The Girl is Not For Christmas - Emma V Leech Page 0,56

he fumed. “I’m….”

He couldn’t think of what the hell he was, so he didn’t bother trying to explain it. Instead he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard and, after a moment of resistance, she was all willingness in his arms, pliant and soft and… and had she been this way with Ross Moyles?

No. Don’t think of it. Make her forget him.

Make her think of you.

Livvy pushed him away, and King let her go at once, though he did not want to. The realisation of just how much he did not want to was not a pleasant one.

“Good heavens, King, are… are you jealous?” Livvy asked, looking for all the world as if she’d said, good heavens, King, are you the King of the Chimpanzees? There was no possible way she could look more astonished, which was just as well as his ego could not take any more for one day.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, just a little too quickly and with too much force. “We have already established that we don’t like each other, so jealousy is out of the question. I just don’t like to be misled or… damn it, Livvy, you lied to me!”

She stiffened at his accusation. “I did no such thing. I told you, my aunt has a New Year’s Ball, I’m going to get myself a husband. What the devil did you think I was about taking all those gowns, if not for that?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea. Perhaps you are planning to run away with your lover… Ross.”

There was a flash of something in her eyes that suggested he might have pushed her over the line between anger and into incandescent fury. Well, good. Ever since he’d met the dratted woman, he’d been at the mercy of his… his feelings… ugh! But if he must experience all this… this unwelcome emotional stuff, then she dashed well had better be doing the same.

“My Lord Kingston,” she said, her voice dangerously quiet. “Ross Moyles is married with a little daughter, and his wife is pregnant.”

“Am I supposed to congratulate you on choosing the worst possible candidate for your illicit trysts?” he demanded.

“Oh, now you can say the word, can you?” she said, folding her arms. “Before it made you all hot and bothered.”

“Before, I thought you were a nice young lady who was getting in over her head! Apparently, I was wrong,” he retorted, the words out before he could think better of them.

She jolted as if he’d slapped her, and he was immediately aware of the fact he was a miserable brute. The possibility that he was likely not thinking clearly because he was out of his mind with resentment over her meeting another man was also a sudden consideration.

“Livvy,” he said, his voice unsteady, holding out his hand to her.

She shook her head, her eyes too bright, and took a step away from him.

“Livvy, please, I… I didn’t mean….”

He watched as she picked up her skirts and ran, and he could do nothing but let her go.

After throwing herself down on her bed and enjoying a good cry, Livvy got up and splashed her face with cold water. Then she stomped about her room and did some aggressive tidying up while she cursed the Earl of Kingston, and thought of various ways in which he could best be punished for his outrageous behaviour. This ranged from him contracting various illnesses that would shrink his pego to the size of pea and/or covering it in large purple spots, to her being swept off her feet by the Duke of… of somewhere or other, just at the moment King realised he couldn’t live without her. Both were equally satisfying, but she’d decided the duke was her favourite outcome. The vision of King on his knees and begging for her not to break his heart was too delicious not to give it her full consideration. After she had dreamily imagined various locations for his heartfelt declaration—from her front doorstep to Almack’s ballroom—she was leaning towards Almack’s—she felt a good deal better. Then, because she was a fair-minded sort of person, she considered that perhaps what King had seen or overhead might have appeared to be rather… damning. After all, she had been alone with Ross, and perhaps it had seemed rather intimate. Yes, obviously King ought to have given her the benefit of the doubt, but he was a man, and her—admittedly limited—experience of the male sex, was that they were inclined to be