Page 10 of Ruby in the Rough (Heiress #4)

Chapter

Ten

T he following evening, at the Craigmore ball, Christian could not get the brief but maddening kiss from the night before out of his mind. It had been nothing more than a brush of mouths—quick, unplanned, entirely improper—and yet it had undone him.

Thankfully, Cordelia’s home on Grosvenor Square had been mere minutes away after their fleeting brush with desire.

As duty dictated, he’d ordered the carriage to the mews and had watched from the back garden gate as she’d walked to the terrace doors of the ducal estate, watching her enter where she obviously had fled from only hours before.

He’d offered no more than a clipped farewell, but still had not been able to take his gaze from her person until she was out of sight. He did not trust himself around her. Now more than ever he felt himself on the brink of doing something foolish—like kissing her properly.

Returning to Greenwich, however, had not offered the solace he hoped for.

In fact, it had proved worse. He had arrived to find his mistress locked in a passionate embrace with a man not of his sphere.

She had been ashamed, yes, even tearful in her apologies, and begged for a second chance.

He had not granted it. The arrangement—longstanding, comfortable, and until recently, satisfying—was dissolved on the spot.

Still, as he stood leaning against the supper room doors, watching his sister socialize about the room as if she weren’t in terrible trouble annoyed him and his mood curdled.

Jane had the audacity to smile, to laugh, to enjoy herself, as though his stern warnings and very real fear for her safety had meant nothing.

And Lady Cordelia… Well, she too seemed perfectly at ease.

Completely unbothered. Not a trace of the girl who ought to be sensible and calm this evening after being the complete opposite last night.

She had spontaneously kissed him and yet had barely looked in his direction this evening.

The least she ought to do is apologize again.

Thank him for his discretion on the whole sordid situation.

Did debutantes this year have no shame? No sense of decorum?

He clenched his jaw. Damn that kiss. It haunted him.

He had not slept. The few hours he did manage were broken and restless, and always he woke with Cordelia on his mind—her scent, the feel of her in his arms, the taste of something forbidden on her lips.

And worse, he had no one to speak to about it.

Certainly not Ravensmere, not when the woman in question was his friend’s sister-in-law.

A reoccurring thought would not leave him. What would a real kiss be like? A kiss he welcomed. A kiss she returned in kind.

Would she melt against him? Mold to his body as though she were made for him? Would her arms tighten around his neck, her breath catch in her throat? Would she sigh into his mouth like a woman who wanted more?

He exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair.

Perhaps he ought to dance with someone—anyone—to distract himself. Even a dull conversation about ribbons and spring colors would be preferable to?—

“Brother, you look very stern this evening,” Jane said, suddenly at his side, sipping something pink from the crystal glass she held. “Don’t tell me you’re still cross with me about Greenwich.”

Christian turned to her, jaw tight. She looked far too pleased with herself. Far too pleased for someone who had nearly destroyed her reputation in one night of idiocy.

“I am still…displeased,” he said coldly. “And I would advise you to behave more appropriately this evening than you did at the last.”

Jane blinked at him, wide-eyed and oh-so-innocent. He wasn’t fooled.

“I promised I would never do it again.” She pouted. “Truly, I’ve learned my lesson. But Lady Cordelia—she did look very beautiful tonight, did she not?”

He gave her a look of pure warning. “Do not play matchmaker, Jane. It does not suit you.”

She grinned. “I think it suits me perfectly well. And you must admit, when you are together, you make quite the striking pair.”

“We are not together.”

“Not yet,” she remarked airily. “But you will need a wife eventually, Christian. Why not Lady Cordelia? She is everything you could want and more tolerable than most.”

“I am quite content as I am. Do stay out of things that do not concern you.” And yet, even as he said the words, he knew they were half truths.

Giving up his mistress had not felt like the sacrifice it ought to have been.

Not really. Lately, he had grown weary of the entire arrangement, of what it represented and how it made him look in society.

But Cordelia… Cordelia was a complication he hadn’t anticipated.

“Another man will marry her,” Jane interjected. “And what a shame it would be if you realized, too late, that your interest in her wasn’t just because she’s your friend’s sister-in-law, but something else entirely.”

“I do not feel anything for her,” he snapped, taking a deep breath when his sister flinched. “I am not in love with her.” Even as the words left his mouth, they tasted wrong. Hollow.

But, he did not love her and that was the truth of it. She may occupy his thoughts far more than was reasonable and mayhap he noticed when she entered a room, danced, smiled and laughed, but that was only because she was so close to Jane these days.

He was only six-and-twenty. He could wait a few more years before thinking of marriage. He could enjoy his freedom a little longer.

But Jane’s words echoed, nonetheless.

Lady Cordelia would not have time. She was two-and-twenty already, at the height of her desirability in the eyes of society.

Suitors would come. Some had already. And if he did not act, if he didn’t begin to untangle the knot in his chest that pulled tighter every time she smiled at another man, then he would lose her.

And once she belonged to someone else, he would never get the chance again.