Free Lady Varney's Risqué Business by Cerise Deland Page B

after she alighted.
    “No, please.” I must have hope. I must appear to be confident of acceptance .
    Justin’s butler opened the door, shock the most thrilling emotion inscribed on his usually placid features. “My lady. We are honored by your presence.”
    She wanted to hoot at his pleasantry. “I wish to see Lord Belmont immediately.”
    But wherever Justin was, whatever he had been doing while she paced in his receiving room, she was not prepared for how he looked when he did appear in the doorway.
    “What the hell are you doing here?” he rasped, eyes bleary, sans cravat and coat, casual breeches of tan and cordovan riding boots splattered with mud and dust.
    She faced him fully. Not having dared to sit, lest she appear too comfortable when she really felt like bouncing around the room like a ball, she smoothed her skirt. “I came to talk with you.”
    “ Talk to you ? No. You are deaf!” He advanced on her, fire in his eyes.
    She stood her ground, even if her heart twisted painfully in her chest at his anger. “Obviously, I am blind as well.”
    That took him aback. But he turned on his heel and waved an arm. “Stay. Go. I care not.”
    “But you do. I now know you do!”
    “Late for that,” he muttered, almost to the door and taking her heart and all her hope with him.
    “I went to see your uncle.” She tried one last lure.
    He spun. “At the Abbey?”
    “Yes.”
    “What the devil for?”
    Blurt it out! “I had to ask his blessing so that I could propose marriage to you.”
    His mouth dropped open. He snapped it shut. She could not have shocked him more had she fallen to her knees like a lovesick swain to ask for his hand.
    She had to work quickly. “After the garden party, I felt wretched, and I suspected something between you and Maggie.”
    “Never!”
    She was not deterred. “Something like friendship. Something like trust. I went to her and lo and behold, I see that the two of you have been scheming together!”
    “No matter. Our plans did not work.”
    “My sister loves me. I know she does. And she has never in her short life worked against me.”
    “She is a wise woman.”
    “Wiser than I, apparently. Yes.” Taking the advantage, she rushed onward. “Then the day after the party at the Darlingtons, I learned you had left London. Soon after, the gossips put out that Susanna Curtis would come here soon. I could not bear the idea that she might be here with you and that the only person who should ever enter your tiny wedding cottage is me.”
    “Susanna grows roses,” he informed her as he searched her gaze for truth.
    “But you did not plant them for her to nurture, Justin.” She stepped so close to him, she could smell his cologne, and the fragrance brought back memories of his musky skin pressed to her own. “I am the only one who should tend them. I am the golden blonde, the mother, the widow, the heiress to a grand old title. I am the well-respected woman you want. Need.”
    “Too late. I am done with wanting you, chasing you.”
    “You are. Oh, you most definitely are! And your uncle confirmed it for me.” She placed her palms over the soft cotton of his shirt and spread her fingers over his broad chest. “He released you from the requirement of wealth long ago. At your demand. I did not know. How could I? I did not know how you and he discussed your desire to have me. To marry me. I presumed he demanded wealth from your future bride. Oh, Justin, do not divide us now by your pride. I am the woman you have loved, my darling, for so many years that you refused to marry anyone else.”
    He cursed. “He should not have told you.”
    “You wanted me to realize for myself that you loved me. I know. I know.” With both hands, she cupped his cheeks.
    Grasping her wrists, he pushed her away.
    Desperate now, she would not let him go. “For all the years we lost together, let me make them up to you. Let me.”
    “How can I?” he bellowed.
    “Because you will not marry any