Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I walk to the very end of the lawn, which I am certain must be a whole mile, until I am at the top of a wide set of stone steps that lead down to a maze, the walls high, with climbing plants blanketing them, making it not only private and secluded, but pretty too.
‘What a night,’ I say on an exhale, dropping to my backside on the top step, grateful for the peace and quiet; it is a needed opportunity to get myself back on the right track, for the wrong track will certainly lead me to terrible places.
Like a grave.
Or our family being banished.
I laugh to myself, rubbing at my face with my spare hand and taking more champagne, my relief to be free of the suffocating palace lost when I consider the rest of my life, because I am quite certain Taya Winters is not going anywhere soon. So I must endure this torture for eternity. I begin to sweat. Or, at the very least, until her brothers marry her off to some high-ranking gentleman and she might leave London for a country estate. ‘Over my dead body,’ I say without thought, jerking. ‘Oh hell.’ I rest my forehead in my palm, feeling all too queasy, not just at the thought of Taya in the arms of another man. Will he appreciate her fire? Her drawings? Her blinding beauty?
Naturally, I pray he does, for to think she might be unhappy and unfulfilled is most perturbing. As is the thought of another man having her. And yet, there are a million reasons why I may not have her, and again I circle to my earlier thoughts. Is this infatuation simply because she is strictly forbidden? I should give myself some credit. No, it is not that. It is because she smiles and makes me tingle. It is because she talks and my ears beg for more of her words. It is because she touches me and my body comes alive.
I. Am. In. Trouble.
Perhaps it is I who should leave London. Come on, Frank, you are stronger than this temptation. I toast that thought and sip more of my drink, but my glass freezes at my lips when the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, my skin prickling all over, my stupid damn heart throbbing. And there is my problem. The effect she has on me is uncontrollable. Overwhelming.
Wonderful.
How is it that I can sense her so acutely?
‘Taya,’ I say, not looking over my shoulder, for it will increase the risk of me succumbing to her allure. ‘I must insist you return to the palace.’
‘Insist all you like, Frank Melrose.’
I see the skirt of her gown in my peripheral vision as I lower my glass, gulping, silently begging her to leave, go, and remove the temptation from my reach. ‘Why do you insist on torturing me so?’
‘I am here in a professional capacity, I assure you.’ She lowers herself beside me and pats down the puffs of her skirt, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. ‘You torture only yourself.’
I release a light huff of laughter. ‘You should not be here at all, whether in a professional capacity or not.’ I look over my shoulder, to the palace that seems so very far away. ‘If either of your brothers were to discover us alone, your prospects will be ruined forever.’ And my mama will be heartbroken when the tale of my father’s escapades break.
‘Let them be ruined.’
I look at her as though she is mad. ‘What is it with young women these days caring not for their futures or wellbeing?’
‘Perhaps the world is changing, and it might soon be tolerable for ladies to behave like heedless rakes too.’
I cough, shocked. ‘You really are mad.’
‘Better than suffocated, though, yes?’
‘Are you suffocated?’
‘No, I am not. Fortunately, I come from a family who care not for social expectation, only for happiness, so your being concerned about ruining me is a tremendous waste of your time and energy.’
I am laughing again, but this time it’s a good belly laugh. ‘Oh, Taya, why do you say words we both know not to be true. Are you forgetting that I have been warned off by both of your ape brothers?’
‘Oh, not at all. But what you neglect to understand, Frank, is that they have not warned you away because they fear my prospects being ruined.’
What? ‘Then why, my lady, have your brothers threatened me should I so much as sniff you?’
‘Well, simply because they think I can do better, of course.’
I nearly choke on my tongue. ‘Excuse me?’
‘They thi––’
‘Yes, I heard you just fine, thank you, I just cannot believe you have been so frank.’
‘Frankness, Frank, is important in life, don’t you think?’
Be that as it may … they don’t think I am good enough? Why does that sting? Granted, I have had my fair share of dalliances, with many women, but I have abstained from female company for quite some weeks. It is a record; I’ll have them know. I am omitting the kiss Taya and I shared, naturally. ‘They don’t think I am good enough?’ I mutter. ‘That is rather rich, coming from both of them.’ Alas, the Winters brothers may be many undesirable things, but they have titles, and a title is, more often than not, a pass to immunity.