Free Lost in a Royal Kiss by Vanessa Kelly Page B

started a precipitous slide off the divan, but he quickly swung her legs up across his lap even as he planted his feet on the floorboards with a decided thump.
    Grabbing his shoulders, Linnet stared at him. Her heart sank. He was scowling, and rather fiercely, too. She tried to wriggle off his lap, but he captured her in his arms.
    “Certain assumptions?” The quiet, lethal tone to his voice sent shivers down her spine. “You’re damn right I made certain assumptions, Linnet. What kind of man do you take me for? Could you possibly think I would take your innocence and not marry you?”
    She repressed a sigh. Anthony was the most honorable man she knew. The last thing she’d wanted to do was offend him. “Of course not,” she said in a soothing voice as she patted his chest. “I would expect nothing less of you. It’s just that—”
    “Good,” he said, interrupting her. “I’ll leave for Kew first thing in the morning to present myself to your mother.” He dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. “I don’t see the need to wait to announce our engagement, do you?”
    She gaped at him. “You haven’t even asked me to marry you yet!”
    His hands tightened briefly around her waist. “We just discussed this a moment ago, remember?”
    “No, you discussed it a moment ago. I have not yet had the opportunity to express my views on the subject.”
    He stared at her with disbelief. “What views could you possibly have? Did you think I would take your maidenhead, then politely shake your hand and be on my way?”
    She winced, torn between embarrassment at his blunt language and growing frustration at her inability to express herself with any clarity. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t really thinking things through, not in the moment.”
    “I would suggest you re-engage your wits as soon as possible, my dear,” he responded in a typical Sir Anthony voice.
    Linnet could practically feel her heart crash to the floor. “Anthony, do you love me?” she blurted out.
    His head jerked a bit, as if the question surprised him. “Of course I do, goose. I should think that was obvious by what just happened.” His tone suggested that she was a nitwit to expect him to be required to say it.
    “Pardon me for being so obviously dull-witted,” she said, trying to sound sarcastic rather than crushed.
    He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, she could see wariness in his gaze. Any sense of vulnerability on his part had vanished.
    “I’m not normally so clumsy in expressing myself, Linnet. Please forgive me. I simply wish to take care of you in the way you so amply deserve. There’s nothing wrong with that, now is there?”
    Lord, it was getting worse and worse. “Anthony, you must know that I do not need you to take care of me, nor would I ever marry you for that reason. I am entirely capable of taking care of myself.”
    He began to look mule-headed again. “My dear, you could very well be breeding as a result of what we did here tonight. The sooner we get this sorted out, the better. I will not have my wife subjected to unseemly gossip, nor besmirch either your family’s name or mine.”
    Linnet’s stomach clenched. She hadn’t thought for a moment about pregnancy, which proved that she did turn into a dimwit around him. She would need to be a great deal more assertive with him in the future if she didn’t want to see her carefully balanced life come crashing down in a heap.
    Still, he was right about avoiding unpleasant gossip or scandal. She wanted that as much as he did. But, for the time being, her other responsibilities had to come first.
    “Point taken,” she said, trying to sound reasonable. “But there are other issues we must take into consideration, as well.”
    “And what might they be?” he asked, sounding a shade too sarcastic.
    She clamped down on the impulse to box his ears. “You know very well that the queen does not wish Mamma to leave her post for some months yet. Mamma