Heat billowed through her core and her lips parted on a silent gasp as her feet refused to function and she came to a stumbling stop. She’d convinced herself they were going to pretend nothing of the sort happened. That he would so brazenly comment on it left her speechless.
His eyes glittered as he turned to face her and dropped his voice to an intimate tone. “Please don’t say you regret it.”
Still shocked, Eleanor started to speak no less than three times before she gave up.
“Do you?” he asked roughly, his gaze piercing. “Regret it?”
She managed to shake her head.
A smiled tilted his mouth. “Did you enjoy it?”
Another burst of shock had her blurting, “I’m not going to answer that.”
He arched a brow. “How else shall I decide if I should do it differently next time.”
Her eyes widened and words seemed to tumble from her lips. “Next time? Differently?”
The curve of his mouth broadened slowly, drawing her gaze and stirring her belly, as he nodded. “There are so many more ways I’ve imagined kissing you…” His voice faded to a rough murmur as his focus dropped to her mouth. “Reverently…playfully…tenderly.” He took a breath and lifted his gaze back to hers. “With ravenous possession.”
Eleanor had stopped breathing and had to force a deep inhalation before she could manage a response. But even then, she had to turn away and start walking down the hall again before she could get her words out with an audible tremor. “Well…there cannot be a next time.”
The viscount fell into step beside her. “Is that what you want? Or is it what you think youshouldwant?”
Eleanor couldn’t answer that. Not because she didn’t know the truth, but because she did.
They reached the music room in that moment. Pushing the door open, she entered a step ahead of him.
Chapter Eighteen
Phin followed theLady Eleanor into a small room and closed the door quietly behind him. Though she swiftly crossed to the other side, he entered much more slowly, instantly enchanted by the subtle incense lingering in the sun-soaked warmth that flooded through windows draped in richly colored silks.
He’d only been to India once but had spent several months traveling about the northern territories of the country. He’d always wished to return. And for a moment, it felt as though he had. The familiar scents of amber and spice greeted him, against an elegant and inviting backdrop of vibrant colors and lush textures.
It took a moment to realize that Lady Eleanor had gone straight to a cabinet to retrieve a rather large, cumbersome object. When she turned back to face him and he saw the carved wooden box in her hands, Phin started forward, intending to take the obviously heavy item. She completely ignored the gesture and brought it to the broad, low-standing table in the center of the room.
Setting the book down with an audible thud, she dropped to her knees atop a large pillow and looked up at him with dark, expressive eyes. Her gaze was filled with anticipation and a subtle weighted wariness. Whatever she was about to show him, it was important to her on a very personal level.
She trusted him enough to bring him here. But she remained cautious and uncertain.
“There is something in here you must see.” Her voice was low. Reverent.
His nerves hummed.
As he approached, he felt the atmosphere shift around him as excitement vibrated deep in his center. It was an intuitive awareness. A strange knowing he’d come to trust. It indicated that he was about to experience something astounding.
Reaching the table, he lowered himself to sit on the mound of pillows next to her. Though she stiffened, she did not look at him or move away. Her gaze was fiercely focused on the aged wood box, her elegant hands splayed over the top.
A shiver danced across his nape.
Shifting his weight slightly to one side, he kept one foot planted to the floor and leaned forward to prop an elbow on the table. “What is it?” he asked.
Her fingers smoothed delicately over the carved surface of the box as she replied. “A history of my grandmother’s family. Before becoming the Duchess of Keldbrook, she was Princess Ashna Jayanti Malakar, daughter of the Raja Uday Govind Malakar. Though she was the third girl child born, she was the first to survive to adulthood. As the only remaining daughter of such a man, her marriage to an influential British duke was considered advantageous and necessary to solidify the future of her family within the growing English presence in their lands. On her eighteenth birthday, she was wed and sent across the seas.” She paused to sweep her gaze about the room. “This is everything she brought with her to her new life here. But most important of all is this history of her family, a record that goes back many hundreds of years.”
Though she didn’t once look at him as she spoke, Phin couldn’t help but watch her face. The dance of emotions across her features was poignant and beautiful. And her voice revealed a great deal of love and respect for the woman who’d left behind one life for another utterly strange one.
“I used to love looking through the images in this book. As a child, I’d known of course that they were a historical record, but to me, they’d been more like fairytales. Filled with magic and beauty and…haunting sadness.”
She took a weighted breath and let it out in a sigh.
