Chapter 10 Wandering #2
Jolted by an unwelcome memory, Garrett spoke without thinking. “There are women who will use whatever means available to capture a title.”
Natalie leaned to the side and looked over her shoulder so she could meet his eyes. “There are men who will use their superior strength to capture a dowry.”
This gave Garrett pause. He raised his eyebrows in question and felt his jaw tighten in anger. “Cortland?” he asked incredulously.
“Oh, no. Good Lord, never him.” She spoke with derisive laughter, relaxing into him once again.
“Anyhow, the scoundrel did not succeed.” She sighed.
“I was ridiculously na?ve. It was my first season, and I’d not become betrothed yet.
” She moved her arms from her knees and placed them atop Garrett’s.
“He convinced me to walk outside with him. Believe it or not, I took him at his word when he told me a kitten had caught itself in a rosebush.” Again, she laughed at herself.
“Of course, there was no kitten.” Garrett spread his fingers wide and threaded hers through them. He tucked them into his fists.
“Once we reached the roses, in which, of course, there was no kitten, he attempted to kiss me despite the fact that I’d told him ‘no’ more than once.”
Garrett nuzzled his lips at the juncture where her neck sloped into her shoulder.
“I was saved though, as Joseph had followed us. He sent me back inside and settled matters to his satisfaction. I was terrified he would call the cad out.”
“He did not?” Garrett asked. “But punished the brute with his fists, I hope?”
Again, Natalie turned her head to look at him. “How did you know that?”
“Your brothers are protective of you.” He nuzzled the soft skin on the lobe of her ear with his lips. “They are not all bad, now, are they?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, a shiver ran through her body.
He responded by pulling her closer. This was madness!
When had he become such an utter fool? He ought to remove his hands from her person and lead them back inside, back into the safety of the drawing room surrounded by her mother and father and several of their close acquaintances.
“What?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Garrett chuckled softly this time. “Your brothers, protecting you.” Where were they now? They ought to be protecting her from him. His tongue traveled along the peach-like skin at the top part of her ear. He trailed it around the inner edge.
“Oh…” She sighed softly. “Not so bad.”
Lady Natalie Spencer was affected by his touch. With his arms around her waist, he felt her breathing quicken. His lips explored the outer shell of her ear in a lazy manner, nipping and licking the tender skin. Pleasure coursed through him when she moaned softly.
“Um…” she murmured. “Uh…Tell me about…the women,” she finally managed to get out.
This time it was he who paused. “The women?”
“The ones who have tried to marry you for your title,” she prompted.
“Similar girls to the one who attempted to trap your brother, only…” He stopped playing with her ear.
She tilted her head toward his mouth as though bereft without his lips. But she persisted in her question. “Only?”
“Only I had no womenfolk to ward off the mothers.” His voice came out harsher than he’d intended.
“But you are not wed,” she said curiously. “You have not married.”
“How do you think a gentleman gains a reputation such as mine, sweetheart?” He stilled. His arms loosened around her waist. As though sensing his withdrawal, Natalie grasped on to his hands and wrapped them about her firmly.
“It is ridiculous, is it not?” Annoyance, he thought, shook her voice.
“That two people would be forced to marry regardless of their emotions.
The notion of being compromised seems a terrific penalty for so innocent a crime—or no crime at all!
And the punishment of a lifetime married to whomever one might be trapped by?
I am appalled, and yet we are bound by society's rules. Marriage ought not to be a penalty. It ought to be a gift shared between two people—two people who want to pledge themselves to one another for life.”
Garrett pondered her words. She had obviously given this subject a great deal of thought.
“I am glad you did not let yourself be trapped and bound to a woman you did not wish to wed,” she continued. “I do not care if that is why you have been labeled a rake.”
Moments passed, and then he let out a deep sigh. “But what of the girl? You do not have sympathy for her?” He was not convinced. He’d been a cad.
“Well…” She paused as though working out a mathematical equation. “You did not ruin her? In truth?”
He nuzzled her again, just below her chin, ever so softly.
But he needed to answer her question—somehow it mattered, her opinion of him.
“I did not. We kissed open-mouthed. We were, um, embracing. When her aunt burst into the room with some cousins, the girl somehow managed to rip the bodice of her dress.” He held himself very still, his mouth still resting against her skin.
“She must have been very ambitious indeed.” The words escaped her with a hint of awe. “To expose oneself intentionally! I don’t blame you for not offering for her. She ought not to have acted with such coldhearted motivation.”
“I did compromise her. I did not ruin her—contrary to rumors spun in that direction.” His chin rested upon her shoulder. “I do not like to be toyed with or manipulated. I suppose I am more sensitive to both, having the Earl of Hawthorne for a father.”
“And yet you were discovered and ordered to marry the girl, am I right?” Natalie must have learned interrogation techniques from her father.
Garrett was almost amused at the accuracy of her line of questioning. And yet disgust sounded in his voice. He wouldn’t sugarcoat his actions. “I refused. I flat out refused.”
They sat silently for a few minutes, staring back at the manor, candlelight shining from within. “And now, would you ever marry a woman you…well…merely to salvage her reputation? Even if you did not find her to be compatible?”
“The women I keep company with pose no threat to my bachelor status. Under normal circumstances.” He nearly laughed at the irony of this very moment. “Would you ever marry a man to salvage your reputation?”
She shook her head side to side adamantly. “I have just been released from an unwanted engagement. I am in no hurry to place myself in another one.”
“You would allow yourself to be ruined in the eyes of society?”
“There are other ways to smooth these things over—ways that do not require two reluctant people to tie themselves together for a lifetime.”
Garrett’s hands rested just below the thrust of her breasts.
He could not help but move one up until he felt the ridge where her stays ended and plump softness began.
Drawing light circles, he felt her skin tighten beneath his fingers through the light cover of her dress.
His mouth resumed trailing kisses along her chin.
He continued thusly, and Natalie turned her head so he could access her neck more easily. Good God, he must be foxed.
Trifling with this lady was beyond reckless.
They sat in plain sight of the house. Admittedly, they enjoyed the cover of darkness, but their absence would be noticed soon.
Allowing himself one more taste of her skin, he dropped his hands and leaned back against the tree.
She turned her head and gazed at him in a leisurely fashion.
She, apparently, was quite comfortable and unperturbed at the possibility of their imminent discovery.
“And now you have realized you are once again tempting fate,” she goaded him, still not moving.
He was beginning to understand that at times, she donned a sophistication she did not own.
He’d better watch himself. She could not be relied upon to bring any restraint to their…
What was this between the two of them? He must not continue this dalliance.
“You ought not to make yourself so…available to me,” he said. “I might allow myself to be seduced by your innocence one of these days, and that would put us both in a scrape.”
Her eyes flashed in the moonlight as his words sank in.
“Ah, well, apparently neither of us knows what it is that we want.” She scrambled away and stood abruptly.
After brushing the grass from her skirts, she glared at him.
“And don’t be thinking I’m available to you, my lord.
” Her attempt at sounding scornful was ruined when her voice caught.
Nonetheless, with a very feminine flourish, she twirled about and marched away.
She held her head high as she fled. Garrett watched as she avoided the terrace and disappeared around the side of the house.
She would not return to the other guests.
She would be in no mood to play charades.
Ah, so, he had hurt her.
Garrett hardened himself against a niggling remorse.
Lady Natalie Spencer was an unwanted complication.
He lay back upon the grass and stared up at the sky.
It would be best to avoid spending any more time alone with her.
He wished he could offer her more. He wished he could be the type of man she needed, a romantic white knight in shining armor.
Being caught between honor and dishonor was one of the most uncomfortable situations he’d ever experienced.