She pushed his hands away.Another?Her face heated again. All Cassandra wanted to do was sleep.
“Not tonight,” she said pointedly, repeating his words. After a moment, she asked, “Could it really be done for an entireday?”
A wolfish grin crossed his face, and he lowered his mouth to hers. “Oh yes. We’ll work you up to it.” He grinned even wider. “But not tonight.”
She closed her eyes and nodded, but…
“What about you?” She looked down to see him straining against his trousers. “Would you like… I mean… is there something I could do…?”
“I’ll be fine. You’re exhausted sweetheart. All I want is to hold you.” Moving to the head of the bed, Seth brought the covers up around them and laid down on his back, easing her into the cradle of his arms. Sated, beginning to feel cold, she wrapped one arm around him and rested her head on his chest. Burrowing into his shirt, she frowned. It hardly seemed fair that he had seen her body, but she couldn’t see his. She wanted to run her hands along his back, skin to skin, to have him bare before her and make him unravel, as she haddone.
“Later?” she asked.
“Soon,” he promised.
For some time, they lay there, not saying a word. After the concert concluded, all she heard was rain against the windows and the rustling of silk as Seth ran his fingers through her hair. He kissed her temples, her cheekbones,flirting, she realized, when he kissed the tip of her nose. As her eyelids became heavier, his touch became softer, and then stopped. He gave her one more kiss before releasing her and turned to leave.
“Seth,” she whispered.
He paused.
“Can you stay?”
He kept his back to her as he considered the question.
“You know I can’t.”
“Please,” she breathed, longing to be held by him for a little while longer.
Seth yawned and repositioned himself. “Only until you fall asleep.” He wrapped his arms around her. Lulled by his heartbeat and the steady rise and fall of his chest, surrounded by his scent and warmth, sleep tugged at her once more.
When she woke, he was gone.
Chapter Nineteen
“—singed up to my ears!” Cooper made long sweeping gestures with his hands around his head in a poor imitation of a fire. “If Reeves hadn’t been so quick with a pail of water, I might have been bald for life! He needn’t have dropped the pail on my head, though. Rather unsporting.”
“You’re welcome.” Seth smirked.
The open-aired Landau carriage trudged a slow pace through ground still damp from the previous night’s rain, but the sun shone through a cloudless afternoon sky. It had been ages since Seth last went to the Ringwood Harvest Festival, and never with such lovely company. Facing forward, Cassandra sat between him and Cooper. Her pastel pink bonnet obscured her face from view. On the opposite bench sat Mr. Sanderson, Lady Jasmine, and in the middle, Trevor—who hitched a ride to see his mother in town.
Cooper had Lady Jasmine laughing for most of the ride, with Cassandra annoyed with her brother’s antics on principle. Squeezed against Seth from his knee to his shoulder, the rocking of the carriage occasionally brought her closer. He struggled to keep his thoughts clean with her body pressed to his, his nose teased with the lavender scent of her hair, herskin.As she turned her head, he could see the full expanse of her throat, pale, elegant, and he longed to place his lips there again.
Unable to tend to his own needs while laying in bed with her thenight before, he was goingmadwith want. It took unbelievable restraint to fight his instincts to take, to claim, to make her his in truth. Now that he knew Cassandra wanted him—and how it felt to have her under his body, half-naked, and thesounds—blazes, he needed to get it together!
Seth repositioned his legs uncomfortably and tried to think sobering thoughts.Downtown London… the war… Lord Bolderwood.That last thought was like a pail of cold water poured overhisburning hair. Seth knew the man well enough to know he didn’t bluff. The best course of action would be to get ahead of him, control the narrative, and confess to Cooper first.
Well. Maybe noteverything, but certainly his intentions.
A long courtship would be impossible to endure. No, he would dispense with it altogether and ask for Cassandra’s hand. He wanted the freedom to take her to events alone, with no chaperon watching their every moment to make sure he didn’t misbehave.
Sethwantedto misbehave.
As the carriage wheel hit another bump in the road, Cassandra briefly balanced her hand against his knee in a touch that seemed accidental, but Seth knew better. A corner of his mouth lifted.
Maybe Cassandra wanted to misbehave too.
Lady Jasmine studied him with a raised brow.
