She must not want him, need him, or love him. “I should not.”
“You want to? So say it.”
She swallowed hard on the response she should give him.
“No? Very well,” he said with only triumph in his voice. “For now, I accept that you permit me near. I cannot bear to know the reasons why you should not want me.”
She lifted her shoulders. “Is that wise?”
“Instinct often reveals more than wisdom.”
“You know this to be true?”
“Ah, yes. In the work I do, instinct is a good teacher to cultivate.”
Exactly what she should fear with him. Yet she put her trust in his high regard of her. Foolish. But true.
#
The next day, she and Halsey went riding in Hyde Park. Halsey had hired the stable hand to ride with them because Fee had begged off. His sister was instead at home receiving the young army captain, Lord Porter, home from India, whom she had met last night.
Halsey was on a gelding he boarded in a stable nearby. For Inès, he hired a mare he knew to be calm.
“You need not have asked for one so genteel,” she informed him when they walked their mounts through the gates of Hyde Park. She would show him how independent she was by nature.
“No? Why is that?”
She gave him a triumphant laugh and drove her heels into the mare’s sides, and off they went!
Minutes later, after racing her down, he took her home. In his carriage, he sat on the opposite side from her. Again.
She noted too that he did not attempt to put his hands on her in any intimate way. Her disappointment outdid her need of him. She ground her teeth.
“Giving up on kissing me, are you?” she teased him as his carriage idled in front of the Ashleys’ townhouse. Yes, she was once more angry…and hungry for his every endearment.
“Biding my time.”
She arched one brow, miffed with him. “You are waiting for me to give you a sign that we are done?”
He looked her over, toes to hat and back down to eyes once more. “Done? You mean playing this game of hide-and-seek?”
She sucked in air. “Why would you think that?”
“Because, machérie, I see when you look at me; I feel when you stand near me; I know when you breathe that you want me. Mere words cannot dissuade me, my darling. Do stop fighting this attraction. The sooner you do, the sooner we will get on.”
Chapter Thirteen
After nine o’clock the next morning, Friendly rapped on her bedroom door as if the house were on fire. He waited not a moment for her to answer, but caught her in mid-step as she approached the door.
“Lord Halsey, mademoiselle, calls upon you in the main salon.”
“Halsey?” Inèssnatched a pillow up to her chest to cover her body in her flimsy muslin night rail. In her hand, she held today’s stockings that she’d just plucked from her chest of drawers.
“Yes, miss.”
“I don’t…?” she asked in confusion. “Is Lady Ashley awake and…and have you notified her as well?”
“She is. And I did.” He fluttered his gray lashes at her and mumbled about this being an early hour, too early.
