The Skilled Seduction (3 page)

True enough,
he realized, as the memory of that kiss again permeated Tristan’s consciousness. Why couldn’t he shake the recollection? The only reason he could fathom was that Victoria was unattainable and, therefore, he wanted her. That, in combination with the fact that Victoria was inexperienced when he kissed her, had thrilled him.

His heart hardened at the realization that not even Victoria was innocent any longer.

“Tristan, for heaven’s sake,” Victoria tugged his arm, turning him to face her. “I’m not a trollop.”

“What would you call it, Victoria? Kissing men on terraces and God only knows where else?” He paused, noting the pain emanating from her eyes. Even in the semi-darkness, illuminated by the sliver of an opaque moon and bathed in shadows, he knew her eyes to be a deep sapphire with silver flecks.
 

“You and Oliver are the only men I have ever kissed and tonight marks the first time that I kissed Oliver,” Victoria admitted as she sat on the stone bench he’d motioned to earlier. She began to trace the golden embroidered flowers that spanned the landscape of her jade skirts with her fingernail.
 

It surprised him that despite the fact that Victoria had been cloaked in shadows, he still knew what she wore. He couldn’t recall what any other woman in attendance wore tonight. Victoria was the exception, and damn it to hell, he had been unable to take his eyes off of her in the ballroom.
 

Dressed in an exquisite gown of jade and gold, Victoria appeared to be more resplendent than the thousands of candles illuminating the grand room.
Beauty personified
, Tristan thought, as he watched her mingle amongst the other guests, smiling animatedly as she wound her way through the throngs in attendance, making everyone she spoke with think they were the most important people in the room. Her charm and grace overpowered every other lady in that ballroom.

“Why
did
you kiss Wainright?” Tristan was astonished by his unrelenting need to hear her explanation.

She didn’t answer, instead mesmerized by her skirts. Tristan settled beside her then reached for her, tipping her chin with his thumb, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“Why?” he repeated, a voice a low murmur.

“Because ...” she bit her lower lip, drawing his attention to her heart-shaped lips once more. An intense desire to kiss her flooded him once again.

Damn, this is becoming annoying!
   

The woman he found himself infatuated with was none other than Victoria, for God’s sake and this craving within him … well, in addition to being unbelievably stupid, it was bordering on incestuous. She is, after all, his sister’s sister-in-law. But his reasons rang hollow. To covet Victoria wasn’t incestuous, was it? That was why Tristan couldn’t squash this particular desire, because he knew that if he wanted her badly enough, he could have her.
 

It was something he’d contemplated many times.

He chose not to act upon his desires because a part of him recognized that after all he’d done since Eve chose his brother over him, Tristan didn’t deserve someone as good and pure as Tori.

Tristan realized that he was still touching her, tipping her chin up. When he released her, Victoria swayed. It was a slight, almost unperceivable action but one he noticed nonetheless.

“You never answered my question,” his tone possessed a gentle quality as he returned to the topic at hand. “Why were you kissing Wainright?”

“Because I wanted to ensure that I knew how to kiss properly.” She studied him, her eyes searching his. “Since you kissed me, I have questioned whether I am at all proficient at it.”

Tristan knew not why, but relief washed over him. Was it because Victoria’s motives appeared innocent? Or, perhaps, it was because she, too, remembered the kiss they shared? Perhaps she thought of their kiss as often as he did?

Her next words assured him that she did.

“You kissed me once and never wanted to do so again. That is most certainly a blow to a lady’s self-confidence.”

She had no idea how much he wanted to kiss her again.

“Before I accept any betrothal offers,” Victoria added, as if oblivious to his current state of inner turmoil. “I feel it is only fitting that I learn how to kiss.”

Her words hovered in the air between them like a heavy cloud and Tristan felt as if his world had tilted off its axis.

Victoria had betrothal offers?

“In addition, it would be a rather helpful method to discern which suitor is compatible with me.”

Good God, how many offers for her hand were there?
 

Tristan raked his hands through his hair. “Let me get this straight. You plan on kissing every suitor in order to decide who you should marry?”

Victoria suppressed a slight grin, he noted with disgust. Tristan knew he must appear utterly ridiculous. Behaving like a besotted fop! Thinking that he and Victoria—

It was best to stop this now. He would never again want to marry anyone, not even Victoria. Nor would he ever love anyone, although if the inconceivable were to occur, it would be with Tori. Since Tristan was convinced that hell remained scorching hot and always would, he resolved to return to the subject at hand.

Why had he dragged her out here? To help her see reason! Yes, that was it!

Tristan swallowed hard before trusting his voice. “What did you learn this evening?” He couldn’t believe he was asking such an absurd question.

“I didn’t learn a blessed thing because you interrupted me, remember?” Victoria chided.

Oh, yes, right. He did, and he was glad of it. Thrilled, in fact!

“So,” Victoria stood, her tone airy as she smoothed her skirts. “I am left with no other option but to attempt this another time when you are nowhere in the vicinity.”

She turned on her heel but Tristan clamped his hand on her arm, swinging her around to face him.

“Oh, no you will not,” he commanded, now standing in front of her.

“But—”

“No, Victoria. I forbid it.” On this he would not negotiate. “You will not practice on any other males. They don’t have your best interests at heart, nor will they understand this little educational survey of yours.”

“May I remind you that you are not my brother? I have two, you see,” she paused, holding two fingers in the air, “and you are neither. Second, Oliver is my friend, therefore he understands.”

“Unless you wish for your friend to propose to you, you will drop that notion right now. Or don’t you remember his suggestion upon citing a few of your many allures?”

Tristan could also recite them –
beautiful, intelligent, and witty
. Then there were her unspoken charms … sweet yet seductive, with a curvaceous figure, soft skin, and thick auburn curls that all but invited a man to run his fingers through them.

Oh, dear Lord, what was wrong with him? Tristan felt the sudden urge to end this conversation. He turned, fully prepared to do so.

“Then why don’t
you
kiss me?” Victoria suggested, stopping him dead in his tracks.

He was now confident
 
that there was no order left in the world. Surely it must be overrun in mass chaos? The fact that he was entertaining her offer proved it.

“I cannot do that,” he said, proud of his stern determination as he studied the uneven shape of a rather overgrown shrub.
   

“Why not?” Victoria crossed in front of him, forcing him to face her.
 

Staring into the depths of her azure eyes, Tristan feared his resolve would waver.
 

She took one step closer to him, causing his pulse to rush harder, faster in response. Her tone was silken. “It wouldn’t be the first time you kissed me.”

Despite her valid point, he rebounded, “That doesn’t mean I should do so again. Or that I ever should have done so in the first place.”
   

Although he was quite impressed with his own arguments, Victoria flinched, as if wounded. His sudden, pressing desire to explain overpowered his desire to escape. “It wasn’t proper, Victoria.”

 
“Since when do you observe propriety?” Victoria crossed her arms over her chest, attracting his attention to the creamy flesh above her bodice. He now wished that he had explored more of her silken skin when he had the chance.
 

His thoughts were sinful!

“No,” he asserted, more for his own benefit than hers. “I will not kiss you again.”

“Ah,” She paused long enough to
cluck
her tongue. “Could it be that Mr. Tristan MacAlistair, God’s gift to the legal profession and to the entire female population of London, is afraid his kiss will pale in comparison to the Earl of Fairfax’s?”

Tristan grunted, incapable
 
of believing his ears.

Victoria raked him with her eyes, surveying him from head to toe. “I can understand why you might be intimidated. Oliver is more refined, is he not? Though a gentleman of nobility, his skin is more bronzed, which is understandable since he spends more time outdoors than in an office. Perhaps Oliver is stronger? He does perform more physical labor than—”

Tristan reached for her, placing his iron grip around her waist then tugged her towards him. She didn’t dare finish her sentence as his fingertips slowly trailed up her ribcage then skimmed the fabric at the side of her bodice before reaching her flesh. His fingers traced a fiery path over Victoria’s shoulders and up her neck, leaving every inch of her skin tingling in their wake.
 

Victoria knew he was going to kiss her, recognizing the change in his eyes – usually a deep mahogany, they now appeared a smoky onyx under the cool glow of the dim moonlight. His full lips also warned her of his forthcoming kiss, now parted ever so slightly, as if waiting for the right moment.
 

Tristan’s hands stopped their exploration when they reached the nape of her neck. As he bent down to kiss her, he whispered, “Is this what you want?”

A faint moan escaped her lips as Tristan crushed them against his own. Having now been kissed twice in the same evening by two completely different men, Victoria preferred Tristan’s commanding, impassioned, all consuming kisses above the other.

He traced the outline of her lips with his tongue and her heartbeat quickened. Victoria wanted this, she wanted him, more than anything else in all the world. As she parted her lips for him, she silently vowed to make Tristan want her too, repeating her pledge as she used her tongue as he was doing.

What was heaven for her, remained sheer torture for him.

Though Victoria had been brave during their first kiss, Tristan had been in complete control. It was one of the reasons that it thrilled him so much. He knew it was her first kiss and her purity delighted him.

On this night, she was daring and, by meeting his tongue with hers, Victoria reminded Tristan that she had indeed kissed someone else.

Fury filled his senses. He wanted to be the only man she kissed like this. Knowing there had been another, that there could be many other men until she finally wed, made Tristan deepen his kiss.

Harder, more demanding, his lips devoured hers. He would make her remember him and hope to God no one would ever kiss her like he did. It was madness, Tristan knew but, for one brief instant, he no longer cared.

Victoria trembled as he threaded his fingers through her silken tresses, the flowery scent of lilacs intoxicating him. It was as if he and Victoria were the only two people in the world, shrouded by passion and unadulterated yearning.
 

God, he had wanted this woman for so long.
 

His decision to kiss her tonight was made in haste. It was his effort to prove to himself that their first encounter had been artificial – to prove that the explosive chemistry he felt with her during their previous intimacy and his subsequent infatuation was all for naught. There was no way such desires would ever be repeated. It must have been his imagination. But, no, he had been wrong.
 

So very wrong.

The bond between them, their passion was undeniable and even more formidable than he remembered.

Oh, how he tried to forget.

No other woman possessed Victoria’s passion, beauty, strength, wit or intelligence. None possessed her enigmatic presence or her effervescent radiance. He couldn’t get enough of her and the realization scared the hell out of him.
 

The lyrical sound of female laughter reverberated through the maze of shrubbery, sobering him. They were no longer alone! Tristan tore his mouth from hers.

“What?” Victoria managed in a ragged whisper.

He placed his finger over her lips, trying to discern from which direction the unwelcome intruders were traveling. Since there was more than one exit route, Tristan grabbed Victoria’s arm, leading her out of the garden maze through a quiet, vacant path. Once they were free of the labyrinth of shrubbery, and Tristan was confident no one could see or overhear them, he beseeched her. “Now can you see why this is so reckless?”

A dazed expression swept over her beguiling features.