Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(30)

Possibly because to him, that was what she was?

Not his lover.

Certainly not the woman he loved.

Merely another woman he had dallied with to satisfy his lust.

Pru could not and would not accept being dismissed from Titus’s life with such cold disregard to her own feelings.

Admittedly, Titus had said they had been living in a fool’s paradise before her parents arrived home, but she had believed that to be because of her parents’ presence. But if Titus had decided their liaison was completely at an end, then she at least deserved to have him tell her that to her face, rather than be forced to accept it because of Titus’s sudden and continued absence from her life.

Pru came to a decision. “I am going out in the carriage for a while, Mother.”

The countess’s brows rose. “Are you taking Mary with you?”

Her mouth firmed. “No.”

Her mother nodded after a brief pause. “Very well. But have a care, darling. Romney is not a man to be trifled with.”

“He is the one that has trifled with me and my affections,” Pru defended, not at all surprised her mother had guessed where she was going.

Her mother sighed. “I thought as much. He is…much older and more sophisticated than you, darling.”

Pru gave a snort in recollection of the conversation she’d had with Titus on the same subject. “He has assured me that with maturity comes experience.”

“Has he, indeed,” her mother mused. “In that case, you had best go and remonstrate with him for his tardiness toward you today.”

Pru stepped forward to give the older woman an impulsive hug. “He is the one for me, Mother. I know it as surely as night follows day.”

Her mother smiled. “And when my Pru sets her heart on something, woe betide anything or anyone who gets in her way.”

She gave a beaming smile. “Exactly.”

Her confidence did not last for long, however, once she was seated in the family carriage. Her cloak was wrapped securely about her shoulders and covering the fact she was no longer wearing the black gown she had worn to the funeral earlier but had changed into a fashionable blue gown which perfectly matched the color of her eyes. Let Romney try to ignore her when her shoulders were completely bare and her full breasts were tumbling temptingly over the low neckline of her gown.

“The viscount is not receiving visitors,” the butler answered loftily in answer to Pru’s request to see Titus.

Her gaze sharpened. “Is he ill?” Titus had not seemed discomforted at the funeral earlier today, but that did not mean he was not suffering for the activity now so soon after being shot.

“Not at all, my lady,” the butler assured coolly. “He has simply left instructions he is not at home to visitors this afternoon.”

Not at home to all visitors, Pru wondered, or just her? Had he… Could Titus have dared to tell his butler to refuse her admittance if she should call?

Anger, strong and acidic, rose to the back of her throat as she pushed her way past that gentleman and into the entrance hall. “Where is he?” she demanded of the stunned butler.

“I— Well, really— I cannot allow—”

“I will make sure to tell his lordship of your valiant attempt to refuse me entry,” Pru dismissed. “Is he in the library? His study? His study.” She nodded confirmation as the butler’s gaze widened slightly at her second guess. “You will see we are not disturbed,” she instructed before striding toward the hallway where she knew Titus’s study to be.

She faltered only slightly when she reached the closed study door before straightening her shoulders and entering the room. She’d already barged her way into the house, and she saw absolutely no point in politely knocking to gain entry to Titus’s study.

“What— Pru?” Titus was more than a little startled at the suddenness with which she had appeared in the room with no announcement or prior warning.

Although perhaps he should not have been. Pru had made the anger she felt toward him more than clear earlier today with but a single glare across the church in his direction. An anger he knew he fully deserved.

It had been sheer bloody torture not to contact, see, or be with Pru since he’d left Germaine House. The wrist of his right hand actually ached from the amount of times he had pleasured himself merely from thinking about her. To have her here now, in the flesh—Good God, in an abundance of flesh, he corrected as she removed her cloak to reveal bared shoulders and the tops of her plump breasts—required more willpower to resist than he possessed.

“Stay exactly where you are,” she ordered as he pushed his chair back on its casters with the intention of rising. She turned briefly to lock the study door before moving farther into the room.

Titus remained seated, not because he had been instructed to do so, but because his cock had become instantly hard and throbbing the moment he looked at Pru. “You should not have come here,” he warned gruffly as she came to stand between him and his desk.

“You have not come to me,” she bit out accusingly.

Having reached out to grasp her bare shoulders to hold her at bay, he now groaned at the feel of that warm and silky flesh beneath his palms and fingers. “Because I cannot.” He scowled. “Because—” Titus had intended shaking her to emphasize his point, and instead, he only succeeded in jiggling her breasts until they literally spilled over the top of her blue gown, the deep rose nipples as plump as the raspberries they resembled. “Good God…” he groaned desperately, his gaze riveted on those lush and beautiful breasts.