“No!” Lilah gasped, appalled.
“Oh yes.”
“Oh dear,” she said with a chuckle. “You have had a terrible time of it, haven’t you?”
He sighed. “It’s still better than the violent rows she and my mother had. The two have never understood one another.” He looked up at the sky and his tone turned wistful. “I had hoped she and Lord Loughton might get along.”
Given his reaction to tonight’s debacle, Lilah had begun to wonder the same thing. Loughton had been amused rather than appalled and still determined to pursue Clara. “I shouldn’t count him out yet.”
“I count on nothing these days,” he returned. “One year ago, my father was outside lifting stones to rebuild a fence. He was strong as an ox.”
And now he was gone. “I’m sorry,” Lilah said. There wasn’t much else she could say except that, especially as they were now nearing her home.
“So am I,” he said sadly. Then he looked up. “This is your home, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Thank you for walking me here. It was very kind of you.”
He nodded as he looked at her. His expression was in shadow, his eyes even more so, and yet she felt the intensity of his regard nonetheless.
“I would welcome you at any time to my house,” he said. “You are a good friend to Clara.”
He had no true way of knowing that, but she accepted the statement because it was true. “I enjoy her company very much.”
He was silent, and though it made her heart speed up, she did not move an inch. His attention was too sweet.
“I am sorry for how abysmally you were treated last Season,” he said.
She smiled. “My lord, we have been apologizing to one another the entire walk. Your loss and my unfortunate parentage are matters of fact.” She searched the shadows for the particulars of his expression. “There are surely more fruitful ways we can spend our time.”
His head tilted slightly. “I spend most of my time trying to change the world, Miss Rees. It has been enjoyable to merely talk with you about it.”
She smiled and she waited. She wasn’t even sure for what. She felt his eyes on her face and the tension in his arm where she still rested her hand. She would have moved it away, but he gripped it with his free hand even as he looked at her.
Was he thinking of kissing her? Because she was certainly remembering their last kiss. She’d nightly relived the press of his mouth on hers, the feel of his body supporting hers, and the thrust of his tongue. As always, her breath caught at the memory, and she heated inside. Her belly went liquid, her breasts became heavy and tight. And it was made all the more intense because he was looking at her, leaning toward her, and yet he held himself back.
Her lips parted, desperate to feel his touch again. She heard his breath catch, and then he spoke with a gravelly voice that rubbed along her spine in the most delicious ways.
“You are my sister’s friend,” he said.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Only a cad would abuse that trust.”
Hewasthinking of kissing her! She was sure of it. She felt the yearning in them both, here in the shadows of the street where no one could see them.
“I understand that you won’t marry me,” she whispered. “But I wouldn’t mind another kiss. I wouldn’t mind it at all.”
He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. His touch was electric, leaving a trail of tingles in his wake. Then he rolled his thumb gently across her lower lip, and she felt it swell against him, especially as he dipped inside. Just for a moment. And her breath caught on a gasp.
“I cannot damn another for abusing you,” he said, “and then trifle with you myself.”
“Even if I allow it?” Even if sheaskedfor it?
His fingers continued to skate across her face. Not just her lips, but her cheeks and even the tip of her nose. It was as though he were memorizing the shape of her, and the feel of it was more intimate than any kiss could be. She stood breathless as he touched her, while her heart beat so fast.
Was this how he made love? she wondered. With slow touches that burned in a delicious kind of agony?
He kept at it. He caressed the curve of her ear and slid down to the slope of her neck. She tilted her head to feel more, and she dared herself to step into his arms. She could take the kiss from him. And yet she was frozen where she stood, feeling every inch that he touched as if it were newly alive.