.
Reuben slowly came to his feet and stared at Rachel, or who he thought was Rachel, for by looking at her, he wasn’t sure. She looked the same, but then she didn’t.
Her face was the same, though her eyes were more striking than ever, the gold, green, and blue were all distinct and vibrant, glowing much like her skin. Her hair was done in a fashion that Reuben had always thought looked silly on other women, abundant curls strung up high with loose crimson tendrils flowing around her flawless face, and resting against the skin at her collar. And there was so much of that creamy flesh to see. He also noticed that she wore her mother’s diamond and jade headdress, as a queen would wear a tiara.
He gaze followed the hanging red strands that trailed down to her throat and chest. The gown was gold. Its edge was made of lace that seemed to tease his mind, forcing him to guess as what lay underneath the delicate fabric. Though the answer to that was obvious. Her attributes… She was covered with a fichu, but the material was nothing more than lace, very transparent and so light that she wouldn’t need a strong wind to see the thing removed. A strong breath would have the material flutter to the ground.
Something dangerous stirred within him. He forced his eyes back to her face, and he caught the small smirk that formed at the corner of her lips, before she turned toward Alicia in full concern.
Reuben looked around to see if anyone had noticed his reaction.
Alexandra and Rose were far too busy speaking to Alicia. A glance at Chris and Nash filled Reuben’s blood with anger.
Both men were staring at Rachel. Dazed. And there was nothing familiar about the look.
Nash stood. “Lady Rachel, please take my chair.” His expression was that of a child who’d just been told to expect baked apples for dessert.
Rachel seemed surprised. Her lips, which Reuben thought looked more alluring than ever, parted into a sweet smile. “Oh, thank you, Nash, but I’m all right on my feet.”
“Would you like to stand by the window?” Chris asked her. “I could open it, if you need air.”
She laughed. “How kind of you, Christmas, but I’m quite all right.” No one called him Christmas and got away with it.
Yet Chris looked like he wanted to smile, and Reuben was sure if his friend remembered how, he would have done so.
Reuben turned to Rachel. “In the hall. Now.” He pointed to the door. He was so enraged, that he had a notion to add Nash and Chris onto his list of pending murders.
Rachel’s smile fell away as she blinked up at him. Heavens. Her eyes reminded him of the heavens. She lifted a sculpted brow and there was a look of unadulterated defiance in her eyes, of the likes he’d never seen, before she turned and strolled from the room.
Rachel paused a little down the hallway, and then turned as Reuben approached. He looked larger than she recalled, but she didn’t allow him to see how much he was frightening her at the moment. New Rachel was not afraid of men. New Rachel wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything.
And though her heart galloped as though it were in a race, she straightened her spine.
Then he turned and walked into a sitting room. When he didn’t reemerge, she followed, and jumped when the door was closed behind them. He crowded her then, and stopped less than a foot away from her.
She was forced to crane her neck to hold his eyes. She pulled in a breath, and with it, came his scent. The blazing depths of his green eyes make her limbs tremble, so she locked her knees.
He opened his mouth to speak, and she cut him off.
“Out of the kindness of my heart, I will allow you this time in which to speak, but in the future…” She leaned in close and felt his breath brush her lips. “Never speak to me that way again. I am not a dog, or a child. Do we have an understanding?”
His eyes closed slightly and then moved to her mouth.
She felt the urge to lick her lips but refrained from doing so. She didn’t actually want to tempt him, just tease and make him realize all he’d pushed away. She’d decided it that morning, after taking a short trip to shop for gloves with Lucille.
Today had been her first adventure as the New Rachel, and New Rachel had ruled every room she’d gone into. She hadn’t realized how much power a dress and some curls could hold, until the shop clerk nearly tripped over himself just to get to her before another. And then there had been the gentlemen. Every man in the room had offered to hold her small purchase.
And she’d realized that while a part of her might always be drawn to Reuben, New Rachel would not beg for any man’s love.
“What did you do to your face?” he asked after a beat.
“Nothing,” she said. “Well, Lucille used something around my eyes, but made sure it was subtle. Lucille says a lady can wear enough make up to tempt her husband, but not his friend. There is a fine line.”
He drew his brows together. “You’re not married.”
“Then I suppose I can tempt whomever I wish.” She shrugged a bare shoulder and watched his glaze follow the move. The caress of his gaze nearly burned her alive.
His dominating glare cut to hers again. “You sound and look like a strumpet.”
She shrugged again. Lucille had told her Reuben would say that. In fact, her and her lady’s maid had become quite close. She’d spilled everything about her feelings, not that Lucille hadn’t already known. She may have been a quiet servant, but she was very observant.
She knew she didn’t look like a strumpet. Susanna, on more than one occasion, had worn dresses far more risqué than the one she had on. It would take time for Society to grow used to her this way, but that would come with time.
Still, Reuben’s words hurt, but she took comfort in one thing. Though his words were hard, not even Reuben could hide the warmth that was building in his eyes, or the flush that covered the tops of his cheeks.
“What are you wearing?” he growled.
“Did you call me out here to talk fashion? Surely, you have better things to do with your time.” That part of her that liked being near him was starting to take control, and she needed to be away from him as quickly as possible.
“Has your father seen you?” he asked.
She looked away. “Not yet, but that’s no concern of yours.”
He grabbed her arm. “I’m taking you home.”
She pulled herself out of his hold and stepped back, glaring at him. She was still a child in his eyes, it seemed. That hurt, but instead of letting herself feel it, she turned it to anger. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Don’t you remember? You told me to stay away from you, and I plan to do just that.” Though she had come today, not only for her concern for Alicia, but because she knew Reuben would be here. He could look at her, but he could never touch her again.
She couldn’t take it.
He moved closer. “Rachel.”
“My lady, are you all right?” Nash came into the room. She’d not even heard the door open.
Reuben turned on his brother. “Leave us.”
Nash came to stand next to Reuben, meeting him in height, but beating his lean athletic body in muscle. Nash was, by all standards, gorgeous, but he never tempted Rachel as Reuben did. “I’ll leave if the lady wishes me to.”
Reuben’s face lost all expression. “Nash, you don’t want to challenge me.”
Nash lifted a brow and grinned.
Rachel touched her lips. She’d only wanted to tease Reuben a little. She didn’t want to start a war. Reuben was acting like an overbearing protector, and hopefully, that would change with time. “Nash,” she called sweetly. When his luminous blue eyes turned in her direction, she went on, curving her lips into a smile. “Thank you for your aid, but I’m perfectly fine. Reuben and I are simply having a chat.”
Nash returned the grin, which only made him more beautiful, before giving her a small bow. “Very well, but you let me know if you need anything.”
Reuben forced the words. “She won’t need anything from you.”
Nash looked at his brother again, and then left.
Reuben turned to her the moment the door closed behind him. “Men can’t think with you looking like that.”
She batted her lashes lightly. “You’re thinking, and a man… as far as I know.” Too late, she realized her error.
Reuben grabbed her and pressed her back against the wall. His eyes turned a deadly forest shade. “Do you need reassurance of my sex, my lady?”
Her fingers curled, and everything within her heated, boiling with the need to shout ‘yes!’ She wanted his mouth on her. She was weak where he was concerned. She didn’t want to be weak anymore. “No.”
“Too bad,” he hissed, right before he seized her mouth.
REUBEN WAITED for her to push him away. To slap him. He deserved it. He’d kissed her at the party, and then had abandoned her and her aunt, to the care of his footman. If anything, she should loathe him. She had every right to have strolled in here today, and forced him to take hold of everything she fought against. He hadn’t earned the right to kiss her, would never be worthy of her soft warm mouth, that was wonderfully palatable under his own.
He’d tried to forget how sweet she was. She sighed into his mouth, and her arms went around his neck, pulling him closer and giving in to him.
She shouldn’t have. He was unworthy, and yet he had no intentions of stopping.
His hands went to her shoulders, expecting fabric, but instead they met skin that felt like silk. He trailed his fingers down her arms, exploring what was exposed.
Her hands slipped down to his chest, and then with a force he’d been unprepared for, how she pushed him.
Having been so caught up in the kiss, Reuben lost his balance, tripped over the rug, and fell onto the carpet. His hands took most of the impact, but a sharp pain struck his palm. He looked down to find glass. He looked up, to see that this was the room at the attacker had thrown the brick into. The glass still rested on the floor, as there were no servants to clean it up, and Alicia was keeping the children together.
He sat up.
“Oh, Reuben.” Rachel knelt down beside him, avoiding the glass, and took his hand. Her eyes watered. “Oh, I’m so terribly sorry.”
He grunted. “I deserved it.”
“Not this!” She looked full of panic, her eyes watered.
He frowned. “It’s not deep.” There was only a single piece protruding, and though it was large, it hadn’t bitten too deep.
Rachel stood and looked around the room. “I need water and a rag. I should get help. I’ll—”
“Rachel,” he called warily.
She looked at him, once again in control of herself. “Don’t move.” She pointed a finger at him as though he should obey, and then she fled the room.
She may have looked different, but she was the same woman he’d always known. That, he was sure of. A light breeze was blowing through the room from the gash in the window, and with it, came the thinned noise from the street. A brick may have been thrown through a window, but it took more than that to stop the businesses in Paddington.
In the quiet, he thought about kissing Rachel, and then thought about the first time he’d done so, and how he’d very much like to do it again. It didn’t matter what she wore or how she styled her hair. She was still the warmest person he knew, and though a part of him was frightened by his feelings for her, he knew no greater peace than being with her.
He heard her footsteps minutes before she and his sisters rushed into the room.
“I’ll get a broom,” Alex said, before she fled. Being a countess hadn’t stopped her from putting off any work that needed to be done.
Rose had a bowl of water and sat at Reuben’s side, as Rachel took his hand again. His sister brushed his hair back from his forehead as though he were a young boy. “What happened?”
“I fell.”
“I pushed him,” Rachel countered. Though her movement over his hand was gentle, her expression was not. “He kissed me, and I was forced to defend myself.” The glass was set free of his hand and then a dry rag was pressed against his palm, and even the slightest sense of pain vanished.
Reuben was caught off guard by the fact that she’d uttered the truth.
Rose also looked surprised, but only for a moment. “Serves you right, then,” she said to Reuben. “You’ve compromised a lady.”
His gut tightened. Those words were the last any gentleman wished to hear.
“Yes, but compromised or not, I’ll not marry him,” Rachel said, with her eyes on the rag.
Her words should have released the tension inside of him, but instead, it only grew worse. He was such a coward. He’d take her if he was forced, but was unwilling to do so by choice?
Rachel’s gaze rose to his. “Does it hurt?”
He almost wanted to ask her what she referred to. Was it his hand she worried over, or his heart? “A little.”
Slowly, she turned her gaze back to his hand and lifted the rag. The gash was small, but ugly. He looked to see how it affected Rachel, but instead of disgust, he saw his own pain reflected.
Alex returned with the broom and swept up, before leaving to throw the remains away.
Rachel dipped the rag in water and began to clean him.
“I can do it myself,” he told her without any true feeling, yet still he leaned in closer, and the smell of soft flowers filled his lungs. He wanted her to stay, and was glad when her only response was the thinning of her lips, before she continued with her work.
Rose gained her feet and sighed. “Well, I’ll go check on Alicia, since you seem to be fine in here.” She left, sporting a mischievous smile, and once again, he and Rachel were alone.
“I hope you didn’t plan to use this hand tonight,” she told him, her head still down. This close, he could count her darkened lashes. “Once it’s bandaged, you should leave it alone for a while.”
He took a moment to think, and then said, “Well, I did have plans to go to the cotton factory tonight.”
She paused, and finally tilted her head up to look at him. An inch more and their mouths would meet again. “To look for furniture?”
He nodded slowly.
Her lashes fluttered, and then she was wringing out the blood, to wipe at his hand again. “Make sure you get the best of everything there, enough to outfit each room. I was thinking you should go with dark pieces. Walnut or elm would do well.”
“You could select which furnishings you deem best, when you come.”