Page 54 of After the Abduction

“Let me out!” she demanded, rattling the knob.

“Not until we’ve had our discussion.”

She faced him, flattening herself against the door. Her lilac scent misted over him, delicate and fine. He wanted to grab her and hold her close, but she’d likely throttle him if he tried. Still, with his arm braced against the door over her shoulder, she was so close only a breath separated them. As he stared down at her face, his every muscle went taut.

Ah, but she was lovely, especially here. Like Aphrodite, the goddess of spring and beauty, she belonged in warm Cyprian groves, dripping flowers from her fingers as she danced through the moonlight. She did not belong amid the treacherous forests of London society, that was certain. He should never have left her to wander them alone.

The sudden quickening of her breath showed she was aware of him, too. She dropped her gaze to stare into his cravat. “I have nothing to discuss with you just now.”

He leaned into her. “Tell me about the scoundrels in London, the ones who put their ‘groping hands’ on you. When you said you wanted to learn about rakes so you could avoid them, I didn’t realize it was because they’d made ‘improper advances.’”

A tiny frown of confusion creased her smooth brow. “What in creation are you talking about? Men in London may have courted me, but none of them ever—” She broke off suddenly, and her expression cleared. “That’s what you get for eavesdropping. Heard something you didn’t like, did you?”

“Devil take it, I want to know who they are!”

“Oh, for goodness sake, you misunderstood what I told your uncle. I wasn’t speaking of what had already happened, but what could happen if this gossip continues.”

Relief nearly brought him to his knees. What had he been thinking? From the beginning, she’d shown herself to be nearly as innocent as a woman her age could be. Jealous anger had so overtaken him that he hadn’t stopped to consider what he’d seen of her character. Of course no one had put his hands on her.

He’d been right all along about the gossip. If there was any, it was minor. She only spoke of it when she wanted to tug at someone’s sympathies—like his uncle’s. “You needn’t worry about such nonsense. It won’t continue if I have anything to say about it.”

She cast him a mutinous look. “What makes you think you can stop it? And you know how all the rakes will act once they learn for certain that I’d been a very naughty girl. Witness how you behaved after you learned about the kidnapping. You felt free to kiss me and touch me—”

“That had nothing to do with it. I kissed you because I wanted you. I would have kissed you if I’d met you under perfectly proper circumstances.” That she could lump him in with those scoundrels in London infuriated him. He didn’t know which was worse—her thinking him an inept imbecile, or a heartless seducer.

Especially when he’d already proved she didn’t mind his attentions, no matter what he was. “It’s not as if I was alone in all that kissing and touching, either,” he snapped. “You know very well that you welcomed it.”

With a haughty little sniff, she turned her head. “That’s absurd.”

Anger boiled up through him. After yesterday, that she could still pretend—“I didn’t imagine it, Juliet, so don’t think you can return to telling me how ‘adequate’ my kisses are. I remember your eager mouth. I remember your soft sighs of pleasure. That isn’t how a bored or offended woman behaves. Have you forgotten kissing me back? Sliding your hands inside my coat? You can no longer deny that you want me. Yesterday I proved that you do.”

“You proved nothing.” She moved away from the door. “I never said—”

“You didn’t have to.” He caught her arm when she tried to pass him. “Your actions spoke well enough.”

“I was merely…caught up in the moment,” she whispered, though she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “But if you think that means anything—”

“Blast it all, it means everything, and you know it. It means you care for me. I dare you to look me in the eye and deny it.”

Juliet knew she was on shaky ground already, but it got shakier when she made the mistake of doing as he demanded. Goodness gracious, but the man could rock the very floor beneath her feet with just a look. Such a magnetic gaze, such a brooding stare…It made her want to throw herself into his arms. Or run. He’d eyed her like that yesterday in the drawing room—as a starving sea serpent eyes the virgin tied to the rocks just before he strikes and devours.

His all-consuming need scrambled her already quite muddled thoughts, and that was the last thing she could afford in this secret winter Eden.

Without answering, she jerked her arm free and hurried down the three marble steps into the conservatory’s center. Looking for a door to the outside, she strode along the circular path around a huge marble pedestal upon which reigned an impressive potted begonia.

It was no use. She felt him stalking her, felt his lambent heat behind her in the musky damp of the room. “You can’t deny it, can you?” he rasped. “You may not like being attracted to the brother of your kidnapper, but you are.”

She gritted her teeth against the urge to protest that he and her “kidnapper” were one and the same. She refused to confront him until she had him inescapably trapped. “It’s not an attraction. You’ve merely misunderstood—”

“That you want me? Have I?” Without warning, he slipped his arm about her waist and dragged her back against his rock-hard flesh. “So you don’t want me to hold you like this?” he murmured against her hair. “You find it disgusting?”

Dear me, if only she did. “Sebastian, don’t—”

“Hold you? Kiss you? Want you, too?” He nuzzled her upswept hair, then pressed a delicious kiss to her bared neck. “Why not?”

She couldn’t speak or think or…or anything. Not when his lips were dancing kisses over her skin, awakening it to a world of sensual possibilities.

“Tell me you want me to leave you alone,” he prodded. “Say it, and I will. I swear I’ll never touch you again if you say the words.”