Nor was he alone. Mirabel was with him. “If you’ve compromised her—,” Lord Corkindale started to threaten as he regained his balance, but then he froze as he realized it wasn’t his daughter Neal was holding. He took a step back. “Mrs. Martin?” He looked around. “Where’s Lila?”
“She isn’t here,” Neal said, coming to his feet and bringing Thea with him. Her dressing gown was hanging open, her nightdress had been up around her knees, her lips were bruised from his kisses, and her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. Everything had happened so quickly that she still hadn’t registered the turn of events. She did have the presence of mind to retie the sash of her dressing gown.
“Lila has to be here,” Lord Corkindale said, confused.
“I’m so sorry we disturbed you, my lord,” Mirabel said, giving Thea a sly, approving look. “Good night.”
She reached for Lord Corkindale as if to guide him out before anyone was the wiser, but he shook off her arm. “What is going on here?” Confusion was giving way to anger. “Mrs. Martin, what were you doing on the floor with Lord Lyon? And why are you wearing hardly a stitch of clothes on you?”
Thea thought her nightdress and gown was more than enough coverage, far more than Lady Lila had been wearing.
Yes, it was unseemly for her to be in a gentleman’s room in night attire, but she had a good reason for being there. “I’m here because your daughter—,” she started to explain, only to be interrupted by Lady Lila herself.
“Father, why are you shouting?” Lady Lila asked in a small, sweet voice as she pressed open the door. She then gave a huge gasp of horror before exclaiming in a loud voice, “Mrs. Martin, what have you and Lord Lyon been doing?”
Almost immediately, as if they had been summoned, the Montvales, the Carpsleys and Lady Sophie joined the gathering around the doorway.
Neal was a bit confused about what was happening.
Of course part of that was because his brain still sizzled from Thea’s kiss. He hadn’t intended to kiss her, but when he’d walked into the room and there she’d been—
Who knew a kiss could turn a man inside out? He’d never felt such a strong, overwhelming connection with anyone in his life. Her kiss had touched his very soul. Who cared what these people had to say? He wanted to kiss Thea again.
“Can you believe this?” Lady Lila said to the others. “Here we are thinking Mrs. Martin is a person of integrity, and she’s been caught throwing herself at Lord Lyon. How incredible. How disappointing.”
“Now wait a minute,” Thea said, ready to explain herself, but Lady Carpsley stepped forward, her eyebrows so high on her forehead they seemed to reach her hairline.
“This is scandalous. Shocking. We now know why you kept steering Lord Lyon away from our daughter.”
“That is not true—,” Thea attempted to say.
“I can’t believe my father brought me here,” Lady Lila cut in with a woebegone voice.
“I shouldn’t have,” Lord Corkindale agreed. “This is disgraceful. And I thought you were a woman of moral character,” he said to Thea.
Neal stepped forward, his fist doubling, but Thea herself pulled him back. “Don’t you talk to me about character,” Thea said to Lord Corkindale.
“And don’t you lecture me,” he returned.
“I have seen enough,” Lady Montvale said, her voice carrying over the others. “Mrs. Martin, you have much to answer for.”
“And I will,” Thea said. The color had drained from her face at her ladyship’s censure. “If you will all just hear me out—”
“I don’t think any of us should listen to you,” Lady Lila stated. “This is not the first time you’ve shown poor form, is it now? You have a history of it. I heard someone suggest you weren’t really a widow. That there was never a Mr. Martin—”
Neal could contain himself no longer. “That is enough.”
His words served to quiet Lady Lila. She blinked as if just realizing he was present and she retreated back a step, but the society matrons were not so easily cowed.
Lady Montvale spoke. “My lord, I have the highest regard for you. You are a man, after all, and given a man’s appetites, there will be, how do we say it? Ah, peccadilloes. But Mrs. Martin has surprised us all. Against our better judgment we involved ourselves with her. And we are now dismayed by her behavior. However, this doesn’t mean we hold disapproval of you. We still think of you as an excellent suitor for our daughter’s hand—”
“As I do,” Lord Corkindale interjected, “for Lila. Quite a pair you are. Handsome couple.”
“You have lovely daughters, but, unfortunately, I have been taken off the market,” Neal heard himself say. He reached for Thea and gathered her protectively against his body. “Mrs. Martin has just honored me by accepting my proposal of marriage.”
If the roof of the house had fallen in, the gathering in front of him could not have looked more shocked. Including Thea. She rocked back. Her head swung up to stare at him as if he’d gone mad.
Maybe he had . . . and he wasn’t sorry for it.
But for the first time in his memory, he was acting according to his wishes, his wants, his desires.
Freedom was a heady thing.
Neal took advantage of the silence. “I hope, Lord and Lady Montvale, that you will treat my soon-to-be wife with the respect and courtesy she deserves. Lord Corkindale, Lady Lila, I register your disappointment.” He noticed that Sir James and the Pomfreys had also joined the group. They had been walking toward their rooms when they had noticed the crowd in his hall. “James, wish me well. Mrs. Martin has agreed to be my wife.”
The more Neal said it, the more the idea took hold with him. Perhaps it was the aftereffect of the kiss. Or perhaps it was because now Thea wouldn’t have to worry about money, or where her son would be going to school. He would take care of them. He would be their protector . . . and her lover—
“I am not marrying him,” Thea said. “Don’t listen to his rubbish.” She shoved Neal away from her with all she was worth and walked through the dumbfounded crowd and out the door.
In all his imaginings, Neal had never considered that someone would turn down his offer of marriage. Not once.
And Thea needed him. Her sons needed him.
“I’ll marry you,” Lady Lila announced.
Neal batted the offer away with his hand, her words as insistent and inconsequential as a black fly. “Excuse me,” he murmured, and went after Thea.
Chapter Ten
Thea knew Neal followed. She could feel his heavier steps behind her. She began running for her room, her bare feet pounding the floor. She almost mowed down a maid as she raced around the corner. She didn’t stop to apologize. She ran to the haven of her room and slammed the door, throwing her back against it, her heart pounding in her chest.
Nessa had lit the bedside table lamp. The room, with its rumpled bed, looked so peaceful. She should never have left it. Who would have predicted such a strange chain of events would uproot her world?
She was ruined. Destroyed . . . unless she could think of something to say that would erase this terrible evening from the minds of some of the ton’s leading personages. She pushed away from the door and started pacing in an anxious circle—
“Thea,” Neal’s voice said from the other side of the door. “Let me in.”
She stared at the door as if she could burn a hole through it and set him on fire.
“Thea? Talk to me.”
She didn’t want to talk. He’d already said enough.
“Very well, then,” he said, “let me tell you what I’m going to do. Tomorrow, I will send a man to procure a special license from the bishop. That shouldn’t take long. We could probably marry the day after. Of course, if you wish to marry in London so that your sons could attend—”
Thea was across to the door in a blink. She threw it
open. Neal stood there, handsome, relaxed, completely in control of his emotions.
She wasn’t.
“What do you believe you are doing?” she demanded.
“Marrying you,” he replied.
Thea slammed the door in his face.
She turned away, raising a hand to her forehead as if her head hurt. But it wasn’t her head that worried her, it was her whole life.
The door opened. “That wasn’t courteous,” he chastised as he walked in.
“Leave me,” she ground out.
His response was to shut the door, with him inside the room. “Thea, no one will believe we want to marry if you continue these dramatics.”
His calmness threw her into hysterics. “Do you not know what you’ve done? You’ve ruined me.”
Neal shook his head. “I don’t agree. I think I saved you.”
“And how is that?” she demanded wildly.
“No one will speak against you with me to protect you,” he said, as if he was being quite noble.
“How little you know of women,” Thea answered. “Protect me by marrying me? I’ll be surprised if any door will be open to me. This story will fly through London. They may behave one way to your face, but they will let me know what they think behind your back. I’m destroyed. And what of my sons? What will happen to them?” She collapsed onto the tufted bench in front of her dressing table.
He knelt in front of her. “I don’t care what those women think. They don’t matter—”
“How naive you are!”
“Fine. Women control the world,” he conceded without conviction. “They are all going to eat us alive—”
“They will. Lady Carpsley—”
“Is a bully. All of London knows she leads her husband around by his boll—” He paused, catching himself before he said bollocks, and finished, “Nose. She leads him around by his nose. In fact most of those women handle their husbands that way. You don’t think I know Lady Montvale can be a terror?” Neal shrugged. “I’ve managed this far in my life without her approval.”
“That’s because she has always approved of you, my lord. And she probably will continue the pretense of doing so, although one day you may need to speak to the Prince Regent about a matter of some urgency and find your request denied—”
“No, that won’t happen. He owes me money,” Neal countered, but then he frowned. “Then again, because he owes me money, he has already been avoiding me—”
“You are not listening to what I’m saying.” Thea raised her hands in frustration and let them go before adding, “And you sound as if you think this is a lark.”
“It is, Thea. And perhaps you are the one not listening to me. Marriage between us makes good sense. We’ve known each other a long time. You won’t fall in love with me, and I won’t fall in love with you.”
“How can you say that? Didn’t you toss aside our friendship because of fear we would grow too close?” And they would. She could sense it. And then what would he do?
“We are older and wiser now,” he replied dismissively. “Together we can beat the curse—”
Thea interrupted him with a cry of irritation. “The curse, the curse, the curse.” She swooped off the chair and away from him, taking a good two angry steps before turning. “That’s all you think about.”
His brows came together in an angry V. “I don’t have a choice. I must consider it.”
She wanted to groan but stifled the sound. Did he know how mad he sounded? Taking a second to collect herself, she said, “Neal, have you ever wondered why I was so offended that day in Sir James’s office? Why I stormed out of the place?”
“You were upset with me,” he said, giving a small shrug as if it didn’t matter.
“Are all men thickheaded?” Thea demanded of the room-at-large.
“Are all women so temperamental?” Neal shot back. He came to his feet. “No, Thea, I don’t know why you left except that you don’t believe in the curse and for some reason it made you angry that I do. All right. So be it. We have a difference. But there are many things we agree upon. In fact, we kissed rather well.”
She brought her hands up as if to ward him off. “Oh, no, you didn’t just say that. I thought your purpose was to marry a woman who didn’t kiss well.”
“When did I make that claim?”
“You want to marry someone you can’t like,” Thea pointed out.
“Yes, but I don’t want to dislike kissing her.”
Thea pounced. “Oh, so because you want to marry me, that means you don’t like me.”
“No, Thea, don’t even jump to that conclusion.”
“What conclusion am I jumping to, my lord? I’m merely restating what you said.”
“But that’s not what I said.”
“Yes, it is. You said—”
Now it was Neal’s turn to roar with disapproval. “Stop twisting my words.”
It felt good to make him angry. It meant he was paying attention now.
“And you need to think about what you are saying,” Thea countered. “As to that day in the office, yes, I found the talk of curse unbelievable and a bit ridiculous. But the reason I really left, Neal, is because I didn’t want to help you on this quest for a wife, not with the demand you don’t like her. I felt it was wrong, and I still do. Neal, I believe in love.”
There, she’d said it, and she was a bit unnerved by her statement. But once foolish, twice damned. She couldn’t stop herself from plunging on.
“I think it is important,” she said, pacing the distance between the bed and the doorway as she reasoned out her words. “I know I shouldn’t. If anyone should not believe in love, it is me.” She had to give a small, brittle laugh at herself for having been such a fool. “I know how hard it is to find love. You think you have it, you believe you have found someone you can trust, who will stand beside you and protect you and make you feel as if you finally have a place in this world where you belong—and then you find out you are wrong. People aren’t to be trusted, and no one person can give anyone everything she thinks she needs. So I didn’t believe in love, but then here you are in Sir James’s office saying you are deliberately seeking someone you can’t and won’t and refuse to love, and that’s when something so deep inside me that I didn’t know it was there rose up and said, You are wrong . . . because love is important, Neal. When I think of my sons, I know it is all that ever matters.”
“You loved Martin?”
His question took a moment to penetrate her mind. She was thinking about this all-encompassing emotion called love . . . and he was asking about her late husband?
What’s more, he was waiting for an answer.
Thea shook her head. “Of course I did—” That wasn’t completely right either. “I thought I did,” she amended. “Yes, I did at one time.”
“What happened?”
“What do you mean, ‘what happened?’ ” she challenged.
Neal shifted his weight. He wasn’t as overzealous as he had been a few moments ago. “You left your family and everything you knew for him. So, what happened? I gathered you were not completely happy in your marriage. What changed your affections?”
She crossed her arms, wanting to refuse an answer, then deciding it made no difference if she was candid with Neal. After all, there had been a time when he’d known all of her confidences.
“Boyd was difficult,” she said. The words sounded so simple, but there was a wealth of the unspoken in each of them. She slid her gaze toward the cold hearth, remembering, and feeling disloyal. “I loved him enough to defy everyone and elope. But I don’t think I knew him. No, wait,” she said correcting herself, “I don’t think I trusted him.”
“You can trust me.”
She had to laugh at his conviction. “My lord, I will never trust another man. Now, if you please, leave my room
.” She started toward the door to open it. “I am tired. Worn thin. We can discuss this night on the morrow—”
He caught her arm, swung her around and kissed her. His embrace was commanding, and she had no choice but to kiss him back.
One minute she was rational and tired, and in the next, she was suddenly vital and alive. It was that simple and the decision that quick.
Their lips did fit together well. Her body warmed to his, became warm in the places where he was hard—
He was hard.
Thea could feel the length and heat of him exactly where it should be against her, and she was undone.
There had been a time when Thea had wanted Boyd’s attentions, and a time when she’d avoided all contact with him. She understood her body’s signals. Hers was not a prudish nature, although she had long ago made the decision to place her needs and wants far below those of her children.
However here and now, desire burst into life with a vehemence that was all encompassing.
What was wrong with letting herself enjoy this kiss? She’d been holding herself so tight, trying to be so strong. What harm could one kiss do?
And it felt good to at last let her body enjoy being in his arms. His body heat enfolded her. His strength held her.
The kiss deepened.
He sat on the bench, pulling her down onto his lap. Thea straddled his legs.
Were her nightclothes up around her bare thighs? She didn’t care.
Did his hand caress her breast? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.
She was perfectly happy. Blissfully happy. Hungrily happy. And when he broke the kiss to brush aside her hair to nibble his way to her ear, Thea thought she was going to shoot straight from his arms into heaven . . .
Neal was intoxicated. Thea was seductive, willing, aggressive.
She cupped his head with her hands, bent over him and kissed him with an abandon he had not known existed.
Dear God, he wanted her.
In truth, he’d wanted her all those years ago when they’d met by the stream. He’d fantasized about her, yearned to see her and cherished each moment they’d been together. But this, having her respond to his kisses, holding her in his arms, was better than any fantasy.
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