Such a simple gesture, trusting, genteel — and arousing as anything short of her dragging his head down to kiss her! He was momentarily tongue-tied.
Him, the Fox!
More than that, his shaft sprang to life, throbbing with longing. Not a particularly prudent time for scorching lust, so he took a deep breath and focused on the Hyde Park Corner entrance, turning right to go along the carriage path running parallel to Park Lane.
Then he cleared his throat. “I merely wondered whether, given the sunshine, I should put up the hood.”
She laughed lightly. “Why all that fretting for such a trivial matter, my lord?”
“I wouldn’t want your brother to think I’m trying to hide you from him.”
“I see. How considerate of you. Extremely un-Foxlike, I would go so far as to say. Anyway, we’ll be in the shade of the chestnut and lime trees soon enough. Thank you for worrying.”
He’d been called a considerate lover before, but a compliment of simply being thoughtful was novel. He liked it, despite how parts of him desperately wanted to show her the other ways he could be considerate, too.
In fact, his length was not diminishing but pressing against his trousers, and he began to recite Shakespeare in his head to help it subside.
As soon as they entered the park, Matthew could see it was too full with other Londoners enjoying the warm day to show off any fancy driving, nothing to make her squeal with excitement or terror while she clutched him closely, pressing her breasts to his arm.
And there was his arousal again, as if he were a green youth and keeping company with his first milkmaid.
“The Timesgot it wrong yesterday. Did you read it?” she asked.
“I did not,” he confessed.That damned paper!He had started to go out of his waynotto read any but the most serious of the business pages, hoping not to happen upon any society gossip.
“A small mention was all,” she told him, “reporting how badly you behaved on Lady Tisendale’s dance floor, practically assaulting some horribly offended lady before abandoning her and leaving early. I attended the entire ball, and when you weren’t dancing with me, you hardly danced. The few you did partake of seemed perfectly executed, not that I was watching you all evening, of course.”
“I wouldn’t have minded if you had been,” he said, pleased to learn she’d been spying on him the way he had been on her. However, used to the truth being twisted, the answer was obvious. “The horribly offended lady was you.”
“Me?” She paused. “Oh!When the music stopped,” she recalled. Then she shook her head. “But you didn’t assault me,and I wasn’t offended, only a little embarrassed in case people were looking.”
Matthew shrugged. “For the most part, some witness gives them a kernel of a story, and they make an entire meal out of it.”
Diamond came alongside, interrupting their discussion.
“You can’t get up to anything untoward in such a throng,” he said. “I see a chum up ahead. I’ll circle back in a few minutes.”
With that, he urged his spirited mount forward.
“Adam,” Purity called after him, but he disappeared between other riders and carriages. “Oh, what a nuisance. Unreliable half-wit of a brother.”
“He is correct, isn’t he?” Matthew asked. “I can’t do anything wicked like kiss you, no matter how much I desperately wish to do so.”
She blinked, lips slightly parted as her gaze dropped to his mouth. He could see the flutter of her pulse at the base of her neck.
“Incorrigible,” she said finally.
Matthew could tell if they’d been alone, a kiss would certainly have been allowed, and it would have been spectacular. Her breasts were rising and falling more quickly with the pace of her breathing.
He would need more than the cover of a carriage hood to be able to follow his wish.
“Besides, it’s not our behavior that is in question,” she said, her cheeks pink.
Matthew attributed their high color more to her sensual thoughts than from the sun.
“It is the distinct inappropriateness of my being seated beside you,” she continued, “with no chaperone in sight. Mother will tan his hide when we return.”
“I say we should enjoy ourselves while we can.”
