“We can be married whenever you prefer,” Sterling cut in dismissively. “I’ve never cared about weddings before, and I’m not about to start now. Mindless pomp and circumstance, if you ask me. Tell me where to be, and I’ll be there. The rest I will leave up to you and your grandmother and cousins, as I’m sure they’ll want some say given how nosy Americans can be. Just don’t make the date for Christmas, as that is when my sister is to wed Lord Hamlin.”
“Is she?” Rosemary said, startled. “You hadn’t mentioned. How exciting.”
“Very,” he said in a tone that implied he didn’t think it was exciting at all. “They’re having it at Hanover Park. I haven’t decided if I’m going or not.”
“Oh, but youhaveto go. It’s your sister.”
A muscle clenched in his jaw. “We’ll see. Regardless, so long as you avoid December 25th, we can be married any day that you like. Wait until summer, or don’t. It makes no difference.”
“I didn’t realize you had such a strong aversion to weddings.”
“It’s not that I have an aversion. I simply fail to see what all the fuss is about. The wedding night, on the other hand…” His eyebrows wiggled suggestively, her only warning before he leapt forward to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her snug against the hard plane of his chest. “That, I’mfarmore excited about,” he murmured, finding and kissing the small sliver of exposed skin above the raised collar of her pelisse.
When her knees wobbled (useless things, knees), she sagged helplessly against him and wrapped her arm around his neck to hold herself upright. Abandoning his perch on her shoulder, Sir Reginald streaked down her other arm and dove headfirst into her pocket. “I thought I was supposed to be l-leaving,” she gasped.
“You’ve already been here this long.” He cupped her breasts as his mouth tracked a heated path along the slender column of her neck to her earlobe. “What’s a few minutes more…?”
Chapter Fourteen
After a fewminutes turned into fifteen, and fifteen into thirty (but who was counting, really?), Rosemary reluctantly pulled herself free of Sterling’s embrace and they said their farewells.
“When will we see each other again?” she asked, the wind whipping through her hair as she stepped out onto the front walkway, a wide strip made of limestone framed with rosebushes.
Sterling remained in the door, his tall frame and broad shoulders almost completely obscuring the foyer where he’d made her…what was the word?
Oh.
Her cheeks warmed.
She remembered now.
Eventhinkingit made her blush and she had no earthly idea how she wasn’t going to be reduced to a puddle of red on the floor when her grandmother inevitably asked her how she’d found the department store.
“Fancy a ride through Hyde Park at the end of the week before the Royal Gala?” Sterling asked, referring to a private, prestigious event to be held at Marlborough House, the London residence of Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
Held biannually, once in autumn and again at the end of spring right before thetonfled the city for their country houses, it was a charity auction disguised as a formal ball. Over the years, it had benefited hospitals, orphanages, and the like. In an attempt to repair his public reputation, which had suffered due to a number of not-very-discreet affairs, Prince Albert was hosting this particular gala to raise funds and pique interest in what he’d already deemed the Royal College of Music, an educational enterprise designed to award scholarships and promote talented musicians and composers no matter their title or how much money they possessed.
Invitations were not given but instead purchased, and the price was steep. Rosemary had never attended a Royal Gala before, and she hadn’t planned to begin with this one. But when she said as much to Sterling, he merely shook his head.
“If I have to go then so do you,” he said, as if that settled the matter. “You can expect two invitations to be delivered by end of day tomorrow.”
Rosemary double-blinked. It was going to take some time, she decided, to grow accustomed to the idea that from this day forward nearly any door she wished to step through would be open to her courtesy of her husband’s wealth and influence.
“Thank you,” she replied, for what else was there to say? Her life was changing rapidly, in more ways than one. Her only hope was that it was all for the better…although given the recent onslaught of unwanted attention thrown her direction, she suspected that those changes, whatever they ended up being, were going to take a lot of getting used to.
“And the ride in Hyde Park?” He propped his shoulder against the doorframe; casual elegance with a touch of disreputable rake. “I’ll have my driver ready the landau and you can bring your grandmother if she is agreeable.”
“My grandmother,” Rosemary said doubtfully.
“Ihaveasked her granddaughter to marry me. Seems only fitting I properly introduce myself.”
“But didn’t you meet her at the house party?” she said, confused.
“A few words, most of which I don’t remember.”
“Because of…” She mimed tipping a bottle back.
“Being drunk most of the time. Yes, I’m sure that had something to do with it.”
