“Of what?”
“I now know that the aristocracy has no good men. I have been accosted by drunkards, dismissed by the educated, and insulted by the cream of theton. But of all of them, I find you to be the absolute worst of the lot.”
She felt the shock reverberate through his entire body. He stepped back from her as if he had been struck, and indeed, she had intended such a thing. She had offered herself to him in every way possible, and during all that, he had treated her kindly as if it were the honorable thing to do, when in truth, he could not, would not see beyond the circumstances of her birth.
And that made her furious.
“You have dangled the possibility of love in front of me, you have given me hope, only to dismiss it out of hand when you finally feel something!”
He gaped at her, and then he straightened to his full height. “What I feel, Miss Rees, is simply of the body. It is not love.”
“Liar!” she snapped. “You are an honorable man, my lord. The truest I have ever met. You are not ruled by your lusts.”
“You are drunk,” he said firmly. “That is the only explanation. Damnit, Lilah, you accuse me and compliment me in the same sentence.”
Why would he not see reason? “You are not a man to be overcome by passion and yet you have kissed me—”
“You wanted me to!”
“Of course, I do. Because I feel something for you. Because you feel something for me.” She might not have a great deal of experience, but she knew it when a man was overcome by lust. And she knew when there was something more in his touch, in the way he looked at her, and in his kiss. What they shared was more than lust.
He clearly did not believe her as he shook his head. “You are an attractive woman.”
She snorted. That was how incensed she was. She made the rudest sound she knew. “There are dozens of women more beautiful than me. I will lay odds that you have never touched them as you did me.”
“You underestimate your charms.”
“You underestimate your feelings.”
She stood there then, challenging him in every way she knew how. She wanted to shake him until he realized that he felt something for her. She knew he did! Just as she was rapidly falling for him. But he stood there like a confused and stupid man, disconnected from his feelings and unable to comprehend the possibility of real feeling between them.
It made her want to scream. Instead, she turned and looked to her house just up the street. She could run there in under a minute. Then bury her face in her coverlet and sob out her frustration.
Before she could take flight, he touched her arm. He held her in place while he struggled for words. “Miss Rees. Lilah. I see you are overwrought.”
She arched her brows at him. She was incensed.
“In the morning—when you are calmer—I hope you won’t think less of yourself after tonight. Personally, I continue to hold you in the highest esteem.”
What was she to say to that? His “highest esteem” was not high enough to consider her a marriage prospect. And it didn’t begin to acknowledge the love that was growing between them. Which meant he would never recognize it, never comprehend his own feelings, and never, ever look past the difference in their social status.
“You are an idiot,” she said, speaking to herself as much as to him.
Then she curtseyed to him and took her leave. She walked slowly away at first. She wanted to hold onto her dignity. But as soon as she was out of sight, she broke out into a run. And with every step, she vowed to never think of Lord Kittrel again.
*
How dare she?
Aaron’s blood boiled, and yet even furious, he waited until he saw a lit candle in her bedroom. He wanted to see that she returned home safely.You are the worst of the lot.
What nonsense. The woman had been overcome after being inebriated. Of course, she spouted all sorts of ridiculousness. He was a man of reason, and that often upset emotional creatures like Lilah.
Aaron ground his teeth at his own lies. Lilah was the least irrational person he’d ever met, and he exposed his own failings when he cast her as such a creature. Was she the one standing in the street staring at a window? Was she the one with a painful cockstand for a woman he’d just labeled overwrought and ridiculous?
You underestimate your feelings.
Hard to underestimate the throbbing in his loins, but that’s not what she’d meant.