The Duke's Legacy (29 page)
Authors: Wendy Soliman
“About what situation?”
He made no move to offer her his support when her ankle appeared in danger of giving way. If their hands so much as touched, what resolve he had managed to muster would be lost beyond recall.
And so would he be.
“It is all your fault I am now awake on every suit, so it is your responsibility to amend that situation.” Her eyes flashed with a combination of frustration and steely determination. “You’re wrong about your work here being done. You cannot leave me like this and I wish to know what you intend to do about it?”
He waved a hand in casual dismissal of her demands. “I don’t have the pleasure of understanding you.”
“Why, Lord Denver,” she said, smiling with awareness. “I’ve never seen you so discomposed before. Whatever can the matter be?”
“Sit down before you fall down.”
“I am well able to stand,” she said imperiously. “And there’s nothing wrong with my brain, which is how I know you are a coward. You deliberately stimulated my passions, offered me tantalising glimpses of…well, of things, and then blamed me for being wanton.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, child.”
“I am
not
a child.”
She looked to Sebastian as though she wanted to stamp a foot in frustration, as well she might. After the courage she had shown in facing up to her murderous relations she definitely wasn’t a child. And Sebastian had never really thought of her as one.
“No,” he said softly. “You are no longer a child.”
“Thank you. At least we agree on one thing. And so we return to the question of my debt to you.”
She really didn’t intend to give up. The devil take it, Sebastian didn’t know what to say to her. His heart said one thing, his head another. Never had he felt more conflicted.
“Abbey, I—”
“I was perfectly content with the arrangements for my future until you can along and spoiled it all. Now you are not even prepared to accept a harmless kiss by way of payment.”
“There’s nothing harmless about kissing you, and therein lies my difficulty.”
He wished the words back as soon as they slipped past his lips, even if they were true. Kissing Abigail Carstairs was like nothing he had ever known before and if he obliged her now then the gossamer thin hold he had on his resolve would dissipate. Never had he wanted a woman more, but not for the usual reasons of bedding her to scratch a temporary itch. What he wanted with Abby he could never have.
“You faced down a man who was pointing a gun at you and was likely to use it without a qualm. That took courage. But you creep away from my house like a thief in the night rather than wish me a civil farewell. What are you afraid of, Sebastian?” she taunted. “What can a
child
like me possibly hold against a man of the world such as yourself?”
“Abbey.” He raked his hand distractedly through his hair. “I can’t remain here any longer. You know it and so do I.”
She tilted her chin, a challenge in her eyes. “Then kiss me farewell and I will let you go.”
He offered her a raffish grin. “Abbey, sweetheart, that wouldn’t be wise. If I were to kiss you now it would be a disaster.”
“Is my kissing so very disagreeable?”
He chuckled in spite of himself. “You know it isn’t.”
“Then what?”
“I’m leaving now and you will soon forget all about me. You will have your season, marry Evans at the end of it all and be perfectly content.”
“No, I will not. You have sabotaged any possibility I might have had to be happy with such an existence. I admire Lord Evans but I don’t desire him. You have taught me too much about desire for me not to realise that.”
He quirked a brow. “I have?”
“Most assuredly, and one can’t ignite a fire without a spark. You see,” she said, canting her head and sending him a glittering smile. “I am a very attentive pupil and learn quickly.”
“Then you will find someone else.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that. I have already found him. You and I could ignite a forest fire, could we not?”
“Me!” He stared at her. “You actually mean me?”
“Certainly I mean you. And as for Lord Evans, he has already left, permanently.”
“What made him go?” Sebastian asked.
“He no longer admires me.”
“I can’t believe that.”
She shrugged. “It is true.”
“Even if it is, there will be many others anxious to take his place. You are a courageous and beautiful woman, Abbey, and few men could resist you.”
“Except you, apparently.” Her expression was rife with suppressed amusement, making it clear she didn’t actually believe it. “Many gentlemen pretend to admire me but how am I to know if it’s me or my fortune and position they desire?”
“Wait until your affections are engaged. You will know when that happens.”
“Precisely.”
“The answer is
no,
Abbey.”
He stood up but didn’t move towards the door, his head and heart conducting a full scale battle and preventing it.
“Why pretend a disinterest which doesn’t exist?” she asked softly.
“You are playing a dangerous game, my lady.”
“It’s a game which you started, my lord, and I wish to know how it finishes. You awoke my passions when I was more than content to allow them to remain dormant. Do you not think you now owe me the opportunity to discover what comes next?”
“Abbey, stop it! That’s not possible and well you know it.”
“I know nothing, Sebastian, which is precisely my point. But I very much wish to learn and you are going to teach me.” She sounded supremely confident and took one wobbly step in his direction.
“No!” He parried her step towards him by taking a longer one backwards, sighing as he flapped his arms helplessly at his side. “You know very well only your future husband can indoctrinate you into the delights you seek.”
“Ah, at last he understands.”
Sebastian’s jaw dropped open. “Are you proposing to me?” he stuttered.
“How slow you are on the uptake, my lord.” She tossed her head. “If you were even half the gentleman you make yourself out to be you wouldn’t leave me in the embarrassing position of having to do the proposing and would attend to the matter yourself.”
“Abbey, I am honoured and flattered.” He shook his head. “How could I not be? But I can’t marry you.”
“Why ever not? You must marry at some time, surely?”
“Indeed, but you and I would hardly suit, sweetheart. I am too old for you.”
She sent him a scorching smile. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“Your uncle would be vehemently opposed to such a match. I’m hardly a man with a spotless reputation.”
“My uncle would be more than agreeable if he knew it was what I wanted. You saved my life and my aunt has spent half the morning telling me you have Uncle Bertram’s undying gratitude. Besides, he has always made it clear the eventual choice of a husband would be mine alone to make. He wishes to see me happy and, for some reason completely beyond my comprehension, you are the only gentleman in a position to make me so.” She managed another step in his direction and smiled vaingloriously. “You, Sebastian Denver, are my choice and I haven’t the slightest intention of permitting you to escape me.”
Sebastian was speechless. She was actually serious! In an effort to gain a respite he paced the room, his mind in turmoil as he attempted to think of more compelling objections—objections which would only serve to deny him that which he wanted more than life itself. His mind refused to co-operate and he could think of none.
“Why is it, do you appear impervious to my supposed charms?” She lowered her lashes and hobbled a little closer to his position. “It’s not at all flattering to be rejected without a good reason. Am I so repellent to you?”
“Abbey, oh Abbey!” He sighed, disrupting his hair when he again raked a hand through it, shaking the resulting disarray absently out of his eyes. “You are enough to try the patience of a saint. Are you always so determined when there is something that you want?”
“I cannot really say. I’ve never wanted something before as much as I want you, you see. I do intend to have my way and so it’s useless you putting up nebulous objections.” Her saucy smile gave way to a serious expression. “I love you, Sebastian. There will never be another for me. If you reject me then my godfather will get his way in a manner he couldn’t have predicted, even if he’s no longer in a position to benefit from it, since I won’t marry another and the title will become extant.”
“That is not only nonsense but it’s also blackmail,” he told her, all out of arguments and perilously close to capitulation.
She smiled, a gurgle of laughter escaping her lips as she regarded him with her heart reflected in her eyes. “So it is,” she agreed.
Sebastian turned away from her, frustrated for more than one reason. Trying to dissuade a determined woman from her purpose, especially when their purposes coincided, was proving deuced difficult.
“You hardly know me. What you feel is most likely nothing more than gratitude.”
“Don’t tell me what I feel! I know my own heart, even if you aren’t willing to admit what is in yours.”
“You cannot be so very sure, sweetheart. You’re only eighteen, and I am the first man to arouse your passions. Others might do a better job of it.”
“Eighteen-and-a-half.”
Sebastian’s lips quirked. “Ah yes, forgive me, I hadn’t taken into account the extra half-year. That would account for everything.”
“Sebastian!” She stamped her good foot in exasperation, almost toppling over. He noticed tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. “You are treating me like a child again. You will keep doing that and it’s most vexatious. Surely, after all that’s passed between us, I am at least worthy of your respect.”
“I have seldom respected anyone’s courage more,” he replied.
And it was at then, as he watched the trickle of tears turn into a flood that he stopped trying to fight her. She had hardly cried at all, even when her life had been in the gravest danger and she had discovered the full extent of her godfather’s evil. Now he had managed to reduce her to a watering-pot with a few flippant words. It wouldn’t do! She was everything he had always wanted in a wife. He had known it almost from the first. She was right too, the little minx, to say the passion which simmered between them was totally unique. He had certainly never known its like before.
He retraced his backward steps, closed the gap between them and turned the key in the lock as he passed the door. He continued to advance upon her, his gaze locked upon hers, acutely aware of tension fuelling the air between them.
“Come here.”
He pulled her into his arms, her body colliding against his with a soft thud. The perfume he associated with her filled his head as he lowered his lips and covered hers with them.
“Does this mean you are accepting my proposal?” she asked before their lips fused.
“You talk too much.”
“Possibly, but…oh!”
His hands wandered at will, distracting her, and cutting off her flow of words. He wiped the remnants of salty tears from her face with the tip of his tongue.
“But I need to know, Sebastian.” she said, her eyes wide open in expectation. “Are you accepting my proposal?”
“It would appear so,” he murmured.
“Oh, but then I need to know—”
Sighing, Sebastian silenced her in the only manner he could think of that was guaranteed to succeed.
With his lips.
The End
About the Author
Wendy Soliman is a British author, brought up on the Isle of Wight, who now divides her time between Andorra and the west coast of Florida. She shares her life with her long-suffering husband and a rescued dog of indeterminate pedigree, named Jake Bentley after the hero in one of her books. Both Jakes are handsome mongrels with independent spirits and wild streaks.
Wendy has over forty published books to her credit, ranging from Regency romance, (her first love), to contemporary women’s fiction and marine crime mysteries. She also writes erotica for SirenBookStrand under a pen name.
When not writing, Wendy enjoys walking miles with her dog, reading other people’s tomes…oh, and she’s on a one woman mission to save the wine trade from the world recession. She figures someone has to do it!
Also available from Book Baby
To Defy a Duke
A Duke by Default
Table of Contents
