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She stiffened at his knowing tone. Georgiana had revealed that part of herself to him when she thought he was a different sort of person. One whose interest didn’t hinge on the size of her dowry. It seemed crass to allude to it now.
“I suggest you stay here for a few minutes before returning to the box,” she said as coolly as she could manage. “To prevent any further speculation.”
Georgiana did not wait for his response and instead lifted her head and returned to the hall.
Chapter Six
Long minutes passed as Henry stood in the shadowed alcove, taking in slow breaths and waiting for her floral scent to dissipate. He needed to stop touching her. Every time he did, he was transported to that night in the Harringtons’ back garden when he had put his entire heart in the hands of a girl he had considered wildly out of reach only a few weeks before.
Please say you’ll at least consider me.
It had been the pathetic plea of a lovesick young man. Henry knew there were far better men seeking her hand, including that ancient viscount, but surely he hadn’t imagined this pull between them. And he liked her family. Liked watching her take charge of her gang of siblings with a firm yet fair hand. She was the kind of woman he wanted in his life, and in any other setting, any other time, he would have proposed already. But this was a London season, and Henry was woefully out of place here.
She hadn’t given him an answer, just a long, silent look edged in sadness. Then without a word she had stepped closer and drawn her arms around his neck. Her touch set off something within him. An electric jolt he had never felt before. She was both entirely new and achingly familiar.
All these years later, Henry could still feel the press of her divine body against his. The curve of her hips under his palms, the impossible softness of her skin as he ran greedy fingers along her cheek and jaw, and how her pillowy lips had grazed his ear as she invited his touch in gasping breaths.
Henry.
She had whispered that single word with a desperate urgency that unleashed something inside him. Something he had never known existed until this moment. Henry covered her mouth with his own in a deep, searching kiss that she answered with equal passion. As she gripped his shoulders and they both sank to their knees, a wild thought came to him:
She wants you. You could take her right now.
In a moonlit garden after midnight, like some beastly man in a twisted fairy tale.
And then she would be yours.
Even if she came to regret it later, it would be too late.
But somehow he had found the strength to pull away, to do this the honorable way. So he sent her back inside even while his body cried out in protest and watched her shadowy figure disappear into the grand mansion with her taste still on his lips and his trouser legs streaked with dew and dirt.
And then he hadn’t seen her again for more than six years. Until that bright morning in Scotland when she learned of the viscount’s death and fell apart before him.
Henry tightened his grip on his cane and emerged from the alcove. He shouldn’t have let Reggie Fox talk him into coming here tonight—not that it had taken much prodding on his part. But it had been a damned foolish idea in the first place. Now Henry suspected Louisa Pendrake was behind the entire scheme. She was just as sharp—and charmingly devious—as she had been as a girl. Though she shared her older sister’s honey-colored hair and sapphire eyes, Lady Arlington was careful and calm—one might even say calculating—whereas Louisa radiated the breezy nature of a protected younger sibling.
Henry had never before considered that perhaps that had been part of his initial attraction. Like him, Lady Arlington was the eldest. That came with responsibilities both spoken and assumed. Responsibilities that likely went unnoticed by the rest of her family.
You don’t evenlikeme.
The hurt in her eyes when she had proclaimed this was surprising, though Henry was in no position to deny it. Perhaps that was difficult for a lady who seemed to charm everyone she met to accept, but hedidn’tlike her. What he felt now was only lust. It was primal. Illogical. But he would not become a fool over her once again. She had turned him down to marry for money and status. That made her spoiled. And shallow. Never mind that Henry’s own intentions when he had first come to London were not so very different from hers. But he had been prepared to give it all up for her. And it was that unfulfilled hope that had cut the deepest in the end.
As he made his way down the hall, he fielded greetings from some people he recognized and many he didn’t, including suggestive looks from more than a few ladies.
You’re one of the most talked about men in the country.
He wasn’t entirely unaware of this, but it embarrassed the hell out of him. Yet as an attractive brunette made eyes at him, Henry considered that perhaps it was time he reaped some benefits from this minor fame. He had spent these last years largely celibate. It had initially been a way to protect his shattered heart, but it felt more like a liability every moment he spent around Lady Arlington.
Then why don’t you seduce her, if thisisonly lust?
But nothing good could come of that. It would be like touching a red-hot iron simply to feel the burn.
Henry forced himself to return the smile at the brunette as he passed by, but it felt more like a grimace. He was absurdly out of practice. The woman didn’t seem to mind, though, as she dipped her head coyly and fluttered her eyelashes. He gave her a subtle nod and continued on his way. That was enough flirting for now. But as soon as he glanced up he locked eyes with another woman giving him a similar look of invitation. Henry again managed the same nod as he passed.
Lord, this might be appallingly easy. And a fair change from his disastrous attempt on the marriage mart. But then, finding a lover was an entirely different prospect. The neglected wife of an aristocrat or an experienced widow would not have the same expectations or requirements as a wife, while providing him with pleasure and a little companionship now and then to keep the worst of the loneliness at bay. That was all Henry wanted. He wasn’t capable of more.
As he entered the box, his mind still turning over the possibilities, Henry noticed that another man had joined their party. One who had taken the seat closest to Lady Arlington.Anddraped his arm over the back of her chair. In plain sight of the entire opera house.
Henry narrowed his eyes. Surely this display was much more ripe for scandal than anythinghehad done, and yet Lady Arlington was all smiles for this man.
