“No? I will not be replaced,” he said, and then her words sank in slowly. “Client?”
She arched her brow, her lips twisting into a smile. “You hardly need my services anymore do you, my lord?”
“I need you,” he insisted, lowering his voice a little. “Why did you not come to see me, or arrange to on another day?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “I had other business to attend to. So do you. I was not needed at Conduit Street.”
He gaped. He was trying to create a life for them. Fashion a home. He could not do it without her there to give her opinion. “Why would you imagine that? I’ve been waiting for you there every day. Naked in bed, where I told you I would be!”
She blushed and started to turn away. “I’m sure you were amply entertained in my absence.”
He grabbed her arm and held her still. “I heard you went home ill from the Rothwell ball. I sent flowers anonymously the next day, and called at Wharton House a few days after that, but you were never at home to me. It wasn’t until yesterday that I threw caution to the wind and asked Eugenia for your whereabouts. She did not tell me very much, but I learned you were well though busy. I’ve looked everywhere for you.”
She winced. “I made you no promises.”
“Well, I made them to you,” he countered. “We had an arrangement. I’ve been courting you.”
She scowled. “That’s not what you’ve been doing with me.”
“I’ve been trying to get close to you the only way you will allow me to!” He threw up his hands. “I want you. You know that. I will not pretend to be indifferent. You want me, too, the same way. If I had started to court you properly, everyone would have seen my preference for you clear as day. You beautiful, contrary woman. You have my happiness wrapped around your littlest finger. I made a promise not to compromise you, and I am trying to honor it and be patient. But you didn’t bother to keep yours and meet me as arranged.”
She looked down at her feet. “I’m surprised you found the time with your other woman vying for your attention.”
“What other woman?”
Aurora lifted her head but looked out across the neatly clipped lawns and wrinkled her nose. “It is well known you are courting Miss Lavinia Hayes, on the verge of proposing to her.”
He reared back, stunned that Aurora of all people would believe such utter nonsense about him. “Good God, no.”
She looked up. “Why not marry her? She’d be perfect for you, and you like her.”
“Are you mad? Not that way. She’s an infant compared to you.” He moved her to stand in front of him, so she had to see his face. “Do I understand clearly that a rumor I am to wed Lavinia Hayes has caused this rift between us? Were you jealous?”
She looked away, shrugged again, and wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Why would I be jealous?”
“That is the question that most needs answering right now. Why? You won’t marry me or let me speak of it.” But her breathing had sped up and a telling blush had reddened her cheeks now. “Your kiss tells me nothing has changed between us in the time we’ve been apart, Aurora.”
“My lips lied,” she whispered. “They don’t want you.”
Oh yes, they lied now, and he didn’t know why she should make the attempt. “We could kiss again just so you can prove you feel nothing for me once and for all, but I’m afraid we might be seen.”
“That didn’t stop you the first time,” she complained.
“I was jealous of that other fellow, but now that I understand I have not been replaced, I will behave.” He grinned slowly. “Unless you prefer I not bother.”
Aurora settled her bare fingers over her lips briefly. A gesture surely meant to protect them from him kissing her again. “The discussion is over. You shouldn’t have interrupted my meeting.”
“Yes, your meeting.” He looked away in the direction the young man had gone and found the fellow lurking nearby. “Is that a potential client I almost scared off?”
“He might not have been so timid had you not been so rude,” she complained, and then saw the fellow too. “Oh, dear.”
“I will make amends in a moment. But first let me dispel an erroneous assumption you seem to have made about me. I am not the sort of man who would ever carry on with two women at once. If I had doubts, I wouldn’t be intimate with you. Period. Making love to you is all I want to do. In the whole time I’ve been in London, not one woman has ever aroused me the way you have done so effortlessly.”
“You stopped asking me to marry you,” she whispered quietly.
“Yes!” Had Aurora been offended that he’d stopped? Drew might not have considered her as a potential spouse from the very beginning, and perhaps she’d refused him out of pride ever since. It was clear to him now that she was attracted to him, as much as he was to her. Mutual desire was high on his list of needs for a second marriage. He had not told her that outright in the beginning of their acquaintance, judging the matter much too personal to mention to a spinster.
But what had convinced him that he was at last on the right path was his own reaction to her. Drew could have gone on seducing her in secret forever. But he had never felt this way about anyone he’d met in the last two years. “My question was getting in the way of us being happy when we were together. I still want to marry you. Nothing at all has changed my mind. Will you be my wife, Aurora?”