Chapter 21
Fitz led Noelle to the carriage, squeezing her hand and pausing outside the front drive.
The pea gravel crunched beneath his shoes as he came to a halt.
She turned to look at him, the concern in her eyes cutting through his resolve.
Her hand pulsed his with a firm, affectionate squeeze.
With his other hand, he swept her hair from her face.
He looked to the carriage where her governess waited.
“Thank you,” he whispered down to her.
Fitz was tall, he liked that Noelle was tall with enough distance that when he occasionally looked down, he was treated to a glimpse of her cleavage. A smile crept across his lips.
“I’m glad you’re smiling, although I’m afraid to ask.” She said, looking up at him.
He folded her into him, feeling her hips and her most intimate places imprinted along his body.
She wasn’t nearly close enough. “I thought I was going to lose my mind with jealousy watching the man I used to make fun of in school flirting with you last night; but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. You are stunning to look at,” he said against her hair.
“That’s why you’re smiling?” She laughed against his ear, the sound was so warm and so close it felt as though it was coming from inside him.
“Yes it is. Nothing would make me happier than looking at this lovely face and figure for the rest of my days.”
She made an unpleasant sound. “Won’t have this figure for long if your mother has her way.”
“She doesn’t have a say,” he pulled her back to face him, “She wasn’t exactly a model mother. I’d much rather that decision be up to you and I, not her or anyone else. Alright?” His eyes searched hers for shared ground. She nodded her acquiescence.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t make our best attempts without success, however,” he chased her lips with his. She collided with him, spurring him on with her fingers tightening against his shoulders, her tongue scraping the lining of his mouth.
He wrapped an arm about her, clinching the tight back of her dress until her breath hitched.
She pulled back to catch her breath, staring at him with the eyes of a woman who wasn’t satisfied.
He’d only kissed her twice in the past; but somehow, she knew what more he could do for her, and she wanted it.
He read it in her eyes as they traveled south from his face.
Just as they both got their breathing under control, her governess rounded the corner.
“I don’t know what in God’s name you two are…discussing,” she scraped both of them from head to toe with her eyes and he felt like he’d just been doused with a bucket of ice water by the red-haired woman, “So Lady Noelle Pembrooke, if you don’t plant yourself in this carriage,
” she reached an arm out to point to a carriage that waited around a corner, “With God as my witness, I will drag you into it.”
The fire in Miss Kelley’s eyes, the thunder in her tone, were murderous.
Her vivid auburn hair lent credibility to her threats with its own carefully tamed unpredictability.
Fitz didn’t miss his cue to grace the Irishwoman with the entirety of his charms.
The smile he bestowed upon her was surely almost radiant with feigned innocence.
“That was quite the performance, Miss Kelley. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Your natural Irish fire lends itself magnanimously to your role.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed on him. “I wouldn’t have to give such a performance if you weren’t tempting my charge with ruin on an hourly basis.”
Something of an Irish brogue came out in her speech that made Noelle cover her pretty mouth to stifle a giggle.
Fitz didn’t let the devilry in his smile waver as he helped Noelle into the carriage then extended a hand to her chaperone.
“Am I tempting her or is she tempting me? I go back and forth but never land on a conclusion.”