AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He mockingly put a hand to his heart. “You have wounded me to the quick, my lady. Can it be that you don’t realize just how you slay with your violet eyes?”
She was about to answer with a quip when her mind froze, as did her body. She stared, and Sir Warren followed her line of vision.
He filled her eyes, and she told herself she was merely taken by his entrance because he wore so well the black velvet cutaway, or perhaps it was the height and breadth of the man filling the entrance, taking up all the air in the room? He stood, speaking jovially with his hostess, and all the while, she never heard Sir Warren babbling nonsense at her side. He took a step inside the room, and she saw him scan the assembled company before his dark eyes found her. Their gazes locked, and she felt a shiver race through her blood.
* * * * *
The sight of Jessie spurred an excitement in Rodrigo that annoyed the bloody hell out of him. He didn’t want to feel so attracted to her. He had purposely stayed away from any event where he might find her because the lust he felt for her was indecent, and he told himself he had to keep his distance.
Lust? It was nothing more because he could never love any woman. He had seen what love could do. Lust was all he felt, especially for an English woman! Yet this one was different in so many ways.
Bloody hell! Was it possible the rushing blood through his brain now was because...because, here she was in all her stunning glory?
Inconspicuously, he made his way through the crowd of chattering English fashionables. He managed this with charm, passing a jest as he greeted one and then another of his acquaintances. A compliment, a smile, a greeting as his steps brought him closer to her.
Jessie watched his progress with silent admiration. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. He stopped to chat with someone, and she nearly stamped her foot with impatience. She wished Sir Warren would just shut up and go away!
Sir Warren had been repeating some piece of gossip, and she interrupted him and said, “Sir, I think I am feeling the heat...closeted with so many...would I be imposing on your good nature if I asked...”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence as he gallantly offered to fetch her a glass of Negus. He bowed himself off, and no sooner had he gone, she felt Rodrigo at her side, whispering into her ear, “White becomes you.” His tone was soft, and his voice had the power to lift her high.
She stared into his dark twinkling eyes as his hand slid down her bare arm, then took her hand and put it to his lips before he said, “The fresh air will do you good.” He didn’t wait for her to agree, but took that hand and set it through the crook of his arm as he led her outdoors.
She had been aching to see him again. Here he was, and she found she couldn’t speak. His touch was something she had been dreaming about, and now she felt like a schoolgirl.
“Hell and brimstone,” he said in a low growl. “You are no more than a child, untried, uncertain. I should leave you alone, but I find your lure draws me, in spite of my determination to stay away.”
“I am perhaps untried, but I am not a child,” she answered sharply. “I know the real reason you are taking me into the garden, and it isn’t for my good.” There, she thought, hearing herself. That was better.
He chuckled. “Tell me, what is the reason then?”
“We both know you think I will allow you to kiss me again, but I won’t!” she said with a lift of her chin.
He took her gloved hand and kissed her wrist. “Ah, but no, little one. I honestly only meant to make you comfortable.”
Was she under some kind of spell? Why did he have this affect on her?
He smiled. “Your face, precious child. You actually look disappointed. You want me to try and kiss you!”
“If only to say you nay,” she countered.
He laughed outright and led her to a stone bench hidden by evergreens from the garden doors.
He saw her seated and sat beside her. “There, now tell me, my Jessie, did you miss me?”
“Bold, aren’t you?” she returned with a partial snort she managed to curtail in time.
“Always, so tell me, did you?”
“Miss you, Don Rodrigo? Why, have you been away?”
He chuckled and pinched her chin. “You do amuse me, greatly. We are well met, my spitfire, and now that I have been summarily taken to task for having kissed you and vanished, answer me truly. Did you miss me?”
She bristled, and her temper flashed in her eyes in a way that made him suck in a breath as she said, “Devil. Miss you? Answer you truly? I haven’t the time or the inclination to waste my time missing you or any other man!”
“And so, I am crushed,” he said lightly, with a lowering of his head. “There, I had hoped the memory of our kisses would keep me on your mind, but alas, you did not even realize I have not called on you in three days.”
“Four!” she interrupted before she realized he had baited her. “And it is ungentlemanly to keep referring to...to kisses you forced on me.”
