Page 32 of A Wicked Business

Felix drew in a breath, staring down at her. “How? How will you find a way out? If you won’t run, what will you do?” he demanded, hoping she had some sensible solution to present him with. He had admired her wit and her intelligence from the beginning, so surely she had a clever plan to thwart the earl.

“Find someone to marry me before my father can,” she said with a shrug. “There are any number of men who wish to; certainly there are plenty of fortune hunters in the world. It can’t be terribly hard to track one of them down.”

Felix stared at her, wondering if he’d heard correctly. That was not at all what he had hoped she would say.

“A fortune hunter?” he repeated, horrified. “Are you out of your tiny mind?”

“No,” she said, looking calmer than she had all morning, the maddening creature. “Not in the least. They need my money, I need their name. It will be a simple exchange, a business arrangement. I have a little experience with those now. Perhaps your Mr Sampson could draw up a contract for me,” she added thoughtfully.

“The devil he will!” Felix said savagely, and she looked up at him in surprise. Truthfully, his own surprise was far greater than hers. His mouth seemed to spill out words before his brain had the chance to catch up. He really needed to stop talking before he said something that would get him into more trouble than he was prepared for. “You are not to go marrying some damned fortune hunter, do I make myself clear?”

Apparently, neither his mouth nor his brain had got the message.

Anger flickered in her eyes, and he knew he’d taken entirely the wrong tack, but the blasted woman made him crazy.

“Oh, perfectly. You want no part in my life, but you expect me to do as I’m told because you are Mr Knight, who knows everything and is never wrong. Why, yes, of course, sir. Why on earth would I not do exactly as you tell me?”

“Because you are hell bent on sending me to Bedlam,” Felix said, exasperated. Why could she not just do as he asked for five minutes so he had time to think? “I don’t mean to tell you how to live your life, Belinda, I only ask you to wait a little. To consider and—”

“Wait a little?” she retorted, glaring at him. “My father is going to announce my betrothal on the twelfth of August! And I did not give you leave to address me by my given name,” she added hotly.

Felix ignored this last, suspecting she cared as little for such niceties as he did. She was only cross and looking to tear him off a strip. “I know there isn’t long, but a woman can cry off an engagement with no shame attached. Stop this pell mell dash into the unknown, will you? There’s no need for it, just stop and think for once in your life instead of rushing headlong into another mad decision and going off half cocked.”

“I never go off half cocked,” she shot back at him, looking adorably indignant. Her blue eyes blazed and vexation coloured her cheeks and, in that moment, she was so damned lovely that he could not remain cross with her, so he laughed. Why, he could not say, except that her beautiful face was lit up with temper and she had been so drawn and weary when he first saw her today. It was such a relief to see her fly up into the boughs when she’d been so despondent earlier and, fool that he was, it made his heart lift too.

“What is funny, drat you?” she demanded, glaring at him, but Felix couldn’t answer.

He could hardly tell her that the dark blue walking dress she was wearing made the anger in her eyes burn all the brighter, that the way the gown fitted snugly around her slender waist made his fingers itch with the desire to reach for her, or that running away to Gretna with her did not seem such a terrible idea when she was standing there, hands on her hips, furious with him and looking more gorgeous than he had ever seen her before. He wondered if she had any idea how hard it was to keep his hands off her when she looked at him with such blatant admiration, when her body swayed towards his as though tugged by some magnetic force. Did she really think he hadn’t noticed? Did she think he didn’t feel it too? So instead, he laughed all the harder, and for reasons neither of them understood, she laughed too.

Suddenly they were both laughing like fools until Belinda took a shuddering breath and subsided, gazing up at him with a look in her eyes he could not mistake. There it was again, desire and longing writ large in her eyes, a vulnerable need to be held and told everything would be all right. Strong as she was, she hungered for someone of equal strength to bolster her and shore her up when she was feeling weak and weary. She wanted it to be him, he knew it, and the knowledge ate away at him.

Don’t do it, counselled a frantic voice in the back of his head. Give her your arm, nice and quiet, and escort her back to Doris.

You know it makes sense.

He did. He knew it was the sensible thing, the correct thing to do. They were both overwrought, both had tempers that rubbed the other up the wrong way. They were both headstrong and passionate and… oh, God, there was no help for it.

Felix hauled her into his arms and kissed her.