‘I might have suspected some such thing,’ Jack admitted. ‘You can hardly blame me for it. In most instances, that is precisely what your sudden interest in a tête-à-tête would mean. But I can see that is not the case. Perhaps, if you were to lay down your weapon, you might accept my parole. I am sure we could discuss your reasons for this meeting without the threat of violence. If I have done something to upset you, I would be only too happy to apologise.’ At length, and with as much physicality as their inevitable discovery would permit.
He smiled in anticipation. The folly she’d lured him to was still within earshot of the house. One overloud shriek of delight and they would be found out. Her reputation would be ruined. And he would offer nobly, albeit with proper resignation, for her lovely white hand. If he could just coax her out of her pistol, the end of hostility would mean the beginning of seduction. Stitching together the tatters of her innocence for a church wedding would be far preferable to mending a hole in his coat or body.
She stared back at him, large green eyes narrowed in scepticism. ‘If I give up the gun, what would I have to protect me from your advances?’
Absolutely nothing. She blinked at him, as though she had heard his thoughts, and her mouth puckered, ready to be kissed. The moonlight glinted in her copper curls and gave a faint luminosity to her already magnificent bosom, making him wonder at the rest of the body hiding beneath her ladylike muslin gown. Such lush curves brought to mind an earthy sensuality not present in the eligible innocents he’d been courting. Though her friends might shorten Cynthia to Thea, Jack thought some variation on Cyn would be more appropriate. She was sinfully tempting and everything he desired in a bedmate. It might be quite pleasant to lose his freedom to her.
He lowered his hands a fraction, turning them palms up in supplication. ‘Is it really necessary to keep me at a distance? You must understand that, if I remain as you wish, your honour will be compromised. When we are discovered, as we well might be, I shall be forced to marry you.’
She nodded vigorously. Curls and bosom bounced in response. ‘That was precisely what I hoped,’ she said.
That was most unexpected, but it certainly saved him time in wooing. ‘Your methods for seeking my offer are rather unorthodox,’ he said, lowering his hands a little farther. ‘I will not hold them against you should we marry. I am not opposed to the institution itself and willing to entertain the proposition that there be a union between us. But I will not allow the woman I marry to bring a pistol into the bedroom.’
‘Perfectly understandable,’ she agreed. But she showed no sign of relinquishing her weapon.
‘Surely, if you are intent on having me, it will do no harm to become better acquainted before that time.’ He smiled again, his mouth watering at the thought of her excessively kissable lips.
‘I have no objection to knowing you better,’ she agreed. ‘But I am sure that it can be done across this distance.’ She took a tighter grip on the pistol.
‘Are you sure?’ He adjusted his posture to make best use of the available light and felt the moon outline his profile as he stretched a hand toward her. It was vain of him to strike such a pose, but he’d heard ladies sighing over it, often enough. And until the gun was back in her reticule, he needed all the good will he could muster. ‘There would be no risk to our sitting side by side, admiring the roses through the lattice.’ He took a deep breath. ‘The air is like perfume and the moonlight tints the blossoms with silver.’
‘I am sure they will be just as lovely after we are wed,’ she responded.
‘Which we most certainly will be,’ he assured her. ‘You have my word of that. Nothing will happen that you do not thoroughly enjoy.’ They would both enjoy it, if he was not mistaken.
‘It would not be proper.’
‘A kiss or two between a couple on the day of their betrothal is not amiss.’
The gun did not move. ‘You may kiss me once. When my parents have discovered us and can witness it.’
Damn. He had found in the past that many young ladies were curious about such things and eager to take advantage, or be taken advantage of, once they knew there was no risk of discovery. This one seemed to court disaster, as long as it was disaster delayed.
‘Once we are married, I will expect you to kiss me far more than once,’ he reminded her. ‘And do other things as well.’ He raised an eyebrow to imply wicked, but unnamed, behaviours, wondering how much she knew of them. If she was angling after some gallant union, with him sleeping above the sheet and her beneath, she was sorely mistaken.
‘You are speaking of performing the marital act,’ she said in a prim way that was all the more erotic for its frankness.
‘I do like performing,’ he admitted quite truthfully. Regular shows and matinees.
‘I have no objection to that,’ she said.
‘That is good to know,’ he said, imagining her creamy-white skin flushed pink after an acting lesson.
‘But not tonight,’ she said. ‘I must be married first.’
‘We,’ he reminded her. ‘I will be marrying as well. And, if I may ask, why have you chosen me for your groom? Not that I object, overly. I intended to marry this Season and had not fixed my affections elsewhere. But we hardly know each other.’
‘It has been difficult to attract your attention,’ she said, blinking at him again.
Which was another odd thing. He had always favoured buxom redheads. She was that in spades. If she’d made any effort at all to catch his eye, he was sure he’d have responded. With all the talk of getting her to bed, he was responding now, in an involuntary and physical way.
Then he glanced at her gun, which was still pointed at his middle, and felt the tightness in his breeches easing. ‘You have my full attention tonight. If I did not notice you before?’ He shrugged. ‘At Almack’s and the like, young ladies seem to make an effort to be underfoot and in the way. Did you express an interest in making a match with me?’
She bit her lip. ‘Until recently, I did not realise how urgent it was that I marry … you.’ There was a strange pause, as though she had only just remembered to be enamoured of him, specifically. ‘You are the catch of the Season, Lord Kenton. And I am shy in gatherings and did not know how to gain your favour, other than this. As they say, “We should be woo’d and were not made to woo”.’
‘Shakespeare?’ Jack’s heart beat iambic pentameter in time with her words. There was no quicker way to gain his attention than quoting the Bard. But she could not know him as well as that, or she’d never have lured him out in the garden. ‘And you say it is urgent that you find a husband?’
‘Oh, yes.’ She nodded again vigorously.
He stared down at her jiggling chest and had to force his mind back to the primary reason that a young lady might have for an urgent marriage. If there was a child in less than nine months, he must hope that it looked more like its mother than its father.
Spayne should have considered this and been more specific before sending Jack on this mission. He had requested a rich daughter-in-law. But he must have known that marriages resulted in babies. Considering his own past, Jack had no right to quibble about legitimacy. If Spayne was so desperate for an heir to act as he had, would it really matter if the child was Jack’s or someone else’s?
Then the moonlight cast a particularly bright beam through the lattice of the gazebo and he saw the dusting of freckles on her white shoulders, like cinnamon and sugar on a blancmange. Spayne’s possible objections could be damned along with the earl himself. A man had needs and the luscious body of Miss