AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As he strode in, Pia swung around to face him.
She was unintentionally sexy, just like the first—and last—time they had met. A compact but curvy body was bound in a satin dress that hugged everywhere. Her smooth dark blond hair was caught up in a practical, working-glam chignon. And then there was the smooth-as-satin skin, as well as the bow lips and the eyes that still reminded him of clear amber.
Her eyes flashed at him now, just as Hawk was doing a quick recovery from being hit with all that stop-and-go sexy at once.
“C-come to find me?” Pia demanded. “Well, you’re three years too late!”
Hawk had to admire her feistiness, much as it came at his expense at the moment. “I came to check on how you’re doing. I assure you that if I’d known you’d be here—”
Her eyes widened dangerously. “You would have what? Run in the opposite direction? Never have accepted the wedding invitation?”
“This meeting comes as much of a surprise to me as it does to you.”
A little surprisingly, he hadn’t caught a glimpse of her until she’d come upon him at the reception. Of course, he’d been among the throng of four hundred invited guests—and one decidedly uninvited one—at the church. And then everyone, including him, had been transfixed by the appearance of Easterbridge. Who the hell would have known the bride had a husband stashed away—who was none other than London’s most famous landowning marquess? But that shock had been nothing compared to the surprise of seeing Pia again…and seeing the mingled astonishment and hurt on her face.
“An unfortunate surprise, I’m sure, Your Grace,” Pia retorted. “I don’t recall you mentioning your title the last time we met.”
A direct hit, but he tried to deflect it. “I hadn’t succeeded to the dukedom at the time.”
“But you weren’t simple Mr. James Fielding, either, were you?” she countered.
He couldn’t argue with her point there, so he judiciously chose to remain silent.
“I thought so!” she snapped.
Hell. “My full name is James Fielding Carsdale. I am now the Ninth Duke of Hawkshire. I was formerly entitled to be addressed as Lord James Fielding Carsdale or simply—” his lips twisted in a self-deprecating smile “—Your Lordship, though I usually preferred to dispense with the title and the formality that came with it.”
The truth was that, back in his playboy days, he had grown used to moving around incognito simply as Mr. James Fielding—thereby avoiding tiresome gold diggers and shaking off the trappings of his position in life—until someone, Pia, had gotten hurt by his charade and his dropping out of sight without a word.
He hadn’t even been the heir apparent to his father’s ducal title until William, his older brother, had died in a tragic accident, Hawk thought with a twist of the gut. Instead, he’d been Lord James Carsdale, the devil-may-care gadabout younger son who’d dodged the bullet that was the responsibilities of the dukedom—or so he’d thought.
It had taken three years of shouldering those very responsibilities to understand just how thoughtless, how careless, he had been before, and how much damage he might have done. Especially to Pia. But she was wrong if she thought he’d avoid her. He was glad to see her again—glad to have a chance to make amends.
Pia’s face drew into a frown. “Are you suggesting that your behavior can somehow be excused because the name you gave me wasn’t a total lie?”
Hawk gave an inward sigh. “No, but I am trying, belatedly, to come clean, for what it’s worth.”
“Well, it’s worth nothing,” she informed him. “I’d actually forgotten all about you until this opportunity presented itself to confront you about your disappearing act.”
They were drawing curious stares from the kitchen staff and even some of the waiters, who were, however, too busy to linger and ogle the latest wedding spectacle.
“Pia, can we take this conversation elsewhere?” Hawk pointedly glanced around them. “We’re adding to the events of a day that only needs a little push to tip it over into melodrama.”
“Believe me,” she retorted, “I’ve been to enough weddings to know we’re nowhere near melodrama. Melodrama is the bride fainting at the altar. Melodrama is the groom flying to the honeymoon by himself. Melodrama is not the bridal consultant confronting her loutish one-night stand!”
Hawk said nothing. He was more concerned for her sake than his, anyway. And she was probably right. What was another scene in a day full of them? Besides, it was clear that Pia was very upset. The wedding disruption had to be troubling her more than she cared to admit, and then there was his presence.
Pia folded her arms and tapped her foot. “Do you run out on every woman the morning after?”
No, only on the one and only woman who’d turned out to be a virgin—her. He’d been attracted to her heart-shaped face and compact but shapely body, and the next morning, he’d known he was in too deep.
Hawk wasn’t proud of his behavior. But his former self seemed aeons removed from his present situation.
Though even now, he itched to get close to her…to touch her…
He pushed the thought aside. He reminded himself sternly of his course in life ever since he’d become the duke, and that destiny didn’t involve messing up Pia’s life again. This time, he wanted to make up for what he’d done, for the gift he’d taken from her without realizing…the one she hadn’t bothered to warn him about in advance.
Hawk bent toward Pia. “You want to talk about secrets?” he said in a low voice. “When had you been planning to tell me you were a virgin?”
