought him over. She finished giving me the mitten and saying how she loved him. It was as if she were speaking of the devil, and there he was! I’ve never been so surprised in my life. Her either, I expect. That’s why she was overcome, I tell you.”
“I can’t believe it,” James said softly, speaking to himself more than to Payton. “When I ran into Aberavon, freshly arrived from Swansea Bay for Prinny’s party, I thought as you thought. But when I mentioned how his betrothed was at the Pavilion, he seemed to think I was dicked in the nob.”
“Youaredicked! But what took the blasted man so long to come?”
“As far as I can tell, he encountered a series of unfortunate circumstances, including a lame horse, a broken carriage wheel, and a band of highwaymen.”
“It’s a wonder he got here at all, I suppose.” Since they could see no decanter and didn’t want to go to the trouble of asking a servant, Payton drew a flask from his pocket and poured them both another half glass. “But if one were in love and had Miss Talbot waiting—”
“That’s just it,” James said, swirling the liquid in his glass, “when I insisted Miss Talbot was expecting him, he grew quiet upon hearing her name. I vow he didn’t know she was his fiancée. From his strange manner, I thought she had been lying all along.”
“I heard him mention dining at her father’s,” Payton pointed out.
“As did I,” James agreed. “I can only surmise they are truly engaged. And you say she loves him?”
“Shesaid she did. It must be love to prefer him over me, don’t you think?” Payton pointed out. He laughed good-naturedly, but James thought his friend was correct. Of the two, Aberavon did not have the superior physique or face. Moreover, he was only a baron whereas Payton was an earl’s son.
Glynnis was in love with Aberavon. James repeated the words in his head a few times, trying to make them stick. Whatever he thought he’d seen in her eyes when she looked at him, he had plainly misunderstood.
Wrenching his thoughts elsewhere to try and escape the pain concentrated in the vicinity of his heart, James said, “Prinny has allowed me to depart Brighton for London with his blessing, and I shall do so immediately. I thought I might have to stay for your nuptials, but I guess I was mistaken.”
“Ah well, at least it has all worked out for you,” Payton said, not realizing James’s emotional torment. “You’ve had the company of a pretty lady, you also had your fun with that blonde blowsabella, you’ve satisfied our prince, and now you can return to your fair mistress in London.”
James nodded. When Payton put it like that, he ought to be pleased to have escaped Brighton unscathed. His friend was looking at him for a reaction.
James smiled ruefully. “As for the fair-haired doxy, recall I was rather foxed that night. Sadly, I presented her with nothing but a limp lobcock, my sleeping back, and some coins.”
Payton laughed as James had intended him to, but he was already thinking of Glynnis again.
She loved Aberavon?He never would have guessed it, not when she had kissed him with passion and melted in his arms. And then there was the way she’d climaxed under his touch.
’Zounds!James could hardly imagine how she would sizzle if she actually loved a man.
“Aberavon is a damned lucky bastard,” he said.
“Yes,” agreed Payton. “He certainly is.”
