The Trouble with Anna

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

I S THE PERFORMANCE OVER, MY lord?” Anna snapped.

She didn’t wait for a reply or bother to glance over her shoulder to see if he followed as she crunched off down the wide gravel road to the great house. Julian caught up to her in a moment, though she was walking at such a pace, hands swinging furiously by her sides, that he would have been left to trail after her like a schoolboy if his stride wasn’t twice the length of hers.

“What’s this astonishing display?” he said to the top of her head. She didn’t look up, but he could see that her features were set and the line of her jaw was sharp as a knife. Anger propelled her along so quickly that the trees lining the path flashed past them in a tangle of gray.

“What display did you look for, my lord? You’ll have to inform me, as I’m much too busy plotting your death. You humiliated me beyond belief!”

Julian felt his cheeks go dark. “Humiliated you? I rather think a thank-you is in order.”

Her skirts flared as she whirled on him, the spread wings of a hawk swooping down on its prey. “I’m to thank you for what you did?”

“If you had any manners, you might,” he retorted.

“What do you know of manners? You took it upon yourself to lecture one of my men . You thought nothing of undermining my authority in my own stables!”

“I saw no authority in evidence. And where the devil was your stablemaster? I’m astonished he left you to handle the grooms.”

She stared up at him, vibrating with fury. “Soussi left me to handle the grooms because I told him to! My grandfather has been dead less than a fortnight and every man in there knows the contents of his will. If I’m to have any hope of holding the stables together—or the estate, for that matter!—everyone must know that I am in charge.”

“I see. And your plan was to encourage insolence from every groom in the damn place? How original. I congratulate you.”

Anna’s eyes flashed. “I establish my authority by letting them take their best crack at me and then handling them, one by one. I wasn’t born an earl like you, my lordliness. I must fight for every ounce of respect I’m given, especially in the stables. Again, and again, and again.”

Julian regarded her coldly. “And what would you have said to the groom? I saw your face. You froze.”

“I was surprised! But I would have rallied! Perhaps I would have ignored him and shown the other grooms that I don’t hold my pride higher than a man’s position. Perhaps I would have confronted him, or dismissed him as you wanted to. I might have made a mistake and had the chance to learn from it. But it should have been me to act. Not you, so that once again my authority is only proxy for some man’s.”

Julian yanked off his hat and shoved his fingers through his hair. “I was protecting you, damn it!”

“Protecting me? I neither asked for it nor needed it! You protected your pride, at my expense.”

A cold gust of wind kicked up her skirts again and blew tendrils of her hair across her face, but she stood her ground, a dark slash against the midmorning sky.

And she was right, damn it.

Even through his anger, even as every instinct tried to yell him down, Julian had to acknowledge the truth of it. He had only served his own damned need to take charge of everything.

“You’re quite right,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have interfered.”

Julian could see the white puff of Anna’s breath as her lips parted and she exhaled her surprise. Their voices had been raised, amplified by the sharp autumn air. Now the sudden hush locked them together.

“I beg your pardon?” She squinted up at him so suspiciously that in better circumstances he might have laughed.

“You’re right.” His anger ebbed away. “I had no right to interfere. I apologize.”

“Oh.” Anna opened her mouth to say something but shut it abruptly, thoroughly confused. “I suppose I have to accept, then.”

My god, she’s adorable.

His urge to laugh died. Damn it, where did that thought come from?

Anna flapped her arms awkwardly, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. “I don’t think I’ve been apologized to this much in my whole life.”

“Am I meant to beg pardon for that as well?”

“No!” she said, and they began to walk again.

Julian couldn’t resist. He gave in to the temptation to take up her hand, raise it slowly to his mouth, and press a kiss to the inside of her wrist. Her pulse fluttered against his lips.

A lick of anger still flared within him and he wasn’t sure what to do with it, except press Anna against a tree. Taste her fierceness with his mouth.

Lashes veiled her eyes, but nothing could conceal the heat in her cheeks. “Are you done trying to agitate me?”

“Quite the opposite,” he said softly. “I’m just getting started.”

Julian tugged at her hand and pulled her off the path into a little copse of ash trees, hidden from the house. She looked up at him and her lips parted on a breathy inhale, even as she prickled up in defense.

He lowered his head, let his jaw rasp across her cheek until his lips hovered a feather’s width above hers, but despite the growing urgency between them he refused to hurry. There was something about kissing Anna that felt too large. It divided his life into before and after, and left him teetering on the brink.

Julian gave a groaning laugh and hoisted her arms around his neck where he needed them. She gave a hum and pressed nearer, his own streak of lightning, always chasing speed. Then his thoughts scattered under the heat of their mouths and his blood pounded as his hands curled around the sweet curve of her ass, lifting her up until she was half-splayed against him and half-pinned against the trunk of a tree.

Anna made a little sound and leaned her neck back, and he was gone. Her jacket had to go too. He pushed the wool aside, and the thin cotton of her shirt. His hand slipped down into her bodice for her breast, oh god, so impossibly soft beneath his palm. They both shivered as he found her nipple and rolled it.

“Oh!” Anna’s eyes fluttered and she went boneless, for just a moment, before her eyes flew open and she pushed away, scrambling to the ground.

“ God! ” Anna buried her face in the folds of his cravat.

My god , thought Julian, and clutched her to him.

They stayed that way, breathing for a moment.

“Anna?” He spoke her name softly, his breath soft against her ear.

She burrowed her face deeper into his chest.

“Hmm. Cozy.” He rubbed his cheek against the crown of her head. “Stay there if you like.”

She squeaked.

He cupped her neck, stroking her hair. “Plotting my death again?”

A tiny nod.

“Easier to marry me, don’t you think?”

She shook her head in violent disagreement.

A laugh rumbled through him and he pulled her closer. “Keep your estate, keep your horses. But give me your hand, Countess. You’re mine now.”