Page 74 of Dare to be Wicked

He shook his head before his senses deserted him completely, scowling at the ground and avoiding her eyes. “No.”

She walked around so she was facing him again, her voice soft, cajoling. “Not even if I ask nicely?”

Though he knew better, he looked at her. He wanted to plead with her not to put temptation in his way when every fibre of his being wanted to do just as she asked, but… it was impossible.

He folded his arms.

“Non.”

“Oh,” she said with a sigh, and… was that disappointment in her eyes, the foolish girl? “Then I must wait until the season begins. No doubt our paths will cross again.”

“No,” he said, fighting to hide the regret in his words. “They will not.”

And he forced himself to turn and walk away.

“There you are, Eliza,” Lottie said, relieved to see her sister had returned from her walk. “Oh, the fresh air has done you good. There’s some colour in your cheeks at last, and look, I have a surprise for you!”

Eliza smiled as Louis César moved to greet her but did not look as surprised as Lottie might have expected.

“How lovely to see you,” she said, as the comte raised her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers.

“The pleasure is entirely mine, Lady Elizabeth. We have been so dreadfully worried about you. I simply could not stay away a moment longer without seeing with my own eyes that you were recovering well. Yet, I seem to be intruding on a family celebration.”

Cassius smiled at him, his arm going around Lottie. “Not intruding, but it is certainly a celebration.”

“So I see,” Louis said, his bright blue eyes studying them both for a moment before glancing at Eliza.

Eliza laughed. “I am delighted for them. Cassius is my brother at last, just as he was always meant to be. Everything is perfect.”

Louis nodded, smiling. “In that case, I believe I shall take my leave of you before your fathers discover my presence and decide to throw me in the lake for disturbing this wonderful day. I am very happy for you both, and delighted to see you looking so well, my lady. I shall hope to see you again, very soon.”

Finally. Finally, the wedding breakfast was done, and the family gathered in front of the house to wave them off. Not a moment too soon for Cassius, who was far too eager to get his wife to their new home and, more importantly, into their new bed. Tonight, though, they had a lovely suite of rooms booked in a hotel in London, to break the journey to Aylesbury.

“Thanks for taking her off our hands, old man,” Jules said, slapping Cassius on the back and smirking, their fight long since forgotten. “Life will be so much more peaceful.”

Lottie stuck her tongue out at her brother, who tsked and rolled his eyes. “Such a perfect young lady you’ve got yourself. Good God, to think she’s Viscountess Oakley now.”

Cassius laughed. “All right, Jules, quit whilst you’re ahead or she’ll find something to hit you with.”

“I won’t,” Lottie retorted. “I shall just kick him in the—”

“Best if we leave it at that,” her father remarked dryly, giving his son and heir a look. “It is your sister’s wedding day, Blackstone.”

The reproving tone and the use of Jules’s title was indication enough that Jules had better be nice.

Jules gave a long-suffering sigh, but held his arms out to his sister. “Good luck, Snottie. I suppose I’ll miss you.”

Lottie huffed but hugged him back. “I suppose I’ll miss you too, Crackedstone.”

“Ha-ha, that’s a good one! Crackedstone, because he’s cracked in the head,” chortled their thirteen-year old-cousin, Felix, Florence’s little brother.

Jules sent him a glacial look and the boy turned a startling shade of scarlet, subsiding at once.

“Yes, yes, that’s enough familial affection,” drawled the long-suffering duke. “Away with you now.”

Cassius could not have agreed more. He turned to where his parents were waiting to see them off.

“Promise you’ll write,” his mother said thickly as she accepted the handkerchief his father handed her. “More than you did when you were in France you dreadful boy.”