Page 39
“You wish to marry me for one reason. No, for ten thousand and one reasons, but mostly for one. The duke will marry me because he’s infatuated, and everyone knows it. That’s an emotion celebrated by society.” She took another deep breath, because she still felt as if the room was short of air.
Rather than accept her logic, Dominic started smiling in the brash manner of men who think they know better. “You’re leaving something out of the calculation.”
“What?”
“Let’s do a test.” He moved and sat down beside her. “A scientific test. Val would approve.”
Torie scowled at him. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“I never kissed your sister. Had I tried, I would have uncovered her inclination to vomit while contemplating intimacies with me. She wouldn’t have fled to the dubious protection of Lord Bufford, because we would have mutually agreed to end the betrothal.”
Dominic wasn’t the first man to suggest that kissing was a way to prove or disprove compatibility. Torie had always refused on principle. And because she had a horror of bad breath.
Yet she could smell faint peppermint on Dominic’s breath, which suggested he used Dr. Peabody’s Solution to cleanse his teeth, just as she did. She felt a little dizzy, so perhaps all the close attention he was giving her had gone to her head. Just now, his eyes were smoldering, but not with irritation, as when she won at Riddles.
Lust, she registered. It wasn’t her first experience with male lust, but the first that her body had acknowledged. Her breathing sped up again, and a wave of heat swept down her legs.
“Kissing won’t change my mind,” she said, trying to stick to the main point. “I would still be a gossiped-about nanny.”
He frowned. “What role do you envision playing in your husband’s life?”
“I’m holding out for a love match.”
“Although you’ll drop that ambition for the title of duchess?” he said with an edge.
“Queensberry adores me, and love will come in time,” she said equally sharply. “The bride you want doesn’t resemble me.” She cleared her throat. “To put it a different way, you are planning to fight duels with your oh-so-black rapier because you are protective of your family, not because you think society’s assessment of me is incorrect.”
“I shall always be protective of my wife. You may be unable to read, but I see no reason why that fact should be repeated within my or anyone else’s earshot.”
Torie drank in the intensity of his gaze, reminding herself that her response was a reaction to novelty. Her head was spinning because Dominic looked interested in her, in her opinions and desires. It was unsettling.
Well, that and his sheer physical beauty.
But this was her future they were discussing. Her happiness. Her whole life from now on. “What were you looking for in a bride?” she asked, taking another deep breath.
She followed his gaze to her breasts. Thankfully, her morning gown had a sensible bodice, but he made his point. Apparently, her bosom qualified for spousal status. Right now, he needed help with the twins, and he liked her appearance, but what would happen in a few years?
Her deficits would sink in.
“You said that my sister fulfilled your every requirement for a wife,” she prompted.
His eyes were suddenly wary. “Yes.”
“Do I have any of the attributes you were looking for?”
She had learned a great deal about Viscount Kelbourne in the last months. He didn’t lie. He was brusque, impolite at times, but never false.
“No,” he said with obvious reluctance. “You do not.” He stood up and brought her with him. “My idea was misguided. It didn’t include this.”
“What?”
“Your appreciation of my shape, as Shakespeare had it,” Dominic said, his voice lowering to a rasp. “My body and the way it’s ‘shaped for sportive tricks.’”
Torie scowled at him. “Perhaps I too like golden-haired men.”
He shrugged. “I can wash my hair in lemons.”
She managed a wry smile, eyeing his black-as-midnight hair. “My point still stands. You’ve only changed your mind about what you want in a wife because of the twins. In the long run, you would do far better to marry someone who is your ideal. The twins will grow up and leave, and you’ll be stuck with me.” She hesitated. “I really can’t bear being a disappointment again. For the rest of my life, in the case of marriage.”
