Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (243 page)

104

The Viscount Claims His Bride

'Val, I want.. . ' She met his eyes, searching for what it was that she so desperately sought-that her Valerian existed, that this moment was the moment she'd thought to claim so many years ago. But it wasn't there, not really. This was wrong, no matter how right it felt. And she remembered why. She had loved him. He had shared her passion, but not her depth. He'd scorned her and sent her off to marry another man.

'Yes, what do you want?' Valerian panted.

'I want to believe,' she said softly, her arms twining around his neck, pulling him down to her in mute apology. 'But I can't. Not yet.'

'I can make you believe again, Philippa,' Valerian vowed. 'Let me try,' he pleaded, every ounce of his muscle straining in desire as he held himself in check.

She held him there, full against her. She couldn't deny that she wanted him, but she didn't want him, not as a fiction. 'Don't do this. I won't have it. You had your dalliance with me years ago. I won't be played for the fool again.'

'You were never my fool, Philippa.' He raised himself up on his arms, drawing back from his seduction only slightly. His eyes shut as if in an attempt to hold back the memories. 'We had a great passion between us once. We can have it again,' he coaxed.

'I want you, Philippa.'

felt the old animosity flare against her passion. 'I was the one left crying in the fords' garden. I thought you were going to propose and you
knew
I thought that.' When she had him,
if

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she had him, it would be with an understanding of the truth of who he was. It was the only way she could protect herself from being hurt a second time.

If she learned nothing else today, she'd learned that being hurt again was a distinct possibility.

distant 'Halloooo!' reached her ears and the reality of their situation hit her. She'd done the most foolish thing of all-she'd almost let Valerian make love to her in the open, where they were no doubt visible to all sundry passers-by.

Valerian groaned a miserable 'Oh, God,' as he moved to stand, fumbling with his clothes. 'We have company.'

struggled up to see Beldon and Lucien tramping towards them. Good lord, how much had they seen? She and Valerian had been kissing in plain view of anyone coming in that direction. That was the problem with follies and prospects. They thrived in wide open spaces.

'I don't think they saw anything,' Valerian whispered reassuringly in her ear as if he could read her mind. Out loud, he called to them, 'What brings you out here?'

'Lucien's come to concede! ' Beldon called back good naturedly.

Philippa's cheeks went scarlet. She didn't need a mirror to know her face was burning with mortifi-cation. They had
seen.
Beldon's reference made it perfectly clear.

'Steady, love.' Valerian chuckled. 'I don't think Lucien's coming to concede on that point.'

He made a show of pulling out his pocket watch

106

The Viscount
Claims
His Bride
and flipping it open. 'Concession accepted, Canton.

It's two o'clock and the sun's been out for ten minutes.'

If her cheeks could have reddened further, they would have, this time from anger. While Valerian had

seducing

sweet

half his mind had been on the ridiculous wager and she'd lost half of hers for falling temporarily to his seductive

proof that Valerian Ingle-

was no more than the sum of

and her

past experience made him out to be.

'How's the prospect from here?' Beldon asked, striding to the area marked off with string where the folly was slated to be.

'It's lovely. You can see all the way to Valerian said vaguely. 'Philippa hasn' t seen it yet.

Now, we can all see it together.' He led the way to the outcropping, very much aware that lagged behind, shooting not-so-subtle daggers at his back.

He could imagine with a fair degree of accuracy what she was

how like a man to turn the

situation so adroitly. One would never guess he'd been lying on top of

proclaiming to be in the

throes of passion and making impossible promises literally moments ago. Here he was, playing tour guide and looking for all the world like a man whose sole interest in coming up here had been to see the sights.

Well, she was wrong about that. He'd seen the opportunity to get her alone when the vicar indicated he had to go back. That had been the end of his in-

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spiration. He'd taken the opportunity, but done nothing with it except compound Philippa's distrust.

He'd meant to tell her Beldon knew about their past romance. He'd meant to confess the reasons for leaving her. But events had taken a different direction and they had ended up on the granite slab, apparently against Philippa's better judgement.

Her 'better judgement' rankled. It was one thing to

to suspect, what she

of him. It was

another thing entirely to hear her articulate those ideas out loud. She thought he wasn't a man of honour. She thought she couldn't believe in him again.

And maybe she was right.

Valerian fought back a wave of self-doubt. He'd failed to help those people in Negush too, failed to find a way to peace before all revolutionary hell broke out. People who believed in him notoriously came to bad ends. It was not an accomplishment he was proud of.