She snorted softly. “Worried about me?” But the look on her face told him she was considering whether she could actually believe him.
“Yes,” he answered.
She cocked her head. “Not worried about my brother and the favor you owe him?”
Jason shook his head. “Honestly, no.”
That seemed to surprise her. Her eyes narrowed further, searching his face as though weighing the truth of his words. Then, slowly, she nodded. “Very well,” she said at last. “I don’t know why…but for some reason, I believe you.”
Jason let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’ll tell you what I meant,” she said, her tone changing, turning sly, “on two, no…three conditions.” She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling.
His brow arched. “Conditions?” he drawled.
“Yes.” She nodded.
“What are they?”
“One,” she said, holding up a single finger, “you promise not to tell any member of my family what I say.”
“Agreed,” he replied without hesitation. “I promise.”
She tilted her head again, her eyes glinting mischievously.
“The second?” he prompted, already skeptical.
She lifted her chin. “You promise to stop watching me, stop following me.”
Jason clenched his jaw. He wanted to stop watching her. Had tried even. Oh, very well. He supposed making the promise was what he just might need to stop. “Agreed,” he said. “And the third condition?” He watched her closely as if she might do something unpredictable at any moment. Given her past actions, it wasn’t an unreasonable thought.
Her lips curved into a slow, wicked smile. “You give me,” she said softly, “a completely indecent kiss.” She paused for a beat. “Right now.”
Jason stared at her.
And for the first time in years, he found himself utterly speechless.
Chapter Thirteen
Georgie was almost certain he was going to refuse her.
That had, in fact, been part of the reason she’d come up with her third condition, to see what he would do, how he would look at her.
Partly to scandalize him too.
And partly—though she would never admit it aloud—because she’d realized, somewhere between her discussion with Bea earlier and now, that she rather desperately wanted to kiss him.
She wanted to see what it was like. After all, she’d never been kissed before. And an indecent kiss? It sounded…well…delightful.
Kisses themselves were rumored to be enjoyable. At least they were if they were administered by handsome young men, and Pembroke was that. And if the giggling whispers she’d overheard from other girls behind their fans were to be believed, kisses were agreeable indeed. Add to that, Bea’s revelation that Lord Pembroke’s kiss was “indecent,” well, it wasn’t Georgie’s fault that asking for a kiss from him was practically irresistible.
She was already on her way to being ruined, wasn’t she? What did a little kiss beside the mews matter?
Not that she intended to become indecent once she was ruined. Quite the opposite. She intended to disappear quietly into obscurity, playing lady’s maid to her dear friend Martha’s middle-aged cousin in Northumbria.
Martha was currently visiting Bath at the moment with her very progressive-thinking aunt, who had agreed to help. That was why Georgie had arranged to flee there next week after she escaped from her wedding. Martha’s cousin had never met Georgie, so she would be none the wiser when Martha introduced her to the woman under a completely different name with a forged reference.
Georgie’s own family would be none the wiser. If they traced her route to Bath, it would end at the boarding house where the coach dropped her.
