“No you’re not.” He shook his head, stepping closer to her piano bench and taking up much more space in the room than he should. Blast him for that.
“I beg your pardon?”
“You’re not tired of me, Grace. I invigorate you. And you well know it.”
Of all the pompous things...she pushed off the piano bench to face him directly. “Your arrogance knows no bounds, does it?”
Oliver grasped her waist and pulled her against him. The sandalwood scent of his shaving lotion filled her breath. Blast him. Blast him for smelling so intoxicating. Blast him for making tingles race across her skin. And blast him for looking at her like she was the only woman in the world, when Grace knew for a fact she wasn’t the only woman in his life. “Tell me you won’t marry him, Grace.” His voice rumbled over her almost like a caress.
Her chest rose and fell with each irritated breath she took as she met his gaze, refusing to look away. “Only as quickly as possible. The banns have been read.” And just as soon as her sisters and their husbands arrived.
“No.” Oliver’s gaze dropped to her lips. “You’re too smart to throw your life away on some fool you don’t love.”
As thoughheshould talk to her about love. Look where love had gotten the two of them. “Daniel’s hardly a fool. He’s kind and thoughtful and—”
“Boring as the devil,” Oliver finished, still looking at her lips. “Does he make your heart pound, Grace? Does he make you breathless? Does he make your nipples tighten, wanting him to touch you? Does he make desire pool in you and your drawers damp from want of him?”
Heavens! Grace’s mouth fell open. How dare he say such things to her? How dare he—
“You don’t want him like you want me,” he whispered. Before she could even find her voice to respond to that, Oliver dipped his head down and brushed his lips against hers for the first time in forever. He splayed his hand across her back, holding her against him. And Grace’s heart did pound. She was breathless. Her nipples did tighten against her chemise. And desire did pool, low in her belly. Blast him for knowing that about her. And blast herself for kissing him back.
She knew better than to kiss him. She’d learned that a million years ago. And yet she couldn’t help kissing him back. His lips, soft but firm and demanding seemed to challenge her, and she’d never backed down from a challenge from him. And when his tongue slipped between her lips, she couldn’t help the moan that escaped her. Nothing in the world had ever felt like Oliver’s kiss, and it was even headier now than it had been all those years before.
Grace didn’t even realize that she’d slid her hands up his chest to settle on his shoulders until he groaned his approval against her lips. Oh, heavens! What was she doing? Making the biggest mistake of her life, and yet she couldn’t keep from making it.
Oliver squeezed her bottom and Grace nearly melted right there. Oh, she wanted him closer, wanted to feel every part of him against her for now and always.
“God, I love you,” he whispered. “I need you, Grace.”
And she still loved him too. She loved him so much she’d cried herself to sleep so many nights over the years. But loving Oliver Ashbee was the most foolish thing she could do. If only she knew how to stop. But they had to stop, shehadto stop because the path they were on would only lead to ruin.Hers. And she couldn’t have that.
Grace turned her face away from his kiss and pressed against his chest until Oliver’s arms fell away from her. “Go,” she said, staring at his cravat, too afraid to look him in the eyes.
“Grace.” His breathing was labored as though he’d just run a mile. “Don’t.”
Don’t what? Don’t be reasonable? One of them had to be. “Oliver, please go and don’t come back, not until I’m gone.”
“Don’t marry Lacy, Grace. Not when you love me.”
She choked on a sob, which she really didn’t want him to see. Blast him. None of this was even of her making, and it was quite unfair of him to ask her to live the rest of her life alone when he wouldn’t do the same. “I’m certain you should be much more concerned about your own betrothal than you are with mine.”
He released a sigh. “I didn’t choose this, you know.”
“Yes, well, neither did I.”
“You chose Lacy,” he said, and the accusation hung in the air.
At that, Grace finally lifted her eyes back to his. “He seemed a much better choice than a man who is already betrothed.”
“You make it sound like I’m responsible for this,” he said and winced slightly. And though Grace’s heart was breaking once more, she did get some satisfaction when her words hit their target.
He wasn’t responsible for it. His father had been. She knew that. She’d known that ever since he’d returned to Highfield to explain as best as he was able that he couldn’t marry her no matter how much he wanted to. But whether the situation was one of his making or his father’s didn’t change the circumstances, nor did it make the situation any more palatable. “Well, you can’t expect me to wait my entire life for a man who will never be free, besides…”
“Besides what?” he asked, sounding just as miserable as she felt.
She didn’t have the luxury of time anymore, not now that the Duke of Danby had her in his sights. And Danielwasa decent man. “It doesn’t matter. None of it does. At some point you’ll marry Lord Hambleton’s daughter, and that is that.”
A wild look flashed in Oliver’s eyes. “We could run off. We could—”