Page 4 of A Diamond for Christmas (Diamonds of the First Water #6)
G eoffrey had made it extremely clear to anyone who asked that he would attend Lady Plain de Ville’s ball.
He’d mentioned it to his tailor so his peers would know, to his butler and housekeeper, so the news would make it through the servant’s grapevine, and lastly, to his parents.
If Lady Caroline appeared, then she had been forewarned.
He hoped he’d seen something in her eyes that bespoke an interest in getting to know him, despite her mother forbidding any such occurrence.
And if Lady Caroline wasn’t at the ball, then he would take notice of the lovely ladies who were.
He hoped one of them would be as alluring.
One of them might make his heart speed up and take his breath away while causing that randy tightening in his loins that the mere sight of the red-headed beauty had produced.
When he entered the ballroom on the second floor of the grand house on Cowley Street, he knew within minutes she wasn’t there. Her flame-colored hair would be easy to spot, as well as the glow he seemed to recall emanating from her.
But that was probably only in his imagination.
He greeted the hostess and then began to make his way around the room, chatting with friends, gathering well wishes to give to his parents, and being introduced to a few females with whom he thought it might be pleasant to dance.
In the midst of the Grand March, he saw her enter wearing vivid green silk that set off her fiery locks to perfection.
On the other hand, he couldn’t think of what color wouldn’t.
He easily pictured her in scarlet, in saffron, in sapphire blue, and even in black — looking equally stunning.
Naturally, his brain added a vivid image of how perfectly spectacular naked as a needle against his cream-colored sheets, too.
She strolled the side of the room with the other woman he recalled from the Fenwicks’ ball. He didn’t know who she was, but she was definitely not the prickly mother. His luck was changing.
“Careful, my lord,” came the warning voice of his partner as he missed a turn.
“My apologies,” Geoffrey said and tried to keep his mind on finishing the dance with the lady at hand.
When he left the floor, however, and returned her to her chaperone, Lady Caroline was on the opposite side of the room. Worse, Lady Plain de Ville was introducing her to another man with whom she partnered for the next quadrille.
God’s teeth! Geoffrey refrained from asking another lady to dance, as he wouldn’t risk laying claim to Lady Caroline a second time. To that end, he approached Lady Plain de Ville.
“Will you make an introduction for me upon the dance’s end? I would very much like to meet Lady Caroline,” he confessed.
“Certainly,” their hostess agreed. Yet she smirked. “Given your two families’ histories, I shall be surprised indeed if anything comes of it.”
Geoffrey was taken aback. It seemed nobility of a certain age knew about his mother and Lord Chimes or maybe about his father’s wager with the man. Either way, it didn’t bode well .
“I merely wish to dance with her.”
“She is a lovely girl,” Lady Plain de Ville said. And then they waited for the interminable quadrille to come to a conclusion.
“Shall we?” their hostess asked.
Together, they intercepted Lady Caroline and her dance partner.
Geoffrey was thrilled to see the lady’s ready smile upon seeing him. If he was interpreting correctly, they shared a mutual attraction. For his part, he knew he had a large, foolish grin on his face, and he tried to quell it.
“Lady Caroline, this is Lord Diamond,” Lady Plain de Ville got right to the point. “His father is the Earl Diamond. No other family name, as I recall. Most unusual to have the title and the family name be the same, but there you are.”
Geoffrey barely heard her prattle. He took Lady Caroline’s gloved hand and bowed over it.
“I am enchanting,” he said.
As soon as the last word left his lips and he lifted his head, seeing her start to chuckle, he realized his error.
What turned him into a dunderhead around this woman? No one would ever accuse him of being a smooth rogue.
Even Lady Plain de Ville was snickering.
“Well done, my boy,” she said and wandered off to tend to her other guests.
“My apologies,” Geoffrey said, “but at least I didn’t almost knock you over this time.”
“You still have hold of my hand,” she pointed out, with her perfect lips and soft voice. Not to mention sparkling eyes like sunlit dappled leaves staring into his.
“I do, don’t I? And I shall release it,” he promised, “as soon as you agree to grant me the honor of the next dance.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
However, since a dance had begun, he had to release her until a new one began. What could they do in the meantime?
“Shall we see if there is any punch or lemonade set out yet? ”
“That would be lovely.”
They left the ballroom and strolled toward the refreshments in the salon across the hall. A throng of others were already jostling by the serving table.
“I noticed your mother did not accompany you,” he said, hoping it wasn’t a mistake to bring up the woman who wouldn’t even acknowledge him.
“My parents had tickets to the theatre. Thus, Mrs. Waycott, my mother’s sister, brought me. Come to think of it, I should have taken you directly to meet her.”
He couldn’t help his expression of dread as they shuffled closer to the punch bowls.
“Do not worry, my lord,” she said, mirth dancing across her face. “My aunt does not hold the same views as my parents.”
“That’s a relief,” he said, handing her a full glass, which was nearly bumped from his grasp by a careless swell.
Snagging another for himself, they moved to the other corner of the room.
“After all,” he added, wondering if Lady Caroline knew that both his parents seemed to have strained relationships with hers, “I am not my father, nor my mother.”
“I understand,” she said.
They spoke no more about it. Instead, he asked her about her life in Bath. She asked him what he’d studied at Oxford. Then, as oft happened, she asked him about his unusual family name, which he explained briefly since the hubbub was loud around them.
“Yet the king couldn’t — or wouldn’t — pronounce O’Diamáin,” he finished. “Which gained us an extra-large land holding in 1717 in exchange for anglicizing our surname. And now, it’s time for our dance,” he reminded her.
Geoffrey had never enjoyed a dance more, nor a partner.
He was as comfortable with Lady Caroline as if he’d known her for ages.
At the same time, he relished the new sensations coursing through him — an intense awareness of wherever they touched.
With heady desire sparking in his veins, he ached to be alone with her, without any idea how to make that happen.
The dance ended sooner than he could have imagined.
“Will you escort me back to my aunt?” Lady Caroline asked.
“I would be honored.” But he held back. “Before I do, I wonder if you might wish to take a turn in the garden. Lady Plain de Ville is famous for her ...,” he trailed off.
Blast it all! He didn’t know what the lady had in her garden. There might be an unusual fountain or some exotic plant, but he could hardly say such in case there wasn’t any.
To his relief, Lady Caroline finished his thought. “Shrubberies,” she offered, tilting her head mischievously.
“Yes, exactly.”
“Lord Diamond, let me be clear. Normally, without a chaperone, I would not go beyond the boundaries of the ballroom with any man. But I shall go outside with you for one simple reason. I fear this may be a singular opportunity for us to speak privately. My mother will surely catch wind of our dance, and I believe I shall not be allowed to have another.”
She was a reasonable female, which he appreciated. Yet he could not credit this was their one chance to be alone. He already liked her more than any woman he’d ever met. It was premature, irrational, and lunatic, but it was the bald truth.
“I understand,” he told her, “although I cannot say I am happy to hear it. It seems unfair to set limitations upon us because of anything that occurred years ago.”
“And that is why I will venture outside with you.”
With a hand on the small of her back, he propelled her from the ballroom once again, toward the refreshment salon across the hall.
Yet instead of entering with other revelers, they turned and walked swiftly along the hallway to the back staircase.
In a flash, they were downstairs at the door to the garden, which turned out to be the tiniest plot with a few rose bushes and a single tree.
They stopped short on the stone terrace. You could even smell the mews behind the garden wall. No one would believe they were out there admiring anything except each other.
To his delight, she started to laugh at the absurdity. Geoffrey squeezed her hand and stepped onto the grass.
“It’s a fine hazel tree,” he said, gesturing to the single stunted plant.
“I believe it’s a birch,” Lady Caroline said, “and not the least bit fine.”
“Let’s circle it and see it from the other side,” he suggested, emboldened by her acquiescence.
He’d always imagined ladies to be skittish and prudish, a far cry from the flash mollishers he visited at the best bawdy houses.
Years earlier, he’d briefly escorted a lady whom he met through her brother, a fellow university student.
A marquess’s daughter, she had pursed her lips at everything Geoffrey said, yet still, he’d persevered for two weeks.
Unbelievably, without so much as a kiss, she had demanded a declaration of intent if not of actual love. At the tender age of twenty-one, he had not been remotely ready.
Seeing no point in forming an attachment to a female in whom he had no interest marrying, he’d gradually started a regular routine of engaging the excellent services of high fliers, usually keeping one of the experienced, polished whores for as long as six months.
When the time was ripe for taking a wife, Geoffrey had always planned on ceasing what some might consider to be libertine ways and become a dedicated husband, as his own father purported to be — despite what Lady Chimes might think of him.
It seemed only fair and right.
They circled the tree and were on the far side where the lamps inside the house no longer shone directly upon them .
Strangely, as he looked down at her under the moonlight, he felt a little unsure. While his body urged a smoldering embrace with her crushed against him, he reached out and trailed a gloved finger down her cheek.
“I’m glad you came tonight,” he said.
“As am I. I admit I was curious about you. After my mother’s refusal at Lord and Lady Fenwick’s ball, I asked my aunt the reason.”
“I asked my mother the same thing. I had never heard anything about your family before.”
Stepping closer, Geoffrey took hold of her hands.
“Regardless,” he added, “I appreciate how you didn’t let any bitterness between our parents stop you from dancing with me.”
She nodded before her gaze dropped to where their hands were clasped.
Not wanting to waste another moment at the wondrous opportunity to be alone with her, Geoffrey slowly drew Lady Caroline closer, his heart thumping at the notion of kissing the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen.
He knew they should spend time talking frankly, but what if she was never again allowed to be anywhere near him? This could be his only chance, and a single kiss might prove them entirely unsuited. With that knowledge, he could put thoughts of this flame-haired lady aside.
Briefly wondering if he should ask permission to kiss her, or if that would mark him as a noodle-head, he heard himself say, “May I?”
Yet by then, it was too late. He was already lowering his mouth to hers.
In the next second, he kissed her, and a tendril of passion unfurled inside him at her taste, blossoming into white-hot desire.
They’d sipped the same punch, yet her mouth had the additional flavor of orange blossom and lavender flowers.
He could both smell the delectable scents and experience them upon his tongue.
Releasing her hands, he slid his arms around her waist, enjoying her surprised gasp. With her lips parted, Geoffrey gently slid his tongue between them. To his joy, he felt her melt against him, with her hands suddenly behind his neck, hanging on.
When he stroked her tongue with his, she froze before tentatively echoing the movement. Tilting his head, he deepened the kiss, sucking her lower lip into his mouth.
Kissing Lady Caroline in the dark garden was the single most sensual, tantalizing thing he’d ever done, despite having tupped his share of light-skirts.
Hearing her small sigh of pleasure, for a moment of complete insanity, he considered going farther into the darkness, a mere few yards toward the brick wall. There, if she were willing, he could at least touch her skin.
Just the thought inflamed him, and he nibbled a hot trail down her neck, making her arch away and give him access to the curving upper swell of her breasts with a searing open-mouthed kiss.
“Dear God!”