A Christmas Seduction: A Regency Anthology (13 page)

As his lips had descended toward her own, his whispered words sent shivers down the length of her spine.

“Perhaps this one will stay with you longer,” he said before crushing her lips beneath his own.

CHAPTER FOUR

H
UGH KNEW THAT THE
second he felt Louisa’s lips beneath his that he was in far more trouble than he had ever been before in his life.

He felt every one of her emotions, even while his lips were pressed against her own. He felt her gasp of shock, following by her heavenly capitulation as her fingers moved to wind in his hair, pulling him closer still.

He almost combusted when her tongue tentatively reached out and mirrored the movement of his own.

Had he been in any sort of control over himself, Hugh would have wondered what the hell he was doing once again kissing the girl senseless in his mother’s garden.

But the second he’d tasted her, all thoughts, coherent or otherwise, were swept away by the tide of passion he was currently drowning in.

Had anything ever felt so perfect?

Damn but the girl had a way of getting under his skin. He’d kissed her again out of sheer frustration. She got under his skin like no other. And the fact that he’d been walking around in a permanent state of lust since he’d clapped eyes on her again didn’t help to temper his actions.

Something was shifting between them. Subtly changing. Becoming more than a battle of wills. More even than an intense, fiery attraction.

Hugh was starting to feel perilously close to caring about the girl.

Caring far, far more than he should.

This thought finally brought Hugh crashing back to the reality of the situation they were in. Reluctantly, he pulled his lips from hers, grasping her shoulders and gently pushing her from him.

Louisa gazed up at him, her eyes glazed with passion, a look of wonder in them, and Hugh felt his heart stutter at that look.

“Damn,” he whispered softly. He had no clue how to deal with this.

To his surprise, she smiled ruefully.

“My sentiments exactly.”

Hugh cleared his throat, suddenly as nervous as a green lad his first time with a lady.

“Yes, well, we — we cannot stand about all day doing — well, doing, or not doing something. Or nothing. Wait, what?”

Louisa was staring at him as though he had run mad, which he very probably had.

He was tying himself into knots, stammering nonsensical gibberish. And all because his blood had travelled considerably farther south than his brain.

“Hugh, what exactly are you talking about,” she snapped impatiently.

Her acerbic tone and its familiarity served to bring him back to himself somewhat.

He heaved a sigh, got his scrambled thoughts into some sort of order, and then, finally, was able to answer with equanimity.

“You drive me to bloody distraction, Louisa Bright. More than anyone I’ve ever met. And you, a mere slip of a girl.”

Louisa’s mouth dropped open, and Hugh could have kicked himself. Why had he gone and confessed such a thing?

“But that is neither here nor there,” he hurried on before she issued what would no doubt be an acerbic rejoinder. “Now, why don’t you finally tell me what you wanted me for?”

Louisa didn’t answer for some time, choosing instead to gaze at him as though he’d grown another head. He couldn’t blame her really.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, she shook her head slightly, and he noted the glint of battle sparkle in her green eyes.

They were really beautiful, those eyes. He’d never paid that much attention to them before. Of course, they had been more beautiful when they’d been rendered blank by his ministrations but—

“Hugh!”

The screech of his name brought him back to earth with a thud. Oh right, she’d been speaking.

“Are you quite alright?” she demanded, hissing out a frustrated breath.”Because if discussing strategy is a little beyond your mental capabilities, I’ll just deal with this myself.”

Ah, there was the little hell cat he’d come to know and lo—

Hugh felt his eyes widen in horror. He was going nowhere near the end of that thought.

“What in God’s name is the
matter
with you?” She stomped her foot and Hugh was disgusted with himself for finding it rather endearing.

“Forgive me. I — ah — over imbibed last night,” he said quickly.” And did you just stamp your foot at me?”

He grinned at her sudden obvious discomfort.

“O-of course not,” she stammered.” Ladies do not stomp.”

“No,” he responded feeling much more the thing now that he was teasing her again. ”But then, I never said a lady did it.”

She growled in response, and it was all he could do not to pluck her from her stomping little feet and carry her off somewhere to do something about all that frustration.

Yes, indeed. He was in very big trouble.

N
EVER, EVER BEFORE HAD
Louisa dealt with such an array of emotions in such a short space of time.

She was already exhausted; mentally wrung out, and they hadn’t even begun discussing what they should do about their irresponsible siblings.

Hugh was acting as though he had run mad, and she couldn’t deal with his madness. Not when she was trying hard not to descend into the same state herself after that kiss.

Good Lord. He’d kissed her.
Again.
And she’d let him. Again.

This was not good. Not good at all.

How could she stand in pious judgment of Meredith when she went around kissing Hugh? And he was far more irritating than his older brother.

Pressing a hand to her temple, she tried desperately to claw back some semblance of normality.

There would be plenty of time to mourn the loss of her sanity later. And plenty of time to guiltily enjoy the memory of that toe-curling kiss and what it did to her.

She watched the man in front of her now, as his blue eyes finally focused on her.

He seemed terribly distracted. And that wasn’t very flattering really. It seemed that even with a kiss involved, she couldn’t hold his attention.

“Your brother,” she started through gritted teeth, “has told my sister that she is to partner with him for tonight’s event. Obviously he’s lying to get her alone. And—” This was the part she hadn’t wanted to confess, but Louisa had always been the honest sort. “—and she didn’t seem too averse to the idea.”

“And?”

Louisa frowned. Whatever did he mean, ‘and’?

“And he’s obviously lying,” she said firmly. “So, we need to stop them from partnering with each other.”

He remained silent so long that she was contemplating slapping him. And not just because she’d rather enjoy it.

Finally, he sighed and looked at her with those direct, probing eyes of his.

“Would it really be so bad?” he asked.

Her jaw dropped open again and so, she noted, did his. It was as though he was as surprised by his idiotic question as she.

“What? Of
course
it would be so bad,” she shouted.

“No need to shout.”

“I did not shout,” she shouted again.

Hugh smiled his maddening smile.

“Allow me to guess; ladies do not shout?”

Louisa squeezed her head at her temples again.

“Hugh,” she began as though talking to a particularly dim child. Which he was. If an overgrown one. ”Remember that we are both concerned about our respective siblings. I cannot stand idly by and allow my sister to be hurt by your brother.”

“Why do you assume he means to hurt her?”

She wanted to feel his forehead to see if he were feverish but she couldn’t trust herself to touch him without tackling him to the ground and ravishing him, so she kept her deviant hands to herself.

“Considering you and your brothers have wanted nothing more than to hurt all of us, all our lives, I rather think my assumption is an accurate one.”

Hugh swallowed hard and Louisa averted her eyes from the muscles in his throat lest she do something crazy like press her lips to them.

“I think,” he said rather gruffly. “I think it’s possible that Lucas is starting to genuinely care about your sister.”

Louisa felt a pang of shock.

She had been thinking that Meredith was starting to care for Lucas as well, especially in light of their carry on at breakfast.

But she wouldn’t believe it. No good could come of it. She had thought that Hugh had cared about her three years ago when he had kissed her, and look how that had turned out.

Steeling her heart against any sort of compassion for either Lucas or her silly, innocent sister, Louisa raised her chin and made sure to look absolutely fierce.

“Stuff and nonsense,” she said with a laugh. “Your brother is as incapable of caring about a woman as you are.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Only that your brother may act as though he cares about her but he is as heartless as the rest of you.”

She could practically see the wheels turning in his pretty head, trying to work out where the bitterness that she could not disguise was coming from.

“What is this really about?” he demanded, his voice low.

Louisa huffed out a frustrated breath. This wasn’t how she had wanted this conversation to go. They were supposed to be discussing how to keep their siblings apart. Now, he was questioning her motives. And that was a question she really didn’t want to answer.

Raising a brow and making every effort to appear utterly nonchalant, Louisa gave another, brittle laugh.

“It is about stopping Lucas and Meredith from making a colossal mistake. I thought we
both
agreed on that.”

For a moment, it looked as though he would argue with her. But, finally, he sighed, the sound wearier than any she’d ever heard from him and shook his head.

“We do agree. It would be a mistake. For many reasons. So, what do we do?”

CHAPTER FIVE

I
T WAS EXHAUSTING,
L
OUISA
decided hours later, planning strategies of war with her sisters whilst all the while planning strategies of distance with Hugh.

Sara and Meredith had both seemed terribly suspicious of her earlier, and it had taken all of Louisa’s strength to act as though everything were normal.

When Sara had mentioned seeing Louisa and Hugh in the garden area, Louisa’s heart had fluttered with panic. Thankfully though, her gossipy younger sister had only seen them walking. The kiss remained a secret.

But her siblings were suspicious, Louisa knew. And it had taken all of her talent for avoidance, and the promise of her new pink evening gown for Sara to drop the matter.

Her sisters were even more suspicious when they saw what she intended to wear.

Her dress, she could admit, was probably better suited to a royal affair than a garden party in the depths of the winter. But Louisa cared not. The pale green satin made her eyes appear greener than usual, and she knew green was Hugh’s favorite color.

He had hurt her three years ago, and then he had infuriated her earlier today and ignored her for the rest of the afternoon.

Well, she thought as she adjusted the band of diamonds in her hair and tugged on the rather low neckline of her satin dress, he would bloody well pay attention to her tonight.

She had been snapping at Sara and Meredith all afternoon, and they at her. The Mayford brothers had certainly succeeded in pitting the sisters against one another. But Louisa was ready for action.

If Lucas thought he could drag her sister off into the middle of the maze and ruin her, he had another think coming.

Louisa just prayed Hugh would actually help her.

He hadn’t seemed as enamored with the idea earlier as she would have liked.

The bell sounded for dinner and Louisa took one final glance in the looking glass.

The determined glint in her eyes gave her the confidence boost she needed. She appeared sophisticated and ready for battle.

Let the game commence.