Page 101 of The Seduction of an English Scoundrel

She sighed and opened her eyes to stare up at his hard candlelit face, both of them finally unmasked, the last of their secrets revealed. She gave a sigh of surrender. “I’d say it was well past time.”

Chapter 24

She sat at the dressing table, wrapped again in her robe, the glass of burgundy he had given her in her hand. Her prosecutor paced before her chair, dressed only in his black evening breeches. He pushed his rumpled blond hair back from his face. His expression was intense, yet absent of the anger she had anticipated.

“You did not love Nigel,” he said slowly, as if struggling to piece together a puzzle. “He did not love you, harder still to understand. But countless other couples are forced by their families into arranged marriages. The two of you might have carried on affairs after your wedding.”

She shot him a chastising look. “Your way, perhaps. But Nigel loved Esther, and she was carrying his child. I did not expect you to understand sacrifice. Or what it feels like to be a woman forced to share her life with a man she does not love.”

“It is true,” he said, stopping to stare at her, “that I do not understand what it feels like to be a woman. I do understand, however, your reluctance to commit yourself to a marriage without passion.”

“Oh, Grayson,” she said with a soft sigh. “It really does not make me feel better that you have decided to be so reasonable.”

He hesitated, looking vulnerable and hurt.

“What I really do find hard to understand,” he said, balancing his hands on the table to brace her between his arms, “is why you deceived me.”

“I’m not sure exactly how it happened,” she said quickly. “The situation between you and me just somehow evolved, and before I knew it, things had gotten beyond explaining. It’s not as if I deliberately misled you. One thing led to another, and then, all of a sudden, I . . . I had fallen in love with you.”

He stared at her, steely-eyed, the vulnerability hidden again.

“And,” she continued, “you kept making me out to be such a paragon, playing up my virtues until I was dying inside with shame.”

“A paragon did not tie me to that bed, Jane,” he pointed out.

“No,” she said with a rueful nod, “a very wicked woman did.”

“I have told you I admire your wickedness. What were you hoping to prove by seducing me anyway?”

“I found out about the marriage contract. That this mistress nonsense was all a sham to discipline me.”

He almost smiled. “Ah.”

“ ‘Ah.’ That is all you have to say for yourself?”

The familiar arrogance returned to his face. “We will be married, Jane. What more is there to say?”

“I refuse to be bullied into another wedding,” she said.

“What do you want?” he asked curiously, not doubting for one moment that the matter had already been settled and his will would prevail. He hadn’t come this far, hadn’t countered her strategy to admit defeat.

She took a breath. “I want to be courted.”

Courted. Was that what she had said? he wondered in amazement. Dear heaven, how enigmatic were the workings of the female mind. Especially this female. Courted.

“What the blazes do you think I’ve been doing these past two weeks or so?”

“Grayson, if you do not see the difference between a courtship and a seduction, then I do not know what to say.”

He threw up his hands, laughing helplessly. “I have never spent so much effort on a woman before.”

She shook her head. “You make courting me sound like—like an ordeal.”

“Well, there were times.”

“Will anyone ever let me decide whom and when I am to marry?”

His smile smoldered with confidence. “You are marrying me, Jane. That part has been decided. As I recall, you have already proposed to me. You can go ahead and buy me a wedding ring if you like.”