Jay abruptly turned and strode to the sideboard and poured himself a drink. Throwing it down, he turned back to Tina, his discomfort obvious, a dark scowl marring his handsome features. She wondered what he was thinking.
“So, what should I do with it?”
Tina licked suddenly dry lips. “Whatever you want to do with it.”
“And if I choose to honor it? Then what?”
Tina felt as if she’d been kicked by a horse. “Why would you do that?”
“Perhaps because I’m a man of honor. Or, perhaps because it suits my purposes to do so. Why does it matter why?”
For a quick moment, Tina wondered if it really did, but she knew the answer. “Of course it does,” she responded with more heat than she intended. “Why would you be willing to marry someone you’ve never met before, someone with whom you have only spent one full day in their company? Certainly not to please a father you obviously disliked.”
Jay winced as his words came back to haunt him. Perhaps letting Tina know of his feelings regarding his father and brother hadn’t been such a good idea. Still, she had no idea of the importance of the betrothal contract in the larger scheme of things.
“Betrothal contracts were once commonplace. They are still used to cement alliances. There’s nothing untoward about this particular one which would make a solicitor think it wasn’t valid.” He tried not to wince as he said the last, but Tina refused to let it go.
“Of course there is,” she responded, obviously annoyed at his attitude. “Such contracts were normally entered into by the fathers of infants or children. Those are indeed binding, but the thought of a father forcing a grown son into marriage by such a thing is ludicrous in this day and age. I doubt I could renege on it. After all, I actually signed it, although I was all of eleven at the time. And…there is a little matter of not going back on a promise once made, but you—you weren’t even aware I existed!
“Any solicitor worth his salt should question the validity of it after ascertaining by its date that you were an adult when it was entered into. He should be suspicious of the fact you did not sign it. Mr. Strate knows you were unaware of its existence and had not agreed to it. I, personally, would not blame you for refusing to honor it. You could toss it into the fire and be done with it and no one would be the wiser except you and I—and maybe Jon, but he would understand.”
He listened to her in silence. A promise is a promise. She’d promised to marry him and she meant to keep that promise, regardless of what it meant. He should be glad she was willing to do so, but she wasn’t making his task any easier. One thing was for sure, she certainly did not expect his next words.
“That is all well and good, but you did not answer my question. Suppose I choose to honor it?”
Tina stared at him in consternation. He wished he knew what she was thinking, but waited for her response. It wasn’t what he expected.
“Why?” she demanded.
He was speechless. What happened to the calm, quiet woman he was acquainted with?
Why indeed, he thought, remembering the will. Perhaps there was the need to reclaim his ancestral holdings without a court fight, he thought grimly. Or, perhaps, he was letting his body rule him because goodness knew it would be no hardship married to her. For a moment he let his imagination run riot, imagining her in his bed—naked, soft, warm, willing.
For the second time, he was at a loss for words. “Why?” he repeated, wondering if he had truly heard her right.
“Yes, why?” she echoed. “Why would you do such a thing?”
“You are repeating yourself.”
“Do not avoid my question, then.”
A brief smile flitted across his features. “Perhaps because I find you beautiful and intelligent. Perhaps because I think it would be the right thing to do after you have waited all this time for me to come home and make a decision. Or, perhaps because you intrigue me as no other woman ever has.”
Tina’s expression bounced between outraged and flattered. “Because I waited?” she burst out. “You think I was waiting for you?” she asked incredulously. “What makes you think that?”
There was something in her voice that warned him he was on dangerous ground here. A wrong step and everything would blow up in his face. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure he was in control of this conversation any longer, if he ever had been. He looked down into a tropical lagoon turned stormy and wondered what he should do next.
Retreat. “I’m not sure I think that, exactly,” he conceded. “It’s what Mr. Strate seemed to think. He said you’d waited to honor the contract.”
The habitual calm he associated with her reasserted itself.
“I was waiting for Jon to be able to move to his estate, then I had planned for Felicia and I to join him there.”
Jay returned to his stance before the desk. “I see.”
“I’m not sure you do. Mr. Milton made it clear to me I would no longer be welcome at Thane Park by the end of this summer. Although Jon will not turn twenty-five until next year, I had already begun to make plans to find a place for Felicia and I to live until then.”
“Why by the end of this summer?”
“Because the allowance was to run out five years after Papa’s death. That would be the end of this month. I still do not know what he expected to happen to Felicia, but you may be assured I would not have left her here.” Tina suddenly halted, a frown appearing to wrinkle her brow. “Mr. Milton was lying, was he not? The allowance was much more than he was giving us all along—and it would not have run out at the end of the summer.”
Jay nodded, unable to voice his thoughts. Such comments were not made in polite company. He would be very satisfied when the detective found Roderick Milton. Quite frankly, he hoped he found him already dead—it would save Jay the possibility of hanging.
“Oh,” suddenly deflated, Tina sat back in the chair.
“He told you you had to leave by the end of the summer?”
“Yes.”
“He did not offer to allow you to stay here—for a price?”
Tina looked up, surprise and something else in her eyes. “How did you know?” she blurted.
“Know what?”
“That…that…he might have…off…offered to allow me to stay?”
Dread. That’s what he read in her eyes. Dread of what? “Because it’s what most scoundrels would have done,” he replied smoothly, then continued on a hunch. “His offer didn’t, by any chance, include marriage as part of the bargain, did it?”
Tina’s eyes widened, and he knew her response even before she gave it voice. “Yes, but how…?”
Her response confirmed what he’d suspected all along. Not only had Roderick Milton known of the will, but he had tried to force Tina’s hand.
“It’s a common ploy,” he shrugged, hiding his rage behind nonchalance. “By marrying you he may have thought he could have assumed guardianship of Felicia and openly siphoned funds from the estate. Until I made an appearance, Felicia would have been considered the heir to the estate.” He warred with his conscience over the half-truth. If not for the will, it would have been completely true.
Tina’s eyes widened in shock.
“I never understood why he would want to marry me,” she said now with a shudder, “especially since he hated me because of Mama.” She was silent for a moment, obviously mulling the information over. “But I would not have married him. I would have just moved Felicia and myself to Oxford and joined Jon.”
“Had you told Jon of this?”
“No. I didn’t want him to worry.”
Jay stared at her in alarm. “Not want him to worry!” he nearly shouted. “The two of you were living here literally at the mercy of that scoundrel and you didn’t want Jon to worry! Just what did you think he was doing up in Oxford?”
“Studying,” she answered calmly. “What else would he be doing?”
For a moment, Jay felt frustration so keen he thought he would burst. She didn’t understand
the magnitude of the danger she and Felicia had been in. In his experience scoundrels like Roderick Milton never gave up with a simple “no” from their victims. He would bet one of his ships Milton would not have allowed her and Felicia to simply walk away when the time came. But, how far would he have gone to get what he wanted? That was the question, the answer to which would tell him whether he was merely dealing with a thief—or a possible murderer.
Taking a deep breath to still his churning thoughts, he brought himself back to the matter at hand. Having asked her twice in a roundabout fashion, he decided to approach the issue head on.
“I have given this quite a bit of thought since first being presented with it some weeks ago and I have decided I should honor the betrothal contract. So, what say you?”
Having thrown down the gauntlet, he waited for the explosion he was sure would come.
Tina stared at him for a very long time. Her eyes registered varying degrees of astonishment, disbelief, doubt, and a cautious hopefulness before she looked back down at the document still sitting in her lap. It was the last emotion that he hoped would win out. After all, she had been promised Thane Park and he was now offering it to her.
It had only taken one morning in the study reviewing what she had accomplished in the two weeks he had been gone for him to realize she loved this place as much, if not more, than he did. That, to her, this place was home—and always would be. The people on the estate were dear to her, despite their treatment of her at Milton’s instigation.
And it had only taken the afternoon for him to realize he wanted her. One kiss had been enough. Enough for him to realize that too much time spent in her company without touching her and he would surely go mad. Enough time to realize she was already in his blood. Enough time to realize he wanted more than a stolen kiss or two.
“You do not have to do this. I wouldn’t force you to…”
He swore. “No one is forcing me to do anything.”
Tina’s startled gaze fastened on his face. “But, the contract. You wouldn’t…”
Jay reached down, snatched the contract from her lap, and stalked toward the fireplace before he realized there was no fire burning there.
“Blast!” he muttered. Striding back to the desk, he opened a drawer, threw it inside, and slammed the drawer shut. She flinched. Returning to where she sat, he looked down at her. “Forget the contract. I’m asking you to marry me. How difficult is that to comprehend?”
Even as he said the words, he knew they were the wrong thing to say. It wasn’t so much what he said, but how he said it. She could not have missed the thinly-veiled sarcasm he had put into the words, nor could she have missed the frustration and condescension in his tone.
Tina rose from the chair to stand before him, and he knew her heart must be pounding furiously, because he could see the vein in her neck throbbing. The scent of roses wafted around him.
“It is not difficult at all,” she responded in a voice that told him she was barely holding on to her temper. “However, I have only been in your company for less than two days and I will not decide my future upon such a short acquaintance. Nor will I allow you to throw away yours upon some misguided notion of honor.”
“Misguided notion of honor,” he sputtered. How dare the chit throw his offer back in his face! He’d thought long and hard about this. He was about to renege on a promise made eighteen years ago in order to regain what should have rightfully been his with no strings attached. And she had the nerve to label his actions a misguided notion of honor! If he wasn’t afraid of what might happen should he touch her, he’d strangle her.
Tina stepped closer and put her hand on his chest, as if restraining him. “I did not mean it the way it sounded,” she told him in a gentler tone. “I am honored by your offer, but I—I don’t know you at all—and you don’t know me. Perhaps…”
At her touch, Jay felt as if a brick wall had fallen on him. Her hand burned through his jacket and shirt and he was positive when he undressed he would find a brand the exact size and shape of her hand on his skin. He forgot to breathe; his blood turned to liquid fire. He watched her lips move, but heard only the last word before he covered her lips with his, his arms enfolding her slight frame and crushing it against the hardness of his.
Their first kiss had been a gentle exploration. The second had been a mere salute. But neither prepared Tina for the sudden conflagration that ignited between them this time. It was overwhelming, overpowering, and threatened to consume them utterly. Jay’s mouth took complete possession of hers, slanting over hers, his tongue penetrating her lips, seeking her inner secrets. A moan rose in her throat, its sound muffled by an answering groan from his.
Her hands rose of their own accord, sliding up the muscled planes of his chest, winding around his neck, fingers threading through the hair at his nape. Her eyes closed, she responded purely by instinct, gasping for breath when his lips left hers to travel along her jaw and down her neck to the pulse beating at the base of her throat.
Another low moan escaped her as his hand moved up over her rib cage and caressed the underside of a breast through the thin material of her gown. Something told her she should stop him, that she should not allow him such liberties, but it was overridden by the sheer magnitude of emotions roiling through her body.
Jay’s mouth returned to hers and she gave herself up to the sheer wonder of it all. There was no way to explain to herself—or anyone else, for that matter—why. She only knew she didn’t want him to stop. He could ravish her mouth forever and she would never be satisfied.
His hands speared into the curls at the back of her head, scattering the pins holding them in place. Ebony waves tumbled down her back and his hands sifted through the dark tresses. Lifting her off her feet, he pivoted and sat in the chair she had just vacated, settling her in his lap, as his mouth continued to plunder hers.
His hand cupped her breast and she felt her nipple tighten against the material. She gasped as his thumb grazed the sensitive peak, feeling an unfamiliar warmth begin in her lower belly and spread downward. As she began to recognize the hunger coursing through her veins, she registered the proof of his own burgeoning desire against the back of her thighs. She was suddenly aware she was sitting in his lap, and belatedly wondered how she got there.
Lifting his mouth from hers, Jay stared down into eyes glazed with untried passion and marveled at her unconscious ability to excite him. No woman had ever affected him the way she did. She touched a protective and possessive streak he didn’t know he had. And while she had no idea of her allure, of the temptation she presented, he did. And he knew he would do almost anything to claim her, to protect her, to save her. He would save her from the Roderick Miltons of the world.
He nearly laughed out loud. At this moment, the Roderick Miltons of the world were the least of her worries. He should be asking who would save her from him. Because right now he wasn’t sure of his own ability to resist her. Until she agreed to marry him, he had to keep his distance. A near impossibility living under the same roof.
Jay watched her carefully. He should say something, but what? He wondered if she would be embarrassed or discomfited by her current position. As he slowly managed to bring his emotions under control, he knew he wasn’t up to hysterics, and hoped he had accurately assessed her disposition was such that she was unlikely to fall into them. She did not disappoint him.
Moving slowly, she slid off his lap, smoothed her dress down, and began trying to restore some order to her hair, all the while not looking at him. “I was going to say,” she began, her breathing still strained, her body rigid with acute embarrassment, “that perhaps we should spend some time getting to know one another, then I will give you my answer.”
Then she turned and, moving slowly, left the room without a backward glance.
*
Tina had regained a measure of composure by the time the gong sounded for dinner. It had taken much reflection and speculation, and a lot of arguing with herself t
o recover her outward appearance of calm.
She still wasn’t sure how it happened, except she knew she had instigated it. She wasn’t aware of consciously wanting to touch him, but looking back on her actions, she was convinced she had somehow manipulated the situation in order to compel him to kiss her again. Perhaps she had wanted to experience the first kiss all over again or see how close she needed to be to get him to react. Maybe she wanted to know if he really wanted to marry her, or if she really wanted to marry him. The kiss, however, had destroyed everything she thought she had learned from the first kiss.
So now what? She wasn’t repulsed by him. Aaron’s kiss had filled her with revulsion, making her physically ill. She had spent long hours wondering how she was going to survive marriage to someone who repelled her. She was drawn to Jay like a duck to water—she wasn’t sure she absolutely needed him for survival, but she knew life would not be as complete without him.
She’d learned her feelings could be fully engaged in a pleasurable way. Pleasure, however, was too tame a word for the sensations Jay aroused in her. She lost her mind completely when he kissed her. It should annoy her, but it didn’t. Kissing was merely a prelude to the more intimate side of marriage and, as Mira had told her, if she enjoyed the kissing the rest would be just as satisfying.
Jay was not unaffected by her. He seemed in total control, but it was belied by the fact that she had felt the rapid beating of his heart under her hands, could see the barely leashed passion in his eyes, and had noted his agitation even before he had touched her. He desired her, she knew. Did he feel anything more than lust for her? That was what she wanted to know. She did not think a marriage based on lust could last a lifetime.
The pendant on her dressing table upstairs seemed to accuse her. She hadn’t bothered to put it back on since the day Nona had given it to her. No one was likely to see it here, anyway. Despite that she hadn’t given Nona her promise, she felt guilty for not making an effort to find the person with the other half.
The Gypsy Legacy: Marquis Page 13
