Selina’s heart pounded in her chest. “Why me?” she whispered. “After all this time. Why me?”
“You are the first I have truly desired since her.”
Chapter 16
What in God’s name had made him say that to her? The next he knew he’d blurt out that he loved her. And he certainly didn’t love the willful woman. He desired her unlike any woman but passion and love were completely separate things. If a man were lucky enough to have both, then his life would be perfect. But Colin understood there was no such thing as perfect in his life.
“Thank you for what you said, Colin,” Selina said in a soft tone. “I should retire now.”
Just thinking about her lying in the bed only a room away made his shaft thicken. “I shall escort you to your room.”
“There is no need,” she said in a rush. “I know the way.”
“I insist.” He held out his arm for her.
She pressed her lips together, then looped her arm with his. He felt a slight quiver from her as they walked down the hall. Perhaps she was not so unaffected by him. But could she ever want him again after how he treated her?
They walked through the corridor in silence. He’d never felt so unsure of himself with a woman before now. Not that he’d been any type of rake before he married Mary, but he’d had a few willing women.
“I will return to Lord Hartsfield’s estate tomorrow,” she commented as they paused by the door to his room.
“Oh? What if my sister needs you? I believe Hart’s estate is too far.”
She stared at the door. “Your sister is fine now. Far better than most women who recently suffered a miscarriage. I expect her youth is the reason. But it matters not. I cannot stay here in your house when you have asked me to leave.”
Colin clasped her shoulders and turned her to face him. For a long moment, he just stared into her emerald eyes unable to say the words that he wanted to speak. Finally, he whispered, “Now I’m asking you to stay.”
She went completely still for a long moment. Her eyes told him what she could not. He had no doubt that she was debating with herself. But as he watched her breasts rise and fall, her eyes dilate with passion, she would soon say what they both wanted to hear.
“No,” she whispered.
And that was not what he wanted to hear. “No?”
“That is what I said.”
“Why?”
“Are you mad?”
“Quite possibly. Come inside and talk to me in private.”
“That would be improper.”
Colin raised a brow at her. “Indeed? When have you ever been proper?”
She gave a brief nod. “Very well.”
He opened the door to his room and walked inside. He waited for her to enter and close the door before continuing, “Do you have any idea how much I want you? How long I’ve waited to feel this way again? I’ve been dead inside for the past eight years until I returned here and found you.”
He walked toward the window and stared outside as the long shadows of dusk darkened the skies. “I’ve never felt this way about a woman.” He looked back at her. “Any woman.”
A slow, seductive smile lit her face as she tentatively walked to him. “Any woman?”
“Yes.”
“Why me?”
“Oh dear God, the questions women ask,” he muttered. “I honestly don’t know. You should be the last woman I’m attracted to . . . and yet, I can’t keep my eyes off you. You enter a room and I know it before I turn and see you. You drive me mad on so many different levels.”