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Chapter Eleven
Calliope’s mouth went slack as she watched the viscount walk away from her. Again, she had approached him with the hope that they might allow each other to push aside their grievances so that they might converse on a mutual level. But apparently, he wasn’t even willing to do that.
This was not acceptable behavior in the least.
She took off after him.
By the time she edged her way around the crowd without pushing her way through, that lengthy stride had already taken her quarry outside. “Lord Blakely,” she called out after him. When he didn’t look back at her, but kept walking, she said more firmly, “Lord Blakely!”
He turned a corner of the building and Calliope continued her pursuit directly into the alley.
She instantly found herself caught in an iron grip and her back pressed firmly against the wall. His mouth swooped down on hers in a kiss that made her entire body burst into flame, just as before. She temporarily forgot her reason for being there, as the passion that he released on her was relentless. She wound her arms around his neck and returned his intensity with her own.
Finally, when she was feeling lightheaded from a lack of air, he released her, but not completely. As she gulped in the breath she’d been denied, he held her face in her hands. His dark eyes were bright, his voice fervent when he demanded, “Why must you continue plaguing me?”
She frowned, not caring for the accusation in his tone. “If you will recall, I left London and yet, you decided to follow me here!”
“A mistake I shall certainly lament for the rest of my days!” He pushed away from her and ran a hand through his hair.
For some reason, his words caused her eyes to sting. “I’m not keeping you here,” she returned woodenly. “You can leave anytime you wish.”
He laughed harshly and spun back around to glare at her. “If only it were that simple.”
She lost the limit on her patience. “It is!” she shot back. “You don’t have anything to prove by staying here, and you and I both know that if your grandfather wanted to take the waters, he could remove to anywhere else along the coast.”
He dropped his head and released a weary sigh. “It’s true. I could have left the moment I arrived.” He returned to where she was and put an arm on either side of her head, trapping her within the confines of his body. “But the problem is that you wouldn’t be there.” He reached out and brushed back a stray strand of her hair. “You drive me mad. I can’t sleep for picturing your glorious hair spread out in my bed, your beautiful body lying beside me.” He leaned closer to her. “I’ve done everything possible to convince myself to retain my distance, when all I want is your every waking thought to be about me.”
He leaned down and sucked on the delicate skin near her ear. She gasped and instinctively pressed closer to him. When his hand slid down her side and found her breast, she inhaled sharply when he toyed with the hardened nipple.
“That’s why you’ve been avoiding me? Because I’m a… distraction?”
In response, he kissed her swiftly, but it carried just as much raw passion as before. When they parted, she was panting, her entire body aflame. “It appears that we’re a distraction to each other.”
She couldn’t argue with that when he’d already proven his point. Suddenly, her mind started to race. “Perhaps there is a solution for both of us.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”
She swallowed nervously but pressed on. “I don’t plan to marry, but neither do I want to ignore everything that life has to offer. Maybe there’s a way we can both get what we want.”
His eyes glittered almost ominously. “That’s a dangerous way to talk.”
“Indeed, it is,” she concurred. “But I’ve never known Viscount Blakely to eschew any challenge.” She looked up at him through her lashes.
He clenched his jaw. “There are risks involved.”
“There are risks in everything,” she concurred. “I took a risk by coming here and searching for fossils when I knew nothing about the difference between a rock and an animal vertebra. But I’m still here.” Calliope knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t stop from boldly reaching out and running a finger down the center of his chest. “The question is, how far are you willing to go to achieve victory?”
Sebastian was speechless.
Never in his life had he known a proper lady to completely turn the tables on him. For the past few months, he’d chased after her like a panting hound hoping to get a juicy morsel from the hare, and now she was offering him the one thing he craved above all else. The opportunity to be with her, no strings attached. Just a mutual satisfaction.
Was he dreaming?
Then again, his common sense warned him that this could be a trap, for it seemed too good to be true.
Before he had the chance to respond, her teasing expression waned. “Of course, I understand if you don’t want—”
He reached out and held her face in his hands. “God, yes, I want.” As he kissed her, he realized that his answer had already been revealed. Words were not needed when actions were much more effective.
