Again the Magic (18 page)

Instantly the housemaid departed, while McKenna continued to stare at Aline.

She reminded herself that she had no right to feel possessive of him. After all, she was no longer a nineteen-year-old girl infatuated with a stable boy. Nevertheless, a burn of anger raced through her at the evidence that she was not the only woman that McKenna had targeted for seduction. Her face felt stiff as she continued toward the entrance hall. “Go on,” she murmured to Gwen, and the girl obediently hurried ahead of her.

McKenna reached Aline in a few long strides. His dark face was unreadable as he reached for the basket. “Let me have that.”

Aline jerked it away from him. “No, thank you.”

“You’re limping.”

His observation caused tendrils of alarm to spread through her stomach.

“I turned my ankle on the stairs,” she said shortly, resisting as he tugged the basket from her. “Let go. I don’t need your help.”

Ignoring her, McKenna carried the basket with ease, his brow creasing as he stared at her. “You should let Mrs. Faircloth bind that before it worsens.”

“It’s already feeling better,” Aline said in exasperation. “Go find someone else to bother, McKenna. I’m certain there are many other women you wish to trifle with today.”

“I wasn’t trying to seduce her.”

She responded with a speaking glance, and his dark brows lifted in mocking crescents. “You don’t believe me?” he asked.

“No, actually. I think that she is your insurance, in case you don’t succeed in bedding me.”

“First, I have no intention of bedding one of the housemaids. I was trying to get some information from her. Second, I don’t need insurance.”

The arrogance of his statement was enough to make Aline speechless. She had never met a man so abominably sure of himself — and that was fortunate, as there was not sufficient room in the civilized world to accommodate more than a handful of men like him. When she thought she could speak without stuttering, she finally asked in a clipped voice, “What information would a housemaid have that could possibly interest you?”

“I found out that she was employed here at the time of that mysterious illness of yours. I was trying to make her tell me something about it.”

Aline fixed her gaze on the knot of his cravat, her entire body tensing. “And what did she tell you?”

“Nothing. It seems that she and the rest of the servants are determined to keep your secrets.”

His answer afforded Aline boundless relief. She relaxed slightly as she replied. “There are no secrets to discover. I had a fever. Sometimes it happens to people for no apparent reason, and sends them into decline. I recovered eventually, and that was that.”

He gave her a hard stare as he replied. “I don’t buy that.”

The expression was unfamiliar, but its meaning was clear. “Obviously you will believe whatever you wish to,” she said. “I can do no more than offer you the truth.”

One of his eyebrows lifted at her tone of offended dignity. “As I learned in the past, my lady, you play fast with the truth when it suits you.”

Aline scowled at her own inability to defend her past actions, without having to tell him far more than she would ever want him to know.

Before she could reply, McKenna stunned her by pulling her to the side of the narrow passageway. He set the basket down and straightened to face her. As they stood in the hallway with their bodies almost touching, erotic urgency sang through Aline’s body. Shrinking away from him, she felt her shoulders come up against the wall.

McKenna stood close enough that she could see the grain of his close-shaven whiskers, a shadow that enhanced his swarthy masculine appeal. His lips were set in severe alignment, until brackets formed at the sides of his mouth. Aline wanted to kiss those lines of tension, soothe them away with her tongue, taste the corners of his lips… Desperately she shoved the thoughts away and lowered her face to avoid the sight of his mouth.

“It makes no sense that you should have stayed unmarried,” came his low, aggravated voice. “I want to know what happened to you all those years ago, and why you’re alone. What is the matter with the men of Hampshire, that none of them has taken you for himself? Or is the problem with you?”

That was so close to the truth that Aline felt a chill of unease. “Is this an example of your seductive skills, McKenna?” she asked crisply. “Seizing a lady in the servants’ hallway and subjecting her to an inquisition?”

That provoked a sudden grin, his baffled frustration disappearing with startling quickness. “No,” he admitted. “I can do better than this.”

“One would hope so.” She tried to move past him, but he stepped forward, his solid weight impelling her against the wall until there was no possibility of retreat. Aline gasped at the feel of his body, the thick-muscled wedge of his thigh between hers, the touch of his breath against her ear. He did not attempt to kiss her, only continued to hold her carefully, as if his body were absorbing the details of hers.

“Let me pass,” Aline said thickly.

He did not seem to have heard her. “The feel of you…” he muttered.

Awareness rippled through her as she was trapped between the cold, hard wall and the warm, hard man who held her. His body was different from how she remembered it, no longer loose-limbed and narrow, but bigger, heavier, imbued with the strength of a male in his full-blooded prime. McKenna was no longer the winsome boy she remembered… he had become someone else entirely. A powerful, ruthless man, with a body to match. Fascinated by the differences in him, Aline could not stop herself from sliding her hands beneath his coat. Her fingers passed over the burgeoning muscles of his chest, the sturdy vault of his ribs. McKenna went still, disciplining himself so sternly that a tremor of effort went through his limbs.

“Why are
you
still alone?” Aline whispered, swimming in the scent of him, a salty, sun-heated fragrance that made her heart pound in almost uncomfortably heavy beats. “You should have married by now.”

“I’ve never met a woman I wanted that much,” McKenna muttered. He stiffened as her hands coasted over the lean sides of his waist. “To be shackled by marriage vows would drive me—” He broke off and began to breathe like a winded racehorse as Aline let the backs of her fingers stroke his tense abdomen.

Relishing a sudden sense of power mingled with searing excitement, Aline prolonged the moment, letting him wonder if she would dare touch him the way he so obviously craved. His body was thoroughly excited, heat pouring from him in waves. She longed to feel the sleek masculine form beneath the layers of cotton and summer wool. Hardly able to believe her own wild recklessness, she slid her fingers over the outside of his trousers, until they curved delicately over the jutting length of his erection. A shock of pleasure went through her, the nerves in her palms tingling at the contact with his hard, tensile flesh. Memories of physical rapture elicited thrills of response from her sensation-starved body, delicate tissues swelling with anticipation.

McKenna groaned faintly and rested his hands on her shoulders, fingers splayed as if he were afraid of clenching her too tightly. She caressed the swelling, twitching shaft… up… her thumb rubbing lightly at the top… then down… her fingers flexing tentatively until his breath hissed between his clenched teeth. Up and down… the thought of having him inside her, being impaled with such plentiful maleness, brought a surge of liquid warmth to her own loins.

McKenna lowered his head, his mouth brushing over her face with the softness of butterfly wings. His reverence astonished her. His lips coasted to the corners of her mouth, lingered, then quested across her jaw until his tongue touched the soft lobe of her ear. Blindly Aline turned her mouth to his, wanting the full pressure of his kiss. He gave it to her slowly, possessing her by agonizing degrees, causing her to moan when he finally settled his mouth fully upon hers. Sagging against him, Aline opened to the penetration of his tongue. He tasted her gently, stroking the satin interior of her mouth with an exquisite skill that demolished her ability to think. The rhythm of her breath turned desperate, while all her muscles tightened with delicious urgency. She wanted to wrap herself around him, welcome him deeper into her embrace until he had sunk fully inside her.

Trying to pull her even closer, McKenna hunched his shoulders over hers and clamped one hand over her buttocks, lifting her to the tips of her toes. His mouth drifted to her throat, then wandered back to her lips, and he kissed her over and over, as if he were trying to discover all the ways that their mouths could fit together. His lips caught hers at a particularly luscious angle, and a soft moan rose in her throat, and she squirmed with the need to feel the full length of him against her. The movement of her breasts against his chest drew a harsh sound from him. Suddenly he broke a kiss with a low curse.

Aline wrapped her arms around herself and stared at him dumbly, knowing that her trembling must have been visible to him… just as his was to her.

McKenna turned away from her and folded his arms across his chest, his head bent as he glared at the floor. “Only so much… self-control,” he muttered, the words compressed by his stiff jaw.

The knowledge that he had been about to lose all ability to master himself — and the fact that he was willing to admit it — filled Aline with a mindless excitement that was slow to subside.

It seemed to take forever for both of them to regain their self-possession. Finally McKenna bent to pick up the discarded basket and gestured wordlessly for her to precede him.

Dazedly Aline led the way to the entrance hall, where she encountered the housemaid Gwen, who was heading back to fetch the last basket from her.

McKenna refused to yield the heavy parcel to the girl. “No need,” he said easily. “I’ll carry it for you — just show me where you want it.”

“Yes, sir,” Gwen said at once.

He turned to exchange a brief glance with Aline, his blue-green eyes narrowed and dark. A silent message passed between them…
later
… and then he left with long, easy strides.

Standing still as she tried to gather her wits, Aline was diverted by the unexpected appearance of her brother, who wore a perturbed frown as he came to the hall entrance. Marcus had changed from his shooting clothes into pearl-gray trousers, a dark blue waistcoat, and a blue patterned silk necktie.

“Where is Livia?” Marcus demanded without preamble. “She’s gone missing all morning.”

Aline hesitated before replying, keeping her voice low. “I suspect she may be in Mr. Shaw’s company.”

“What?”

“I believe he joined Livia for her morning walk,” Aline said, striving to sound casual. “To my knowledge, neither of them has been seen since then.”

“And you let him go with her?” Marcus whispered in outrage. “For God’s sake, why didn’t you do something to stop him?”

“Oh, don’t carry on so,” Aline said. “Believe me, Marcus, Livia is perfectly capable of telling a man to leave her alone. And if she wishes to spend some time in Mr. Shaw’s company, I think she’s earned the right to do so. Besides, he seems to be a gentleman, regardless of his reputation.”

“He’s not like the gentlemen that Livia is accustomed to. He’s
American.”
The particular emphasis he placed on the last word made it sound like an insult.

“I thought you liked Americans!”

“Not when they’re sniffing around one of my sisters.” Marcus’s gaze was taut with suspicion as he regarded her more closely. “And what have
you
been doing?”

“I…” Briefly taken aback, Aline put a hand to her throat, which had become the focus of his darkening scowl. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“There is a whisker burn on your neck,” he said grimly.

Deciding to play ignorant, Aline gave him a blank look. “Don’t be silly. It is merely some chafing caused by my cameo ribbon.”

“You’re not wearing a cameo ribbon.”

Aline smiled and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek, knowing that underneath his glowering exterior, he was terrified that one of his adored sisters might be hurt. “Livia and I are grown women,” she said. “And there are certain things you can’t protect us from, Marcus.”

Her brother accepted her kiss and offered no further complaint, but as Aline walked away from him, she heard him murmur something that sounded suspiciously like “Oh yes, I can.”

That night Aline found a single red rose on her pillow, its lush petals slightly unfurled, its long stem carefully stripped of thorns. Picking up the fragrant blossom, she drew it over her cheek and parted lips.

My lady,
Flowers, and a serenade to come forthwith. As for the poetry… you’ll have to provide me with further inspiration.
Yours,
M.

F
or the next two days McKenna could find no opportunity to get Aline alone. Playing the part of hostess with sparkling skill, she seemed to be everywhere at once, efficiently orchestrating suppers, games, amateur theatricals, and other entertainments for the horde of guests at Stony Cross Park. Short of stalking up to her, seizing her, and dragging her away in front of everyone, McKenna had no recourse but to wait for his chance. And as usual, he found it hard to be patient.

Everyone flocked around Aline whenever she appeared. Ironically, she possessed the ability that her mother, the countess, had always coveted — to draw others to herself. The difference was that the countess had wanted their attention for her own benefit, whereas Aline seemed to possess a sincere desire to make people happy in her presence. She flirted skillfully with old men, and sat and gossiped over glasses of cordial with old women. She played games with the children, listened sympathetically to the unmarried girls’ tales of romantic woe, and deflected any young men’s interest by acting like a kind older sister.

In this last endeavor Aline was not entirely successful. Regardless of her lack of interest, many men were obviously smitten with her… and the sight of their hopeful, barely suppressed ardor turned McKenna’s entire being to gall. He wanted to dispatch them all, drive them away, bare his teeth at them like a snarling wolf. He owned her, by virtue of his need and the bitter-washed memories of their past together.