Love and the Shameless Lady (Scandalous Kisses Book 3) Page 27
She stared. “Do you mean . . . you thought he might be a spy?”
“I was sent to your smuggling village to find out more about two suspicious Frenchmen who stayed there from time to time. Picture my dismay when I realized one of them was my close friend.”
“How horrid.”
“And then someone tried to kill you, but I couldn’t see any connection between you and French spies. It made no sense, and although I could, with difficulty, imagine Philippe being a spy, I simply couldn’t believe he would murder an innocent woman in cold blood.”
She halted, hands on hips. “You suspected him all along? And you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t accuse my friend without proof—just as you couldn’t betray your cousin’s confidence.”
“My life was at stake! That’s nothing like me not telling you about Gloriana’s charade!”
“I care about my friend, just as you care about your damned silly cousin,” he retorted. “I didn’t intend to destroy a ten-year-long friendship without good cause. My only course of action was to protect you until I knew for sure.”
She glared at him. “If you had told me what you suspected, I wouldn’t have needed protection. I definitely wouldn’t have left my bedchamber and gone downstairs alone last night.”
“If you had trusted me, you wouldn’t have needed to, because I would have been with you.”
She threw up her hands. “Fair enough.” She snickered. “Was this our first quarrel?”
He laughed. “I suppose it was. At least that’s over with.” He leaned in and kissed her, and eagerly she kissed him back. They wandered on.
A thought occurred to her. “Julian, I have a better idea. Since you intend to continue as a spy, I’ll help you. I’ll come to meetings with you and-and provide a distraction. I can be very opinionated.”
His mouth curled up. “No doubt about that.”
“And you’ll have someone to discuss things with, so you won’t be making those decisions all alone.”
“I love you, Daisy.” He took both her hands. “Are you sure? You’d have to travel all over England with me.”
She smiled up at him. “To Hadrian’s Wall? And Bath? I’d love to see the Roman ruins there.”
“That’s not far from my estate, so definitely.” He kissed her hands. “I don’t suppose my employers will approve of your involvement.”
“Then we won’t tell them, but I don’t see why not. There must be female spies, and I bet they’re mostly seductresses too, like me.”
He laughed, and she put her arms around him and kissed him. “Oh, dear,” she said, as another thought occurred.
“What is it, love?”
“I’ll have to change the description of the hero in my new story. He’s a spy, and he looks far too much like you.”
“Ah,” he said, “that reminds me, I have another confession to make. I borrowed something from your room at the inn, and haven’t yet returned it.” He pulled a folded sheet of foolscap from his waistcoat pocket. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Matter of fact, I would rather like to keep it.”
Before she got it properly open, she knew. A blush swarmed all the way up to her eyebrows. She folded it shut again.
“I recognized my ring.” The ruby on his hand glowed in the sunlight. He plucked the paper from her hand. “May I keep it, my beautiful, intelligent, lusty wife? As a souvenir of the moment when I knew for sure that you had to be mine.”
“You may,” she said. “I wish I could say there was a time when I knew I loved you, but I cannot.”
He raised his brows. “No?”
“No, for there were too many.” Daisy’s eyes blurred with tears, but she blinked them away. “Your kindness and patience and understanding. Your kisses, and how you pushed the books back under my door. All those compliments . . . I tried to be impervious to them, but it didn’t work.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“And your confidence in me, your trust in me . . . The way you cared for me, protected me, and loved me.” She smiled, tremulous but sure. “Julian, you laid siege to me, and I surrendered. I had no choice.”
Julian folded her in his arms. For a long time, they simply held one another, until at last they returned to the house.
Also from Barbara Monajem and Soul Mate Publishing:
TO KISS A RAKE
WHEN A LADY IS ABDUCTED BY MISTAKE . . .
Melinda Starling doesn’t let ladylike behavior get in the way of true love. She’s secretly assisting in an elopement . . . until she’s tossed into the waiting coach and driven away by a notorious rake.
REVENGE REALLY DOESN’T PAY.
Miles Warren, Lord Garrison, comes from a family of libertines, and he’s the worst of them all—or so society believes. When Miles helps a friend to run away with an heiress, it’s an entertaining way to revenge himself on one of the gossips who slandered him.
Except that he drives off with the wrong woman . . . and as if that wasn’t scandalous enough, he can’t resist stealing a kiss.
Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/p75mjlm
THE RAKE’S IRISH LADY
ONE WILD NIGHT . . .
Widowed and lonely, Bridget O’Shaughnessy Black indulges herself in a night of pleasure.
After all, she's in disguise. And the baby girl? An unexpected blessing . . . until an old flame claims the child as his own to force Bridget to marry him.
ONE DETERMINED LADY . . .
Many women pursued Colin Warren, but only one climbed in his bedchamber window. When Bridget does it for the second time, she needs his help. Colin is unfit to be a parent, and yet he has no choice but to acknowledge the little girl.
RISKING EVERYTHING FOR LOVE
Together they must solve the mystery of the old flame’s intentions—but can they reconcile their divided loyalties—Irish and English—through the power of love?
Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/z5xlyqk