Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(70)

As the silence lengthened, Georgina stood straighter. “If you don’t wish to marry me any longer, you must tell me. I simply… I couldn’t bear it if I found out later that you’d gone through with the wedding because you’re too honorable to cry off.” Her voice broke on the final phrase.

“No!” exclaimed Sebastian, horrified. “How could you imagine…? I want desperately to marry you. I love you more than anything in the world.” The profound truth of the words struck as he spoke them. He’d loved others in his life—his family, some close friends—but never like this.

Georgina was gazing up at him, wide-eyed. It seemed to Sebastian that hope and doubt contended in those green depths. He hated to see the second. He had to quell it. “At first, when we met, it was just that you are so beautiful,” he explained.

“And rich,” she suggested.

Sebastian writhed a bit at her dry tone. This could not be one of the times when he said the wrong thing, or searched unsuccessfully for words and botched a conversation. “There were other heiresses,” he said. “I mean, they pop up now and then. Every season. But not like you.”

“How not?” she asked.

“The things you said, when I asked questions, were so wise and clever.” Sebastian suddenly realized that here was a confession he could make. “Ariel suggested it, you know.”

“Ariel…your brother’s wife? She suggested you offer for me?”

“No, no. That was my idea entirely. But when I was trying to find a way to catch your attention, in that dashed crowd of fellows always jostling around you, she told me to ask questions.”

“Questions,” repeated Georgina, as if the word was new to her.

“About your opinions and…and aspirations,” he added, remembering one of Ariel’s expressions. Best to make a clean breast of this part, he decided, now that he’d begun. “She gave me some questions to start with,” he admitted. “But then she said I had to think up my own.”

Georgina looked surprised. Beyond that, he couldn’t tell. She didn’t seem angry.

“It was hard going, I can tell you. I started hanging about the brainy fellows at my club.” And hadn’t they been astonished? They’d finally assumed it was for some joke or wager.

Georgina laughed.

Encouraged, Sebastian said, “But as I kept on, one thing built on another, and it started to feel like…” He nearly panicked. Words threatened to desert him in their usual, frustrating way. Then he had it. “Like moving from a trot to a canter. Natural. And I wanted to hear what else you’d say. It was…a wonder, the way your mind worked.”

“You exaggerate,” she said, her cheeks a bit flushed.

“No, I don’t. Everyone knows you’re the clever one. I’ve no pretensions to intellect.”

“Nonsense.”

It was an opening. He could go on and tell her the rest. But she was looking at him with such tenderness. He couldn’t risk losing that.

“I didn’t start to fall in love with you because you asked questions,” said Georgina then.

Had she said “fall in love”?

“That began when I noticed that you really listened to what I said in reply.”

She had said it, hadn’t she?

“Most men simply endure a woman’s remarks, you know, waiting for us to stop talking so that they can enjoy the sound of their own voices once again.”

“Did you say ‘fall in love’?” Sebastian finally managed.

Looking suddenly less certain, Georgina nodded.

“You can love a slowtop like me?”

“You constantly underestimate yourself, Sebastian. You must stop it. Of course I can. And do.”

This was breathtaking, astonishing. By some magic, he’d won not just her hand but her love as well. He swept her into his arms. Or perhaps she threw herself into them. The movement was so mutual that it wasn’t clear. The kiss that followed burned with passion, ached with tenderness, and dizzied with a new element that was far more than both.

Kiss followed kiss. Hands roamed, and bodies arched and strained. And then Georgina was sitting on the edge of the billiard table, and he was standing between her knees, pushing up her skirts. “Wait,” Sebastian said, panting. “We must stop this.” He started to step back.

“No, we must not!” Georgina commanded, pulling him closer.

“Someone could come in,” he said.

“No one ever comes here.”

“Randolph and I did,” he pointed out.

“No one else.”

“He knows I’m in here.”

“He won’t return, not after the look I gave him.” She smiled and tugged Sebastian nearer.

He was torn between raging desire and the need to protect her. “What if your father wanted those papers? Or Hilda? She seems to pop up just when she’s least wanted.”

“Drat Hilda.” But Georgina frowned. “Oh, Sebastian, I want you so,” she whispered.

“Wait.” Sebastian strode over to the double doors. They had locks, but no keys. He looked around, found two small gilt chairs in a corner, and jammed one under each knob. They wouldn’t hold under a determined assault, but they’d certainly give warning if anyone tried to enter. “You should have a silken bower,” he said when he returned to his love.