just before she said the word aunt. Heavens! He had her so surprised she almost forgot herself. “Never mind about that. And don’t you dare change the subject.”
“You can change the subject but I can’t?”
“Yes. I can’t believe you have once again endangered my reputation by sneaking around to see me. How many times must I insist that you—”
Suddenly he dipped his head and kissed the tip of her nose. Millicent was so shocked that she stopped midsentence. That simple show of affection took away her anger.
“It’s hard for me to believe I’m here, too,” Chandler said.
“Have you no care for my reputation?” she asked, trying to regain her exasperation.
“I’ve told you I do. And I mean that.”
“Do you want to get caught in a position like this with me and have to marry me?”
“No man wants to be forced into marriage.”
The firmness and quickness with which he answered didn’t go unnoticed by Millicent. “Then why must you constantly steal around to see me? We are going to get caught and either my character will be ruined for the rest of my life, or we will be obliged to marry by special license. What you are doing is madness.”
“I know. Have faith, Millicent. I told you we won’t be caught. You have to trust me.”
“How can I trust you? Every time I begin to convince myself that you are a gentleman, you do something crazy like this to prove that you are a rogue, a scoundrel, and a rake of the highest order. I’d be a silly fool to trust you.”
He moved his body closer to hers, pressing her against the wall. Her vision was adjusting to the black, misty night, and she could make out that he smiled at her.
“Yet, here you stand in the darkness with me while the household sleeps.” He stretched out his arms from his sides. “I’m not holding you. You are free to leave me and go inside.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“Then stay a minute longer.”
Millicent lowered her forehead to his chest and his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close to the warmth of his embrace.
“I must be one of the silly fools I was talking about,” she whispered.
“If that is so, it’s only where I’m concerned. You are quite sensible in all other matters.” He paused and moved closer to her. “Except where what you are doing for the gossip writers is concerned. I must admit that, if it is true you are not doing it for the money or by force, I would really like to know why you are doing it.”
With her face half hidden in the warmth of his shirtfront she said, “Did you come here to talk about that?”
“No. I came to do this.” He kissed the top of her head and pulled her into his warm arms and held her with his cheek against hers. He breathed in deeply as if trying to take in her essences. “I love the way you feel in my arms and the way you smell.”
She should be trembling with fear of being caught, but instead she was acutely aware of his every touch and filled with desire to have his lips on hers.
“I don’t like being an unwise person, Chandler,” she whispered earnestly.
“No, Millicent, you are not foolish. You are intelligent, beautiful, and desirable.” He reached up and slowly caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers as if they had all the time in the world to be together.
“What would you have done if Phillips or one of the maids had come to the door?”
He kissed her cheek, letting his lips travel down her neck as he whispered, “I would have produced your dance card, which I have in my pocket, and said I found it on the floor as you were leaving the party. I rushed to catch you before you departed, but couldn’t, so I followed you in my coach. I would have handed it to him along with a guinea. No one would be the wiser.”
“That shows how much practice you have had meeting young ladies in secret.”
“I have some experience.”
“Too much.”
“Enough.”
“So much that I am no match for your machinations.”
“As it should be.”
Millicent tilted her head back, giving Chandler freedom to explore the soft skin behind her ear before he moved up to brush his lips across her eyelids and down to her cheekbone. He made her feel sensuous, languorous.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I didn’t see you and hold