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“Miss Fairbanks, I have forgotten many people. None have been outrageous enough to orchestrate my kidnapping. Are you not afraid of the law? Are you not afraid of the damage to your family’s good name and reputation? It would have been permissible for you to call upon my home for a conversation to reacquaint our friendship. I would not have turned you away.”
One of her shoulders lifted in an elegant and quite unconcerned shrug. “You might have not recalled the moniker society attached to my family name.”
“What does a bloody moniker—”
Simon strangled on his words when she dipped so close their lips were just a breath apart. Fucking hell. No, no, no, he silently snarled as his entire body felt as if it came alive.
“We are the very bad Fairbanks. That means I am…well, I am a bit naughty.”
The hellion teased him. “The last thing I expected given the situation is your cavalier attitude,” he said frostily.
A little growl forced its way through her clenched teeth. “My good sir, you have been to war. I hardly believe this situation as you call it is frightening.”
Simon choked on the air. “You have no compunction ruining your reputation, nor those ofyour family’s?”
Miss Fairbanks stretched the top half of her body over him, coming down on his chest. Simon almost expired on the spot. She audaciously nipped his chin. “My family helped me kidnap you. They are even naughtier than I am.”
“Bloody hell.”
The feel of her curves against his chest, the scent of her…the closeness. His head swam and his mouth dried. “Woman, you are biting my chin.”
“It was a small nip,” she said cheekily. “Remember me yet?”
“No,” he said through clenched teeth.
And they had to be clenched, allowing him to fight against the unexpected feelings she roused. A gloveless hand trailed down his chest and down to the flap of his trousers. “If you dare act in any wanton manner, once I am loose, I will turn you over my knees and give you the discipline you sorely lack, Miss Fairbanks. I promise it.”
“Spanking?” she asked in mock alarm. “Why, Simon, I never knew you had such desires. After you remember me, I might happily accommodate.”
He was going to wring her lovely neck and damn him for the smile that tugged at his mouth. He should not be laughing with her, even though her eyes invited him to. Her actions were willful and unpardonable, and she truly seemed uncaring of the consequences. “You are not acting in a manner befitting your station. Kidnapping me is inexcusable…”
Simon’s words left him at the sudden pain that darkened her eyes. “Untie me,” he said gruffly.
“Not until I have secured your promise.”
“And what promise is that?”
“You will stay with me for seven days. Right here in this cottage.”
“No.”
She flinched, and he felt regret that he had disappointed her hopes. “It might have escaped your notice, Miss Fairbanks, but I am a man affianced. It would be dishonorable of me to stay here unchaperoned with you for a damn week.”
She held his stare for a long moment. “Do you love her?”
His heart jolted. Lady Katherine had been a comforting anchor in a world that had seemed bleak. He liked her, even admired her calming presence and intelligence, but he would not go as far as to say he was in love. “What does that signify?”
“It matters, Simon.”
Tension crackled in the space between them. “I am not a man given to sentimentality,” he said icily. “I never have been. My fiancée understands that about me.”
Trembling fingers reached out and tenderly brushed a lock of hair from his forehead.
“You are so wrong, Simon,” she whispered. “You are a gentleman who loves with your entire heart. Now please answer me, my lord.”
There was a wealth of emotions in her words, and it gave him pause. “I do not love her.”
Miss Fairbanks’s relief was evident.
