A knowing smile curved her lips. “Ye kissed him!” She spurted out.
“Shh!” Clarissa shushed. “And I didna.”
Gwen pointed at her. “Och, ye canna deny it. I ken that look,” she giggled. “Dinna fash. I willna tell your brother.”
She relaxed. “Nicholas would be most unhappy.”
“Aye, but what he doesna ken willna hurt him.” Gwen yanked on her hands and pulled her to a sitting position. “How was it?”
“What?”
“Dinna be so secretive. I want all the details.”
Clarissa laughed. “I didna realize ye were so interested in gossip.”
“Dinna be silly. ’Tis no’ gossip when ’tis my sister-in-law. And since he kissed ye, I imagine whatever was upsetting ye last night and this morn has been cleared.”
She nodded with a smile. “Aye. A silly misunderstanding. I thought Alexander had done something that was unbecoming and involved me. I mean, aye, the conversation I heard was about me, but Alexander defended me. I thought he hadn’t.”
Gwen looked confused but didn’t ask for further clarification.
She stood up, sweeping around the room. “I dinna ken what it was, nor do I need to ken. But I have to say, knowing Alexander as I do. I canna imagine him not defending ye. I have a fun day planned for us. Let us get ready and leave these men to do whatever it is they do when they get together.”
Clarissa smiled. No longer dreading having to go out.
*
After breakfast, andonce Clarissa and Gwen had left for town, the men decided to leave as well to a gentlemen’s club.
Alexander was looking forward to the distraction after what had transpired in the hallway with Clarissa. He could still taste her on his lips. The act was selfish. But he found as she looked at him with her big brown eyes that he couldn’t resist her.
The kiss was spur of the moment and shouldn’t have happened. He’d completely gotten lost in the feeling of her body pressed up against his. The taste of her mouth, her skin.
He sighed. Clarissa had done the right thing by pushing him away, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
At least one of them could keep a straight head in such a stolen moment. If she hadn’t, he would have gladly continued on, trailing his kisses down her neck, her collarbone, lower to the swell of her breasts, then lower still.
Shite. He rubbed his face with his palms, trying to scrub her memory away. But nothing could clear the vision of her hooded eyes and swollen lips from his mind.
“What has ye so knotted up, Alexander?” Finlay asked. “’Tis as if ye are walking a tight-rope.”
Alexander shook his head. “’Tis naught,” he answered stiffly, not wanting to discuss Clarissa.
“Mayhap we can find ye a circus,” Finlay added with a chuckle.
Nicholas sent a glare his way as they approached the building.
Pulling open the door of the club he let the others enter and then followed on their heels. The smell of cigar and tobacco smoke ebbed over him as he scanned the room looking for an open table that would keep them out of earshot of everyone else.
He walked through the crowd, dipping his head in greeting at a few men he recognized. Glasses clinked together and an echo of cheers went up from one group, celebrating an occasion.
Picking a table on the far side of the club, he pulled a heavy wooden chair from another table close by so they would each have a seat. As they waited for the barmaid to take their drink orders, they surveyed the room.
The crowd was light at this time of day, and the men that were here were all engrossed in their own conversations and celebrations to pay them any mind.
Most importantly, Alexander didn’t see Kitt anywhere in sight. Which was lucky for Kitt. If the louse had dared show his head in here this morn, Alexander couldn’t promise that he would be able to control his anger.
Not after what he’d put Clarissa through. He was still baffled that she would think he would actually whore her out that way. Of course, she didn’t use those words, but that is exactly what Kitt meant when he made the proposition.
