“What is this place?” she asked. “It isn’t the ruins Gwyn was referring to, is it?”
He gave a choked laugh. “No. Those are just manufactured to look that way. These ruins are real—the manor house of my estate, Hawkcrest.”
“Yourestate?” she said, hardly able to credit it.
He gazed upon the house as if torn between pride and despair. “My father left it to me after his mother, my grandmother, left it tohim. It was always the property given to the second son, and as such was unentailed. I’m told it used to be quite fine.” Drawing a folded paper out of his greatcoat pocket, he handed it to her. “You can get some sense of how it looked then from this.”
Wary of his solemn mood, she opened the sheet of paper to find a sketch of a lovely Palladian home, with pretty gardens nearby and ivy growing up its walls of red brick. “How different it was!”
“Years of neglect have reduced it to a shambles. Uncle Armie was supposed to be taking care of it for my father while we were abroad, but clearly he chose to ignore it.” He faced her, bitterness etched in his features. “Of course, he didn’t mind pocketing the rents he was supposed to use in maintaining the house.”
“Rents? It has tenants?”
Dragging in a heavy breath, he nodded. “He neglected to repair their homes as well. Bloody arse.” He caught himself. “Excuse my language. It’s just that each time I look on it, I’m hit by anger and despair all over again.”
“I can understand that,” she said. “It’s unconscionable for anyone to neglect a pretty place like this.”
He smiled at her. “Would you like to see the inside?”
“Oh, yes!” She paused. “As long as timbers won’t rain down on me, that is.”
“It’s in a better shape inside, though not by much.”
He helped her out of the sleigh and tied off the horse. As they climbed the steps, he pulled her here or there to keep her from treading on the crumbling bits.
Once they entered the house, she was struck dumb by the quality of the marble floors and the wood paneling on the walls.
Not to mention... “Look at that stunning staircase!” She stared up at the carved oak balusters and banister of the once-beautiful piece. The steps needed to be redone, to be sure, but the staircase still had an elegance all its own. She ran a hand over the intricately carved newel post. “Such craftsmanship should never be neglected.”
“I agree,” he said, his voice hoarsening. “It’s my favorite part of the house. How did you guess?”
“Perhaps I can read your mind.”
He stared at her hand, which was still stroking the newel post. “I doubt that. If you could, you wouldnotapprove.”
His eyes glittered in the dim light, sending a sweet frisson of anticipation down her spine. “Oh?” she choked out. “And why is that?”
“Because my mind is wondering what it would feel like to have you touchmeas tenderly as you’re touching that post.” After drawing off one of his gloves with his teeth, he took her hand in his and drewherglove off.
Oh, dear. She should makesomeprotest to that, shouldn’t she?
Instead, she stood there like a ninny, waiting to see what he would do next. And when he pressed her palm to his warm, whisker-rough jaw, a tremor of pleasure shook her.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Yes.” It wasn’t entirely a lie, was it?
Unbuttoning his greatcoat, he pulled her close so he could wrap it partly about her. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he said, “It works better than if I take the coat off and put it on you. This way we can share our bodies’ heat.”
“It will make it awfully hard to continue touring the house,” she teased.
He tipped up her chin with one finger. “Is that what you want to do?”
The intensity in his gaze made it impossible for her to look away or even speak. She shook her head no, perfectly aware of what he was really asking.
He proved that by kissing her, gently at first, then with more fervor. Her response was to slide her hands inside his open morning coat and about his waist, a gesture that apparently encouraged him to deepen the kiss.
They stood there several moments while he plundered her mouth, softening her resistance with every plunge of his tongue. Then he kissed a path to her ear, where he rasped, “You are too damned tempting by half.”
