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Felicity took a swallow. “This is not port, but whisky.”
His eyes widened slightly. “I am impressed, Miss Harrington.”
“I have tasted enough at 48 Berkeley Square.”
“What is this 48 Berkeley Square? I have been curious since I collected you there with my carriage and found a gaggle of ladies with their noses pressed to the windowpanes ogling us.”
“I thought you wanted to know why I remain unmarried.”
“A diversion. Well done. Since you are obliging my inquisitiveness, I am all attention.”
She laughed. “My father died, and…left mama and me with little to live by as his estate and what monies he had were claimed by his heir. A gentleman we had never met and one who was not kindly disposed to mama and me. We had to leave the manor I had lived in my whole life and let a room in town.”
He had grown still at her quick recitation. “I am sorry for it, Miss Harrington.”
“We get by, and we are happy and more fortunate than most. Mr. Newcombe’s betrothal was announced to the squire’s daughter a few days after.”
He shifted on the bench and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Was your heart broken?”
She gave him a startled glance. “No, but I was disappointed. I thought we had been friends. He could have told me of his circumstances in a private manner. I still recall how shocked mama was when the banns were read in church and how she tried hard not to cry. I think she believed my marriage to Mr. Newcombe my last hope. As we left the church, many whispers and pitying glances were sent our way. Mr. Newcombe was unable to even look at us.”
“The man sounds like a damn fool. I—” Phineas stiffened on the bench, as alert as a predator suddenly sensing prey.
Before she could question his shift in mood, he launched to his feet, grabbed her hand and away they went running across the immaculately tended lawns and toward a copse of trees. By the time they were in the shadows, she was out of breath and laughing. It almost shocked Felicity the ease at which she felt being with the earl.
“Why are we running? And to a dark area? Do you not read gothic mysteries?” She demanded breathlessly. Felicity could barely discern his expression, but she perceived that he was grinning.
“Nanna moved away for the briefest moment. I took advantage and ran. Now when she returns, we will be gone, and she has no idea where to direct that damn lorgnette.”
“Hmm, what if she decides on a stroll to see?” she teased.
“You are right,” he muttered darkly, “we must not underestimate her.”
He grabbed her hands and tugged her deeper into the trees. “My lord!” she gasped. “I have the good sense not to go further. Those books I mentioned, I read them copiously and those who disappear.Alwaysin the dark woods, my lord.”
His shoulders shook, and with a flush, she realized he was laughing. “Miss Harrington?”
“Yes?” she said with a touch of asperity.
“I am ready for our private kiss of the week.”
“That is not very romantic,” she said a bit crossly.
“I wasn’t aware it was supposed to be,” he murmured, “just honest.”
With that statement, he caged her against the massive trunk of a large tree. He put his powerful hands very gently around her throat and tilted her head slightly for his kiss. A shiver of excitement coursed through her. There was something possessive yet tender in the way he touched her.
“I had thought waiting would have reduced the desire to kiss you. Instead, the craving increased,” he said with slow bemusement.
“Is that so odd?”
He visibly gritted his teeth. “It hasn’t happened to me before.”
She felt herself smiling, liking that she was the first for this man who was such a gentleman of the world. “I confess that the more I imagine what it might be like to kiss you, the more that ache little in my belly increases. It has never happened before for me either.”
Before she could say more, he caught her mouth in a deep kiss. Swirls of sensations pulled in her belly as Phineas’s mouth moved over hers with passionate demand. With a soft, muffled gasp, she parted her lips, and his tongue plunged past them, wicked and alluring. Felicity clasped his shoulders as desire shivered through her with piercing intensity.
Their tongues danced and teased each other before they would break apart, and the earl kissed her with short, teasing carnal bites before deepening their embrace. Their kisses felt wild, frantically pulsing and unendingly passionate. Even when Felicity’s mouth felt tender, they did not stop kissing, and with each illicit caress, the ache for more surged until she was restless with hunger.
