Twice the Temptation (6 page)

His brows rose, his lips twitched and his hazel eyes held the promise of something terribly wicked. “The incident? I thought it was a kiss. And I recall there being more than one of such—” he cleared his throat “—incidents, as you say.”

Scorching degrees of heat burned her cheeks. “It was a mistake and I wish you wouldn’t speak of it again.”

“I did not mean to discomfit.” His voice was all feigned contriteness.

“Mr. Beaumont, you flatter yourself. You haven’t the power to discomfit me in the least.” She spoke with a bravado she did not feel nor was likely to be able to follow through on should she be put to the test. Lucas could discomfit her like no other man.

His gaze became hooded and when next he spoke, his voice seemed to have dropped an entire octave. “Am I to take that as a challenge, Miss Rutherford?”

It took her a moment to understand his meaning. The same time it took for his eyes to smolder, coming close to igniting her own desires. Unease had her swallowing hard and drawing in a shaky breath. “Nothing in my response issued any sort of challenge. I was merely stating the truth.”

“Why then do you not want me to speak of the
incidents
?” he asked in a quiet rumble brimming with everything sexual and illicit.

“Why?” Catherine averted her gaze for the instant it took her to gather her composure and regain some of that legendary Rutherford pride. “Because it is unseemly, that is why. I fear you are forgetting, Mr. Beaumont, that I am a respectable young lady.” Though perhaps not as young as she used to be nor as respectable as most imagined. And if technically she was not a lady by birth then certainly by comportment—at least on the most part.

Mocking her were the embarrassing details of their encounters playing vividly in her mind. The kisses they had shared had been incendiary. And with it, the memories brought more heat…everywhere.

He closed the distance between them with two long strides, his eyes glittering a sexual hunger when his regard arrested on her mouth. The burning intensity of that look sent her belly plummeting to parts of her person that made her thighs warble and clench. She swallowed, careful not to look away from him this time. If she conveyed any sign of weakness, she was done for. She may as well strip naked and spread her legs for him now.

An image flashed. The heat emanating from her face could bake bread and roast an entire pig through and through.

“Is it unseemly for a young woman to afford a man the liberties you did me? It was more than a kiss,” he said in a low velvety voice.

Catherine nearly choked on her next breath and began swatting at the charged air between them as if the memory of the incident his words evoked could be cleared so easily. Dear Lord, she’d yet to rid her thoughts of her spread naked for his plundering. “I don’t know how the women in America comport themselves, Mr. Beaumont, but I assure you—”

“Believe me when I say,
Miss
Rutherford—” he drawled, mimicking the strident formality of her address, for they’d gone beyond
Miss
and
Catherine
“—they comport themselves much the same way as the women here in England. Do you need a reminder?”

Yes please.
Insanity.

Where is your pride?
Logic and reason.

The two opposing voices warred in a battle to the death.

He was enjoying great amusement at her expense. It was obvious he saw her as an easy mark, ready to spread her thighs for all and sundry.
There would be no spreading of anything.
She had, after all, succumbed to him once—twice before. That she didn’t make it a habit of permitting men such liberties was a fact he probably wouldn’t believe if she told him. And what would it matter anyway? It wasn’t as if he cared for her. He’d been gone a year only to appear out of the blue with lust in his eyes, subjecting her to memories that threatened her resolve. It certainly didn’t appear he’d been pining for her. Not that she’d pined for him. She had not. Certainly, he’d been in her thoughts and starred in many of her dreams, but she wouldn’t precisely call that
pining
.

“A couple of kisses does not an attraction make.” She endeavored to keep her voice crisp, her jaw firmly set, her mouth tight and her gaze as cool as a north England autumn breeze.

He dipped his head from his intimidating six foot one inch height. Before she could squeak her outrage, his lips nipped her right earlobe. A tiny little love bite that immediately flooded her core with moisture and longing.

Traitor.
Insanity crowed at winning this battle.

“What does it make then?” he murmured, his voice throaty and low. “At the very least, a powerful attraction wouldn’t you agree” His lips then sought the place behind her ear that literally buckled her knees and had her clutching the lapels of his coat in an effort to remain upright. He caught her easily, pulling her tight against him until they were plastered from knee to shoulder.

“You mustn’t.” She said even as her head fell back to allow him full access to the line of her neck.

The war raged on but logic and reason were at a decided disadvantage. Insanity was crafty and had many weapons at its disposal.

“God, Catherine, take pity on me. It has been an entire year since I’ve held a woman like this—held you.” She felt the warm moistness of his breath against her skin and another tidal wave of desire washed over her. Although she knew she should resist him, she hadn’t the will to push him away. It had been just as long for her.

Logic and reason lay sprawled and breathless on the ground while, within insanity’s sight lay certain victory.

“My intentions are honorable.” His lips moved from her neck to her mouth, meeting her lips in the barest feathering of a kiss. Never had succumbing to the demands of her body created such a lure to wipe clean certain memories of the past. It would be so easy…and incredibly stupid. And no one could ever accuse her of being
that.

Insanity gaped in disbelief as logic and reason struggled to its knees and stood on shaky legs. Insanity charged. One good push would send its nemesis down again.

She lifted her hands to push him away, but he caught both in his grasp and pressed them to his chest. His mouth lifted the barest fraction of an inch, his breath like invisible ribbons keeping her tethered to him.

With his softly spoken words, logic and reason toppled and with its final breath, conceded defeat. “I love you and I’ve come back to make you my wife.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

C
atherine jerked out of his embrace with a startled, “Pardon?”

Lucas enjoyed the sight of her slightly unbalanced. He loved the look of her wide-eyed with surprise. God, he wanted her with an intensity that had consumed him those interminable months they’d been apart. And he was resolved to make her his—in every conceivable way. He’d have no peace until she was legally bound to him and he could call her his wife. Where they took their honeymoon would not matter as he’d scarcely let her out of bed.

“There is nothing I want more than to marry you.”

Catherine inhaled a deep breath. Lucas followed the rise and fall of her breasts. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself unbuttoning the back of her gown and peeling the pale-blue silk from her torso. He’d deal quickly with the cumbersome undergarments until her breasts were bared to his gaze. He’d take a rosy nipple into his mouth and circle it with the tip of his tongue.

“But why?”

Her voice broke through the fog of his lust. With her hand splayed against her throat, she appeared completely taken aback by his announcement, as he knew she would. 

“Why would I not want to marry you?” he asked softly. Surely she was not ignorant of her appeal? And he spoke not merely of her outward beauty. She had so much more than that to offer a gentleman. 

“I have not seen you in a year. You must understand my confusion over your sudden appearance and declarations of love.” She had retreated until her back met the shelf of the mahogany bookcase against the wall. 

Lucas would not have expected less from Catherine. She had every right to be slightly wary of his intentions. No matter how she’d tried to hide it, he’d hurt her. “My greatest regret is leaving you as I did. And my only excuse is that I was confronted with an enormous dilemma. In all fairness, I knew I could not ask you to leave the sister you’d only just found and your family to come with me to America. At the same time, I had responsibilities there—my siblings, my business—and I couldn’t simply absolve myself of my duties toward them. In addition, your brother-in-law quite despises me. I couldn’t see a way to resolving the matter to either our satisfaction.” If Charlotte had not told her that she’d explicitly asked him to leave to save her marriage, it wasn’t his place to inform Catherine of that fact. 

 “Those obstacles still exist. What is so different now?” she asked, her expression guarded. 

“When I finally accepted the true depth of my feelings for you—that I loved you beyond reason—I was willing to do whatever it took to be with you. My feelings for you were not going to go away no matter the distance between us, no matter whatever time elapsed. You are indelibly etched in my heart. And if that meant I had to move myself and my sisters to England, leave the running of my company to someone else, and face the wrath of your brother-in-law to have you in my life…as my wife, I would gladly do whatever it took.” 

Catherine visibly shivered and her eyes took on a glassy sheen. 

“In other words, I found I could not live without you.” The need for her had grown until it had affected everything he did. He’d rushed through the expansion of his company, an undertaking that would normally have taken double the nine months he’d condensed it to. He and his men had worked themselves ragged to get the new steel plant equipped and adequately manned so he could return to England—to her. 

Catherine’s breath emerged shaky and shallow. She stared at him and swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.” An enchanting blush suffused her face, her pupils large, and her blue eyes as clear as a cloudless sky. 

 “At present, I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to come here.” He’d intended it as a request but it came out a husky command. 

“For what?” she asked, her voice a tremulous whisper, for she knew what he wanted. She’d known it almost since their introduction. The attraction between them had been immediate and explosive. 

Lucas chuckled softly. “Surely you can guess,” he murmured. 

Her gaze fell to the evidence of his arousal before jerking up swiftly. “You want to marry me yet I received only one letter from you. Those actions hardly seem to fit the sentiment you’ve just professed.” Her voice broke ever so slightly. 

“I received no letter from you,” he retorted, still piqued at that. He’d hoped she would write but after two months had passed without a letter from her, he’d accepted the fact that there wouldn’t be one. 

Catherine’s eyes narrowed as she folded her arms across her chest. “Pray what precisely was I to respond to? You informed me that you’d arrived safely and wished me well. What you sent me was a courtesy letter and nothing more.” 

“If you recall, we didn’t part on the best of terms. I had no idea what kind of reception my letter would receive.” For the first time in his life, he’d feared his feelings not being reciprocated. 

“You might have given me an inkling of how you felt.” Her eyes flashed in anger and hurt. She clearly blamed him for that. 

Well he would make it up to her the best way he could. He’d give her a courting the likes of which she’d never seen or heard of before. 

“Believe me, I would have written again but by the time I finally set my mind on my course of action, I believed a letter would be inadequate given the time that had elapsed and the fact that you’d never written me back. I felt it would be to my advantage to see you, speak to you in person,” he admitted gruffly. Whether she believed it or not, she held his heart and future happiness in her soft, slender hands. 

He started toward her, approaching her with measured strides and affording her enough time to bolt if she so desired. But she stood her ground, strands of golden curls about her shoulders, his fingers having liberated them from the pins that secured them at her nape. He’d have preferred her hair completely unbound, trailing the length of his bare chest all the way down to his groin. 

“I also thought it may be to my benefit to have the element of surprise on my side,” he said upon reaching her and drew her still form into his arms. She offered no resistance, her body stiff for a moment before she seemed to melt into him, molding to fit his frame as if fashioned for that specific purpose. 

His erection went from interested to fully engaged, raging out of control. He settled it hard against her belly. He stared down at her and it was all he could do not to take her right there, heedless of the inappropriateness of the time and the venue. God, her sister was somewhere out there on the other side of the door.