The Madcap Masquerade (25 page)

He laughed softly, joyously. “That, my love, is the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time.”

Sweeping her up in his arms, he carried her to the sofa, where he sat with her cradled in his lap. “This is highly improper, my lord,” she protested. “What if someone should open the door?”

“You would be well and truly compromised, my love, and I would have no choice but to marry you.”

“But I have already told you, I will not marry you, my lord.”

Theo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Devil take it, why was she still fighting the inevitable? Couldn’t she see how perfectly they suited each other in every way?

She had already given him her heart; it was her mind that was holding out against him. But how could any man prevail with a woman as strong-minded as Maeve Barrington?

Like a bolt of lightning parting the midnight sky, the answer came to him. Hadn’t she just admitted she couldn’t think when he touched her? For one brief moment, his conscience pricked him at the thought of what he was contemplating, but the feeling soon passed. What was the saying? “All is fair in love and war.”

Cupping her face with his hand, he kissed her passionately— plundering her sweet mouth in a deeply sensual way he’d never before dared. White hot flames licked through his veins—flames that only Maeve could ignite.

He opened his eyes and studied her face. He could see she had been as deeply affected by their kiss as he. Eyes closed, she lay back across his arm. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips softly parted. Her mind was most definitely not in control at the moment.

His fingers slid to the row of buttons marching down the front of her shapeless gray gown. One by one, he released them from their closures, revealing the plain cotton chemise that covered her small, perfect breasts.

“Whatever are you doing, Theo,” she asked in a dreamy voice, but she made no effort to stay his fingers from their task. “Something I never in my wildest dreams expected I’d stoop to, my little green-eyed cat,” he admitted, while surreptitiously loosening the ties of her chemise.

“What is that?” Maeve asked.

Theo chuckled to himself at this latest ironic turn his life had taken.

“After much serious consideration,” he said reflectively, “I have decided to follow the only piece of sound advice I have ever heard that unscrupulous scoundrel, the squire, put forth.