Chapter Seventeen #3
Was it going to be that simple for her to forget their intimate moments? Forget how it bound their hearts, and forget him after a few minutes of talking to this wretched oaf?
He turned to Clement, found him smirking, and wanted to punch him again.
But he had never settled an argument with fisticuffs in all his life, not even in his rakehell days, when too many evenings had been spent in unsuitable places and engaging in unsuitable liaisons that sometimes required hasty exits to avoid encountering angry husbands. He knew better than to start now.
“Gwen, you’ll have all the privacy you need in my parlor or walking about my grounds. Choose anywhere at Milbury Hill you prefer. I just do not like that he has you so far away from home.”
“Afraid I’ll abduct her?” Clement muttered, and gave him a shove. “Or are you the one who is trying to hold her back? Get out of here, you old goat. Gwen doesn’t want you. Did you not hear her tell you to go away? Or are you deaf, too?”
Clement shoved him again, and James intended to shove him back, but Gwen once again scrambled between them, so he wound up sheltering her instead of tossing her belligerent betrothed into the water to cool off.
He wasn’t certain exactly how it happened, but with Clement’s next shove, all three of them wound up tumbling into the stream. “Gwen!” he shouted.
She did not know how to swim, and although the water was not above her head, it was still fairly deep and the current was strong and moving fast. She tried to stand up, but the current kept knocking her over because she fought against it instead of letting it carry her toward the shore.
James reached her in two strokes and wrapped his arms around her.
“I have you,” he whispered, hauling her firmly up against him and ensuring her head remained above the water. “Don’t struggle.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on fiercely. “James!”
“Hush, sweetheart. I’m not letting you go.”
“Oh, my necklace!”
That blasted teardrop thing that she loved to wear, but it kept unclasping every time she fell into the water. He caught it as it was about to slip into her glorious bosom, which he dared not dwell on at the moment. “Got it.”
“Thank you,” she whispered fervently against his ear.
“Right, let’s all go back to the house and work this out. I’ll give Clement a change of clothes.”
He paused a moment to make certain Clement had made it out of the water before he sat Gwen on his horse and mounted behind her, once more wrapping her in his arms. “Clement,” he called from his perch on Romeo, “follow us back to Milbury Hill. You may borrow some of my clothes while yours dry. You and Gwen still have much to talk about.”
He hoped Gwen did not sense his pleasure at watching Clement crawl onto the grassy bank, remaining on his knees and staring in dismay while James rode off with her.
“He wasn’t going to harm me,” Gwen declared.
“Oh, really? Is this why we all ended up in the water? Or why he took a swing at me? Or tried to kiss you against your will?” he grumbled. “Perhaps he sensed you weren’t all that averse to his kisses and only needed a little more persuasion.”
She stiffened against him. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
He groaned. “I do trust you. It is your betrothed who’s the problem. Why can you not see it?”
She shifted in the saddle, turning slightly to have a better look at him. “Who says I do not see both of you quite clearly? I would suggest you worry about your own behavior and stop remarking on Andrew’s faults.”
“Am I supposed to keep my mouth shut and let you walk into danger?”
She sighed. “I will acknowledge that his behavior was insulting toward you, but he is not a danger to me. Or to you, for that matter. He might have tossed you in the water, but he certainly was never going to drown you or harm you in any other way.”
“He tried to punch me.”
“My point is, the two of you are behaving like enraged bulls and not leaving me free to make my own decisions.”
“As in which one of us to choose?” He gave a bitter laugh.
“I devoured you last night, left not an inch of you unexplored. All the while, I was worried that I would overwhelm you with my prowess,” he said sarcastically, “and bind you to me while you were vulnerable and might later decide you had made a wrong choice in marrying me. But I shouldn’t have worried, for I am the one who was used last night and about to be left heartbroken. ”
“James! I would never do anything so vile to you. Please do not say another word while you are angry and think you know my mind. That is my own, and neither you nor Andrew will push me toward a decision I am not ready to make.”
“Push you?” He gave a mirthless laugh. “I have been twisting myself into knots trying to be patient and not rush you.”
She turned forward once again, and tried not to lean her stiff back against his chest. But it was impossible to avoid while Romeo galloped home.
It was also impossible for him to ignore her sweet, wet body pressed to his.
Was he about to lose her to Clement, that utter clot?