Page 32
He lifted his head, searching her anguished features. One moment she’d been a wanton temptress in his arms, and the next, she’d gone stiff, and he tasted salty tears upon her velvety cheeks.
Eyelids squeezed shut, droplets dribbled from the corners of her eyes. A muffled sob escaped her mouth, swollen and red from his kisses.
Alarm streaked through him.
What had upset her so?
Framing her cheeks with his hands, he wiped the moisture away with his thumbs. “What is it, Willow? Did I frighten you? Forgive me.”
“No, you didn’t frighten me. But Ansley, this isn’t right.” Her gaze shifted downward, and for the first time that he could recall, his brave, cheerful Willow wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I am your housekeeper and can never be anything more.”
“Why? I want you, and I believe you want me.” He rocked his hips, the evidence of his arousal pressing into the soft mounds of her bottom upon his lap.
“It cannot be, Ansley,” she whispered, squirming minutely, and he gritted his teeth against the streak of pleasure-pain jolting his loins. “You must let me go. I have duties to attend to. What if someone comes searching for me?”
He rested his forehead against hers, casually caressing her shoulders, soothing the little trembles that shook her slight frame.
“All right. I would never keep you against your will. But please believe me when I tell you that this connection between us is uncommon.” He’d certainly never felt the like before. It was more than lust or carnal desire. “I would know what’s going on in that brilliant mind of yours. We must talk about this.”
“It will make no difference. It mustn’t happen again. You know that, too.” She offered a sad, closed-lipped smile, those mint-green eyes, trailing over his face.
He swore he saw love shimmering in their depths. Love for him. And the knowledge was a balm. A most revered gift.
Why did she pull away from him, then?
Why, even as she sat upon his lap, his male hardness pressing into her delectable bottom, did he suspect she rapidly stacked bricks, building a fortified wall between them?
He cupped her chin and pressed a soft kiss on her honey-sweet mouth once more.
“I tried to resist you, Willow. But I fear I cannot. So we must discuss what we are to do.”
“Ansley…? Whatever…?” His mother’s appalled voice had the effect of sending an icy bucket of water down his spine. “Miss Harwood, pray explain why you’re sitting on my son’s lap, and Ansley pray explain why you are kissing her?”
Damn. Damn. Double damn.
Why had he been so bloody careless?
His dogs awoke, and standing one by one, yawned and stretched before trotting to greet his mother. She gave their heads a distracted pat, the whole while her focus riveted accusingly on him.
At the very least, he should’ve locked the door. But honestly, the only thing he’d thought of when Willow had approached, was tasting her mouth and trailing his hands over her lush curves.
The Ansley, Earl of Scarborough of a few short weeks ago, would never have done something so impulsive. So unreservedly unwise, unplanned, and irrational.
And entirely amazing.
He’d been spontaneous, and rather than necessitating a retreat into a corner, nursing a stiff drink, or fingering his stone, he exalted in the impulsiveness.
A mortified, barely audible moan whispered past Willow’s lips. “Let go, my lord.”
“Willow…?” Hell and damn. What could he say? Particularly, with his disapproving mother’s heated scowl leveled at him?
Eyes lowered, Willow pushed at his hands, and at once he released her. She slipped off his lap and snapped her gown and pristine apron back into place. Deliberately, and with courage he couldn’t help but admire, she raised her gaze to his mother’s.
“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Twistleton.” Only the merest strain inflected her modulated, deferential tone. She exhibited such poise and control, the brave darling. “I assure you, nothing of this nature has occurred before.”
His estimation for her burgeoned further. She hadn’t placed the blame on him, though he deserved it. But then, she wouldn’t. It wasn’t her nature.
His mother’s shrewd gaze darted between him and Willow, and she slowly closed the music room door behind her. Sailing forth like a regal vessel upon the sea, she approached until she was but a few feet away.
