Noble Scoundrel - Amy Sandas Page 0,90
for him,” she noted, though the thought of Frederick doing anything of the sort terrified her.
His mouth tilted. “Like I said...foolish.”
“Are you telling me you wouldn’t do the same?” she asked.
His gaze found hers in the darkened carriage. “I’m not a skinny lad still learning how to throw a proper punch.”
“No.” A smile softened her mouth as she openly appraised his muscled form. “You’re definitely not that.”
He shifted in his seat and his voice lowered. “Don’t be looking at me like that, dove.”
A pause.
“How am I looking at you?”
“Like you’re thinking of climbing into my lap to get a feel for just how big I am.”
She hadn’t actually been thinking of that, but she sure as hell was now.
“And that’s a bad idea?” she whispered.
He growled. “If you don’t want to arrive at your party looking like a well-pleasured woman, it is.”
The raw hum of his voice went straight through her with a tingling effect, arousing every nerve. She held his gaze as rising desire made her bold. “Perhaps we could...be discreet?”
He gave a rough laugh. “I don’t do discreet, luv. The second I got my hands on you, I’d be tearing that gown from your body.”
His words made her breathless.
But then his tone shifted as he added, “Don’t ever mistake me for a gentleman, duchess. I’m a bounder from the East End and always will be.”
“That may be true,” she replied earnestly. “But you’re also a great deal more.”
He scoffed. “Right. I’m a man who likes to swing his fists and run stakes for illegal fights.”
The self-deprecation in his tone had Katherine adding, “You’re also a man who inspires loyalty and confidence in a twelve-year-old boy who has good cause to trust no one. A man who walked away from the life he knew to take in two children who needed him. A man who loves and protects his young daughter in a way he was not.”
There was a long pause.
His voice was low and graveled when he finally spoke. “I’ve done a lot in my life that would make you shudder in horror.”
“You’ve done what you needed to do.” She lowered her chin and smiled. “And I don’t frighten that easily.”
He chuckled. “I’m starting to believe that.”
She lifted her brows. “What more must I do to prove it?”
“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” he answered in a gruff tone as his expression hardened.
She wouldn’t allow herself to glance away. “I want to.”
“Why?”
Her heart was suddenly beating terribly fast. So fast, her breath became shallow. She’d just claimed to be fearless. Was she going to falter when it was most important? “I’d like to know what it feels like to be valued...by a man like you.”
He didn’t reply right away, and in the silence that followed her confession, his manner changed. Hardened. It wasn’t exactly anger she saw flashing in his eyes, but it held a similar intensity. Then he tilted his head to a cocky angle as a smirk twisted his lips.
“Valued?” he asked in a slightly mocking tone. “Don’t you mean fucked?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Katherine’s heart dropped. She would never have thought he’d throw her words from last night back at her—words she’d spoken in passion and vulnerability and need. As she stared at him—hurt and shock tightening her chest—she noted the tension in his body and the way he fisted his hands as though preparing to fight. “Is that what you think?” she asked quietly.
“What else is there?”
Stunned by his suddenly surly manner and dismissive tone, she couldn’t form an answer.
Then the carriage rolled to a stop and a footman appeared almost immediately to open the door.
Katherine hesitated. Staring at Hale, she opened her mouth to speak, though she had no idea what she intended to say. But then she didn’t get a chance to say anything as he spoke first.
“Go to your party, duchess. Your fine friends are waiting.”
He was right.
She wasn’t sure what had caused him to become crude and mocking, but she knew him well enough now to see it for the deflection it was. Though she had every intention of finishing this conversation, the things she truly wished to say to him required more time—deserved more time—and a far more intimate setting.
Turning away, she took the footman’s hand and stepped to the pavement in front of Lord Shelbourne’s well-lit and elegant townhouse. Though she thought she might have heard Hale murmur her name, she ignored it. She just had to get through this evening, then she could return to what was important.
God!