Page 11 of How to Wed a Courtesan

She licked her lips, the gesture unintentionally erotic.

‘Even if I find myself imagining what more there is between a man and a woman.’

His groin twitched in reply. He shifted his stance lest she see exactly what she did to him.

‘Especially all that.’ He hesitated only a moment before speaking the words that had been in his heart since he’d first spotted her that first rainy day when he’d come to Oxfordshire. ‘I mean to make you my baroness, Lottie.’

Her eyes went wide. ‘You...want to...?’

‘I want to marry you,’ he said, with all the vehemence of young love. ‘I will see your father to ask formally, of course. That is...if you want to marry me.’ The sense of confidence which had guided him down this path faltered. ‘Do you?’

Lottie smiled up at him. ‘Of course I do.’

Her reply, while positive, was not as exuberant as he’d hoped and cast doubt on his joy. ‘Are you certain? I would never wish you to agree without your full heart.’

‘You have my full heart.’ She took his hand and pressed it to the centre of her chest.

Except that it wasn’t her heartbeat he felt beneath his palm, but the round plumpness of her breasts. It was all he could do to keep from shifting his touch upon her to cup them, caress them, until that little hum at the back of her throat gave way to a moan.

‘It’s only that I don’t wish to leave my father.’

She released Evander’s hand and he withdrew it from her bosom with great reluctance.

‘I’m all he has.’

‘I will be purchasing the Huntly Estate, where I’ve been staying,’ he replied, grateful he’d already spoken to Lord Enders about the possibility the prior week. ‘He is a good friend, and knows I have a strong reason to remain in Oxfordshire.’

Before he could say another word Lottie gave a cry of joy and threw her arms around him. She kissed him again and again and again, until his head swam.

‘I am so eager to wed you.’ She nuzzled her lips against his neck, just below his ear. ‘To walk proudly on your arm, to share my life with you. To experience all the things that exist between a man and his wife...’

Good God.

‘I shall speak with your father tomorrow morning,’ he said, in a low, intimate voice.

And that was exactly what he did—as soon as it was appropriate for the vicar to receive a caller with the intent to formally request her hand, so that Miss Charlotte Rossington could become his wife.

Chapter Four

Never had Lottie’s home felt so achingly small. She paced the drawing room like the caged lion she’d once seen at a travelling fair.

Another peek out through the doorway revealed that the hall remained empty. Not that she wouldn’t have heard the door to her father’s study open. She strained for every sound she could make out. While she could detect the baritone of two male voices, they were far too muffled to decipher what was being said.

Surely her father would allow Evander to wed her. Why would he not? And yet they had been in the study for a considerable amount of time.

She huffed out a sigh and stared at the blank page before her, the intended watercolour image locked within her brain, held captive by the many thoughts flying about within.

A door swung open, followed by the heavy thud of Hessians over the glossy wood floors.

Lottie’s breath caught. They were finally done.

She rushed to stand in the doorway and caught sight of Evander. He wore a splendid suit, cut and tailored to frame his lean, strong body to perfection. Simply looking at him made her yearn to press her palms to his powerful chest.

Soon.

Soon they would be wed, and they would seal their adoration with the intimacy meant to exist between a married couple. The ache between her thighs pulsed with anticipation. She shouldn’t long for such things, she knew, and yet she could not stop herself from wanting that part of him any more than she could stop her heart from loving him.

Evander drew closer, leading the way before her father. Except it was not a joyous expression on his face as his eyes met hers.