Last Dance in London (Rakes on the Run #1) - Sydney Jane Baily Page 0,13
we start the next one. You did say you have it free.”
And before she knew it, she was whirling around the parquet.
“I suggest you leave your reticule with your chaperone next time,” the young man said, as her bag swung around and clobbered him repeatedly.
Since most women carried only a handkerchief and some visiting cards, of which she had none since there was no one who could possibly expect or want a visit from her, she supposed he found her weighted bag to be irksome.
Nevertheless, she wouldn’t risk leaving her bag where someone might discover its contents. Since he smelled good, though, and was affable, she smiled up at him.
“It was remiss of me, but I didn’t want to go back to the table and miss the chance to dance with you.”
That made him stand up even straighter and thrust out his chest. Apparently, he believed he’d made a conquest.
“Would you care to take a walk in the garden to cool off afterward?” he asked quietly.
He definitely believed he’d made a conquest. She tried to keep a serious expression when she wanted to smile.
“My chaperone would not allow such a breach, I’m sorry to say.” She wasn’t sorry at all, but the man looked instantly crestfallen.
“Perhaps we could dine together,” she offered, thinking he wouldn’t be the worst dining partner with whom she could be saddled.
“Sadly, I am dancing with another before the break.”
She nodded. It was understood one escorted to dinner the partner with whom one was dancing directly prior. If Julia didn’t have a partner for that dance, she would be assigned an escort.
For a moment, she had a delectable hope the Earl of Marshfield would be her dinner partner. But then thought better of it. She ought to stay away from him when there was the chance for a prolonged conversation in case he brought up his bedroom again.
“THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE,” Louisa Tufton stated, emphasizing her words with a wallop of her fan against her skirts. “You cannot just decide to end it.”
“End what precisely?” Jasper asked her.
She paled. “How can you be so cruel?”
He expelled a breath of exasperation. “You are not thinking clearly. Breaking off our brief association is not cruel. It is the height of kindness. The best I can do for you, in fact.”
She raised watery eyes to him, and he swore under his breath.
“Seriously, Miss Tufton, your tears are entirely misplaced unless you were under the incorrect notion that I was ever going to offer for you.”
“But you invited me to your home for dinner,” she said.
“I invite many people to my home for dinner,” Jasper explained. “But I did not, you’ll recall, invite you to my bedroom.”
She blanched again. “Of course not, nor would I have gone.”
“And now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. Sooner rather than later, I would have attempted to seduce you. I would have succeeded. Moreover, after said seduction, which I believe you would have enjoyed as other females have—”
He paused momentarily when she gasped. He had truly chosen badly this time. She was behaving like a child. If he’d ever kissed Miss Tufton in his bedroom the way he’d done with Miss Sudbury, he had a feeling she would have fainted or gone shrieking out of his house.
“After seducing you, I would have broken off with you at any rate, and you would have been in a far worse situation if you’d imagined your heart — or worse, mine — was in any way involved. I assure you, mine is not. Therefore, I contend breaking our association now is a kindness.”
He cocked his head and considered her, from head to toe.
“However, if you insist on lingering, we can probably find an empty room with a sofa, and play this out to the enjoyable end. The outcome will be the same, but we will have had a bit of fun. The choice is yours.”
He crossed his arms and waited. If she was the tiniest bit curious about love-making, he would indulge her, since he’d been feeling randy ever since kissing Miss Sudbury. He would rather be standing there with the blue-eyed minx, but perhaps Miss Tufton was only annoyed she wasn’t going to have a good tupping.
If that was the case, he could certainly satisfy.
Her palm met his cheek with a resounding smack. It was unexpected and showed she had a little gumption at least. It smarted, too, stinging while his soft assailant turned and walked away.