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“Who says I want you now?” He smiled down at her.
Georgina looked down at his chest. The words hurt her more than she wished.
“Tell me, did it amuse you? Avoiding me as you did? Refusing to even allow me to speak to you? Taking tea with my sisters or playing cards with Tony, all the while knowing you’d given birth to my child?”
“How do you know he’s yours?”
His eyes glittered like sapphires. Such beautiful eyes. So full of disgust for her.
“Others may assume you to be something of a lightskirt, but I know you are not, Georgina. I suspect the necklines and outrageous behavior,” he said, “are merely punishment. First, for your parents—I suppose that’s what got you into enough trouble to wed Masterson. A riverboat gambler, I’ve heard.” He gave a careless shrug. “Your poor behavior continued because London didn’t welcome you, and why should they, given your pedigree and waspish tongue? Lastly me, of course. I was never only your friend, Georgina. I always meant to have you. But I called you a shiny bauble and was treated to displays of you flaunting your breasts at Elysium for any man to admire them.” He pulled her close against his chest. “But there were no other lovers.”
Georgina pressed her lips together. When he laid things out in such a way, she sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. “Not in London, perhaps.”
Leo’s fingers dug into her waist at her taunt. “I might never have known I had a child.”
“Whom you didn’t want.”
“If Marcus Barrington hadn’t left me a deathbed confession. How he owed a debt to Masterson, of all people, and in trying to be a better man, had found a friendless widow he could help.”
Georgina stumbled, her toe catching in her skirts. Leo let her nearly fall before he caught her. Marcus Barrington had been so kind to her. Helped her. And now he was dead, probably despising her for her deception as much as his son did.
“Oh, you didn’t know? The Duke of Averell is dead.Marcus. Tony is now the duke and very much alive. That was the news the messenger from Cherry Hill brought to me the last time we saw each other, when I was trying”—his grip tightened, and she struggled—“to mend things between us.”
“You asked me to be your mistress. Hardly mending, Leo, dooming me to the same sort of existence your mother had.”
Leo’s jaw hardened, but he kept the smile on his lips. “I did not, Georgina.” He spun her again. “You havenoidea what I meant to say because youleft.” He spat out the word as if it were poisoning him.
“I had to leave. I was going home to New York.”
“Where you had conveniently sent my child.”
“Yes. I didn’t want Harold to know. He’d threatened me and—youwould have sent me to some apothecary.”
Leo swung her around again. There was nothing graceful in his movements now, only a simmering hostility. “You knew what you were to me. Youknew. And you didn’t tell me. You left.”
“Yes.” A decision she’d regretted the moment she was on theBetty Sue. “I made a decision.”
“Decisions. Ones you took upon yourself to make for both of us. I know why you kept our child a secret from Haroldand the rest of London.But not me.” The rasp of his voice had gone raw. Broken.
“Leo—”
“I do not hold myself blameless. My own”—a deep ugly sound came from him—“behaviorleaves much to be desired. But you meant to keepthisfrom me for the entirety of my life.”
Georgina didn’t answer. Couldn’t. She stared at Leo’s chest. Counted the buttons on his very plain waistcoat. She’d hurt him, far worse than she could ever have imagined. How wrong she’d been about everything. Especially him. Looking out of the corner of her eye, Georgina saw Ben watching them. He didn’t look surprised to see her dancing with Leo.
Because Ben knew Leo was in New York.She supposed their earlier conversation had been meant as a warning. Yet another man who couldn’t bother to be direct.
“I thought it would be better if you didn’t know,” she finally said, wanting him to understand. “I thought I was doing you a kindness in not telling you.”
His chin snapped back to her. “Howdareyou decide such a thing for me.”
She couldn’t get a deep breath, though she tried. Her corset was too tight, squeezing her heart with such force, Georgina thought she might well faint. What could she possibly say?
Once again, I am the architect of my own disaster.
She tried to pull away, but he held her firm, clearly unconcerned that the other dancers were casting curious looks in their direction. The blue of his eyes fell down between her breasts, searing her with one look. Leo wasn’t prone to losing his temper. Or at least, he hadn’t been.
He leaned in again, his nose brushing against her temple, inhaling deeply. “I amsovery angry with you, Georgina.”
