The Duke of Morewether’s Secret (12 page)

If she showed clearly what she wanted from him, could she be brave enough to follow her desire?
This is your adventure, Thea. You’re taking charge of your life, so take what you want.
In a real test of her commitment to her course of action, she slipped her other hand under his jacket and moved to slide it from his shoulder.

Instead of deepening the kiss as she expected, Christian’s mouth lifted from hers, while his fingers encircled her wrist and pulled her hand away.

“Not yet,” he whispered and kissed her nose. He brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed the sensitive tips. “We have plenty of time. There’s no need to rush things.”

Thea blinked at the man. What in Hades was he talking about? Was he refusing her? What kind of rake refused a willing woman? If he didn’t want her in his bed, why did he spend so much time flirting with her?

“Oh, I want to,” he told her, clearly able to read her emotions as they flashed across her face in rapid succession. “I want to desperately, but this isn’t the time.”

“When then? You have more pressing engagements this afternoon?”

His grin was devastatingly handsome which was hardly fair since a blush of shame would be turning her face a blotchy red about now.

“No, but we do need to return to town. It will be dark soon and it’s not best to travel the country roads in the dark.”

She hated him for the lame excuse. She hated herself more for wanting to believe that was really the reason he rebuffed her. He was thinking of her safety not that she wasn’t good enough to bed. She begged her mother’s voice to stop. She pulled her hand away from his and reached for her teacup as if could work as a shield to protect her from shame and remorse.

“You’re angry with me?” He sounded confused and hurt.

“Oh, no, Your Grace. Not at all.” She took a long swallow of tepid tea. He stared at her for a good long minute and she avoided his gaze as if her life depended on it. Maybe not her life but certainly her self-worth did.

“You think I don’t want you, is that it?”

Thea stared out the windows, watching the stable master working one of the horses on a long tether in the ring next to the barn.

“Do you want proof of how badly I want you?” He grabbed her hand and placed it in his lap. Even trying her best to ignore him, she couldn’t pretend what she felt there wasn’t shocking, nay impressive. “Crude perhaps, but I assure you, I want you. You’re a beautiful woman, Thea, and you set my blood afire. That doesn’t mean I want to take you in my study in no better fashion than my horse would take his mate.”

Despite herself, Thea’s gaze slid back to Christian. She thought it was to judge the veracity of his remarks but his eyes held more than truth. He looked at her with heated passion, his brown eyes burning black.

“I am not an animal, Thea, and you deserve better.”

“I see,” she said in a low tone. She didn’t trust her voice to remain steady.

“Do you? Do you really see?” He took the teacup from her hand and pulled her around to face him. “We have our whole lives, Thea.”

He never did explain his last comment, but he did drive her home, arriving at her townhouse as dusk was settling on the city. He also kissed her inside the foyer of her townhouse. The ride home had not been as tense as she’d expected it to be. While they didn’t chat nonstop as they had on the trip going to the farm, the silence wasn’t the least bit as stress filled and dramatic as she had thought it would be. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t an undercurrent of something that had her shifting in her seat. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant either, this feeling of unrest.

The kiss in the foyer was something else entirely.

Christian had insisted on escorting her from the carriage all the way to her front steps, and he followed her inside. She had turned to thank him again for the enjoyable day — she’d already decided not to mention the time spent in his study. It seemed most prudent for her sanity not to scrutinize her feelings or his words. After all, she had to sleep sometime and reliving and analyzing those moments in her head over and over did not suggest she’d ever sleep again.

When she turned after the front door closed behind him, he was closer than she expected.

“Oh,” she said, surprised that he was so near, and then because he grabbed her upper arms to steady her. Before she could say another word, his lips descended on hers. The kiss was quick but thorough, passionate and heated, then he pulled away and swept her a bow.

“I will call on you tomorrow,” he announced, not waiting for her agreement, and then disappeared back out the front door.

Thea closed her eyes and raised her hand to her lips to see if they felt as aflame she thought they might.

You’re not here for a husband.

Hush, Mama.

Chapter Eleven

“I say,” Harrington said and squinted off to the distance. “Isn’t that Miss Ashbrook?”

“Where?” Christian’s interest immediately focused on where his friend was looking.

“It is, indeed,” Dalton confirmed. “She’s a striking little thing, isn’t she?”

Christian grunted in reply. He was busy trying ascertain what the object of his obsession was doing at the entrance to Tattersalls. Obsession, that’s the only word to describe his preoccupation with her.

“I really like her,” Harrington agreed. “Smart as a whip, too. Francesca says the ladies of their circle are completely smitten with her.”

“Can you blame them?” Dalton said. “There seems to be some sort of rumpus up there.”

Christian definitely noticed the so called rumpus, and it was making his stomach hurt. As he and his friends drew closer it was apparent Thea was in the thick of some sort of argument with the men who ran Tattersalls, but she was holding her ground. A curious crowd of gentlemen milled around grumbling their opinion of the scene.

“What’s going on here?” Christian demanded.

Thea whirled to face him, her lovely face a mask of ire. She stood alone amongst the sea of males, a gorgeous warrior princess — Athena battling the horde. It made his heart throb a rhythm that couldn’t possibly be healthy.

“They won’t let me in,” Thea said with exasperation. “Can you believe that?”

Christian grimaced. “Yes.”

“Your Grace,” one of the Tattersalls managers interjected with a short bow. “Do you know this young lady?”

“Indeed,” Christian replied. He was well known to the men who ran the auction house for the Tattersall family, but he held no delusions he could help bring this confrontation to an ending that would made everyone happy. “Miss Ashbrook is well known to me.”

“To us as well,” Dalton agreed, and Harrington nodded.

“Then perhaps you can explain to her she cannot come into the auction house.” Thea had so riled the man his spectacles were fogged.

“I am sorry to say, my dear,” Christian told her, with a shrug of regret, “but Tattersall’s is a gentlemen’s establishment.”

“That’s absurd,” she protested.

“Well that’s the way it’s always been,” Harrington offered. Based on the look on Thea’s face, she did not find that answer satisfactory.

“But I have money.” She waggled her reticule as if it held all her fortune. “I came to buy a horse, and I have money.”

“Not at Tattersalls you won’t,” the manager stated with a great deal of emphasis.

“You are an awful man.” Thea squinted her fierce eyes at the man with malice. “Awful.”

Christian heard a distinct snort of suppressed laughter from the direction of his brother-in-law. When Christian turned to give a quelling look at Harrington, the man’s face was wiped clean of amusement, and he blinked back with angelic innocence.

“Would you consider allowing her to enter if she is with the Marquess, the Earl and myself?” Christian didn’t really think the manager would go for his suggested solution, but he put it forth nevertheless.

The manager’s mouth fell open, aghast. “No, Your Grace. This is a gentlemen’s establishment.”

“So you’ve said,” Thea interjected, her tone dry as a desert.

Again with the amused snort.

“I have called Mr. Tattersall himself. He should be here shortly.” The manager removed his spectacles and rubbed them dry with a handkerchief.

“That won’t be necessary.” Christian took Thea’s elbow and attempted to guide her away from the group.

“Give her hell, Morewether,” someone from the thick of the crowd suggested. Christian cast a quashing look at the horde. Lord Eastlake had the good sense to look away when Christian stared him down.

“This is ludicrous,” Thea said again. “I merely want to buy a horse.”

“That’s what is done at Tattersalls,” Christian noted, unhelpfully.

“Not by women.”

“No, that’s true. Usually if a lady wants to purchase a horse, she sends her agent to take care of it for her.”

“I don’t have an agent,” Thea protested.

“Which horse were you interested in?” he asked, thinking he could score some points in his never ceasing desire to impress her if he assisted her today.

She didn’t seem to be listening. Her eyes darted back and forth from the manager to Christian and his friends. “I can’t believe they won’t let me in. What goes on there that’s so secret anyway?”

“All manner of nefarious goings on?” Dalton told her with a wide grin and an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

Harrington nodded and said with a chuckle, “A young maiden such as yourself would surely faint dead away.”

Even through her anger, Christian noted her lips twitch in a smile she was still able to suppress.

Christian gave her elbow a little tug to bring her attention back around to him. “Which horse were you interested in?”

Thea exhaled in frustration. “Why?

“Because I can help you.” he explained. “I
want
to help you.”

“Alberton Star.”

Really?
“Excellent choice. Why that one?”

“I’ve made inquiries,” she told him a tad defensively. “He has excellent lineage and an already astounding racing record.”

“You’re right, of course. I should have known you would choose a perfect horse.” Christian adored that about her. “What did you plan to do with him if you bought him?”

“Ride him, of course. “She looked at him as if he was daft.

“I would have loved to help you today,” he told her with genuine regret. “Unfortunately, I am here for Alberton Star myself.”

Thea’s jaw set in an angry, aggravated line. “If you’ll let me in your stupid male auction —”

“Miss, it’s not a
male
auction,” the manager interjected. Thea silenced him with a glare.

“If you’ll just let me in the auction, I could buy him myself.” Her balled fists rested on her hips and damn, if she wasn’t a portrait of Athena.

“That’s doubtful.” Christian patted her arm and then suggested, “I’m happy to help you buy another horse.”

“What do you mean
that’s doubtful
? If I could go inside, I’d buy him.”

Christian shook his head. “No. I’m going to buy him for breeding.”

“So what? I have money. It’s an auction isn’t it? Who’s to say it wouldn’t have been me who came out the winner?” She was more than angry now. Now she was incensed, ire flew off her in waves.

“I say,” the idiot manager interjected again. “You can’t come in. This is a ridiculous argument.”

Christian turned to face the man and asked with the utmost imperial dignity, “What is your name again, sir?”

“Mr. Durden, Frank Durden, Your Grace,” the man told him with all pomposity, as if he was announcing he was the Regent himself.

“Mr. Durden, if you don’t leave us right now I’ll see Robert Tattersall has you sacked.”

Mr. Durden gasped with righteous indignation. He looked to the crowd, and then to Christian’s friends for support, but he was only met with matching raised eyebrows. “I’m going to fetch Mr. Tattersall,” he muttered as he stomped away.

Christian turned back to Thea who still leveled him with a glare that rivaled his mother’s. “Tell me of another horse, and I’ll act as your agent.”

“I. Don’t. Want.
Another.
Horse,” she told him. “All I need is an agent to act for me, and then I can buy Alberton Star?”

“You’re never going to get that horse,” Christian told her again. “I’m buying him.”

“But, all I need is an agent?”

Christian sighed. “Yes, and I’m perfectly willing to help you buy any other horse.”

Thea glanced around her at the crowd and settled her sights on Harrington. “Will you act as my agent?” she asked Christian’s brother-in-law.

Harrington choked. “What?”

“Will you act as my agent and buy the horse I want?”

Harrington laughed, guffawed actually. He looked to Dalton, who was no help at all as he was laughing as well, and then to Christian who rolled his eyes in response to the ludicrous question. “What you really want is to buy the horse out from under Morewether here, correct?”

Thea nodded. “Money is no object.”

“Oh, Thea, don’t be ridiculous.” Christian had grown tired of this game. He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked for confirmation from Dalton and Harrington that the argument was indeed entering into the absurd.

Harrington laughed again and then nodded. “Certainly, I’ll be your agent.”

Twenty minutes later and the three friends stood in front of the gathering of men watching Alberton Star as he was paraded around the ring. He was a stunning example of perfect breeding and linage, and Christian would have him. The horse’s bloodline would add innumerable benefits to his stable.

Christian looked at Harrington out of the corner of his eye. His best and oldest friend was reading over the program and conferring with Dalton. What the hell was he thinking? They had almost missed this particular auction because Harrington had been outside the gates deliberating with Thea for what seemed forever.

The fact that Thea wanted this horse, his horse, was gratifying. He knew she was a lover of horses, and almost as talented about judging the animals as he was himself, but she didn’t stand a chance of getting this animal.

Harrington would obviously let him win the animal and make his apologies to the woman. Christian was livid he wasn’t the one who could save the day and impress her. Why couldn’t she want a different horse? There were plenty of good options at the auction today that would be a perfectly serviceable mount if all she wanted was a thrilling ride. Of course, none of those particular horses were good enough for him, but he wanted bloodlines not race times.