Chapter 8 #2
“Allow me?” She looked up from the hand and found the Earl’s face. He was frustratingly calm, immune to the hostility that rippled up her body. “Who are you to allow me anything?”
“Had I not known you were on your own, I might not have bothered. But now that I do, I must insist you spend the night. As I said, I will have word sent tomorrow morning and I am certain that your family will come back and collect you. Until then, you are in my care.”
“I do not need your care.”
“Be that as it may, you are not going anywhere.”
Alison knew deep down that Lord Grayhill was right to insist. Just as she knew deep down that she should have been grateful.
And was this anyone else, she would not have dreamed of denying him – truly, she did not want to.
The thought of going home by herself, of staying in that manor all on her own, was terrifying.
But she was stubborn. She was angry. And she could not separate good advice from her feelings for the Earl. Silly, she knew, but this felt like an extension of their previous arguments. It felt as if she allowed him to win this little spat was proof that he had been right all along.
That darn music box! How things might be different if I had never seen it.
“Let go of my arm,” she said.
“No,” he responded coolly. “You are not returning home. I simply cannot allow it.”
“As I already said, who are you to allow anything?”
“As far as I am concerned, you are in my care until your parents –”
“I am not a child in need of your care,” she hissed. “Now, release me.”
The side of his lip twitched. His grip tightened. “You might not be a child, but you insist on acting like one.”
“And you insist on acting like –”
“I would be careful what you say next.” His tone firmed, and his glare burned with a sense of fury. “I have been nothing but kind to you thus far, and I cannot comprehend why you are so insistent on spurning me every chance that you get.”
“I am not spurning you.”
“Nor are you making things easy,” he said. “Tell me, please, seeing as you are so opinionated. What would you have me do? With all that has happened, am I to simply give in and see you off? Hope that nothing happens to you? Is that what you wish for?”
“I…” Alison hesitated, knowing well enough that the Earl spoke sense, while unable to admit as such because there was just something about him that made her want to argue.
“I have thanked you. I have made it clear how grateful I am for all your help. But that does not mean that you suddenly own me.”
“I never said that I did.”
“Yet you refuse to allow me to leave.”
He groaned as she could see his frustration rising. “When will you understand that I only want what is best. I do not want to have to force you to stay here, Lady Alison. Please, do not push me.”
Alison’s heart was still thumping hard in her chest. Her entire body was trembling as if it might explode. Doing what she could to not break her stare, she turned to face him. “And what if I do? Are you going to lock me away like a prisoner?”
“Where you get this absurd notion of me…” His grip tightened. “I am only trying to help.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“You don’t know what you want, and that is your problem.”
“What I want is to be allowed to leave. What I want is not to be treated like a child.”
“I am not treating you like a child,” he said. “I am only trying to –”
“Yes, help me. You said that already. Which you have done. Which you no longer need to do. Now, let me go.”
“I will not.”
“And what if I scream?” She flashed her eyes, daring him to challenge her. She wanted him to. Alison could not explain it. She could not reason it. But in that moment, despite what she thought she knew, the last thing she wished was to be let go.
There was just something about the way he looked at her. How insistent he was on keeping her around. She was not used to anybody giving a damn about her wellbeing. In her world, there was not a soul alive who might have worried about her as he now was. And that was what excited her most.
She held the Earl’s rueful glare. She bared her teeth. She raised her chin in defiance. Body trembling. Skin prickling. Never one to be noticed. Never one to be told what to do. That he sought to control her like this was… was… I can’t describe it. All I know is that I want more.
“Don’t do it…” Eyes flicking down to her lips.
She leaned back, nearly shrinking. But his eyes flicked to her lips again. His grip increased and he pulled her into him. And on instinct, as stubborn as she was, she opened her mouth to scream just because she wanted to see what he would do to stop her.
Not so much as a sound escaped her lips because the second her mouth was open, the Earl pulled her into him as his mouth pressed against her lips in a fiery kiss.
Her eyes widened in shock and her heart might have leapt from her throat, was his mouth not there to block it. She lurched back, tugged her arm away, tried to fight him off… only to succumb to the kiss as fire leaped from his mouth and down her throat and set her insides alight.
She moaned as she gave in.
She relaxed as she opened her mouth further so his tongue could slip inside her.
She shuddered and stepped into him, her free hand moving to his waist, her eyes snapping shut so that she could give in completely to a kiss she did not think she wanted but now knew would be the end of her if it ended.
And when the kiss ended, when the Earl pulled away, she gasped as if a piece of her was being torn from her body.
“There.” The Earl dropped her arm and looked down at her, as smug as ever, and beyond satisfied with the reaction he had gotten. “That is one way to keep you from doing something foolish. I can’t help but wonder why I did not think of it sooner.”
Alison did not know what to say. She gaped at the Earl, her mind fractured so it was all she could do to stare. What… how… I don’t…
“Now, are you going to do as you are told and spend the night?” he asked her simply. “For you own safety, might I add. Again, that is all wish for you. Even if you refuse to admit it.”
She could not speak, so she offered a vague nod.
“As I thought.” A satisfied smirk twisted across his lips. “I will have Godfrey make your room.”
Still, she was unable to speak. So, she nodded again, her chest hurting from the way her heart thumped.
“Stay here,” he commanded. “I will be right back.” He stepped around her, paused, and turned back.
“Perhaps wait by the fire. It is rather chilly, and I do not want you getting sick.” He raised a questioning eyebrow, daring her to argue, and she nodded again.
“Good,” he said, his smile dripping with satisfaction at having gotten his way.
And then, seeing that she would heed his command, he strode down the hallway, leaving her where she stood.
Alison stumbled back into the drawing room. Her mind raced. Her body rebelled. Thoughts she could not make sense of jumbled through her brain. She grappled with feelings she did not understand. Deep down, a voice screamed at her to run back home now while she had the chance. But she ignored it.
There was another voice inside of her, one which screamed just as loudly to stay and do as she was told. And for once, she listened to it. For once, she decided that maybe doing as she was told wasn’t such a bad thing. At least not when it was the Earl giving the command.