Page 24 of Always the Lyon Tamer
As though he had beaten every man in the world to win her heart. As though she was a great prize for something he had done—though God knew what he could possibly have done to win her.
It was a rather heady thought. She had known him well…
“You like opera, but you do not love it. You prefer concerts—Mozart, mainly. You adore cards, but you are not very good. Yet you never cheat.”
But more than that, she had desired him so much that she had spoken to Mrs. Dove-Lyon and concocted some wild sort of game to win him.
He was here only because a woman wanted him.
John racked his brains, running through all the ladies in his acquaintance, of which they were many. Some were bold, and many were clever, and almost all beautiful.
None of them would surely do this—would they?
“You know me.”
There was a shift of the weight on his chest, and then, “Yes, I think I have made that rather obvious.”
John smiled. “No, I mean…you know who I am, but you also know me. The opera, concerts, all those other things…and it is almost as though you know how I want to be touched, how I want to be loved.”
The words sounded strange on his lips, but he had to say them.He had to ask.
“But that would mean…it would suggest, at the very least, that we have met, several times. Tell me. Tell me your name.”
Silence. Nothing but the beating of his heart and the warmth of her skin.
And then she spoke—hesitantly at first, but with a little strength growing with each passing syllable. “I thought you would have guessed by now. I thought you would know me by my voice.”
John desperately wracked his mind, his memory, but there were so many young ladies in society.
She knew him. He knew her.
John almost shook his head with self-disgust.That was the best he could manage?
“I do apologize,” he said quietly, and he meant it. “I cannot think of who you could be, and I am ashamed to admit it. I must have been walking around with my eyes half-closed.”
A movement—she was shifting in his arms, and John instinctively tightened his grip, as though afraid he would lose her.
“Yes, you were, that is a very apt description,” came her quiet voice. “Time and time again, I thought you would notice me, but then…you always had eyes for others. Though I did always enjoy our time together.”
Damn and blast, he had spent time with her?John’s feelings of guilt increased. What sort of cad was he that he had utterly ignored what was the perfect woman for him?
“If I had known, really known you, when I met you in the world, I am sure I would have offered for you,” said John quietly. “I swear it. You have no reason to believe me, I suppose, but—”
“I believe everything you say.” There was only truth and a certain amount of innocence in her tones.
John stroked her arm gently, reveling in her warmth. “So…can I take my blindfold off now? Please?”
The pause was enough evidence of her hesitation, and then she said, “You remember the rules, I am sure, John. You lost the game—”
“Forfeited the game!” John protested.
There was a gentle laugh. “Forfeited, but still. You did not win. That means you must do what I want.”
John grinned. “I thought that was the lovemaking.”
Her fingers were gently tracing his collarbones now, and John gloried in her touch.So gentle. So sensual.
“That is what happened, but I want something different. I want you to marry me.”
