Compromising Kessen (11 page)

“Obviously,” he muttered, putting his hands over his head. He felt a headache coming on. He needed to see Kessen … to warn her. “Have you talked with her grandmother or Kessen herself?”

“I was going to leave it to you,” Duncan said dryly.

Christian looked up to the ceiling. “Of course you were. Right. Well, I’ll figure it out in the morning. Call their butler and make sure he doesn’t show any of the morning papers to the family until I arrive.”

Duncan pulled out a recorder and pressed play. “Do you have a statement for the press, Lord Vandenbrook?”

Christian closed his eyes. “I’m appalled at the lack of privacy the press has given Miss Newberry and myself. In the future, if there are any questions about our relationship, we will be happy to sit down to an interview or a press conference when the CEO and founder of Newberry and Company arrives in London. Until then, please continue to respect our privacy, as we are in the critical part of our wedding planning. Thank you.”

Duncan pressed stop and smiled. “Very politically correct.”

“Out!” Christian snapped, pointing at the door.

Duncan laughed and sauntered out. “Do you mind if I keep the pictures?” he yelled.

“Burn them. And don’t you dare look at them or show them to anyone else.”

Duncan was still laughing as he went down the hall. “Nice moves, by the way.”

Christian threw a shoe, heard Duncan swear, and smiled to himself. At least he had two things to be thankful for before going to bed.

Kessen’s kisses and a large bruise on Duncan’s head.

Chapter Thirteen

Kessen felt like she was being rained on. Why? She had no idea. In fact, she was relatively certain she was merely dreaming of the rain, until her face suddenly felt rather wet. She opened her blurry eyes and froze. Christian was standing over her with a cup of water.

She groaned and turned to her side. “What. Are. You. Doing?”

“Waking you up, sleepy head. It’s practice for when we’re married. I am an early riser, you know, and I think—”

Kessen reached across the bed and clapped her hand over his mouth, forgetting about their no-touch rule. She didn’t have the heart to remove her hand. Instead she kept it there, memorizing the way his skin felt under hers. “Stop talking,” she finally ground out, although it sounded breathless. Perfect. Now he’ll think I’m a wanton woman in the morning.

“I have the shower ready for you,” he said awkwardly.

She was out of bed in a flash, glaring at him.

“Calm down. I’m not joining you. What kind of man do you think I am, anyway?”

“A normal one,” she muttered under her breath.

He was trying hard not to smile. “Kessen, trust me. My concern is only for your desperate need for a shower. Because honestly, you’d want to stab me if you knew I was seeing you like this.”

She gasped, moaned, then sat up on her bed and put her head in her hands. She hadn’t showered last night—her hair. She reached up and touched a knot on the top of her head. Perfect. She sighed before turning her red face to his perfectly shaved one. “Wait here, I’ll be back after I’m done getting the kinks out of my hair, which might take a few hours.”

“I’ll wait.” He pulled out the newspaper and began reading.

****

Kessen tried to hurry through the shower, but her hair was not having it. She finally doused it with leave-in conditioner and ran her fingers through the long locks. It took a ridiculous amount of time to brush her teeth and shave her legs—because, well, you never knew.

She donned her boy shorts and long-sleeve Henley before returning to her room.

“You do have fantastic legs,” Christian said from behind the newspaper.

She felt a blush coming on.

“I do hope you’re blushing right now,” he said, still not putting the newspaper down.

Kessen closed her eyes to regain her composure. “So, you’re here at an ungodly hour, which means you have something to discuss with me. What’s going on?”

Christian put the newspaper down and grimaced. This couldn’t be good. Was he breaking up with her? Did something happen? He put his head in his hands and sighed.

“Christian? What is it? Are you okay?” She knelt in front of him with her hands on his. Again the no-touching rule was getting harder and harder to follow. She jerked her hands back quickly, but not before sharing a smoldering glance with him.

“There are pictures,” he whispered.

“From the ball, you mean?”

He pressed his lips together and shook his head.

“From the other day when we went walking?”

He shook his head again.

“Then from what?”

He closed his eyes and bit his lip. Kessen’s brain was going a hundred miles an hour. What could they have possibly gotten pictures of? The only time they were doing anything remotely scandalous was when they were in the cottage. Oh no!

“Th-the cottage?” she stuttered.

He nodded.

She sank to the floor and hugged her knees. “How bad?”

He joined her on the floor and pulled her to his side before saying, “Bad.”

“How bad is your version of bad? Because my version has us going to the place of no return.”

“It’s not that bad,” he answered, still pulling her to his side. Obviously, the no-touch rule wasn’t in effect anymore.

“Is it in the newspaper?” she asked, reaching for it. He slapped her hand away.

“Kessen, do you trust me to take care of this in the best way possible?”

She nodded numbly.

“The pictures … well, they make both of us look bad. Unfortunately, because you’re so new.”

“They make me look like a sl—”

“Do not finish that sentence,” he growled.

She nodded but knew he was thinking the same thing.

He kissed the top of her head. “We made page six.”

“Please tell me you mean page six in London.”

“Afraid not,” he said.

“Drat.”

Christian laughed and pulled her closer. It felt good to be protected, and it wasn’t as if there were any cameras in her bedroom. It didn’t hurt that the hug made her feel loved and cherished; her mom had given the best hugs.

“I think we should move the wedding forward,” he said, shattering her thoughts.

“What?” Panic rose in her throat. So this was what it felt like to have a nervous breakdown. Swell. Jumping to her feet, she began pacing the room.

“Kessen, Kessen, look at me.” He was steadying her, but she suddenly felt dizzy. “Sit down. It’s fine. Everything will be alright.”

She kissed him.

Call it getting lost in the moment, call it temporary insanity, but in that moment when he was comforting her, and she felt the blackness cave in around her eyes, she knew what she wanted. She should blame it on her more basic instincts taking over. Her mind had already gone when she heard him say wedding and forward; now her body apparently needed confirmation.

Christian’s body, however, needed something entirely different. Before she knew what was happening, she was on her back with Christian pinning her down. He was so warm and inviting. She wrapped her hands around his head and pulled his lips down to hers.

He moaned her name, making her deepen the kiss. She shouldn’t be blamed for her actions. After all, she hadn’t even had breakfast yet, or coffee or anything. So obviously, she wasn’t in her right mind. It wasn’t her fault. At least that’s what she kept telling herself as Christian’s tongue feathered along her lips and jaw until she thought she would go insane.

A knock in the distance jolted both of them from the floor. She’d never seen a man move so fast. It would have been impressive had he not hit her in the process, sending her sailing back to the floor

“Kessen! Oh! I’m terribly sorry!! Are you hurt?” He was kneeling next to her as the door flung open.

“What is this?“

They both outwardly winced as her grandmother held out the newspaper with an incriminating picture of the two of them on the front. Unfortunately, it was one of the pictures that had Kessen looking like the worst type of woman and Christian looking like the new James Bond. Perfect.

Grandmother looked as if she was choking on something.

Kessen suddenly flashed back to the funeral, when she had gotten her heel caught in one of the heating vents in the floor. She took a topple onto the casket and sent all the flowers on top flying. It was mortifying. It had been her first time wearing heels, so nobody could blame her—and Grandmother had that same look on her face now. Kessen didn’t like how it made her stomach clench. If there was one warning her father had given her, it was to never upset her grandmother.

Whoops.

“How dare you skip the honeymoon and go straight to the main course! My own granddaughter! My flesh and blood, seducing the Marquess!”

Kessen’s mouth dropped open; Christian was shaking with laughter next to her.

“It’s not funny,” she snapped, hitting him on the head. He kept laughing. Apparently she wasn’t as strong as she would have liked, or his head was thicker than she had first assumed.

“Grandmother, you’re mistaken. Christian lured me into the cottage and took advantage of me!”

Christian stopped laughing.

Grandmother looked at Christian, absolutely appalled. “You mauled my granddaughter!”

Kessen smiled triumphantly and stuck out her tongue before turning to her grandmother, faking tears the entire time. “It was awful! And I’ve never even kissed a boy until now, Grandmother. And I wanted it to be special, and he, he…” She stuttered and put her head on her grandmother’s shoulder, while Christian mumbled how it had to be the overstatement of the century.

****

“I did nothing of the sort and you know it, Lady Newberry.” He kept his voice calm, which was a shock, considering he frantically searched for sharp objects to throw in Kessen’s direction. “And I highly doubt that was her first kiss.” He added emphasis to the word first, hoping Lady Newberry would get the picture.

She didn’t.

The next thing he knew, she was standing in front of him pointing a tiny finger in his face. “How dare you accuse my granddaughter of being the type to run around kissing strangers? She is nothing of the sort! She’s only dated two men in her entire life. Two men!” Spit came flying out of her mouth on the word two.

Christian was flabbergasted. Two men? Only two? In all her years being alive? She was positively the purest form of woman he would ever come across. He leaned around Lady Newberry and lifted a questioning eyebrow in Kessen’s direction.

She was bright red.

Of course, he would be too if one of his family members had announced to the world he had only dated two women, especially considering he was pushing thirty.

“And that isn’t even the worst of it!” Lady Newberry was still raving.

“Grandmother, he doesn’t need to hear this. Maybe I exaggerated a bit. No, really, Grandmother—”

Kessen was frantically trying to pry Lady Newberry from Christian’s person, but he was finding this whole exchange rather intriguing. “Please continue, Lady Newberry. This is incredibly interesting.”

“We signed her up for this dating website—what is it called? Eharny? No, that can’t be it. Doesn’t matter. Her father and I thought we could help in that department, but you know what she did?”

“Pray, tell me.”

Without blinking, Lady Newberry went on. “She went out and bought another one of those blasted romance novels about your family!”

“My family?” Christian paused. “Why is that so bad?”

“My dear, she needs a real man.”

“I’m up for the challenge.” He grinned wolfishly towards Kessen but only received an eye roll in return.

“You—” Lady Newberry was poking him in the chest, “are too handsome for your own good. If I were your mother, I would send you to bed without supper!”

“Can Kessen come, too?” he asked, knowing he would probably be slapped any minute.

Kessen stormed across the room to his side and lifted her hand to strike him. Her grandmother, whose strength she had seriously underestimated until now, caught the hand mid-air and glared at the two of them.

“You shall marry.”

They both stared blankly at the crazed woman’s face.

“You shall marry,” she said, dropping Kessen’s hand triumphantly. “And because you’ve both caused enough scandal to keep people talking for years, you will marry soon.”

Kessen stiffened next to him; he felt the need to put his arm around her but didn’t want to get punched again.

Lady Newberry walked to the door. “Next week. You shall marry next week.”

The door slammed behind her, leaving them alone again, staring at one another interminably until Kessen broke the silence with a scream which could have awakened the dead.

“Next week!”

“By all means, please scream louder. I don’t think your dad heard you in Colorado!” he shouted.

“Oh my, oh my…” Kessen was repeating herself, over and over again. Frankly it was driving Christian crazy.

“Get hold of yourself!” he pleaded.

She kept repeating.

So he threw a pillow at her face.

Unfortunately for him, his aim was off and it merely skimmed her cheek.

A crazed look materialized on her face. He backed up in what he would later admit to being fear.

She had a pillow in each hand and anger in her eyes. Note to self, he thought as she charged him like a bull. Never upset a Newberry.

Then he was on his back, getting fluffed to death by goose down pillows, which honestly, wasn’t half bad since Kessen was straddling him with her legs.

He was never guilty of having a pure thought in Kessen’s presence. A shame really. He needed to go to church and confess his many sins. All of which he would happily engage in if Kessen were so inclined.

She jumped off of him and stomped toward the door.

“A week! Do you realize how many days are in a week?”

He opened his mouth to answer.

“Seven!” she yelled. “Seven days to plan a wedding and get to know you. I don’t even know you! I’m marrying a man I don’t even know. Never mind that I practically molest you with my eyes every time we’re in the same room—”

Abruptly, she stopped talking and turned beet red.