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“Yes.” Haven made it all sound very unappealing.
His eyes narrowed as he moved swiftly to within inches of her face before jerking abruptly away from her. Muttering to himself, Haven marched angrily in the direction of the door.
Theo held her breath. He was leaving. She could celebrate her victory in peace. Plan her future. At least, she assumed she’d won. Haven appeared to agree. It was difficult to be sure. The conversation had gone so much better when she’d imagined it in her head.
The door shut. The click of the lock met her ears.
Oh, dear.
“Can anyone hear you scream from up here?”
“I—” Good Lord. She’d forgotten about his temper.
“I thought not,” he hissed, circling her the way Theseus often did a mouse before he struck out with one large paw to end its existence.
Theo’s finger ran over the wooden end of her paintbrush. Blunt. Nothing sharp about it. As a weapon, the brush was completely useless. She watched his reflection in the window as he approached her from behind, inhaling sharply as a wall of muscled heat pressed firmly into her back.
“What are you doing?” she stuttered, alarmed at the way her skin began to hum at the contact of his body. Just as it always did.
“Proving a point.” Haven breathed her in, ruffling the hair at the nape of her neck. “Did you know I could find you in the dark, Theodosia? Most young ladies don’t smell of paint and lemons.” It sounded almost like an insult except he was still nuzzling against her ear. “Miss Emerson smells of rosewater.”
“I hope my scent acts as a repellent,” she shot back, not caring to be reminded again he had preferred Miss Emerson.
“You are not so fortunate,” he said, his breath fanning over her cheek. “I find it alluring. More tempting a scent than anything else I could imagine.” A finger trailed along the slope of her neck before pausing at her shoulder where he drew a circle. “Much like your spectacles. All that glass and gold perched on your nose is very enticing.”
Theo’s skin warmed. Stirred. “There is no need to flatter me, my lord,” she said, trying to ignore the large hand which now splayed possessively across her stomach. None of the gentlemen of her acquaintance found spectacles to be the least attractive. Haven was only toying with her. “Our marriage is already assured.”
“As I’ve mentioned before, I do not flatter.” He breathed against the back of her neck, the tip of his tongue alighting along the lobe of her ear, nibbling gently. “I haven’t the patience. I prefer a more direct approach. Honesty.”
Theo’s pulse beat wildly. A soft throb started beneath his hand, flooding down the lower half of her body. “Doesn’t it bother you that I am in love with another man?” She didn’t sound the least believable, not even to her own ears.
“Shall I show you how wrong you are?” The fingers stretched across her mid-section inched down to lay between her thighs.
Theo inhaled sharply at the intimate touch but didn’t pull away.
“What you mistake for love,” he pressed a kiss to her cheek, “is no more than girlish infatuation.”
Her heart bounced violently against her ribcage. Unable to stop herself, Theo twisted her hips back against Haven, hearing him groan at the pressure. This was why their marriage must be kept distant. This terribly wonderful torrent of physical responses which led her breasts to throb and ache, the echo of which she felt between her legs. Blythe inspired none of this. She tried to focus on him, picturing Blythe’s face as he flirted with her and failed miserably. There was only Haven.
He gently turned her chin, nipping seductively at her bottom lip. A lush, sensual kiss fell on Theo’s mouth, a plea to surrender herself to him.
A whimper erupted from her throat. Her mouth moved in tandem with his, lips opening with little protest as his tongue swept between them. Haven’s fingers slid further between her thighs, cupping her mound atop the layers of muslin she wore, pulling her roughly back against the hardness pulsing so deliberately at the curve of her backside.
Theo dropped her head against his chest with a soft moan, unable and unwilling to move away. The throbbing between her thighs intensified, rippling out across her limbs. Her hand moved down to lay on top of his, feeling the strength of his fingers as he caressed her. All her worries of their marriage, of the horrible gossip circulating about her, and, most of all, her fear, ebbed away under such a blatantly erotic onslaught.
His fingers moved deftly over her sex, the layers of her skirts only heightening the sensitivity as his mouth slanted over hers.
Theo wasn’t even sure if she was breathing any longer. Thoughts slowed. Sounds became muted.
“This is why,” he whispered against the corner of her mouth, “you will not find my bed to be a duty. Nor will you be thinking of Blythe or any other man.” He pushed her more fully against the thick hardness pressing into her backside. “Christ,” he rasped against her cheek, “can you not understand I wanted you the instant you spilled ratafia on me? Are you really so blind?”
Theo’s eyes snapped open in surprise to the view of the park before her. “I didn’t realize you saw my ruining your coat as flirtation.” There was much Theo had failed to comprehend about Haven. Their relationship was not to be as simple as she’d first surmised, but more tangled. Today was a perfect example.
“We willnotlive apart.” His teeth sank gently into the lobe of her ear. “And I intend on sharing a bed with you. Should you feel the need to take a lover, I suggest you dispense with it. I’m far better with swords and a pistol than I am often given credit for. That is my rebuttal to your ridiculous proposal.”
Haven waspossessive. Of her. That was more shocking than having him admit he wanted her.
Her fingers bit into her palms, the paintbrush she held nearly snapping in half. She felt half-dazed. Intoxicated. “I don’t like you. At all,” she whispered, knowing it wasn’t true, and he knew it.
