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She’d hardly touched her wine. She picked up her glass. “And then again, not enough.”
He picked up his glass and touched it to hers. They drank. “Now tell me a secret about you. Something that no one knows. No’ even your sister.”
Justine laughed. “There is hardly a thing she doesn’t know about me.”
“Och,there must be something. Come on, then. Friends share secrets.”
She felt the bees in her chest again as she thought of the few secrets she harbored. “Would you like to hear my deepest secret?”
“Oh. Aye, I would. The deepest.”
She leaned forward. “All right, here it is, my deepest, darkest secret. I very much esteem you. I...” She tried to think of a word that would convey what she felt, but the only word that came to mind waslove. Nothing else seemed to fit. “Esteemyou,” she said again. “I didn’t think I would. I sincerely thought I’d hate you, but I don’t at all. Quite the opposite. I so hope we remain friends. I hope you will come to Wesloria. I hope...” Well, she hoped for so much more than that, it was true. “That you will,” she finished weakly.
“That is a remarkable secret, Your Royal Highness. Would you like to hear mine?”
“I command it.”
He smiled softly. “I esteem you, too. Perhaps above all else. I esteem you in a manner that suggests that I’ve been waiting for you a very long time. This waistcoat was the fourth one I tried today. I have never in my life felt compelled to think too much about waistcoats, but there you have it. I wanted you to like it.”
The light in his eyes matched the sparkle in her blood. The room felt warm suddenly, and she drew a shallow breath. “I love it, William. I’ve never seen a finer waistcoat.”
He twined his fingers with hers. “What has happened to us?”
The sparkle in her began to crackle. She squeezed his fingers.“William?”
“Justine.”
“Why did it have to be this way?”
He shook his head. He understood that she asked why they had to be so full of esteem for each other when she was here to make a match that would carry her for the rest of her days. “I donna know. But let it be this way for as long as possible.”
Yes, let it be this way for as long as they could. She let go of his hand and stood. William looked confused. She walked to the door and opened it.“Lassan nus,”she said to the footmen.Leave us.
They moved at once. The butler attempted to pick up plates, but she shook her head. He reluctantly followed the footmen out. Justine shut the door behind them and locked it. She could imagine how quickly word would spread in the house that she’d kicked them out while in the company of a gentleman. The Bardalines would hear of this straightaway. But she had tonight, and whatever came after it, she didn’t care.
William sat with one arm draped over the back of his chair, one brow lifted with surprise. “What the devil are you about?”
“There is the matter of that bet.”
“Ah, yes.” He stood and tossed aside his napkin. “You owe me a kingdom, as I recall.” He walked to where she stood, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. And then he reached down and picked her up in his arms.
Justine gave a tiny shriek of surprised laughter.
William carried her to a divan and put her down, then crawled on top of her.
She gazed into his face and stroked his brow. She hoped she never forgot how he looked tonight. “How I wish it could be different.”
“Donna do your wishing now,leannan. Live this moment with me.” He kissed her.
“What does it mean? That word?”
“It means...” He looked her in the eye. “My love. My heart.”
The bees began to spread into her limbs. She would live this moment with him, all right. She wanted desperately for him to make love to her. The need she felt was a pulsing, living thing, pushing against her ribs. She had waited so long for someone to touch her like this, to love her, only her, and somehow she knew that he did.
His hands moved over her breasts and her body as he kissed her neck, her ears, her throat. He moved lower, his hands sliding up beneath her hem, up her legs. He moved down, his mouth trailing across the mound of her breasts, down the fabric of her gown and down even more.
When he pushed her skirts up over her hips, Justine felt a moment of panic. She could not allow what she thought was about to happen, could not risk betraying her country...but instead of his body moving between her legs, it was his head. When his tongue slipped in between the folds of her sex, Justine choked on her breath. The sensation was so exquisite, so incredibly pleasurable, that she felt as if she were floating away, being carried off on a cloud with no care for where she might land. The sounds she heard in a foggy distance were coming from her own throat.
