“But the entrance to Hyde Park is not far. And I can hire a hackney there.”
He really had wounded her feelings, hadn’t he? “Giselle, please, just come back to the phaeton.”
“I cannot ride next to you right now, knowing you are making all these plans to … to humiliate your enemy through me. I lied to Maman for you. I … I told you my whole past, and you could not even tell me we were meeting your cousin and your brothers?”
That was a direct stab at his conscience. He began to see matters the way she was seeing them. He’d made it sound to her as if he was so proud of their new association that he’d wanted her to meet friends of his. Not the enemy he was trying to conquer by betrothing himself to her.
“I wasn’t sure they would even be here,” he said hoarsely. “I didn’t want to … to mention it because … because—”
“You might risk insulting me before we encountered them.”
“I didn’t insult you!” He dragged in a heavy breath. “Not on purpose, anyway. I was merely … taken off guard by the discovery that he’d never told them I was fighting for them. My anger took over.”
“Yes, I could tell,” she said, her voice still sounding hurt.
“Look, I know that we—” He broke off as he heard the sounds of people approaching. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, then called back to his tiger, “Stay with the phaeton!”
There was a wooded copse just there, thick with elms. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her toward it. When they were well out of sight of Rotten Row, she snatched her hand from his. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to have this argument in front of an audience.”
“Because that would not suit your purpose, would it? Word of it might reach your cousin’s ears—”
“Yes, damn it, yes!” he cried. “Do you think I like having to perpetrate a deception like this just to save my brothers? I don’t, I assure you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “It does not seem that way to me. You lie very well … to my mother, to your cousin, even to your brothers.”
“What?I did not lie to my brothers!”
“You toldthem,too, that I was your fiancée. What do you think they thought of that?”
The words hit him like a mallet. “I hadn’t even considered it,” he grumbled, angry at himself for not anticipating how they might view it, as another way he’d abandoned them.
“Well … perhaps you should have.”
She turned as if to walk back to the road, but not before he glimpsed the tears in her eyes.
He caught her about the waist, tugging her back against him. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I am truly sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She remained stiff in his arms. “One minute you are asking me questions about my life in Paris and my family, as if you really wish to know, and the next, you are letting your cousin believe I am your mistress merely so you can embarrass him.”
“I wasn’t thinking.” What else could he say?
She twisted around to place her hand on his cheek as she gazed up at him. “I understand why you would do these things—I do. Those poor, motherless boys … I know they are confused and hurt, and I can see how that woundsyou, too. But I cannot … I do not wish to be in the middle of—”
He kissed her, helpless for what to do to soothe the hurt he’d caused her. She pushed out of his arms and began to back away from him. “Heath, please, you do not mean anything by your kisses.”
“That’s not true,” he said hoarsely, pressing forward a step for every one she took back. “I mean a hell of a lot by my kisses. And for what it’s worth, Ididwish to know about your life in Paris. I do find your family fascinating, and I wouldn’t ask questions if I weren’t interested. None of that was pretend.”
She came up against an elm. “That’s what you say now,” she whispered, “but later—”
He caught her by the waist before she could escape and rested his hand on the elm just over her shoulder. This time when he kissed her, he gave her a hard, ravening kiss. He couldn’t help himself. She made him insane whenever she said he was just using her to embarrass his cousin.
Couldn’t she see hedesiredher beyond all reason? That he might not wish to do so, but every ounce of him wanted her?
He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, and after a moment’s hesitation, she let him. Then their kiss turned far more intimate. She tasted like honey and smelled like lemon cake. Both seemed appropriate since he wanted to eat her up. Her arms stole around his neck, and he pressed into her, wishing he dared take her right here against this tree.
But she deserved better than an uncomfortable, hasty screwing outdoors. So, he contented himself with toying with her lips, delving inside to tangle his tongue with hers, then plundering her mouth with increasing strokes until he couldn’t take much more.