Teasing Your Wicked Heart

CHAPTER 18

"I'm sorry." Sarah Jane said quickly,as her eyes tore away from his face.

He was angry, and she was feeling guilty. She wasn't one to swoon, but she was feeling quite overwhelmed by everything. "I mean it with my heart, I apologize!"

"You were threatening a duke. A duke!" He said levelly. "Have you no thought of anyone's reputations? My mother? Lady Huntington?" And he left himself out because truly his reputation had no salvation. "Of yours?"

"I am trying to apologize," she spluttered, as unshed tears started pooling in her eyes. "I know my behavior is unforgivable. I am just..." She then turned to look at the people still hovering at Millicent Wetherby. Yes, she was an ultimate failure.

Anthony followed her gaze to the people busying about. He didn't know what she was thinking. He used to think he knew her well, anticipated her every move and word before she began to think it herself.

But London had that effect on people. She moved like she had wanted to belong too much. She was trying too hard.

He looked past someone's shoulder, and saw the popular young chit everyone seemed to be excited about. Anthony looked back at Sarah Jane expectantly and saw her eyes glistening under the low light. His heart suffered a cramp, and gently, he took her hand and placed it on his arm as they pushed through the glass doors to exit towards the terrace.

"I don't know what I'm doing, but I have been feeling so wretched and very disagreeable." Tears from her eyes started to drop one by one on her cheek in steady streams.

He offered her his handkerchief. "Do you care to tell me what is happening with you?"

She accepted it gratefully. "I am truly sorry. I have been offending the people who care about me left and right. I just don't know what to do with myself. I know they know." She sniffed delicately.

"What do they—"

"That I don't belong here." Fresh tears streamed down her face and he ached to hold her.

Anthony felt the cramp in his heart tightening. His mind was screaming for him to remove her from this place, shield her from the useless gossips and hurtful comments that had nothing to do with her true person.

But he remained still, his breath coming in gasps. Whether they were coming from anger or sympathy, he wasn't sure.

"I know you were only trying to help me earlier this evening." She offered him a small smile. She glanced around them hesitantly, then added, "You were the only one concerned with how I feel about everything, not just barking commands on what to do and how to behave."

Sarah Jane inhaled sharply, releasing more than a week's worth of pent up stress in her chest. She moved closer to him, aware that she seemed to be awkwardly asking him of something. She watched him, his eyes intent on hers, his expression concerned with her every word.

Sarah Jane knew that at that moment, Killsworth had ceased to be a danger. She was already helplessly and irrevocably attached to this man. No man would be able to measure up to him.

They were speaking in long conversations even when no words were being heard.

Anthony longed to kiss her, her eyes shining under the moonlight, her lips red and moist from emotion. He wanted to feel her against his skin, to envelop her lush body in his arms, to comfort her with his lips. But they simply couldn't.

She moved closer. She was unaware of the desire dangerously waiting to be ignited in him. He was pulled to her, with no decision of his own, and his hands crept to her shoulder, relishing the way she shivered under his palms.