As he chewed, Grey's heartbeat slowed to a ponderous rhythm, though he felt more excitement than he could remember. Luckily, with this dosage there would be no hallucinations. He hoped....
Ah, and there went Jane, waking as if from a trance, beginning to gesture and fume even as MacCarrick was loading her into the coach. Stubborn Jane wasn't one to be led blindly, and she was no doubt demanding answers, ones that Hugh clearly wasn't providing. At the coach door, she stepped up, but turned to say something else to Hugh, putting their faces close. They both fell silent.
Grey had compared Hugh to a bear chasing a butterfly. The corners of Grey's lips tilted up. No, Hugh was better than that - he was like a wolf with a rabbit twitching her tail in front of him.
Sooner or later, the wolf would attack.
When Hugh shut the carriage door, he stood for just a second, exhaling deeply, as if getting his bearings. He ran a shaking hand over his face, no doubt disbelieving he'd wed the chit.
"Don't worry, Hugh," Grey softly assured him. "It shan't be for long."
In the past, if Jane had caught Hugh staring at her br**sts, he'd always averted his eyes. In the coach for the last hour, he'd looked at her brazenly, studying her body, as if re-learning it, as if it was hisright to do so. It galled her. He could have had unfettered access to her body. She would have denied him nothing in the past.
The fact that she reacted to his heated gaze only infuriated her further. Why couldn't she have found him less attractive than she had years before? She'd always thought him the most beautiful man she'd ever seen - even before she'd spied on him shucking off his clothes to swim naked in the lake and had gazed in awe at his magnificent body. And now this new hardness about him was nearly irresistible.
A living hell, she'd promised him. She'd sounded so strong, so determined.
Now she waffled.
Stay married, her father had advised. She didn't want that, couldn't have that. She'd been forced to accept the alliance, but Hugh hadn't been and could have saved them both from this.
He'd refused.
Because Hugh had left her no way out, Jane felt he might as well have pushed her off a cliff. Yes, a nice, big shove, sending her flailing and screaming right over the edge.
Inevitably, once she landed, it was going to be messy.
She was already livid with him over the past, before he attacked Freddie. Now she was wed to the very man who'd betrayed her, and this on the heels of the rawest show of fury she had ever seen. Hugh in the warehouse had been bad, but this morning he'd been worse. What she couldn't understand was why.
Had he become one of those men whose first reaction always tended toward violence? Or had her father already promised her to him, days, even weeks, before? Which would mean Hugh had thought hisfiancée had been kissing another? She frowned. Recalling her conversation with her father, she realized he'd never asked herwhy Hugh had attacked Freddie....
Hugh's own explanation had rung hollow, even as he'd uttered it. Yes, Hugh was a close friend of the family's, and, yes, perhaps she oughtn't to have been kissing Freddie in the park behind the folly, but nothing excused what he'd done.
Jane was angry and she wanted revenge. Her talent still lay in teasing and tormenting. In fact, as she'd pointed out to Hugh, her arsenal had only expanded, thanks to all the tricks she'd learned in her five London seasons among seven master cousins.
Hugh should know what he'd given up back then. He should have a taste of what hecouldn't have now without risking a binding marriage to her.
For every hopeless day and night filled with tears, for every man she'd compared to him and found lacking, for his decision to leave her...
For all her pain, she would make him pay.
"Oh, Hugh, darling, it's close in here, is it not?" She unfastened the first few buttons of her blouse and drew it wide to fan herself. After opening the window on her side, she tugged up her skirts so she could kneel on the bench facing him. She reached past Hugh toward his window, resting one knee against his thigh, and placed her palm just above his own knee. His entire body went rigid.
With her other arm stretched out to the window, she turned her head so their lips were barely inches apart. "You don't mind, do you, darling?" she asked in a sensual whisper as she slowly rubbed her palm higher up his rock-hard thigh. His jaw clenched, and he swallowed hard. His brows drew together as though he was in pain.
Make him pay.
They hit a bump, and though his hands shot to her waist to steady her, she made sure she landed straddling him.
He hissed in a breath. "Jane," he growled, tightening his grip. But he didn't raise her from her position - if anything, his shaking hands on her waist pressed her down.
"What is it, darling?" she murmured.
"Doona touch me, lass," he rasped. "Just...you canna touch me."
And pay.
"How clumsy of me," she purred. "Needing you to support me, or else I mightslide...slowly...inch by inch...down upon your " - she leaned in close to his ear, making sure he felt her breaths before she enunciated - "lap." He shuddered violently, lowering his head to her neck.
When she eased back, he faced her, appearing stunned. His normally clenched jaw was slack.
She patted his shoulder firmly - all business - then maneuvered and swished back into her seat to gaze casually out the window. "Yes, darling, now it'smuch better in here."
Chapter Fourteen
Hugh violently rubbed his palms on his legs, struggling for a calm he didn't possess. His swift, blood-pounding erection strained against his trousers. His breaths came haggard.
After wanting her for so long...
She didn't understand just how tenuous his control was, and was even now gazing out the window, unconcerned. But he could see her coral lips curling without humor. She was playing with him, just as she always had.
He'd tolerate it no longer.I saw her kissing another goddamned man.
His hand shot out to grasp her arm, and her smirk vanished. She turned to him with a glare. "Hugh, release me."
He yanked her closer to him on the bench. "You'd do well to recognize I'm no' the same lad I was."
"And what are you now?" she asked airily, seemingly unaffected by what had just occurred and by Hugh's building anger.
"I'm a man with a man's needs." He would teach her, give her this lesson now so that she would stop these flirtations. Because she was right - she had gotten even better, somehow improving on perfection. He sensed it was critical to put her in her place now. His voice grating, he said, "Doona expect to tease me like that and no' relieve me in some fashion."
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. "Some fashion? Enlighten me, darling." Her soft fingertips toyed with his chest in the V of his shirt. Christ, she made him weak. "How do you usually prefer to be...relieved?"
So she'd meet him measure for measure? He was a man with more experience, he should be able to win this handily. There had to be a line she wouldn't cross. But could he pull back once they reached it?
"I'll have tae show you," he heard himself saying. In one sweeping motion, he dragged her onto his lap, easing her back against his arm until he was leaning over her. She looked startled - after all, this was the first time he'd ever touched her back when she'd teased - but then a flicker of that stubborn look crossed her face. In the space of a heartbeat, she was all seduction again, reaching out to pet his neck even as she relaxed into his arm.
His blood pulsed in his groin, making it hot and aching. When she gasped, he knew she could feel his erection throbbing under her arse. He was having difficulty thinking. Didn't he have an agenda with this?
Kiss her so hard she'll forget she was in another man's arms this morning....
No.He was only doing this to push her, to startle her, to win this battle of wills. They always used to have them, and Hugh had lost as many as he'd won.
Her lips were parted, welcoming. Her body was so damned soft against him. Just one taste.Yes, get this out of the way in the beginning. Of course. He'd only imagined how good kissing her would be, and when that was proved otherwise, he could get past his obsession.
He leaned down, never taking his eyes from hers. He felt the lace hem of her skirt clenched in his shaking fist and had no idea how it had gotten there. No doubt he wanted to get to those wicked garters he'd seen her lace around her white thighs this morning.
Her open blouse revealed the swells of her creamy br**sts above her corset, and he bent to brush his lips over them, stunned to find her skin was as soft as it looked. When she shivered, her playfulness gone, he kissed up to the base of her neck, realizing this was the first time his lips had ever touched her.