Page 58 of To Woo a Wicked Widow

“Ah, you wretch!” She flung herself back on the bed. “Yes, yes. There, I have said it.” She lay still, panting. “Why did you do that to me? I want you!”

“Oh, God, thank you.” Nash grabbed her hand. “Do you think I do not want you as well?” He pushed it down to his groin, held it against his rock-hard staff. “Ever since you arrived, I have wanted to do nothing so much as sink this into you and revel in the passion we could share.” He released her hand and pounced on her.

She laughed and twined her arms around his neck.

“But I would not dishonor you if there was no contract of marriage between us. I gave your father my word to protect you, not debauch you.”

“My father? What are you talking about?” She stilled, as if turned to stone.

Damn his tongue.

She pushed at his chest. “Let me up.”

He rolled off her and she bolted up, her brow furrowed, her jaw working as she ground her teeth.

Christ. He was in the suds now. Nothing for it but to tell her the truth and hope for the best. She had agreed to marry him at least. “Your father heard about your antics with Lord Kersey at Almack’s. He asked me to make sure you did nothing to bring shame to your family.”

“And just how were you supposed to do that, my lord?” The deadly stare of her vivid green eyes pierced him like a lance.

Nash swallowed hard. “By marrying you.” Why did it sound worse when spoken aloud?

Her face drained of color and her hands clenched at her sides. “So that is what your ‘attraction’ to me has been about?” She gestured toward his groin.

“No, that part has been painfully real.”

She ignored him, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “My father wants to run my life again and you agreed to be his minion?” She sprang off the bed and stomped toward the door.

Nash clambered after her and seized her wrist before she could open the door.

“No.” He jerked her around to face him. “I told you the truth. My attraction to you began before your father spoke a word to me. At Almack’s.” He gripped her hands. “When you fell into my arms I never wanted to let go.”

She stared at him and her eyes narrowed. “That’s not all there is to it, I’ll wager. My father must have dangled something before your eyes to gain your cooperation. That has always been his way.”

Nash glanced away, hesitating. Damn the earl.

Her frown deepened and she jerked her hands away. “Was it money? Did he sell me to you as he did to Sir Archibald?”

He shook his head. “No. I’d not do that, Charlotte.” He sighed. “He offered his political support for a bill I’ve drafted to go before Parliament.”

Her jaw dropped. “Political support for a bill!” She shook her head and laughed, a raw sound that hurt his heart. “My value has decreased most grievously in six years. He gave Sir Archibald ten thousand pounds to marry me.” Tears started from her eyes.

“Charlotte.” Nash tried to put an arm around her shoulders, but she elbowed him in the ribs.

“He has only ever sought to control me. To make me bend to his will and my own happiness be damned. Never again.” She shook her head, tears flying. “You can tell my father for me that he dictates nothing in my life. I will marry or not as I choose.” She drew herself up and stared at his face.

He’d seen kinder eyes behind a pistol aimed at him.

“As far as your suit is concerned, Lord Wrotham, it will be a chilly summer in hell before I marry you.” She turned on her heel and ran from the room.

* * *

Charlotte urged Ajax to even greater speed, pushing the gray horse into a gallop. Perhaps her face would have cooled sufficiently by the time she reached Lyttlefield Park. Even if it did, no speed would erase the memory of this afternoon. She wanted to weep each time she thought about it. Every moment, in fact, since she’d stormed out of Lord Wrotham’s house, cursing the moment she had first set eyes on him.

To think she had been duped by the earl’s treachery. And she had thought herself in love with the man. Her whole body flinched at the thought. Of course, now she understood why Wrotham had insisted on marriage all along. Her father thought to get his way no matter who he had to use to do it. Well, not this time.

Charlotte pulled Ajax back to a canter. She could not run him into the stable as if all the demons of hell chased her. In truth, only one did. She glanced back over her shoulder at the two burly grooms who were just catching up to her after her headlong flight. They had been ordered by Lord Wrotham to see her to within sight of the Lyttlefield stable. For discretion’s sake, it was the one concession Nash would make regarding his decision to have her seen home.

High-handed wretch. She might have known he’d been working in tandem with her father, for her own good. She’d show them what was best for her. She had the freedom to live her life the way she wanted it. Make her own decisions and her own mistakes. Neither one of them could take that from her now.