Free The Lady Who Broke the Rules by Marguerite Kaye Page A

would change. Educating the serfs, you must know, is in his eyes nothing short of anarchy, for it will only give them aspirations beyond their proper place in life.’
    ‘It is a view I am unfortunately extremely familiar with,’ Virgil said.
    Kate turned to face him, leaning back against the stonework of the bridge. ‘You mean my father shares his outlook with the plantation owners. I shall make a point of telling him that.’
    ‘Do you enjoy being at outs with him?’
    Her smile faded into a small frown which spoiled the smooth arch of her brows. ‘It’s not that I do it deliberately, but we have so little in common. He doesn’t really know me. I don’t think he knows any of his children very well. We are not exactly a close family, nor have we been raised to expect affection from one another. I used to think it would have been different if Mama had lived, but actually I don’t think it would have been. I don’t recall her being in the least bit maternal. Of course, I care for my father in a dutiful way, but I don’t like him any more than he likes me.’
    There was hurt there, behind that fierce expression that made her eyes more slate-grey than blue. It was there, too, in the way she crossed her arms over her chest, in the defiant tilt of her chin. ‘Shall I meet him while I am here?’
    Kate chuckled. ‘I hope so, and if you do, I beg you do not let the fact that he is nominally your host constrain you. He is bound to be just as offensive as Aunt Wilhelmina, so you need have no qualms. She was quite crushed by the end of dinner last night. I could have kissed you.’
    Immediately the words were out, Kate wished them back. ‘I mean, I thought you put Aunt Wilhelmina down beautifully. I did not mean I actually wanted to kiss you. Not in the dining room.’
    She could feel the hot flush prickling up her back and prayed it would not reach her cheeks. Why had she mentioned kissing? She had been trying so hard not to think of kissing Virgil ever since he had kissed her and now… Much too late, Kate bit her tongue.
    ‘Not in the dining room,’ Virgil mused. The pulse was there again, just below her ear. He touched it. He could not resist touching it, feeling it flutter under his fingertip, fascinated by the soft warmth of her skin, by the contrast of his skin on hers. ‘If not in the dining room, then where? I wonder.’
    He hadn’t meant to touch her. He hadn’t meant to kiss her again, but he could not resist her. Eleven years, and he had never had any real trouble in repressing his desire, but there was something about Kate. He forgot to be on his guard with her. ‘What about here?’
    Virgil curled his fingers into the thick bundle of her hair and covered her body with his. She was pliable as a willow. Her thighs brushed his. His blood stirred and heated. His desire for her unfurled sleepily, slowly, but surely all the same. He knew he was playing with fire, but still he leaned closer to her. Her breath clouded the air between them. ‘Will you kiss me on the bridge, Kate?’
    ‘Virgil, I’m not very good at this sort of thing.’ Her heart was hammering in her breast. Her body was tingling where it met his, and aching where it did not. She wasn’t the type of woman who even wanted this sort of thing, whatever it was. Except that she did want it.
    Virgil pulled her towards him, bracing one hand on the parapet, the other sliding down from her hair to the small of her back. He smiled, a slow smile, as if that, too, was unfurling from a long hibernation, stretching sensuously, sinuously. ‘You’re not good at this sort of thing, and I’m out of practice, and yet we managed well enough yesterday.’ He nibbled at the lobe of her ear, then tasted the skin behind it, the fluttering pulse. Sweet and heady. His hand settled on the curve of her bottom. He had forgotten what curves could do to him.
    ‘Virgil.’ Kate touched his face. She ran her fingers over the springy crop of his hair. His head was