***
“Christ, I forgot all about your blasted eyepiece.” Milton berated himself for being so careless. He removed her from his lap, only to watch her wince as she settled on the rough log.
He searched for her lenses amidst the forest debris untilcrunch, he plucked a mess of bent wire and cracked glass from the ground, dangling the eyepiece before Elizabeth.
“Forgive me, Lizzie. I ought to have?—”
“It is I, sir, who ought to have removed them the moment you…” She blushed an even deeper shade of red.
Milton sat beside her on the log and took her hand. “I shall purchase you another pair, no, three,” he declared. “In addition to a spare, you shall have wedding spectacles to match your wedding dress. I should have thought of this before. I am an idiot not to have.”
He heard her snort. Good lord, had she just giggled?
“You cannot possibly find this situation amusing, miss. Not after the?—”
“Rather thorough spanking you just gave me?” She giggled again. “Forgive me, I cannot seem to hold back my feelings.” More mirth bubbled out. “First I weep and now this need to simply …Oh!”
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks from laughter so infectious he shook his head at her in disbelief.
“It is just…” She struggled against hysteria. “You must so desperately hate pugs, sir. Because the look on your face when Lady Stanton offered you the hand her beast had licked …Oh!” she burst out again, until he gave himself over to the same raucous relief.
“Miss Winthrop, I despise them.” He chuckled. “I despise all small dogs, but pugs most of all with their?—”
“Horrid, mushed-up, squishy faces,” Elizabeth finished his thought. “I hate them too. I hate Lady Stanton most of all though.” She instantly covered her mouth, as if shocked by what she’d just uttered.
A second later, though, she burst into renewed peals of laughter, and Milton found himself shaking his head at his betrothed, amazed.
“She is the most odious neighbor ever.” Elizabeth struggled to catch her breath. “And in my great and awful stupidity I mustnow take tea with that … horrid woman tomorrow.” She gulped more air. “Oh, why did I do it, sir? Why do I do the things I do?” Her laughter faded, giddiness receding as swiftly as it had begun.
Milton again took her hand. “We shall visit her together, Elizabeth. It is the perfect ploy. Why, I could not have devised a better plan myself. For she is a gossip, I assume, and what we need now is for all of London to know we are betrothed. Because our marriage will shock theTon. You must prepare yourself.”
“So you still intend to marry me?”
He had a mad desire to kiss the crease upon her forehead. “Of course, Miss Winthrop, why would you think otherwise?”
“Because you just…” She stared at him. “Sir, I do not think my sister would suit you.”
He wanted so badly to tasteher lips his loins tightened with lust. “Of course she would not suit. That is why I did not offer for her.”
Her eyes grew wide, but she did not press him more, she looked away, shy. It was at once endearing and arousing.
“And may I ask what surprise you had in store for me today, sir, before I ruined it?”
“Oh, I should hardly think you ruined a thing.” He did not wish to tell her the spanking was the surprise. “Youhave surprisedmethis day instead. Come.” He stood to pull her upright, then helped straighten her skirts. “We must procure you new spectacles, but first we must fix your hair. You look a fright.”
“I did not mean to anger you before, you know.”
He began to fix her coiffure.
“In your phaeton, I mean, when I touched your leg.” She paused. “It was not meant to provoke you as it so clearly did.”
“I apologize for my reaction,” he told her, “but I have been touched in ways I…” A crass cackle echoed maliciously in his head, bubbling from depths he kept well under lock andkey. Milton’s heart pounded in his chest. “It is best you ask permission first, always.”
“Then may I touch you now?”
He extinguished a final flicker of callous laughter. “Yes.”
She caressed the side of his face in a touch so tender he thought he’d perish on the spot.
