don’t even know me. For all you know I could be a drunk who likes to beat women.’
‘You aren’t such a man. You have too much integrity. If you didn’t, you’d have accepted my father’s offer without bothering to talk to me, set a date for the wedding and rushed through to the bedding as fast as possible.’
Justin tipped his empty glass to her. She was flattering him, a somewhat effective tactic. ‘Perhaps, but even with you standing here demanding we wed I won’t take you.’
‘What if I could be of use to you?’
He winked at her. ‘I don’t need to be married for that.’
She frowned then, the small pursing of her lips as tempting as the subtle rise and fall of her chest.
‘I mean in business. I can make my father increase his offer, especially since he’s so eager to be rid of me.’ A pain Justin recognised rippled through her eyes. She wasn’t alone in enduring the condemnations of a demanding and stubborn father. Justin knew a little something about it, too. ‘A word of support from him will have clients lining up at your door.’
‘I’m aware of this, Miss Lambert, but it’s not so much the clients I’m worried about as it is my wife.’ He set his glass down. ‘I don’t want to look around one day and find you back in Lord Howsham’s bed or in some other man’s.’
For the first time since she’d entered the room her eyes dropped from his and a flush of red washed over her creamy skin. Her shame didn’t last as she raised her head to meet his gaze again with a will as seductive as the faint scent of jasmine gracing her skin. ‘I don’t blame you for being suspicious of me and my motives, so I’ll be as honest with you as you’ve been with me. I didn’t run after Lord Howsham out of lust. I did it because I believed he’d offer me the things Lord Rockland never has, the freedom of my own home and a place as something more than a bastard. You’re worried I’ll chase after every lord who comes my way. The truth is I want nothing more to do with any of them, not even my father. If you agree to the marriage, I will maintain contact with my father in an effort to help you. I could be quite an asset to your wine business.’
‘What do you know of trade, Miss Lambert?’ She didn’t look like one to sit behind a counter all day or wander through a cellar in search of a bottle.
‘My mother’s family owned a wine shop in Oxfordshire. I assure you, I didn’t spend my girlhood learning to draw on plates, but to manage customers, inventory and accounts at my mother’s side. She was an excellent negotiator. It’s how she managed to extract Lord Rockland’s promise to support me, even after she passed.’ She swallowed hard. Justin pitied her and wanted to reach out and take her in his arms to soothe her. His grief for his own mother was as raw as hers, but he didn’t move. ‘I can garner for you the same type of deal.’
‘Can you now?’ She was certainly more experienced in the wine business than he’d imagined. He wondered what other surprising traits and talents she possessed.
She strolled over to him, allure and innocence wrapped up in the slow swing of her hips. ‘Judging from your willingness to start your own business, you’re a man not averse to taking risks. A betting man as some might say.’
‘I’ve been known to wager from time to time.’ Justin remained still, as intrigued by her offer as he was tempted by her full lips and what they would feel like beneath his.
‘Then let me offer you one now. I’ll prove to you today I can be an asset to both you and your potential venture. If you’re suitably impressed, you’ll agree to my father’s offer.’
‘And if I’m not?’ He was ashamed to admit it, but she was already halfway to impressing him up the church aisle. However, he wasn’t ready to tie himself to this strange woman, not yet.
‘Then you’re free to go. I’ll leave the decision up to you.’
* * *
Susanna waited for the tall gentleman with the brown hair to answer, ignoring how her chest caught every time his amber eyes caressed the length of her body. Lord Howsham’s hurried, fumbling touch hadn’t made her insides melt as they were doing now with Mr Connor standing mere feet away. He smelled of leather, sawdust and musk, a more masculine scent than the lemongrass preferred by the society fops. It wrapped around her, drawing her to him until she almost forgot it was she who was here to win him over. She was close, her victory revealing itself in the hold of his eyes on hers and the twitch of his jaw above his cravat as he struggled between detached uninterest and desire. For all his rejection of the proposal, he wanted her as much as Lord Howsham had, only this man possessed the self-control to deny himself. She wished Lord Howsham had done the same and not pressed her into an intimacy she hadn’t truly wanted. However, if he’d shown some restraint, she wouldn’t be in this position, with her freedom only a conversation away. ‘What do you say, Mr Connor? Are you willing to accept my challenge?’
He settled his muscled thighs covered by buckskin breeches against the edge of a small table and crossed his arms over his wide chest, his ease of manner both annoying and rousing. He reminded her of a tiger she’d once seen at the Tower lounging in the sun, relaxed but laced with an edge of danger one could almost touch. ‘How do you know I won’t simply say I will and then walk away?’
‘Because you’re the kind of man who keeps his word once it’s given.’
He tilted his head in silent agreement. ‘Are you the kind of lady who keeps hers?’
‘I am.’ She raised her chin, determined, in spite of the actions which had landed her in this muddle, to demonstrate her integrity. She might have made a drastic misstep with Lord Howsham, but she wasn’t a woman to cuckold a man or break her vow once it was given. ‘I promise you, when I change your mind, you won’t regret it.’
He tossed a cocky smile at her which made her toes curl in her half-boots. ‘No, I don’t believe I will.’
She held out her hand to him. ‘Then we have a deal?’
He eyed her fingers with the same amusement he’d demonstrated during their entire discussion. Embarrassment eroded her confidence as her hand hung in the air waiting for him to take it. For all his glib lightheartedness, she sensed the serious streak lying just beneath the humour. He was considering her offer and whether or not she was worth the risk. He wouldn’t be the only one taking a chance with this challenge. She would be, too, but it was worth it if it meant ending her time with the Rocklands and escaping the taint of being a mistake and an unwanted intrusion.
At last he slid his hand in hers, his hold hot and hard. Her heart began to race and she took a deep breath to steady herself, willing her body not to tremble. If he experienced any measure of the heat sliding through her at the joining of their skin, he didn’t reveal it, his eyes crinkling at the corners with an enticing smile. How the woman who’d leapt from his carriage last night could have walked away from such an alluring man Susanna didn’t know, but she was thankful she had.
‘We do.’ He smiled with a wickedness to nearly make her faint. ‘Now do your best.’
Reluctantly, she let go of his hand and strode to the double doors, struggling to make each step sure and to not peek back at him. It felt too much like something Edwina would do in the presence of the Earl of Rapping, gazing longingly at him from across the theatre, making a fool of herself as she all but drooled over a man who barely acknowledged her existence. The same couldn’t be said for Mr Connor.
