“You’re shivering,” he said.
“I’m cold.”
“Of course you are. Your dress is soaked.”
She didn’t say anything, just shot him a look that told him she did not plan to remove her clothing.
“Do what you wish, then,” he said, “but at least come sit near the fire.”
She looked hesitant.
“For God’s sake, Francesca,” he said, his patience growing thin, “I hereby vow not to ravish you. At least not this morning, and not without your permission.”
For some reason that made her cheeks burn with even greater ferocity, but she must have still held him and his word in some regard, because she crossed the room and sat near the fire.
“Warmer?” he asked, just to provoke her.
“Quite.”
He stoked the fire for the next few minutes, carefully tending it to ensure that the flames would not die out, stealing glances at her profile from time to time. After a while, once her expression had softened a bit, he decided to press his luck, and he said, quite softly, “You never did answer my question last night.”
She didn’t turn. “What question was that?”
“I believe I asked you to marry me.”
“No, you didn’t,” she replied, her voice quite calm, “you informed me that you believed we should be married and then proceeded to explain why.”
“Is that so?” he murmured. “How remiss of me.”
“You’d have me waste this fabulously romantic moment?” he drawled.
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought her lips might have tightened with the barest hint ofcontained humor.
“Very well,” he said, in his most magnanimous tone, “I won’t ask you to marry me. Forget that a gentleman would insist upon it, after what happened-”
“If you were a gentleman,” she cut in, “it wouldn’t have happened.”
“There were two of us there, Francesca,” he reminded her softly.
“I know,” she said, and her tone was so bitter, he regretted having provoked her.
Unfortunately, once he’d made the decision not to taunt her further, he was left with nothing to say. Which didn’t seem to speak well of him, but there it was. So he held silent, pulling the woolen blanket more tightly around his barely clad body, surreptitiously eyeing her from time to time, trying to determine if she was becoming overchilled.
He’d hold his tongue, forked though it may be, to spare her feelings, but if she were endangering her health… well, then, all bets were off.
But she wasn’t shivering, nor did she show any signs of feeling excessively cold, save for the way she was holding up various sections of her skirt toward the fire, vainly attempting to dry the fabric. Every now and then she looked as if she might speak, but then she’d just close hei mouth again, wetting her lips with her tongue and letting out little sighs.
And then, without even looking at him, she said, “I will consider it.”
He quirked a brow, waiting for her to elaborate.
“Marrying you,” she clarified, still keeping her eyes on the fire. “But I won’t give you an answer now.”
“You might be carrying my child,” he said softly.
“I am very much aware of that.” She wrapped her arms around her bent knees and hugged. “I will give you an answer once I have that answer.”
Michael’s nails bit into his palms. He’d made love to her in part to force her hand-he couldn’t get around that unsavory fact-but not in an attempt to impregnate her. He’d thought to bind her to him with passion, not with an unplanned pregnancy.
And now she was essentially telling him that the only way she would marry him was for the sake of a baby.
“I see,” he said, thinking his voice uncommonly calm, given the hot rush of fury surging through his blood.
Fury he probably had no right to feel, but it was there nevertheless, and he was not enough of a gentleman to ignore it.
“It’s too bad I promised not to ravish you this morning, then,” he said dangerously, unable to resist a predatory smile.
Her head whipped around to face him.
“I could-how do they say it,” he mused, lightly scratching his jawline, “seal the deal. Or at the very least, enjoy myself immensely while I try.”
“Michael-”
“But how nice for me,” he cut in, “that according to my watch”-he was near enough to where his coat lay on the table to pluck his pocketwatch out into the open-“we’ve only five minutes to noon.”
“You wouldn’t,” she whispered.
He felt little humor, but he smiled all the same. “You leave me little choice.”
“Why?” she asked, and he really didn’t know what she was asking, but he answered her, anyway, with the one bit of truth he couldn’t escape:
“Because I have to.”
Her eyes widened.
“Will you kiss me, Francesca?” he asked.
She shook her head.
She was only five feet from him, and they were both sitting on the floor. He crawled closer, his heart racing when she didn’t scoot away. “Will you let me kiss you?” he whispered.
She didn’t move.
He leaned toward her.
“I told you I wouldn’t seduce you without your permission,” he said, his voice husky, his words falling mere inches from her lips.
Still, she didn’t move.
“Will you kiss me, Francesca?” he asked again.
She swayed.
And he knew she was his.
Chapter 19
… I do believe Michael might be considering a return home. He does not say so directly in his letters, but I cannot discount a mother’s intuition. I know that I should not pull him away from all his successes in India, but I think that he misses us. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have him home?
–
As she felt his lips touch hers, Francesca could only wonder at the loss of her sanity. Once again, Michael had asked her permission. Once again, he had given her the opportunity to slide away, to reject him and keep herself at a safe distance.
But once again, her mind had been completely enslaved by her body, and she simply was not strong enough to deny the quickening of her breath, or the pounding of her heart.
Or the slow, hot tingle of anticipation she felt as his large, strong hands slid down her body, moving ever closer to the heart of her femininity.
“Michael,” she whispered, but they both knew that her plea was not one of rejection. She wasn’t asking him to stop-she was begging him to continue, to feed her soul as he had the night before, to remind her of all the reasons
