There was something about the word
must
that set alarm bells ringing in Harriet's head. "I do not see that I am obligated to do anything." She replied with dignity. "Why can I not do the same thing without being married to you—just as a friend?"
Seeing he was getting nowhere, Adrian jumped down from Trajan and tied him to a nearby tree. He strode over to Harriet and held out his hands to help her dismount. "Come, let me explain it to you."
Harriet eyed him suspiciously.
"I promise I shall not force you to do anything against your will, but I find it extremely disconcerting to carry on such a conversation on horseback." He tied Brutus to the same tree and turned to catch her as she slid to the ground.
"Now"—he led her to a little grove of trees—"it is more than your friendship I want, Harriet, and you know it. I love you. I have since the moment I saw you, and there is nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you. If you do not believe that, then I shall just have to spend the rest of my life convincing you."
"But, but—" Harriet did not know what to say. One part of her could think of nothing she wanted more than to spend her life with him, and another part of her was more afraid than she had ever been in her life.
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"But what, sweetheart?" He prompted gently.
"But Mrs. Lovington."
"Mrs. Lovington?" Adrian echoed blankly.
"Yes. That is where I first met you, after all. I know that someone like Alicia who is only after your title and your fortune would not care if you had other interests but I would." Overcome with sudden shyness, Harriet looked down at her gloved hands.
He could have laughed with relief. "Harriet, my love." He reached down and tilted up her chin so she was forced to look him straight in the eye. "I told you once before that I was at Mrs. Lovington's the first time because I had just announced my engagement to Alicia and I felt my entire life closing in on me. I felt as though from then on I would cease to exist except as Alicia's escort, someone to order as she saw fit. Then I saw you, enchanting and vital as you are, and my whole world changed. You made me see that there were still things I could do to make a difference in the world, and I wanted nothing more than to please you, to keep seeing you and warming my spirit at the fire in your sweet sympathetic soul so I came back again and again."
"But it was not only to see me. Kitty made certain that all of us were well aware of the attentions you were paying to her. She said that you were most adept at lovemaking." The marquess had the grace to look sheepish. "My thanks to Miss Kitty. I make no excuses for what I did beyond my frustration at the thought of the life I was facing. But I think you will discover, if you were to ask Kitty, that after the 309
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second or third visit I ceased availing myself of her, of her ... ah services precisely because I was falling in love with you." Adrian pulled her closer to him. "Harriet, we were made for each other. I know that. We share the same interests, the same beliefs, the same conviction that we should devote ourselves to making this world a better place, and"—he gently traced the line of her lips with one finger—"the same passion."
Harriet pulled away from him. "But I do not want passion. All my life I have fallen into scrapes because of my enthusiasms, and I refuse to continue that way. I wish to live calmly, continuing to help where I can, to be—"
"As coldly perfect as Alicia?" Adrian interrupted her, taking advantage of the opportunity to pull her back into his arms.
"Harriet, you cannot help who you are. You are spirited, sensitive, and loving. The life you envision for yourself is no life, for life cannot truly exist without passion. I know you are afraid. I am afraid. I am afraid to care so much for someone after all these years of avoiding it. I am afraid to risk the suffering I should endure if I were to lose that someone. I did not ask to feel this way, but now that I do, I am willing to accept it, and I beg of you to do the same."
"No. I cannot. I shall—" Harriet began nervously, only to be silenced as his lips came down hard on hers, possessive, demanding, willing her to respond to him. The butterflies that had been fluttering wildly in her stomach since she had first seen him seemed to break free and spread to every part of her body, turning her limbs to water, robbing her of her will to resist. Slowly, languorously, she gave herself up to his 310
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embrace as his lips slowly traced hers, moving down the line of her jaw to her ear.
"I love you, Harriet," he whispered as he gently buried his hands in the bright red curls, tilting her head back so he could kiss her more deeply still.
Her mouth opened under his until she could feel their breaths mingling. Her body throbbed where it met the hardness of his chest and his thigh, and she could not help recalling Kitty's vivid descriptions of his lovemaking. Suddenly, her body seemed to have a mind of its own that had very little to do with intellect or the life she had envisioned for herself. All it wanted was to feel those warm, strong hands caressing her everywhere as Kitty had described in such detail, to surrender utterly and completely to the desire she felt in him and in herself.
Adrian looked down into the blue eyes dark with passion under half-closed lids. "I love you, Harriet. Tell me you love me. Please tell me you love me." He slid his hands from her hair, down her sides, caressing the delicate curves and pressing her close. "I want you, Harriet, and I shall never stop wanting you until the day I die. Please say you will be with me."
It was no use. Harriet felt drawn to him as inevitably as she had when she had first looked at him across the schoolroom, laughing at her, challenging her. She had not fully realized that her response to his teasing had been fueled in some way, even then, by her attraction to him, but she admitted it to herself now. She longed for him as much as he did for her. It was only fear of losing herself, of losing him, 311
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that held her back. Slowly her customarily buoyant attitude began to reassert itself. What was there to lose? Life had been so very dull without him that it did not offer much of an alternative to the unknown of life with him that she was now facing.
"Very well."
"Very well, what?" He teased, covering her face with gentle kisses.
"Very well, I shall marry you. But I want you to promise me one thing."
He stopped, suddenly serious. "Anything you wish, my love, as long as you will spend your life with me."
"I want you to promise me that if you ever go the Temple of Venus you will take me with you." Adrian gave a shout of laughter. "I always said you were incorrigible. Yes. I promise. But since you are far more likely to go than I, I shall hold you to the same promise. Is that fair?"
Harriet nodded.
"Say
I promise you, Adrian."
"I promise you, Adrian, because I love you," she replied as he again swept her into his arms to prove to her just how much he loved her.
To the world's best library staff, the staff at Cary Memorial Library:
Lexington is fortunate to have them.
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