Those words hung in the air for a good long time.
“I cannot argue that,” he allowed at last.
“Then?” she dared.
“Oh, Lady Elizabeth,” he rumbled, not wishing to give in to the desire that she was offering him. Did he feel it? Yes… my God, how he did.
That was what he had felt in the hall. And it laced through his veins now, like liquid fire. But she had come to him for protection.
“Pleasing?” he repeated. “That is not the word. You’re beautiful. You know it. But it is the fire that I see within you that has forged you, just like Castilian steel that I am drawn to. You are a blade, Lady Elizabeth,” he marveled. “You have fought every day against those that would crush you, have you not?”
She gave a tight nod. “My father has made it very clear the type of person that I should be.”
“I’m not interested in who youshouldbe,” he replied, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m interested in who you are.”
He stopped, his gaze lingering on her lips as he realized he was taking a path to which he could not foretell the end.
“Yes,” he whispered, “I’ll ruin you if that’s what you want, and I promise you will enjoy it. As will I.”
Her face flushed with color at that. “Will I?”
“Oh indeed,” he growled, need beginning to race through him. “I will make certain that you do. I could do nothing less. I would be ashamed of myself.” He traced his thumb along her jawline. “But I will tell you this much. First, I want you to continue on in your life as you are. I want you to let me protect you and I want us to find out who the devil was going to hurt you, and then I’m going to destroy them.”
“Them?” she gasped.
“Oh yes. And there will be nothing pleasurable about it for them. They will rue the day they were born and they will rue the day they thought they could tear you down… because I am going to make certain that no one ever dares to hurt you again.”
Chapter 8
Elizabeth stared at the man and could barely draw breath. He wanted to know who she was?
He only cared about who she was inside, and what she wanted and he was going to hurt those who had harmed her and make sure that no one harmed her again?
She could barely fathom it. Most men she knew would happily shove her aside to get ahead or get what they wanted.
She drew herself up, took a step forward, and said, “I want you to kiss me right now.”
His eyes flared. “You want me to do what?”
She was delighted to have shocked him. At last, she had some power.
“Kiss me. Show me you mean what you say. That you will ruin me, and that I will enjoy it.”
She had no idea what had overcome her except that she was no longer to live as she had done until this night. She was done living out of fear, hiding, making herself small.
He looked startled. As if he was afraid if he kissed her, he would be swept onto a path he could not retreat from.
“We could spit in our palms and shake,” he attempted to tease.
She arched a brow at him. “I’m not a horse trader,” she replied.
“Forgive my levity,” he replied.
“You may be well acquainted with it, but I want to know what it’s like to feel passion, to feel alive. Mr. Courtney,” she began, feeling the argument and her need rising up in her with every word, “I have spent the vast majority of my life completely in control, suppressing how I feel, not allowing myself to have anything. Promising myself that one day I would be free and that I would be able to pursue the life I want.”
She placed a hand on his hard chest and declared, “Well, I am not waiting anymore. I am starting now and you are part of that plan. I want you to kiss me. I have been thinking about it since I got into the hackney tonight and rode over here and decided that you would be the one to ruin me. I don’t want any other man to take from me. I want it to be you. The only man that I know who came to warn me, to protect me, to care about me. A total stranger, you.”
Something about him changed in that moment. A wave of understanding seemed to crash over him and then it was there. Awe.