A Gentleman Never Tells(25)
What was she doing spying on the viscount?
Taking a deep breath, she shored up her courage and continued on her way to the garden. At the back door, she hesitated only a moment before opening it and stepping out onto the landing.
Lord Brentwood rose from the bench. Their eyes met and held much longer than she would have wished, but for some reason, she couldn’t look away. His gaze swept lazily up and down her face, seeming to linger on her lips before settling on her eyes. After another moment, he walked toward her with a loose, lean-hipped stride that caused a breathless catch in her throat. His chest was broad and his shoulders straight. He was handsomely dressed in camel-colored trousers and waistcoat, with a dark brown coat that fit him to perfection. As he neared her, she remembered the strength she’d felt in his arms, and an unexpected heat that started at her throat rose up to flash in her cheeks and warm her against the chilling breeze.
He certainly didn’t look as scruffy as he had when she last saw him in the park. The red scratch under his eye looked a little better than when she’d seen him earlier that morning, though his bottom lip was still quite swollen. But none of that detracted from his handsomeness or the attraction she felt every time she looked at him. Somehow, the injuries made him look all the more roguish, dashing, and a little bit dangerous.
Holding her shawl tightly about her as if it were a shield, she walked down the steps to meet him.
Forgetting all about a proper greeting, she asked, “What did you say to my father?”
Brent stopped, not far from her, and folded his arms across his chest. The side of his mouth that wasn’t swollen lifted, forming a half grin that stirred the persistent butterflies in her stomach. Suddenly she was filled with hope once again. Would such a strong and commanding man as he agree to marry her after what she had done to him?
“What’s this?” he asked, his eyes almost caressing her. “Have you no enticing greeting for me this time, Lady Gabrielle? No sweet smiles to tempt me? No softly spoken words to draw me closer to you? No affectionate kiss to warm me? Must we get right to the cold, heartless business at hand as if our lips had never touched?”
Gabrielle’s breasts tightened, and her lower abdomen clenched excitedly. She felt spellbound. It surprised her how quickly and easily those same wonderful sensations that had melted through her in the park returned. Lord Brentwood was trying to seduce her right here in her own garden, with her father looking out the window.
And he was succeeding!
She swallowed hard. “Must you remind me of my lapse in sanity this morning?”
His head tilted back as if he were questioning her. “Is that what I was doing?”
“Yes, and you know it. Furthermore, you know the way I behaved was sheer madness.”
“Madness? Is that what it was?”
Yes, and that I’m feeling those same exciting sensations right now proves it!
“How can you doubt it?”
“It’s easy, because I don’t know you, Lady Gabrielle, but that is about to change.”
She lightly shook her head, and then cleared her throat and said, “All I want to do is forget we ever met. I never meant to involve you in my troubles. I’ve begged my father to leave you out of this.”
“You tried that argument on him this morning, and it didn’t work. I think we both know it was too late for that the moment your lips met mine.”
“Do you intend to remind me of that kiss every time you speak?”
That engaging half smile lifted the corner of his mouth again. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“Stop it. You know what you are doing.”
He moved closer to her. “Then tell me, what were you doing in the park this morning? Are you just a terribly spoiled duke’s daughter who was looking to have a little tryst with someone before you settled down to the drudgery of marriage?”
She blinked slowly and cautiously looked at him. She could understand why it seemed that way to him. “No, of course not.”
“Then you must have been looking for some unsuspecting gentleman to waylay so you could save yourself from a marriage you didn’t want.”
“No, you’re wrong. That’s not true either.”
Lord Brentwood quirked his head to the side as if to indicate he didn’t believe her. “Then what is, Lady Gabrielle, because I can think of no other explanations.”
She couldn’t explain it to him any more than she could explain it to her father when he asked.