Free Say You Love Me by Johanna Lindsey Page B

Jeremy?
    Granted, his scamp of a cousin had made no bones about wanting her for himself. And she had owned up to how handsome she’d found him. Of course, had she said otherwise, he would have known she was lying. All women found Jeremy exceptionally handsome. And it had rankled, indeed, when she’d tried to convince him that she preferred him. He knew she was lying through her teeth.
    But he would come to grips with that. After all, he had no desire for her to fall in love with him and start thinking about babies and home-making. That was hardly what a man wantedfrom his mistress. And he couldn’t deny now that he did indeed want her, after what had happened earlier.
    Her lack of finesse combined with her passion was a strange mixture that had sent his own desire soaring nearly out of control. He still found it hard to believe how much he’d wanted her right there in the carriage, and how long it had taken to get the urge to ravish her under control.
    Lust. A right and proper feeling to have for one’s mistress, he had to allow, so he wasn’t displeased. She might prefer Jeremy and wish that she’d ended up with him instead, but where Derek was concerned, her response had been more than satisfying.
    Still thinking about it as they finished their meal, Derek remarked, although more to himself, “I’m tempted to rent a room here, damn me if I’m not. But I have a feeling it will take several hours to make love to you the first time, and that would have us arriving too late in Bridgewater to get you settled…Why do you blush?”
    “I’m not used to such talk.”
    He chuckled, finding her continued pretense of innocence rather amusing. He was curious to know how she hoped to carry the pretense beyond the first time they came together. But he’d find that out tonight, wouldn’t he? And that was a very pleasant thought.
    “Don’t worry about it, m’dear. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”
    “I hope so,” she replied. “Or I am sure toneed cooler clothing—that is to say, this constant blushing keeps me rather warm.”
    He burst out laughing. “And here I’d hoped I would be doing that.”
    “There, you see?” she said with yet another blush, and brought her hand up to fan against her cheeks. “It might as well be summer, with as warm as I’m keeping.”
    “I expect by summer we’ll be hard-pressed to get a blush out of you,” he replied somewhat dryly, though he knew it made no difference, if she could blush on command as she was doing now. But he had no desire to end her pretense, amusing as it was. “Shall we be off then, before I change my mind about letting a room?”
    To give her credit, she didn’t shoot out of her chair and run for the door, but it was close, and very apparent that it was close, that she was fighting the urge to do just that. Derek shook his head as he followed her out. Strange girl. If she were to be taken at face value, he would be truly confounded. But he’d been with enough sophisticated women to know that it was all part of the game, these little contrivances, done to amuse their gentlemen, not to deceive or give false impressions.
     
    There was perhaps an hour left of daylight when they finally reached the little tenants cottage on Derek’s property. It had one room combining a kitchen area on one wall, with a dining table in the middle, and on the other side of the room, a small area that could beconstrued as the parlor only because it contained a large stuffed chair. There was a single bedroom off the back with a tiny water closet, replete with a round barrel bath rather than a tub. No modernizations here.
    The cottage was sparsely furnished and quite dirty at the moment, attesting to a long vacancy. There were a few rusted cooking pots hanging on the wall by the sink, a small table with two chairs for eating, the one large stuffed chair with a dust blanket covering it, and the bedroom containing only a bed, no wardrobe, no bedding. But the cottage was