As the Devil Dares (Capturing the Carlisles #3)(107)
What she saw instead was incredulous curiosity. “I’m just surprised,” he explained gently.
Her throat tightened. Surely he hadn’t meant that as an insult, but when heaped on top of the other humiliations she’d experienced tonight, his words hurt. “Surprised to find me in your room?” She stuck her nose into the air with a peeved sniff. “Or surprised that I might possibly have feelings for your brother?”
“Yes,” he answered honestly, “to both.”
With an angry groan, she pushed against his chest to shove herself away.
He took her shoulders and held firm, his solid body not budging an inch. “And, frankly, that you would want Robert in the first place instead of some nice man from the village.”
She bit her lip to keep from screaming. Was that how all the Carlisle men saw her? As a silly country gel destined to marry a boring vicar or farmer and spend her life polishing church pews or chasing pigs on a farm? Was that the best they thought she could do with her life? Oh, she wanted so much more than that! She wanted adventure and excitement, a large family of her own to love, and a home right here in Islingham, surrounded by the people she loved and would do anything for. She wasn’t daft enough to think that she could marry someone of rank, like a landowning gentleman or a peer.
But the brother of a peer…
Yet if Robert thought no more of her than Sebastian did, then he would never notice her as a woman with whom he could spend the rest of his life, and everything she’d gone through tonight was a thoroughly humiliating, horrible waste of time. And money. She might as well have been placed on the shelf tonight and marked Do Not Touch, because her life as she wanted it to be was irrevocably over.
She turned her face away, blinking hard. She wanted to laugh! And cry bitterly.
“For what I did earlier,” Sebastian apologized as he sucked in a deep breath, “I am truly sorry.”
Yes, she supposed he was, now that he knew it was her and not some temptress he thought had wantonly sneaked into his room for a night of bed sport with the duke. After all, he hadn’t appeared particularly apologetic when he’d been pulling up her skirt.
He squeezed her shoulders in a gesture of friendly affection. The same hands that moments before had been caressing her naked breasts and had her liking it, that even now sent tingles through her—
“Oh God, no!” She pressed her fingers to her lips with horror at her sudden outburst—and even more horror at herself for liking the way he’d touched her. Sebastian of all men!
“Pardon?” He frowned, bewildered at her behavior.
“I mean, no apology is necessary. It was nothing.” She stepped back, and this time he let her go. “A mistake, that was all. And I would greatly appreciate”—another step away, because if she kept putting steps between them she could reach the door and flee into the hallway before the tears overtook her—“if you would kindly keep what happened here tonight a secret.”
“Of course,” he agreed solemnly.
Embarrassment burned her cheeks. “I mean it, Sebastian. If you tell anyone, especially Robert or Quinton, I’ll…I’ll…”
“You’ll do what?” he challenged at her weak attempt at a threat and lowered his head to bring his eyes level with hers. Drat the man for being so tall! And so…duke-like.
She boldly stuck up her chin as inspiration struck and blurted out, “I’ll tell your mother what really happened to that Chinese vase your father gave her for Christmas!”
For a moment he stared at her blankly, simply unable to fathom her. Then his eyes narrowed, as if he were sizing up an opponent in Parliament instead of the annoying gel from next door, and he drew himself up to his full height…So very tall. Odd, how she’d never noticed that about him before. Or how much more solid that very tall body was than Robert’s, or how his golden hair fell rakishly across his forehead and made her want to brush it away.
It was amazing, the details a woman noticed about a half-dressed man after he’d had his mouth on her.
“Do we have an agreement, then?” she pressed.
A lopsided threat at best—her reputation for a vase that had met its shameful demise years ago during a secret spread that the brothers had thrown while their parents had been away in London. But his mother had loved that vase, and Miranda wasn’t afraid to use it to her advantage.
“Agreed,” he said.
Thank God! She turned toward the door, taking a deep breath to run—
He reached over her head and pressed his hand against the door to keep her from flinging it open. “Wait.”
Wait? Her heart skipped, then thudded so hard in her chest that she winced. The infuriating man was also terribly cruel…Wait?
When she looked over her shoulder at him, she thought she saw his gaze dart up from her breasts. But that was impossible. Sebastian wouldn’t be looking down her dress like that, not now. Now when he knew who she was…would he?
But when he reached back for the jacket he’d tossed over the chair and held it out to her, she rolled her eyes, feeling like an absolute cake. Oh, he’d been looking at her breasts all right…and pondering a good way to hide them.
“Best not to be seen sneaking out of my room, Lady Rose,” he cautioned. “In that dress.”
She slipped on the jacket, and knots tightened low in her belly when she breathed in the scent of him wafting up from the superfine material. She bit back a defeated groan. Of course he would have to smell good.