The Earl Takes A Bride

“Well, you can tell Jacob that I resent his intrusion into my private life!” she snapped. “I don’t need anyone’s charity.”

“You’ll lose your house. You’ll be on the street,” Thomas said calmly.

“The hell I will.” She flashed her eyes at him.

“If accepting a gift isn’t your preference, consider the money a short-term loan.”

She glared at him, but couldn’t stay angry. She’d always liked him. What amazed her about Thomas was that he never seemed to think of himself. He was always doing things for Jacob—bringing him documents, keeping him on schedule for his appointments, driving him here and there, protecting him from outsiders. He seemed on duty twenty-four hours a day. And now he protected her sister, nephew and niece as well. He was a little scary sometimes—because of his size and booming voice. But he was, she believed, one of the most honorable and dedicated men she’d ever met.

He continued calmly, his dark eyes fixed on her face. “You have to be reasonable, Diane. If not for your own sake, then for the children….”

She felt silly, turning down gobs of money. Giddiness took over. She did what every first-grader learns to do when confronted with adult logic. She covered her ears, closed her eyes and belted out “The Star Spangled Banner” as Thomas continued his argument.

Halfway through the first verse, Diane was struck by a steamroller of male flesh. She let out a gasp of shock as Thomas forced her up against the kitchen counter, seized her by the shoulders and kissed her fiercely on the mouth.

Diane struggled for precisely two seconds, then went limp against him. Do men really kiss like this? she wondered dizzily, all other concerns driven from her head. His lips were warm and full. He didn’t just kiss her, he consumed her. The faint scratchiness of morning stubble added heat to his mouth against hers. His big hands released her shoulders, but only to allow his fingers to rake through her tousled hair. His palms clamped either side of her head and pressed her toward him again, increasing the pressure on her lips.

It felt so good, she thought she would die.

When Thomas finally relinquished his claim to her lips, he pressed her blazing cheek against his shirtfront and breathed heavily for several seconds. She felt the rise and fall of his immense chest beneath her cheek. Heard his heart thudding strongly.

“Is that supposed to satisfy my banker? Or just you?” she asked, her voice unusually husky sounding.

“Both of us—you and me.” He ground out the words.

“Uh-uh.” She had to catch her breath and refocus her thoughts before she could come up with anything more to say. Through the window over the sink she glimpsed Tommy, Annie and Gare. They’d been joined by two neighbor children and all were now busily digging in the sandbox.

“You started it,” Thomas said at last.

“What?” She tried to pull away, but he made no move to release her. “Me? I believe all I did was tell you I didn’t want Jacob’s money!”

“Last night, woman,” he said. “You kissed me.”

“But…but that was just an innocent peck on the cheek!” she protested, although she remembered the electricity she’d felt zap between them at the touch of her lips. “It was a gesture of thanks, that was all.”

“It was more,” he said, sounding irritatingly sure of himself.

“Was not.”

Was too, her Tommy would have replied.

But the Englishman said nothing more for another moment. At last he sighed and moved a step back from her, his hands dropping to his sides. “I’ve never met a more maddening woman in my life.”

She decided it would be safer to pretend smugness than to let him see how thoroughly he’d shaken her. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she retorted, flashing him a chipper smile.

“It may well be,” he murmured, gazing down at her with more intensity than she had ever seen in any man’s eyes. “It may well be…Diane.” His hand rose from his hip to the level of her chin. She didn’t pull away as his thumb caressed the fragile line of her jaw, then touched her lower lip before retreating.

“Did Jacob tell you to offer physical as well as financial consolation?”

For a fraction of a second he looked hurt. Then his expression hardened and he took three stiff steps back from her. “His instructions were to find out what, if anything, was wrong and offer help if that seemed prudent.”

“Prudent.” She couldn’t help chuckling dryly at the old-fashioned sound of the word. “I don’t believe what we were doing just now would be considered prudent by Jacob, especially in his present status as reformed-playboy king.”

Thomas cleared his throat, looking more uncomfortable by the moment. “I’m sure it wouldn’t, Mrs. Fields.”

She shrugged. “Please…we can’t very well revert to courtly etiquette, not after that kiss.”

Oddly enough she felt stronger, in better possession of her mental facilities in the aftermath of Thomas’s amorous onslaught. She was puzzled by this unexpected side effect. Maybe the brief taste of pleasure had syphoned off pent-up energies that had been interfering with her effective analysis of the situation. At the very least she’d been reminded that men and women did, under the right circumstances, interact with passion.

Had Gary even once embraced her with such fervent desire? She couldn’t remember. She thought not. No, definitely not. She certainly hadn’t felt her body respond as it had when Thomas kissed her. Which was somewhat in excess of cataclysmic.

“I-I’m truly sorry for overstepping my bounds,” Thomas muttered, avoiding her eyes. “I was out of line.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “You definitely were.”

He adjusted his shoulders, ran his tongue between his lips and seemed to make up his mind to meet her gaze again. “I’ve never forced a woman. It wouldn’t have gone further than the kiss. I wouldn’t even have kissed you if you were still married. Please, forgive me if I’ve embarrassed you.”

“I forgive you, Thomas.” Why did everything he say send teasing vibrations through her? “I suppose you might have been misled by that silly thank-you kiss. I’m not focusing very well these days on other people’s feelings. There are so many things still to be resolved, even though Gary’s been gone for over six months.”

“That long?” He looked surprised.

“Actually, it seems longer. For the past two years, maybe more, he hasn’t been around much at all.”

“I am sorry…truly I am.” Even now he looked as if he wanted to touch her, but she didn’t understand why that should be. Allison had told her something of Thomas’s taste for glamorous women.

Nevertheless she stepped around the kitchen table to the other side. Furniture made good defensive fortifications. From this distance she thought she saw a shadow pass over his eyes. It occurred to her she might have hurt his feelings or touched on some hidden injury without realizing it.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so rude,” she said apologetically. “I have been very short with you, and I know it. But it’s totally against my nature to accept help. I’ve always been able to fend for myself.”

“Isn’t that what your sister was trying to do by keeping her baby to herself?”

Diane remembered as if it were yesterday. She smiled. “At the time, it seemed unlikely the father of Allison’s child would ever come back into her life. Who could have known the college boy she’d fallen for was a prince—complete with royal palace and a country at his bidding?”

Thomas smiled, too, looking a centimeter less tense. “At one time I didn’t believe Jacob was other than a spoiled rich boy who needed looking after while he was in an English school away from his family.”

“You started working for him that long ago?”

“Yes,” Thomas said, pulling out a chair, then motioning for Diane to sit in it.

She sat, then picked up the scone she’d dropped on the table and took another bite. He spotted the pot of coffee on the countertop and poured each of them a cup.

“I’d just come out of the British army after serving overseas. I wanted to stay home for a while in London, see if I could find a decent job….” He winked at her. “Talk a few girls into bed while I was at it. Those were my only goals. Simple ones.”

“Simple but laudable for a young man,” she commented with a hint of sarcasm.

“Well, they didn’t work out. Instead, I acquired a young lad who always seemed to be getting himself into trouble. The first time I saw Jacob, he was at the wrong end of another man’s fist, getting beaten to a bloody pulp by a couple of what you Americans call longshoremen. I stepped in to even up the sides, and we managed to walk out of the pub alive.

“He was still in school at the Crenworth Academy and headed, he informed me, for more years of formal education in the United States. His future had been mapped out by his family. He hated not being able to make his own decisions about what to do with his life.”