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“Our goals in this matter, I tell you frankly, are not quite the same, Sir Warren. Consider yourself warned,” the dowager answered lightly.
The dowager, he thought at that moment, was something of a contrary bitch! Just what the hell did she mean? He noted at that moment Jessie was laughing at something the Spanish devil was whispering in her ear. Damned annoying. He wasn’t in love with her, but it irked his pride that she apparently preferred Don Rodrigo to him.
Jessie would one day be made to pay for her initial rejection. One day, she would adore him, and he, well, he would use her in every way he could. She would learn, oh yes, she would learn!
* * * * *
Jessie, had she been privileged to hear what Sir Warren and her great-aunt were discussing, would not have been pleased one bit. Oddly enough, she was berating herself and silently thinking she was allowing stars to cloud her vision and rockets to blare in her head. Her blood seemed to bubble with heat, and overwhelming emotions were suddenly becoming confused and difficult to control. She had promised herself not to be swayed by the rogue Rodrigo. She had said she could keep her heart her own. Now, however, she was aware the effort was hopeless.
What she needed now was to make him see that he felt for her what she felt for him. Was that possible? Was he too far gone as a bachelor to ever give himself to one woman? She saw he was greatly taken with her, and it was something more than desire. Could she channel his feelings, bring them to life, make him admit to them, and draw him out of himself and into her world?
She didn’t realize just what a task it would be.
Don Rodrigo cared for Jessie so much that he was resolved to keep his hands off her. He had promised himself he would not lead her on, and not allow her to think he wanted her for his bride. In the past, the thought of marriage made him ill. Now, it made him simply want to run. He should run. He should leave for the country. He had invitations enough. Yet...being with her was too perfect to ignore. They laughed so easily together, agreed on so many issues, including politics. They both loved horses, and the list went on. He had to find a way to make her see he was not for her. He didn’t want to hurt her in any way, and he could see...she thought too much of him.
Suddenly, in the middle of these thoughts, she grabbed his hand and pulled on him to follow. “What are you at now?” He chuckled. “You know I will beat you at your gull-catching, my brat, so don’t try your games with me.”
She giggled and continued to drag him along, saying over her shoulder, “Now, how can you be so unkind?” She giggled again.
He found her laugh absolutely enticing. She was adorable in every way. Indeed, he would have to leave for the country and soon.
“You know I don’t mean to play a prank on you, but on Pauly, who deserves much more for the awful trick he served me this afternoon,” she told him as he tried to slow her progress.
“Now, what can that puppy have done?” Rodrigo said with a grin.
“Ah, yes, and when I tell you, see if you don’t think hanging enough for the villain. What must I find this morning but a note at my breakfast table written in hideous scrawl and signed by Pauly. It said, Dearest friend, take my cousin off my hands today, and I will be forever in your debt. That is what it said. So, fool that I am, I agree with one small stipulation. I wanted to be relieved of escorting his cousin by teatime, as I was to go with friends to Covent Gardens. Never mind that. I told him I would, and he promised to collect his cousin by four.”
“Did he collect his cousin?” Rodrigo asked, tongue in cheek, watching her eyes flash.
“No, he did not, and this cousin of his, who must she turn out to be but Gertrude!”
“Dare I ask who this Gertrude might be in your estimation?” He was broadly grinning now.
“Well, you might ask, for she is a prudish creature who has become a stickler long before old age has set in, and if that is not enough, she hovers and says all these snide little remarks. She does not approve of me, you see, she never has, and in the past, I managed to always avoid her, but Pauly, ooooh.”
“Ah, yes. Never before have I had my toes trod upon as much as she managed to do when we did the cotillion...such a small creature, yet such a heavy foot,” he remarked, and burst out laughing. He could not imagine his Jessie and Gertrude getting on together.
“Yes, well...poor little thing has no friends, so I did try very hard to give her a good time...” Jessie pointed as she discovered Pauly at a card table. “There is the scoundrel now!”
Rodrigo laughed, and was all too aware of the affection streaming through his heart for his spitfire. He liked Pauly a great deal, and hurriedly took her by the shoulders in an attempt to stall her attack. “No, my pet, my sweetheart, you cannot, in all good sense, charge down upon the lad in front of all his friends.”
She eyed Rodrigo, and did, in fact, stop to think. “Hmm,” she responded as she gave this her consideration. She checked the tirade in her head. After all, she told herself, she could visit her fury on him tomorrow. “However, do you see that glass of champagne at his elbow? I think I could put it to some use without anyone but him the wiser.”
He chuckled, and his ungloved hand went to her chin as he felt an overwhelming desire to hug her to himself, to brush her lips with his own, to...but no, he would not. His eyes strayed to the swell of her full breasts above her bodice, but again, he restrained himself. Instead, he said, “I am certain you could certainly do what you would like to do, but would that prove anything other than you are a female not quite in control of her temper?”
She stiffened. “You don’t really think that, do you?”
He gently led her out of the card room, crossed the marble hall to a pair of heavily molded oak doors. These, he opened, ushered her through, then closed them at his back.
She turned around to find him staring oddly at her. They were in a bookroom, whose garden doors had been opened to allow the circulation of fresh air, and they were alone, quite alone.
She eyed him. “You haven’t answered me. Am I like all my kind? A temperamental female?”
He could not stop himself from taking in every detail of her appearance, from the top of her flaming curls to the tip of her blue silk slippers. She was incredibly alluring in the blue, clinging gown, and his pulse was racing, his body aching, and he discovered a sudden hungry need to touch her. He knew he had never felt this way before. His voice was husky when he answered. “You are certainly temperamental, sweetheart, but not at all like most of your kind. In fact, you are so far above all other women.” He reminded himself she was an innocent...a virgin.
“I think you are giving me quite a compliment...but insulting all other women,” she teased. Jessie was all too aware of his nearness, all too aware her heart was racing and her body aching for his embrace.
“I am only stating a fact, my own beautiful Jessie,” he whispered, and suddenly, the dam inside of him broke. He couldn’t do another moment without her in his arms. Her violet eyes taunted him to take what he wanted, as did her full exquisite swells above her bodice. Damn, but her cherry lips, full and inviting, were made for him to kiss, and he couldn’t think logically any longer. All he knew was he had to kiss her.
