Mismatched Under the Mistletoe - Jess Michaels Page 0,21

help spinsters find true love. No one who met her could do anything but adore her.

But those friendships were surface, at best. She had lost so much, first Andrew, then her parents, in rapid succession that she had begun to hold others at arm’s length. Except for Cav. She had let him in.

That had as much value as any kiss.

But damn, the kiss had been spectacular. Before she pushed him away. Before she ran from him, her face pale and streaked with fear and confusion.

“You knew it might be this way,” he reminded himself as he got up and stirred the fire absently.

It was true. He hadn’t ever assumed that if he showed his hand to her, let her see his desire…or his love…that she would automatically accept it. She would need to think on it. She might even run from it.

But now it was out. At least on some level. And he would just have to wait and see how she would respond next. He’d been patient this long. Staying the course was the best way to end this game of chess. He only hoped he would end up with the queen.

It had been five hours and twelve minutes since Cav kissed her in the library. Emily probably could have counted the seconds, but that seemed a dangerous road to travel. Reliving the kiss over and over to the distraction of all other conversation or activity was dangerous enough.

Even at supper, she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of him, down on the opposite end of the table, talking and smiling with other guests. Comfortable, as if kissing her hadn’t meant anything to him.

Perhaps it…didn’t? Despite how kind Cav always was to her, how perfectly proper when they were together, his game of catch and release with women was well known. He took lovers—he wasn’t particularly secretive about it. But he never courted anyone. So perhaps kissing her was some continuation of that game he played.

That sat in her chest like a rock. The party had moved to the parlor and everyone was talking and laughing as they prepared for the presentations they’d planned earlier. Cav stood at the window, leaning against the wall beside it, arms folded as he watched the scene play out. His gaze darted to her, and her heart throbbed.

The reaction became even stronger when he pushed from the wall and made his slow way across the room to her. There was a fluidity in his movements, a certainty she had never marked before. A swagger that announced to the room that he was a man who knew what a lady needed. She’d never felt that directed toward her, but there it was, aimed firmly at her. She shivered as he stopped a foot away.

“Lady Rutledge,” he said, loud enough that the room could hear.

She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. She fought to do both. “Yes, Mr. Cavendish?”

“Perhaps you’d like to begin the presentations,” he suggested, his tone gentle. Her friend back, rather than the man who had held her so close and kissed her so thoroughly.

She shook her head and felt heat creep into her cheeks. “Of course. Yes.”

She moved past him and to the fire where the chairs in the room had all been turned. Somehow she managed to keep a smile on her face as she reminded the party that anyone could exhibit and how including colly birds of any variety, from crow to raven to blackbird, would inspire more applause.

The party was jolly and immediately many raised their hand to participate. Emily came back to her spot to watch from afar, but she could scarcely find pleasure in the exercise, no matter how much laughter and light filled that happy room.

Because Cav had returned to his spot by the window. And though he occasionally glanced at her, he made no move to join her. To touch her. To connect with her again. So she was left wondering if the kiss that had meant so much to her meant anything to him.

And why it stung so much that something that never should have happened was so unimportant to Cav.

Chapter 6

Five Gold Rings

It was probably too cold for what Emily had in mind on the fifth day of the party. But there were so few options for the five gold rings in the Christmas poem that she felt backed into a corner.

Actually, backed into a corner was what she felt in general at present. All night she’d thought of Cav and