“That would be exciting for them. An outing to look forward to at the end of the week. I’ve seen Crispin’s horses.” She paused and he watched her swallow. “They’re magnificent animals.”
“Would you like to go with us?” he asked, knowing he had no thought of inviting her until this very moment.
“To the paddock? Yes, that would be wonderful. If you’re sure I wouldn’t be in the way, and you don’t mind.”
Seth didn’t know that he’d ever seen such genuine delight in a young lady’s eyes. Mind? He wanted her to come.
“Fallon and Heron would like it if you joined us.”
“I’ll arrange refreshments.”
“I don’t want to keep the lads out too long. We’ll go after their lessons are finished.”
“Of course, after the studies are done,” she said a little too quickly. Then her lips twitched a smile, and she sweetly added, “I mean I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
She didn’t know how to hold her tongue. If she thought it, she said it. And he had no doubt she was as attracted to him as he was to her. “You are not fooling me, Miss Prim.”
She laughed pleasingly. “I know, but I needed to try.”
Their eyes met and held. Seth saw only guileless innocence in her, and he wondered for the third time if he had met his match. Who but Lillian had ever made him angry at her one minute and desiring her with his whole being the next? Whatever it was he felt for her, he was powerless to rid himself of it.
“You are looking very intensely at me, my lord.”
“There is a reason for that.”
This time, his desire for her would not be banked. Seth’s body heated, his loins expanded and ached. He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her up to his chest. She felt slim, firm, and wonderfully supple. As nature intended, her body relaxed and melted against him. With his mouth mere breaths from hers, he whispered, “I have never wanted to kiss a lady as much as I want to kiss you. So scream if you must, but I will taste you now.”
“I won’t scream,” she whispered as she rose on her tiptoes, slipped her arms around his neck, and pulled him closer.
Tightening his arms possessively around her, Seth bent his head and murmured “Sweet heaven” into her mouth as he claimed her lips with his.
Instinct told him to hold Lillian gently as if she were a delicate flower, to kiss her tenderly as he would a child’s cheek, but in his desperation to finally have her in his arms, her lips beneath his, all he could do was squeeze her tightly to him and kiss her deeply. Instinct told him this is what he’d been waiting for. Instinct told him she was the one he’d hungered for all these years and had never found until now.
Lillian’s lips parted, her mouth opened and accepted his passion. Her eager response to him left no doubt she felt the same heated desire and wanted him as much as he wanted her. With open hands he rubbed up and down her back, over her rounded shoulders, down to her narrow waist, and past the flare of her thin, shapely hip. She felt as divinely beautiful as she looked.
At times their kisses were slow and generous. Sometimes fast and short, but always passionate. Choppy breaths mingled with long contented sighs as they welcomed and experienced the spirals of sensations racing through them.
Seth rained kisses across her cheek, sprinkled them past her jawline, and swept them over to the warm spot behind her ear. He breathed in deeply of her lightly perfumed skin before leaving a moist trail of kisses down her neck and chest. With one strong hand he cupped her pliant bottom and fitted her softness against the hardness beneath his trousers. A satisfying groan of pleasure slipped past his lips as a small gasp of wonderment escaped past hers.
Somehow, through the drug of passion, Seth heard voices. He swore silently to himself. Lord and Lady Fieldingham were on their way down the corridor from the guest wing to the drawing room. More kisses would have to wait. If they saw him right now, they’d have no doubt about what he and Lillian had been doing.
He let go of her and stepped back. Confusion brightened her eyes. “I don’t leave you willingly. Someone’s coming. I’ll see you in the drawing room.”
And with that, he hurried down the stairs, wondering what the hell to make of his feelings for the duke’s sister-in-law.
Chapter 6
It was difficult for Lillian to keep her eyes off the marquis. His black wool cloak fit perfectly over his wide, straight shoulders, giving him a commanding air few gentlemen could match. His shiny black knee-high boots made him look like a scoundrel of the highest order and added a dash of mystery to his appearance as well.
The open carriage was quite fancy for the half-mile journey to the paddock and stables. Black-lacquered doors painted with fancy gold lettering and elaborate swirls, plush seats covered in a dark-green velvet fabric, and ornate brass-trimmed handles completed the elegant traveling coach.
After a bit of shoving, a thrown elbow or two, and a few words of arguing who would be the first to climb onto the conveyance, the boys settled onto the backseat with the fully packed picnic basket between them. They tucked the wool blankets around their legs while the marquis helped Lillian into the front. She arranged her skirts and opened her matching dark blue parasol, resting it against her shoulder.
A chilling wind blew from the north but there wasn’t a cloud, white or gray, to mar the promise of a splendid day ahead. Seldom did the sun beat down so brightly upon the earth from a clear sky when it was so late in the afternoon and so blasted cold.
The marquis had been a perfect gentleman since their kisses at the top of the stairs a few days ago. Their encounter had left her breathless, not to mention stunned by the intense desire she’d felt for him. She’d been held in a man’s arms before but never completely consumed by his embrace. She had been kissed. Softly. Briefly. Never so thoroughly that even remembrance of it caused delicious shivers to overcome her.
Oh, she feared she might have done the unthinkable and fallen in love with the Lord Wythebury despite her feelings that he was not the kind of man she should marry.
