Chapter 27

CHAPTER27

Andrew did not like Lady Amanda Thornton for two reasons. One, because she liked to pretend that she was better than everybody else, and two, because she was on his mother’s list.

The young lady in question also seemed to have redoubled her efforts in flirting with him as well after he had spent most of the entire afternoon with Julia. When he looked down and saw her fluttering her lashes at him so heavily, he thought he was going to be sick.

In fact, the very idea of another woman hanging on his arm repulsed him so much that it was taking all of his self-control to not physically pry her fingers off his arm.

He craned his neck over the crowd in frustration, looking for a glimpse of that brilliant crown of flaming locks. He was here for Julia, damn it, but this nitwit was standing in his way!

His eyes finally fell on her, and he could not help the smile that tilted his lips at the sight of her in a deep forest green gown embroidered with golden threads. The color accentuated her creamy skin to perfection, and with her hair piled up in luxurious coils over her head, he felt the instinctive desire to press a kiss to her graceful neck.

And then he saw it—the sheer displeasure that briefly flickered in her brilliant blue eyes and the sneer that curved her lips when she saw Lady Amanda Thornton hanging on his arm. He saw her arch an elegant eyebrow so slowly that she might as well have plunged a dagger into his gut and started twisting it with a torturous languor.

At that moment, Andrew felt a jolt of pure panic.

No, no, no! It is not what it appears to be!

But then, she had already turned her back to him—but not before she shot him one last smile. Daring him. Challenging him.

In a way, he felt a sense of happiness that she should react in such a way upon seeing another woman clutching at his arm. However, that was overshadowed by the knowledge that she was going to exact her revenge on him soon.

It did not take long before Lord Morton approached her, and Andrew found that he had never despised the man’s sleazy smile more than when he aimed it at Julia, who was encouraging it!

He glared at her, warning her not to proceed as she intended. Instead, she let out a carefree laugh, exposing that beautiful neck of hers once more. When he saw Lord Morton’s eyes light up at that sight, he could not help but clench his hand into a fist at his side.

“You must excuse me, My Lady,” he told the irritating Lady Amanda, “but I must be somewhere else.”

Lady Amanda followed his line of sight and pursed her lips in annoyance when she saw Julia. “I apologize for standing in your way, My Lord,” she bit out before stalking off to join her friends.

By now, Julia appeared to be talking intimately with Lord Morton, looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes. She was not supposed to look at another man like that, damn it!

“Beautiful, is she not?” a voice remarked tauntingly from behind him.

He turned around to find Lord Cosby with his eyes on Julia as well, a slight smile on his face.

“It is rather easy to catch her attention,” the Viscount continued softly, his eyes watching Julia with the intensity of a hawk eyeing its prey, “but you will find it quite difficult to hold onto it.”

“I cannot see how you can disparage the lady so much, seeing as you never caught her attention, Lord Cosby,” Andrew replied coldly.

He noted with immense satisfaction the twin pink spots that bloomed on Lord Cosby’s pale cheeks. The twitch in his clenched jaw told him that he had hit a raw nerve, one that he would relish striking again.

“You have always been much too arrogant for your own good, Lord Trowbridge,” Lord Cosby gritted out. “We shall see how far that takes you.”

Andrew did not spare the Viscount another glance as he stalked off to where Julia stood, enjoying the good company of Lord Morton.

“Perhaps we can go out for a ride tomorrow morning,” he heard the young man say to Julia. “You know, I brought my steed to Colman Park. We could—”

Andrew decided by then that he had had enough. “She will be doing no such thing,” he scoffed, pinning Lord Morton with an icy glare.

The flirtatious gentleman paled by two degrees but soon recovered with a simpering smile. “I believe that you do not have the right to decide for Lady Julia, Lord Trowbridge, since she is not spoken for.”

Thankfully, Julia refrained from saying anything at all.

“Then you had best make yourself scarce, Lord Morton,” Andrew bit out. “Lady Julia Lewis is already spoken for.”

“By whom?”

“By me.”

By then, a sizeable crowd had already gathered around them, eager to witness the spectacle firsthand. His words had the effect of slicing through the air like a hot knife through butter. A collective gasp went up, and he even heard what seemed like a sob.

Andrew, however, did not care, since his whole attention was now focused on Julia, who looked shocked by his declaration. And then a beautiful smile blossomed on her face.

“It seems like I truly cannot accompany you tomorrow, Lord Morton,” Julia said although there seemed not a hint of remorse in her voice. Her eyes never left Andrew either. “It would not be fair to dishonor Lord Trowbridge so.”

Andrew smiled as he offered her his arm. She took it without a moment of hesitation, smiling up at him in such a way that he felt his heart skip a few beats.

That has never happened before.

Julia, it seemed, was just as capable of evoking the most novel reactions in him.

As he led her away from Lord Morton, the crowd around them dispersed, most of them averting their gazes, trying to appear nonchalant even as they craned their necks to hear more about the latest and biggest news to hit the ton that weekend—that the Marquess of Trowbridge had just announced in no uncertain terms that he was courting Lady Julia Lewis.

“You certainly have a way of making your intentions known, My Lord.” Julia laughed, the sound deep and throaty and going straight to his very soul.

“Oh, do not pretend that it was not your intention to goad me into it,” Andrew grumbled.

She shot him a cheeky grin, and he had the strangest desire to kiss her right there in the middle of the drawing room.

“Far be it from me to attempt such mean tricks at manipulation,” she replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I saw how you were so enamored with Lady Amanda and thought that I must have misunderstood your intentions this afternoon.”

So, she was jealous. Can she not see how she has no need to be?

If Lady Amanda stood next to her, she would be cast in her shade. She would become nothing more than a foil to the brilliance that was Julia Lewis.

“You did not misunderstand anything,” Andrew reassured. “I am courting you. I have declared so already. Unless you want blood on your hands, I suggest you keep well away from other suitors, my dear.”

“Why? Were you going to render him unconscious the way you did Lord Caraway?”

Andrew let out a soft chuckle at the recollection of that particular night when he had followed Julia out onto the balcony only to find Lord Caraway trying to force himself on her in the dark.

It was how they began, when he first saw Julia for something other than the troublemaker he had convinced himself that she was.

How could I have been so stupid then?

Fortunately, there was still time enough to fix his shortcomings.

“I heard that Lord Caraway has developed a fondness for soups,” he told her with sham solemnity. “He has shied away from beef and other meats.”

He heard her choke on a giggle, and he decided he liked that sound. He would make sure to make her laugh more often in the future.

“You are truly incorrigible!” Julia admonished although there was not a hint of censure in her voice.

“Perhaps,” he replied with an unrepentant grin, “but you like me anyway.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “How very fortunate for you, My Lord.”

“I like that.”

“Like what?”

“When you call me your Lord.” He watched her beautiful cheeks color as he let his warm breath fan against the side of her face.

“Has anyone ever told you that you are much too arrogant for your own good?” she groused.

Only Lord Cosby earlier tonight. But he did not look as pleased about it as you do.

“I am a marquess,” Andrew told her. “And before that, I was also the Earl of Rowley. Arrogance is to be expected from someone of my rank.”

“Well, do not take that tone with me.”

He smiled at her imperious tone. His mother would most likely approve of that regal air in her successor.

“All right,” he relented. “As long as we agree that I am your Lord.”

She pursed her lips. “Do I have to?”

“And you are my Lady.”

She blushed again, and he longed to kiss her cheeks as well. He wanted to kiss all of her.

“Do you have any idea how adorable you look when you do that?”

She frowned at him. “Do what?”

“When you turn red at the slightest thing I say.” He smiled at her in satisfaction.

“I do not turn red at the slightest thing you say!” she argued, her cheeks turning even pinker.

“You do,” he said simply and then pressed a soft kiss on one warm cheek. “And it is making it even more difficult for me to keep my hands off of you.”

This might just be a farce, but it did not have to end thus. He might have started out trying to coerce her into helping him get rid of all the marriage prospects his mother had for him, but out of all the names on that list, only she remained. Julia. His Lady.

He had no doubt that he would be able to convince her that whatever they had was right. That this incandescence between them was worth holding onto.

He knew that, more than anything, she feared losing herself in marriage. She feared that her husband would lord himself over her and try to control her. She feared becoming like most of the other young ladies who had had to settle for a good enough match and ended up being mostly miserable for the rest of their lives, finding diversions in shallow pleasures to keep them from focusing too much on their wretchedness.

He did not want that for her.

He would persuade her that he did not intend to do that. That he admired her fire and spirit and even found it highly alluring. That she never had to dim her light for him—he only wanted to help her shine as bright as she wanted to.

“Dance with me, Julia,” he coaxed.

She looked up at him. “Right here?”

By then, the servants had already cleared most of the furniture, and the musicians were striking up a tune that was more conducive to dancing.

“Right here. Right now.”

“A-all right.”

Andrew smiled as she swayed with him, allowing him to take the lead as he swept her onto the dance floor.

Once the others saw them, they began to pair up, too, and make to the makeshift dance floor in the middle of the drawing room. However, Andrew found that he could care less what they were doing as long as he had Julia in his arms, and she had her eyes on him.

Onlyhim.

Cosby is wrong. I can hold her attention well enough.