Julius's Passion (Regency Club Venus #4) - Carole Mortimer Page 0,16

of the events of the previous night. But in the end, Julius had decided that straightforward honesty was the best policy.

“You kissed Bethany?”

“Yes.”

“On the lips?”

“Yes.”

“Did you touch her too?”

Julius closed his eyes as he recalled how perfectly the globes of Bethany’s bottom fitted into the palms of his hands. “Yes,” he finally answered.

“Intimately?”

“No, of course— Yes.” Putting his hands on a woman’s bottom was certainly intimate. “I have to say, James, you seem more interested in my having kissed Bethany than the fact she is in cahoots with the smugglers in the area.” He threw back the bedcovers before standing to pull his brocade robe over his nakedness and tie the belt about his waist. “If she is caught with them, her identity as the niece of the local magistrate and the man pretending to be the Earl of Ipswich, and sister to the true earl, will not save her from sharing their fate.”

“That is another matter entirely, and one I intend taking up with Bethany once this charade is settled. What do you intend doing about the fact you have kissed and touched my sister in an inappropriate manner?” James looked at him challengingly.

His eyes were wide. “What do you want me to do about it?”

James began to pace the room. “I could challenge you to a duel, swords or pistols drawn at dawn?”

Julius eyed the younger man uncertainly. “I am an expert in both.”

“Archery?”

“Yes.”

“Boxing?”

“The same.”

“Swimming?”

“Like a fish.” Julius was beginning to think that James was mocking him. His next words confirmed it.

“Arm wrestling?”

Julius held back his smile with effort. “That is something I have not tried as yet, but I am willing to do so if that is to be your weapon of choice.”

James snorted. “I do not need a weapon of choice. In truth, I am just grateful Bethany showed more sense in whom she chooses to kiss than she does in her nocturnal activities.” He threw himself down into the armchair near the window, one of his legs dangling over one of the arms. “What the hell is Bethany thinking of to have become involved with the smugglers in the area? Does she not realize its dangers? The consequences she might face if caught?”

Julius had thought about that himself once he returned to his bedchamber last night, and the only conclusion he could come to was that Bethany craved that danger and the excitement accompanying it. Unsurprisingly so, when her uncle was so protective of her and she refused to visit London or enter Society.

Julius had believed his own life had become stultifying now that he was no longer a spy for The Crown, but Bethany’s cloistered life here must be even more so. Was it any wonder she chose to secretly meet and associate with smugglers?

“I am sure she has considered it,” he answered James cautiously.

“And as quickly dismissed it, from what you have told me.” He scowled. “You should have kissed some damned sense into her when you had the chance.”

“You really do not seem alarmed by knowledge of that kiss?”

James shrugged. “Not much I can do about it in the current circumstances. Besides which,” he continued ruefully, “I doubt Bethany would welcome or tolerate my interference when I have been absent from her life all these years.”

Julius poured himself a cup of tea before sitting in the chair opposite James. “I admit to finding your sister…intriguing.”

James grinned. “Because she has revealed herself to no longer be just the sweetly obedient miss you believed her to be yesterday?”

“Yes,” he acknowledged ruefully.

James chuckled. “Well, she is my sister, and I never do what’s expected of me either.”

It would certainly be one explanation for Bethany’s secret rebellion. “There are seven years between the two of you?”

The other man nodded. “My mother once told me she had given up all hope of having another child. She and my father had consulted with numerous physicians, followed several avenues of advice, all without success. My mother said the strain of it caused a rift in my parents’ marriage for several years, and I admit to feeling aware of that estrangement. Even if, at such a young age, I had no idea of the reason for it. Then, miracle of miracles, Bethany was born, and it was like the sun had come out again for all of us.” He smiled at the memory. “Even as a baby, she was a golden-haired, blue-eyed angel, and as she matured, that beauty only grew stronger. We seemed like much smaller planets orbiting her