Chapter 4
Alexander knew that the second he felt Olivia’s lips beneath his was in far more trouble than he had ever been before in his life.
He felt every one of her emotions, even while his lips were pressed against her own. He felt her gasp of shock, following by her heavenly capitulation as her fingers moved to wind in his hair, pulling him closer still.
He almost combusted when her tongue tentatively reached out and mirrored the movement of his own.
Had he been in any sort of control over himself, Alexander would have wondered what the hell he was doing kissing the girl senseless in his garden.
But the second he’d tasted her, all thoughts, coherent or otherwise, were swept away by the tide of passion he was currently drowning in.
Had anything ever felt so perfect?
Damn but the girl had a way of getting under his skin. He’d kissed her out of sheer frustration. She got under his skin like no other. And the fact that he’d been walking around in a permanent state of lust since he’d clapped eyes on her again didn’t help to temper his actions.
Something was shifting between them. Subtly changing. Becoming more than a battle of wills. More even than an intense, fiery attraction.
Alexander was starting to feel perilously close to caring about the girl.
Caring far, far more than he should.
This thought finally brought Alexander crashing back to the reality of the situation they were in. Reluctantly, he pulled his lips from hers, grasping her shoulders and gently pushing her from him.
Olivia gazed up at him, her eyes glazed with passion, a look of wonder in them, and Alexander felt his heart stutter at that look.
“Damn,” he whispered softly. He had no clue how to deal with this.
To his surprise, she smiled ruefully.
“My sentiments exactly.”
Alexander cleared his throat, suddenly as nervous as a green lad his first time with a lady.
“Yes, well, we — we cannot stand about all day doing — well, doing, or not doing something. Or nothing. Wait, what?”
Olivia was staring at him as though he had run mad, which he very probably had.
He was tying himself into knots, stammering nonsensical gibberish. And all because his blood had travelled considerably farther south than his brain.
“Alexander, what exactly are you talking about,” she snapped impatiently.
Her acerbic tone and its familiarity served to bring him back to himself somewhat.
He heaved a sigh, got his scrambled thoughts into some sort of order, and then, finally, was able to answer with equanimity.
“You drive me to bloody distraction, Olivia Darington. More than anyone I’ve ever met. And you, a mere slip of a girl.”
Olivia’s mouth dropped open, and Alexander could have kicked himself. Why had he gone and confessed such a thing?
“But that is neither here nor there,” he hurried on before she issued what would no doubt be a caustic rejoinder. “Now, why don’t you finally tell me what you wanted me for?”
Olivia didn’t answer for some time, choosing instead to gaze at him as though he’d grown another head. He couldn’t blame her really.
Finally, after what seemed like an age, she shook her head slightly, and he noted the glint of battle sparkle in her chocolate-brown eyes.
They really where beautiful, those eyes. She didn’t deserve them. He’d never paid that much attention to them before, but he was captivated by them now. Of course, they had been more beautiful when they’d been rendered blank by his ministrations but—
“Fincham!”
The screech of his name brought him back to earth with a thud. Oh right, she’d been speaking.
“Are you quite alright?” she demanded, hissing out a frustrated breath. ”Because if discussing strategy is a little beyond your mental capabilities, I’ll just deal with this myself.”
Ah, there was the little hell-cat he’d come to know and lo—
Alexander felt his eyes widen in horror. He was going nowhere near the end of that thought.
“What in God’s name is the matter with you?” She stomped her foot and Alexander was disgusted with himself for finding it rather endearing.
“Forgive me. I — ah — over imbibed last night,” he said quickly.” And did you just stamp your foot at me?”
He grinned at her sudden obvious discomfort.
“O-of course not,” she stammered. “Ladies do not stomp.”
“No,” he responded feeling much more the thing now that he was teasing her again. ”But then, I never said a lady did it.”
She growled in response, and it was all he could do not to pluck her from her stomping little feet and carry her off somewhere to do something about all that frustration.
Yes, indeed. He was in very big trouble.
Never, ever before had Olivia dealt with such an array of emotions in such a short space of time.
She was already exhausted; mentally wrung out, and they hadn’t even begun discussing what they should do about her irresponsible sibling.
Alexander was acting as though he had run mad, and she couldn’t deal with his madness. Not when she was trying hard not to descend into the same state herself after that kiss.
Good Lord. He’d kissed her. And she’d let him.
This was not good. Not good at all.
How could she stand in pious judgment of Jane when she went around kissing Alexander? And he was far more irritating than his friend, she was sure of it.
Pressing a hand to her temple, she tried desperately to claw back some semblance of normality.
There would be plenty of time to mourn the loss of her sanity later. And plenty of time to guiltily enjoy the memory of that toe-curling kiss and what it did to her insides.
She watched the man in front of her now, as his green eyes finally focused on her.
He seemed terribly distracted. And that wasn’t very flattering really. It seemed that even with a kiss involved, she couldn’t hold his attention.
“If you didn’t write to Jane then it must have been St. Clare,” she started through gritted teeth, ignoring the feeling of relief that swept through her, “and given that she gave me an insultingly awful excuse not to join me in the park this afternoon, I’m guessing he asked her to meet.
Obviously, he’s lying to get her alone. And—” This was the part she hadn’t wanted to confess, but Olivia had always been the honest sort.
“—and she didn’t seem too averse to the idea. ”
“And?”
Olivia frowned. Whatever did he mean, ‘and’?
“And he’s obviously an utter rakehell,” she said firmly. “So, we need to stop them from spending any alone time with each other.”
He remained silent so long that she was contemplating slapping him. And not just because she’d rather enjoy it.
Finally, he sighed and looked at her with those direct, probing eyes of his.
“I have some bad news. News that I was going to share with you. At eight,” he added.
Her jaw dropped open again. He was the one who’d warned her about this! He was the one who’d wanted to meet today in the first place.
“What does it matter if it’s now or at eight?” she shouted.
“No need to shout.”
“I did not shout,” she shouted again.
Alexander smiled his maddening smile.
“Allow me to guess; ladies do not shout?”
Olivia squeezed her head at her temples again.
“Alexander,” she began as though talking to a particularly dim child. Which he was. If an overgrown one. ”Remember that we are both concerned about Jane. Though quite why you’re involving yourself is beyond me. But I cannot stand idly by and allow my sister to be hurt by your friend.”
She watched as some emotion, something akin to panic, flittered across his face.
“You assume he means to hurt her?”
She wanted to feel his forehead to see if he were feverish, but she couldn’t trust herself to touch him without tackling him to the ground and ravishing him, so she kept her deviant hands to herself.
“Considering you were concerned enough to want to meet only hours from now, and it was your idea to step in and do something about this in the first place, I rather think my assumption is an accurate one.”
Alexander swallowed hard and Olivia averted her eyes from the muscles in his throat lest she do something crazy like press her lips to them.
“I think,” he said rather gruffly. “I think it’s possible that he means to meet her in Hyde Park.” That didn’t sound so bad. But he wasn’t done. He heaved a great big sigh before continuing. “He means to take her to Scandal Lane. And she has agreed to go there with him.”
Olivia felt a pang of shock.
She had been thinking that Jane was starting to care for Mr. St. Clare, especially considering her carry on at breakfast.
But she couldn’t believe that Jane would allow herself to be taken to such a place.
A place where, if rumours were to be believed, ladies of their night shared their wares with anyone who possessed a spare guinea.
Where gentlemen fought duels. Where ladies lost far more than their good name and standing.
She wouldn’t believe it. No good could come of it. For her or for Jane.
If Alexander’s friend ruined Jane because he had brought him into their lives, then the Daringtons would never see or speak to him again. He’d be gone from their lives like so many of their old friends.
Steeling her heart against any sort of compassion for her silly, innocent sister, and any stupid, idiotic feelings of hurt the thought of not seeing Alexander again evoked, Olivia raised her chin and made sure to look absolutely fierce.
“Stuff and nonsense,” she said with a laugh. “Jane might be na?ve enough to be forming an attachment to the cad, but she would never be so foolish as to be seduced by someone of your ilk.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Only that your friend is a deplorable blackguard, and you know what they say. You are the company you keep.”
She could practically see the wheels turning in his pretty head, trying to work out where the bitterness that she could not disguise was coming from.
“What is this really about?” he demanded; his voice low.
Olivia huffed out a frustrated breath. This wasn’t how she had wanted this conversation to go.
They were supposed to be discussing how to keep Jane and St. Clare apart.
Now, he was questioning her anger. And that was a question she really didn’t want to answer.
Because she’d have to confess that she’d heard what he’d said about her all those years ago after their almost kiss.
When he’d told his mother what he really thought of her, while she’d been convincing herself that he cared…
Raising a brow and making every effort to appear utterly nonchalant, Olivia gave another, brittle laugh.
“It is about stopping Jane from making a colossal mistake. I thought we both agreed on that.”
For a moment, it looked as though he would argue with her. But finally, he sighed, the sound wearier than any she’d ever heard from him and shook his head.
“We do agree. It would be a mistake. For many reasons. So, what do we do?”