And another concern hit him.
What if she thought he would want her forhiswife? What would he do if that was the case? He was the most foolish of men.
He wanted her to be happy, and she never could be happy with him. He couldn’t marry someone like Jack. Someone so wonderful. So…
He forced himself to abandon that line of thought. Jack as his duchess could never be. No, he had to find someone who made him feel nothing. Certainly not someone who inspired him to kiss them in a dark corridor, risking ruin.
Her eyes widened with understanding. “Youdothink I’m desirable,” she whispered, amazed.
“Yes, Jacqueline,” he replied quietly.
“Could we do this again?” she asked. “I think there’s a lesson to be learned here. And if I did learn it well, it could make me desirable to other men.”
He gaped down at her. “What the devil are you talking about?”
He had just been afraid she was going to cling to him. And she was, instead, suggesting his kiss might help her find a husband?
She sighed and said practically, “Well, you’ve made it very clear that you have no intention of marrying me, and while that kiss was remarkable, I know that it means nothing to you.”
The hardness in her voice shocked him to his core.
Nothing?
The kiss meantnothingto him?
He supposed it was a logical conclusion that she should take from the event. But it did not mean nothing. It unequivocally had meantsomething.
A very terrifying something.
But James swallowed back the confusing emotions fighting to take over his usually rational thinking.
She was correct, of course.
He had promised her a match, and whatever it took to get it, he would do.
“I will not kiss you again here in the corridor,” he said. “Such a thing would be far too dangerous, unless you wish to be faced with total ruin. I am not the man for you.”
“No, no,” she protested. “I wouldn’t wish to do that to you.”
She didn’t wish to do that tohim.
Something about the way she cared for his future… It struck him, and his throat tightened. She was a marvel.
“Then we have an accord,” he replied.
She nodded, then nibbled her lower lip. “But whatever shall we do? Because I felt something when you kissed me that I’d never felt before.”
“And that was?” he prompted, fairly certain she had never kissed anyone, ever, which explained her foreign emotions.
“That I was beautiful,” she replied simply.
That simple statement gutted him. Society had done its worst to Jack, and he wanted to take every member of thetonand shake them for it. “Youarebeautiful, Jacqueline.”
“I am not,” she huffed. “Don’t say foolish things.”
“You are,” he repeated.
She rolled her eyes. “Stop. Let us not say things that are not true. I shall not admire you for trying to make me feel better with lies. I am passing fair, and that is fine. Many of us are simply passing fair.”