Page 37 of A Lord in Want of a Wife (Daring Debutantes #2)

W hy had she kissed him? What was wrong with her?

Over the past nineteen months, she’d lived without his peculiar brand of absolute confidence in his own opinions.

She’d gloried in the fact that she didn’t yearn for his touch anymore.

She barely thought of him, except when his extraordinarily touching gifts arrived.

Medicines from all over the world, sent with detailed instructions and often with seeds to grow her own plants.

Every time they’d arrived, she’d grieved anew at her father’s death. She’d passed the entire package over to Phoebe who had an attic set up as a London greenhouse. And she’d tried again to shove Cedric into a forbidden part of her memory.

She’d stopped reliving their amazing first kiss.

Or rather, that had been true before he showed up at Almack’s.

What else could she do during the endless hours sitting by his sickbed?

She remembered…everything. His kisses, his kindnesses and his awful betrayal, not to mention all their fights.

Then he admitted to visiting the temple where she’d been raised.

As if, oh, by the way, I wandered past the Thames the other day.

Except she knew that it was no easy feat for a white man to step inside her temple.

He would have bribed someone to take him.

And then bribed the monks to keep quiet about his visit.

That didn’t include what he’d given the monks to feed the children.

And Cedric had done it just to understand her a little better.

To see where and how she was raised. And to wish that he could save all the abandoned children there.

God, how she wanted to hate him for the chaos he brought.

Not among others. In truth, her brother-in-law Declan created a bigger stir when he argued politics in the House of Lords.

No, Cedric’s chaos churned up all her emotions.

She could not remain placid when he was around.

Her blood surged and her thoughts ran in every direction.

Until she found herself kissing him.

Damn the man for making her heart flutter. And he had the gall to ask her what her plans were. Her plans? She planned to fall in love with a boring Englishman! She planned to dance and laugh all through the Season. And she certainly did not plan to kiss him!

Why did she feel half-dead when he was gone? Why did he make her heart beat and her mind soar? Why was it always him?

And why was she still fighting the draw between them?

Her heart had decided on who it wanted. She loved him.

If he wanted her, she would go to him. But now that he knew he was wealthy, now that he knew that he had enough money to establish a good future for himself and his family… would he still want her?

Did he love her?