Twice the Temptation (10 page)

 
“You are an unusual man,” she commented quietly, cuddling Elektra against her chest, “taking in stray kittens and inviting women who’ve slapped you out to luncheon.”

 
So she remembered the kiss, too—or at least the end of it. “I kissed you without invitation. I deserved to be slapped.”

 
“And so now you’re a completely proper gentleman?”

 
“No. But the next time we kiss, I will ask you first.”

 
Her cheeks darkened. “What makes you think there will be a next time?”

 
“Because I can’t imagine there not being one.”

 
That stopped her for a moment. She sat beside him, absently scratching Elektra and gazing at the crowded London streets around them. Apparently he’d given the correct response, since she hadn’t slapped him or thrown the cat at his head. And oddly enough, he’d also given a completely honest response. He did want to kiss her again, and however efficiently she seemed to evade him, he knew—knew—he would kiss her again.

 
“Where are we going?” she asked finally, still not facing him.

 
“St. James’s Park. I thought we might picnic beside the pond.”

 
“That sounds nice.”

 
He nodded, fighting against the urge to smile. “Did you bring your evil gemstone?” he queried, mostly to give her a moment to recover her usual, more acerbic self.

 
“No, I didn’t. I told you it was nonsense. There’s no such thing as a diamond giving someone bad luck or good luck.”

 
“There are those who would dispute that. As we’re here together and it’s elsewhere, I, for instance, would say that its absence is good luck.”

 
“For you, perhaps.”

 
“But if my theory is correct, to prove it you would only need to wear it, and I would fall off the carriage and break my neck.”

 
Finally she faced him again, her expression serious, but her hazel eyes dancing. “If only I could be certain, I might risk it.”

 
“Very amusing, Gilly. I consider that your leaving it behind means you like me and don’t wish me to lose any appendages.”

 
“Suit yourself, butI merely considered a diamond necklace too much decoration for a picnic.”

 
Connoll grinned. “Very well. I’ll be grateful and keep my peace.” They turned onto the park’s main path, and he slowed the team of chestnut mares to a walk. “Did I interrupt Redmond’s visit earlier?” he asked in a hopefully offhand tone. Whatever her intentions regarding the earl or vice versa, he refused to be jealous of the old windbag. He did, however, want to know what was going on. And he’d already given himself permission to do anything necessary to disrupt it.

 
“He came by to see whether I might be available for luncheon,” she returned, waving as they passed another carriage.

 
“He actually is a suitor, then? Not just some very, very, very old friend of the family?”

 
“He’s one-and-fifty. That’s not so very old.”

 
“Not for dirt or some select bottles of wine,” he retorted. “As a suitor for a young lady not yet twenty, it isvery old. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that he has barely half a wit.”

 
“You’re jealous?” she asked, obvious surprise lifting her voice and her fine eyebrows.

 
“I am curious,” he countered. “Is he your idea of a good catch, or your mother’s?”

 
“I am not going to spend my luncheon debating the merits of the Earl of Redmond with you. At least he’s never knocked me off my feet.”

 
“I knocked you down, but I never knocked you off your feet, Gilly. I don’t think any man ever has. And that is what you need.”

 
She continued to scratch the kitten. “I assume you’re speaking metaphorically. And you’re wrong.”

 
“You have been knocked off your feet, then? I doubt—”

 
“I meant that that is not what I need. I am not some trembling, fainting miss. I know what I wish to have in my life, and I know who can provide it.”

 
“And that person is Redmond?” he asked skeptically.

 
“Yes.”

 
“Then you’re wishing for the wrong things.”

 
Turning away, she muttered something under her breath. The only word he could make out was “diamond.”

 
“What was that?” he prompted.

 
“I said, I should have worn the diamond. Let’s eat our luncheon and conclude this appointment, shall we?”

 
Connoll stopped the curricle beneath a likely tree. As
soon as his tiger hopped to the ground and went to hold the horses, he tied off the ribbons and jumped down himself. Evangeline puzzled him—a young lady with wits, beauty, and money enough that she needn’t marry to provide for herself, didn’t pursue matrimony with the likes of the Earl of Redmond. And yet she was pursuing it, as much as the old earl was. Why?

 
“Are you going to leave me up here?” she asked, handing Elektra to her maid and twisting on her perch to look down at him.

 
Shaking himself, Connoll strode around to her side of the carriage. Putting his hands around her waist, he lifted her to the ground. The curricle momentarily sheltered them from the view of anyone in the park who might be passing by. With a slow breath he tilted her chin up and leaned beneath the brim of her bonnet to kiss her.

 
The softoh of surprise her lips formed molded against his mouth. Even braced for a blow as he was, her feathery breath, the smooth, warm line of her jaw, lifted him inside until he couldn’t even feel the ground beneath his boots.

 
She shoved at his shoulders. Breathing hard, Connoll took a reluctant step backward. “You can’t want that old m—”

 
Gilly grabbed him again, the bonnet slipping back off her honey-colored hair as she pressed against him. Her arms wrapped fiercely around his shoulders, fingers digging into his back. He felt all of it, everywhere they touched, the tremble of her lips as she parted them for his questing tongue.

 
He pressed her back against the wheel of the carriage, tilting her face up as he deepened the kiss. God, she tasted of…of warm sunshine, of ripe strawberries, of
something he couldn’t put a name to but that abruptly became vital to his continued survival.

 
“Miss Munroe!” her maid squeaked in a hushed, horrified voice. “Lord Rawley! You must stop that at once!”

 
No, he thought, sliding his arms down from her waist to her hips, drawing her harder against him.Never .

 
“Someone is coming! Please!”

 
That caught his attention. “Damnation,” he swore against Gilly’s mouth. Blinking, half surprised they were still clothed, much less upright, he tore his mouth from hers. Pulling the bonnet back over her hair, he wiped a hand across his lips and turned just in time to see the barouche stop beside his curricle.

 
“I thought I recognized your carriage, Conn,” came the booming voice of Lewis Blanchard, Lord Ivey. “You know my betrothed.”

 
Clenching his jaw, Connoll faced the slender, raven-haired chit seated beside Ivey, her arm wrapped around his. “Of course I do. Good afternoon, Daisy.”

 
Chapter 6

 
Daisy. Evangeline looked from the lovely younglady to Connoll, standing there looking calm as anything, except for his hands, clenched so tightly into fists that his knuckles were white.

 
She cleared her throat. “Aren’t you going to introduce me, Connoll?” she asked, forcing a smile and choosing not to question why she felt the need to step in.

 
Black eyes gazed at her, assessing, curious…and jealous? She wasn’t certain. But little as she liked the idea of being a bit player in someone else’s theatrical production, at the moment her foremost thought was that she wanted Connoll Addison to kiss her again.

 
He stirred. “My apologies, Gilly,” he said easily, taking her hand in his and gently squeezing before he placed her fingers on his sleeve. “Gilly, Lewis Blanchard, Lord Ivey, and his fiancée, Daisy, Lady Applegate. Lewis, Daisy, Miss Munroe.”

 
“Hello,” she said, with a nod and a smile.

 
“Miss Munroe.” The large Lord Ivey grinned. “No
wonder you didn’t want my services as a matchmaker, Connoll. You might have said something.”

 
“I don’t gossip, even about myself,” the marquis returned. “Lady Applegate, best wishes to you on your betrothal.”

 
“Thank you, Lord Rawley. I hope you and Miss Munroe will come to our engagement ball.”

 
“I can’t speak for Evangeline, but I would be honored.”

 
“As would I,” Evangeline echoed, rather surprised to hear herself volunteering. It had been a very exceptional kiss, however, even better than the first one. And to herself she could admit that though it wasn’t supposed to matter, the kiss from Lord Redmond had repulsed her.

 
“Splendid.” Ivey chuckled again. “Very well. We’ll leave you to your picnic, then.” He doffed his hat. “Good day, Miss Munroe, Conn.”

 
“Ivey, Lady Applegate.”

 
She watched them down the path. “So that was the famous Daisy, eh?” she asked, facing Connoll again.

 
He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her hard on the mouth. “Thank you,” he murmured, running a finger along her lips as he straightened.

 
Good heavens. “Don’t trouble yourself. It was a small matter.” She blinked, trying to pull her mind back to the events at hand, and to what exactly she was doing there. “Did you kiss her the same way you kissed me?”

 
“What kind of question is that?” With a quizzical look at her, he returned to the back of the carriage and lowered Doretta and the picnic basket to the ground.

 
“It’s a very pertinent question,” she returned, taking the blanket out of his hands and spreading it on the grass. “The first time you kissed me, you thought I
was her. Daisy, Lady Applegate. Now you seem to be courting me or something, but I have to wonder whether you might merely want to have some other female on your arm so your lady won’t think you miss her.”

 
She sank onto the blanket, congratulating herself on figuring out his motives, and pretending that she didn’t want to be absolutely incorrect.

 
“You are very wrong about me, you know,” he commented, setting the basket beside her and dropping onto the blanket opposite.

 
“How so?”

 
“I wish Daisy well, and I suppose I do miss some things about her.” He scowled, shredding a piece of grass in his fingers. “She was amiable, and convenient. And honestly, I didn’t think her capable of forming a deep attachment to anyone. I realize now that she could—just not to me. Which may have been my fault, because I wasn’t interested in a deep attachment with anyone.”

 
Hearing that, her heart thudded harder. Evidently his interests had changed. Did he want to form a deep attachment to her, when Daisy hadn’t tempted him to do so? Evangeline shook herself. Whatever attachment he might want to form, he’d been crossed off her list for a reason—he was not the sort of man she wanted in her life. “And then you turned around and saw me, and decided I must be the one.”