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“I was bored,” she said with chilling incivility. “Nor did I care to watch you dance another set with another lady.”
He stared at her for several seconds. “I want to speak with you in privacy.”
“Why?”
He canted his head. “A question I have asked myself many days; the simple answer is that I miss conversing with you. Desperately.”
Her heart once again stuttered fiercely inside her chest. “I…”
“My carriage is waiting for you.”
“I cannot! The coachman and—”
“I’ve already bribed them with a fortune, and veiled threats of what I will do to them should your family get wind of this. I also told them a secret. I thought that was what cinched the deal.”
She choked on the air. “What? What secret?”
“That my intentions are entirely honorable even if my methods are questionable.”
God, why was she so unspeakably thrilled? That dangerous smile curved his mouth, and he held out his hand. Pippa hesitated, her breath trembling as she exhaled. The melancholia that had been weighing on her heart had banished and every part of her body and soul felt alive. She placed her hand in his and allowed him to escort her down from the carriage. The coachman and the footman looked ahead, and she bid them to return to the ball and await her mother.
Pippa felt as if she was being far too reckless and daring but could not stop herself from rushing toward the carriage with the marquess. Thankfully the streets were empty, and she realized he must have perfectly timed their paths crossing.
Oh, God, what am I doing?
She went up into his carriage and sat, waiting for him to enter. He said something indecipherable to his coachman, before he entered, and the carriage rumbled away.
“William, what—”
He hauled her against him and kissed her. Pippa parted her lips, and it felt as if he sucked her inside of himself and consumed her. She kissed him back, slipping her hand around his nape and holding him to her. Pippa moaned softly when his tongue glided against her, igniting a spark of fire low in her belly. She pulled away and he released her, sitting opposite her. They stared at each other for several moments. “You are outrageous,” she whispered.So am I.
“I thought you knew, having called me an unrepentant rake.”
She cast him a fulminating glare, and the dratted man only smiled, a sensual curve of his mouth while his eyes gleamed with something far too provocative. “William—”
“I am falling in love with you, Pippa.”
The shock of hearing those words robbed her of breath. She was enthralled by what she saw in his gaze. “William?”
“Perhaps I am already there,” he murmured, “because the force of what I feel for you is unstoppable. I long for you every damn day and night. I want you near to me always, and when I envision having a family…children…I can only picture them with you. I am damn relieved you are not with child, because when we marry, I want you to know it is because I want you and only you. There is a hole in my life, and I know it cannot be filled with anything but you, Pippa. Only you.”
A shattering awareness surged through her, and tears pricked behind her eyes. “You are courting me.”
“Yes.”
A laugh escaped her, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “For how long?”
She stared at him, aware that he was watching her closely, his gaze hooded, his body tensed.
“Days, weeks, months…until you know and understand that you are the most important person in my heart,” he said gruffly. “Until society knows it and understands I am marrying you because I am fucking besotted and not because I was trapped into it.”
Emotions wrenched through her chest and Pippa hurled herself into his lap and hugged him.
“This is a dangerous place for you to be,” he said gruffly, pressing a kiss against her throat.
Suddenly she laughed, bursting with happiness and relief. “It is still where I want to be; I love you, William, so very much!”
“God, I missed you, this soft feel of you against me and your smell,” he muttered into the curve of her throat.
