Authors: Angeline Fortin
Kate looked up into Brand’s piercing blue eyes
,
reading the sincerity there and her heart melted just a little more. The earl was so s
omber
, so earnest. The flashes of humor and the occasional smiles she’d seen
during
their brief acquaintance combined with the gravity of his expression tended to make Kate think that perhaps he wasn’t truly happy. It didn’t take much thought beyond that to know that she wanted him to be
so
.
“I like you, too.”
“I know you do,” he returned and Kate chuckled softly.
“Talk about eg
otis… self-centered.”
Though Kate meant the words to be playful, the tender expression on
Harrowby
’s face once again slipped into sol
emnity. “I don’t mean to sound…
what was the
other
word you used? It sounds more interesting.”
“Egotistical.”
“Yes, egotistical.
”
H
e tried the word out himself. “I don’t mean to come across as such, but I noticed straight away when we met in the library that you don’t look at me and see what everyone else does first. You don’t see me as an earl.”
“You’re an
earl
?” Kate repeated wide-eyed with false fascination
,
raising a hand to fan her cheeks. “Oh, my!”
“There, you see.
”
Harrowby
gestured to her reaction though he was enjoying her rather silly behavior. “You don’t care in the least
that I am nobility, of a higher rank than you.”
“Must be the American in me,” she told him
,
cocking her head curiously when he shook his in response.
“Not true,” he argued. “Most Americans I’ve met fawn excessively over, not just I, but any English noble. You truly do not care about my noble standing.”
Though Kate w
ould have stood there all afternoon
arguing with him
just because she could, she shrugged giving him the point. “Okay, you’re right. In the big picture, I don’t care that you’re an earl. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty cool and all but…”
“You jest and poke a great deal of fun at me, Kate,”
Harrowby
went on, his tone still serious, “but you cannot know how much I’ve longed to just be simple Mr. Brandon Ryder once more. I miss the camaraderie of uncomplicated friendship, straightforward conversation without subtext. I’ve missed being seen as nothing more than the man I am. No one has treated me with such…”
the earl
struggled for the right word, “
forthrightness
in nearly a decade. You don’t
look through the man I am
or seem to
want anything from me.”
“Not true,” Kate said lightly though Brand’s words moved her deeply. “I do want a job.”
A slight smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “That you might, but I think you’d never kowtow to a person to gain employment.”
“You know me so well, do you?”
Harrowby
looked down on Kate
’s
beautiful face. Her eyes were shining with humor and affection she probably wasn’t even aware
she was showing
so obviously. Her smile revealed a
slight dimple on one cheek and, her parted lips
showed
very straight,
impossibly
white teeth. She just seemed as bright and wholesome on the outside as he thought her to be on the inside. Despite this egotistical tendency she claimed s
he had, he could see very well
that,
at the core
, she was a very caring individual.
Very loving.
Confoundedly affectionate.
How he wish
ed he could simply drown in the
compassion
he’d seen her display
. He had a feeling that being in Kate’s presence, having her tease her way through the issues that troubled him most, having her caress away the worries and pressures his new responsibilities had levied upon him, would bring him the greatest sense of contentment he’d known in many a year. She washed it all away, distracting him with her humor and banter.
And desire.
Harrowby
knew that, lurking beneath it all, that same fire that had ignited so easily the night they met lay banked waiting to be rekindled. Keeping his most proper veneer about him kept his most base urges at bay, but it was with the realization that one misstep would send the flames leaping once more. The feel of her hand on his cheek had almost
set the fire roari
ng. Just that ingenuous touch
and he’d been nearly lost to those passions.
It was all so very attractive and alluring. Her honesty, playfulness and that most physical wanting. She seduced him without effort and
Harrowby
wanted badly to give in to it. Wanted the dictates that ruled him to fall to the wayside allowing him the opportunity to take what he wanted.
“Ahh, Kate.
”
Harrowby
sighed softly, the sound rumbling deeply in his chest. Unconsciously, he raised his own hand to caress her cheek as well, leaning in over Kate until she was pressed back against the stone wall as he hovered over her. “How I wish you needed nothing from me at all. If you were not in my employ, I would…”
Kate tilted her head
back and stared up into Brand’s eyes, reading
there
a new intensity that hadn’t been present before. Whatever it was, it sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine and Kate couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side, pressing her cheek more firmly against his hand. “What would you do, Brand?” she whispered in return, mesmerized by the web that suddenly snared them.
Harrowby
ducked his head, brushing her other cheek with his as he inhaled the scent of her. He brushed his lips there hearing her gasp of awareness and feeling her
draw in a trembling breath of her own. His lips skimmed up to her temple as his fingers curved around her jaw.
A
wave of dizziness
passed
over
Kate as she felt his harsh exhale brush her ear, felt his
firm
lips drag across her skin as his mouth moved to press against her forehead.
She closed her eyes, gasping for breath
and
feeling
as shaky as the last leaf in fall
. Kate
felt a quivering in her belly unlike anything she’d ever know
n
.
However, greater than the tumult of her own feelings, she
felt the fight
Harrowby
was having with himself.
Man versus earl.
What an enigma Harrowby was! So proper. So restrained. The man who apparently wanted a woman quite badly and the aristocratic
gentleman
who didn’t trifle with the help. There was a primitive man lingering just below that stuffy exterior. Kate could feel the conflict between those two halves within him and, w
hile she wanted to respect the belief system of one opponent, inwardly Kate found herself rooting for the caveman who lived inside Brand as well. The man who took what he wanted, damn the consequences.
As appalling as it was to Kate’s
twenty-first
century
ideal that women could be equal in all things to a man, whet
her in business or in pleasure,
the concept of being taken by a man – particularly this man – held as much appeal in that moment as it had
that night
in his library. She just wanted to throw her head back in surrender and let him have at it, much as a victim mesmerized by some fictional vampire.
The image came to her mind
then, fed from that thought
, of Brand’s mouth at her throat, sucking, nipping
,
and Kate quivered again feeling her desire for him skyrocket. Dropping the
fishing pole and basket she held, Kate wrapped both arms around Brand’s shoulders hugging his big body to her.
“Brand,” she whispered
,
aware that he had dropped his goods as well and was sliding both arms around her wa
ist hesitantly
. He was fighting her and himself. Part of him want
ed
to give in, but the other
held
him back.
Mindlessly, Kate turned her head pressing a hot kiss just below his ear taking pleasure in the
shiver that shook his length. “Kiss me, Brand,” she whispered in his ear.
“Kiss me like you did in the library.”
He pulled his head back and met her gaze, his blue eyes now as dark as
the deepest seas
.
They swirled
and churn
ed
with emotion. Then his gaze dropped to her lips sending such a tingle through them that Kate reflexively licked them. Rolling his eyes in defeat,
Harrowby
groaned loudly raising his hands to cup her cheeks before his thumb brushed across her lower lip. Kate reveled in its rough texture, sweeping her tongue across the digit as it passed drawing an even deeper moan of surrender before he unhurriedly lowered his head and grazed his lips across hers.
F
rustrated by his leisurely approach, Kate grasped his shoulders tightly
,
drawing him closer as sh
e parted her lips in welcome.
For a moment, he gave in,
dazzling Kate as he
devour
ed
her mouth roughly before he pulled himself back and away from her.
“I cannot, Kate,” he murmured, befo
re belying
those words and pulli
ng her back into his embrace before resting his forehead against hers. “I cannot take advantage of a person under my protection.
”
“Maybe I’m just taking advantage of you, Brand,” Kate whispered back
still clut
ching his broad shoulders firmly, but then her fingers snaked up into the hair at his nape curling and tugging at the short hairs there.
“A novel concept.
”
H
e released a chuckle before reaching up to unclasp her hands so that he could step back. “But I cannot fathom that it is a truism.”
Though she wished she might lure Brand back into her arms, Kate knew that the earl was once again firmly in charge and released a heavy sigh. “I just want you to know this isn’t normal behavior for me, Brand, especially in the workplace. I don’t flirt with my bosses and I certainly don’t date them, but maybe it
’s because I don’t really consider you my boss.”
“Are you not in my employ?” he asked, not understanding her meaning.
“I am but, maybe because of the whole separation of classes thing, I guess I think of Hendricks as my boss,” Kate explained. “You’re more like the CEO of the whole Harrowby corporation and just a little too high up on the food chain to seem like a real authority.”
“I don’t understand what you are saying at all.”
Despite his shaking head and obvious puzzlement over her statement, she could tell
Harrowby
wasn’t truly
as disgruntled as he sounded
. “You like it, don’t you?”
“Like what?”
“Constantly being thrown off kilter by me,” she clarified. “I think that you like that I take your well-structured world and turn it on its end even for just a little bit.”
Brand took a step forward once more.
“Or, perhaps what I like is…”
“My lord! My lord, are you here?” a harried voice called from nearb
y and a
curtain dropped over
Harrowby
’s relaxed demeanor in an instant putting the starchy earl firmly in control. He hurried to pick up the discarded fishing gear and put a good distance between him and Kate before an even more starchy man whom Kate recognized as
Harrowby
’s valet
came rushing around the corner
.
“What is it, Timson
?” Harrowby asked
,
once again reeking of all the nobility he displayed when in the company of others.
“
Mrs. Ryder
and
Mrs. Ralston
have arrived,
my lord,
” Timson
rushed on.
Though he looked every bit as uptight and prim as he did every night at dinner in the servant’s dining room, Kate got the definite impression that the
proper
valet was thoroughly rattled to the core. By the threat of Brand’s mother, Kate w
ondered. How terrifying could
the woman
be
?
“Very well, Timson
,” the earl replied
stiffly
. “I will come straight away. Also, would you please inform Mrs. Hendricks that I have
retain
ed Miss Kallastad to serve as Master Nathan’s tutor for the time being. Have her see to it
that Miss Kallastad is relocated
to a room in the nursery.”
Timson
shot Kate a look that spoke of surprise and maybe something else. S
kepticism
?
Speculation?
As if he suspected that the new role was meant more as a smoke-screen to disguise a more illicit purpose and considerably less
than
a bona fide job. Kate merely lifted her chin and
stared back at him steadily until he looked away. “Of course, my lord,” the valet answered his master with a small bow of subservience.
Not to be outdone, Kate bobbed
a respectable curtse
y offering, “Thank you again for the opportunity, my lord. I promise you, you won’t regret it.”
Harrowby darted a
surprised glance at Kate at
the clear docility and respectfulness
she injected
in
to
her tone, only to catch her quick wink upon doing so.
A
grin
jerked at his lips but he pushed it quickly away, Kate thought,
before his valet might notice it. “See that you don’t, Miss Kallastad.” He shifted from foot to foot as if he were reluctant to leave but finally gave a firm jerk to the bottom of his waistcoat and sighed. “Very well, I suppose I must go in and greet my mother.”
Kate watched him go wondering that anyone would sound so unenthusiastic about doing so.