Falling for the Marquess - Julianne MacLean Page 0,50

gathered her aplomb and finally stood, sending a seething glare in Seger’s direction as she passed by on the way to the door.

He wondered suddenly what he was going to say next. He gazed down at Clara and saw in her eyes a hopeful but cautious expectation.

So, there it was. The first step toward the life he had been avoiding for eight years, the life that went beyond superficiality where a woman was concerned. He realized suddenly that a partial reason for his avoidance of it was to punish his stepmother and his late father for what had happened with Daphne. Even though the old marquess was long cold in his grave, Seger had wanted to deprive him of the next heir.

Now, for the first time, that meant nothing to Seger. All he knew was what he wanted, and that he could not bear the thought of anyone else proposing to Clara Wilson. He wanted her for himself. In his bed. Forever.

The thought shocked him. He had never meant for Clara—or any woman for that matter—to become so important to him.

As soon as the duchess and chaperone were gone, Seger sat down again and turned to face Clara. He should end this now...say goodbye, but his mental faculties could not gain a foothold over his lust and need. He wanted Clara. He wanted access to her rare inner beauty, and there was no fighting it. All he could do now was try to say the right things without becoming a man he did not wish to become. A man at the mercy of his emotions.

Consequently, he searched for bearings, and fell back into the habits that had become the foundation of his existence. He summoned his surface charm and forced a lid on anything deeper.

Clara’s thoughts were screaming inside her head. What were his intentions? Was she being presumptuous, imagining that he meant to propose?

“I don’t wish to cause any more scandals,” he said.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“But we must be, if I am to say what I wish to say.”

She had to struggle to keep her voice steady when every nerve in her body was buzzing like an electric current. “And what is that, my lord?”

Looking relaxed and confident, he smiled. “That I desire you. That I want you.”

Despite her anxiousness, she somehow managed to return an equally confident smile. “You didn’t need to come all the way over here to tell me that. I already knew it. You made it more than clear to me last night.”

His brow lifted with amused admiration. “Marry me.”

Clara’s body seemed to stop functioning. Everything within her went still.

“Marry you? Just like that? No romantic proposal? No attempt to win me over with a few choice compliments?”

“You said yourself that you already know how I feel about you, and you don’t seem like the sort of woman who needs to dance around a point before coming straight to it. There is scandal on our heels, and it is certain to catch up with us again if we continue in the direction we are going. I desire you, Clara, and since I am now confined to seeing you only in respectable situations, I will have to make everything respectable, because I do intend to see you. Quite often, in fact. Every night in my bed, if you take my meaning.”

Clara stood and walked to the window. Her heart was racing, her thoughts swimming. She had not expected a marriage proposal from Seger, at least not this soon. She thought she’d have to employ some clever persuasion tactics to encourage him to reform, and she’d expected that to take some time.

Then again, she hadn’t expected James to learn all about their secret encounters either and visit the marquess. Nor had she expected the Duke of Guysborough to try and blackmail her into marrying him.

She faced Seger. “What is the real reason you want to marry me?”

“The real reason?” He stood also and moved to stand before her at the window. “Because as I said, we are heading for a scandal, and I desire you too much to give you up.”

“What do you mean, heading for a scandal? Do you mean the duke’s threat, or something else? Some ambiguous future scandal?”

“Both. I can’t promise that I’d be able to restrain myself if we were alone again.” He considered that statement, then added with a captivating smile, “Actually, I can promise you that I would not be able to. Next time, you would not