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Morgan slowly nodded. Rather than keep his distance until she allowed him closer, he gathered her into his arms. His gaze remained locked on hers. He studied the darkened depths of her lambent gaze and knew that she felt the growing awareness shimmering between them too. It was reassuring to note that he wasn’t alone with the feelings that were pummelling him. It was evident in her soft sight, her ready acquiescence when he slid his arms around her, and in the way she met his kiss when he lowered his head toward hers.
The second his lips slid across hers everything changed. The kiss ignited a wave of passion that built into an inferno within seconds. Neither of them could escape it, even if they had tried which they didn’t. Neither of them could move, would move, would deny themselves this hedonistic delight. Nothing could tear them apart, not doubts, intrusion of any kind, even their own worries and fears for the future. Hands scoured dips and hollows, seeking to memorise the touch and feel of the other. Lips mated as bodies pressed closer together. Hearts pounded as melodically as the birds sang in the trees. Neither Morgan nor Sissy heard them. Neither of them heard anything but the roar of the need that deafened them to the world around them.
If they had been listening they would have heard the excited chatter of a group of people approaching. They would have been able to break apart and be standing at a more decorous distance from each other when that party of guests rounded the corner of the privet. But they didn’t and they were caught in a passionate clinch.
The first thing to register on Morgan’s senses was the not-so-discrete cough. His head snapped up with a muffled curse. That curse turned into a low moan of dread when he saw Mariette standing amongst her friends, who were all either tittering or smirking as they studied both him and Sissy.
‘What in the Hell do you think you are doing?’ Mariette demanded loudly.
Morgan threw her a malevolent glare. ‘I could ask you the same question, Mariette. I do believe you have been told to stay off my property.’
Mariette glared at him, clearly outraged at being put in her place in front of her friends. ‘I didn’t realise it was because you wanted to entertain your mistress.’
‘Sissy is not my mistress,’ Morgan growled. ‘And I should thank you to speak to me with more respect. Get your friends out of here.’
He released Sissy only when he could be sure that she wasn’t going to run off and get herself even more lost than they already were.
‘Good on you, my old man,’ one of the guests piped up. ‘It is up to you if you want to entertain the local doxy in your maze. At least it isn’t in the house, eh?’
‘Shut up,’ Morgan growled. ‘Sissy is not a doxy, my mistress, or a harlot before any of you get any more insulting. Get out of here, all of you. This is private property. Mariette was wrong to give you the impression that you were free to avail yourself of it.’
‘No, I think that you are availing yourself of enough for free, apparently,’ another of the guests murmured with a spiteful look at Sissy.
Sissy, thoroughly humiliated, turned around and ran. She had no idea where she was going. Behind her, she could hear muffled laughter fade but didn’t stop even when she was out of sight. Instead, she ran and ran, crashing into the privet walls of the maze blindly as tears streamed down her face.
Morgan cursed but didn’t go after her. He knew she couldn’t get out without help. She had inadvertently headed straight toward the centre of the maze. It was going to take an age to find her, but for now he knew that she wasn’t going anywhere until he had the chance to talk things through with her.
And we are going to talk, just as soon as I have dealt with my spiteful sister.
‘I don’t care what any of you think you are doing here this is private property and none of you are welcome on it. Get out of this maze. Now. Keep your spiteful opinions to yourself while you leave. None of you have any right to be so offensive to anybody on my property. I don’t care what Mariette says, I own the Dowager House as well, and none of you are welcome to remain there either now. Summon your carriages and get off my property. Don’t any of you ever come back.’
‘You cannot do that,’ Mariette protested coldly.
Morgan rounded on her and leaned forward until they were almost nose-to-nose. When he spoke, his voice was nothing more than a low snarl of rage. ‘I can do what I damned well like on my own property and I don’t need permission from you. Now shut up, get your – associates – off my land and out of my Dowager House, and don’t any of you ever insult my fiancé like that again or I shall have to make sure that a few of your skeletons get rattled out of your closets.’
Morgan then turned to Mariette’s guests. He raked the man closest to him with a dour look. ‘Like you and your opium addiction.’ He speared an elegant blond woman with a spiteful look. ‘Like you and that lover of yours who is three times your age but that is acceptable because he is wealthy and able to pay for things you cannot afford seeing has your purse has run dry.’ He ignored her outraged gasp and glared at a furious Mariette. ‘Like you and your spendthrift ways, which are now so appallingly greedy you don’t mind helping yourself to the contents of my coin pouch when you think nobody is watching. Do that again, Mariette, and I shall have you arrested for theft.’
Morgan stepped back and pointed to the gap in the hedge behind them. ‘Now get out of here and don’t come back.’ He didn’t bother to wait to see if they complied with his order. He was so angry he wanted to punch something but contented himself with trying to find the woman who mattered more to him with each passing day instead.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘Morgan?’
Morgan cursed when he heard his mother’s voice. He glanced over his shoulder just as he was about to turn the corner and looked at both his mother and Norma. He didn’t need to ask them if they had heard every word. The truth was written on their faces.
‘I told you to get Mariette’s rudeness under control,’ he growled at Alicia.
Alicia glared at her daughter. ‘Oh, believe me I will.’
‘My behaviour,’ Mariette cried. ‘Oh, that’s rich coming from him. He has just been caught in a passionate clinch with his doxy.’
‘Hush your mouth, girl,’ Alicia snapped. ‘Sissy is not a doxy.’
‘She is to be my future wife,’ Morgan growled, interrupting before Mariette could say anything else demeaning. His challenging gaze met his sister’s. ‘Say anything else, one more word, Mariette, and I shall cast you off without a penny. You shall be thrown out on your ear this very night and that is not a warning.’
Mariette snorted. ‘You won’t do that.’
‘Really? Then consider yourself cast out. You are to collect your belongings from the Dowager House, leave with your friends, and don’t come back,’ he declared coldly.
