Chapter 6

What a bloody awful night!

Embarrassed, harassed and uncomfortable, Aaron strode away from the over-decorated Hoskins house in high dudgeon. That dinner had been like the worst of every Season distilled into a single evening. Lord Prouton must have taken leave of his senses to allow such a crudely designed husband-hunting affair.

For Aaron, it was worse than being ambushed by the Duchess of Fennimore and her five daughters at his first ball. It was worse even than being stuck between the incurably garrulous Lady Maureen Cooper and her equally talkative aunt for a full evening after the former twisted her ankle while dancing a reel. Nowadays, these two ladies were responsible for spreading more gossip than any scandal sheet writer.

Admittedly, their other neighbors tonight had seemed to suffer less than Aaron. Lensbury was a sociable man with a knack for enjoying himself and his company wherever he went. Hinderton and Granford were easily pleased with the presence and attention of any lovely young woman. From the way their eyes had followed her, Dorothy Hoskins had certainly pleased them.

"What is the matter with you?" a fierce feminine voice suddenly demanded from the darkness behind him.

Aaron spun around, taken entirely by surprise by this turn of events and startled out of his melancholic thoughts.

Dorothy's satin slippers had made no sound on the pavement, and now she was standing there, almost at his gate, bareheaded and ungloved in her gauzy golden evening gown, without even a wrap to cover her shoulders.

God, she was beautiful in the glow of the lamplights at the gate!

Looking around them quickly, Aaron determined that she had come out alone and that there was no one else in the street.

"Yes, I'm addressing you, Your Grace," Dorothy persisted, stopping in front of him. "We must all endure situations and people who displease us, but most of us have manners enough not to inflict our displeasure on others and pass on our misery. I suggest that in the future, you decline dinner invitations rather than forcing yourself to attend and spoiling everyone else's enjoyment."

"Miss Hoskins—" he tried to object, but she continued relentlessly.

"Despite your advantages of rank and education, you are an arrogant, humorless bag of conceit without the basic social skills of even… the coarsest tradesman. In fact, you have no idea how to be a civilized human being at all, and if I ever see you again after tonight, it will be far too soon!"

Aaron remained stock still for long seconds after this declaration, as entirely thrown by her public attack as he had been by the private invasion of his drawing room last week.

Then, surprising himself again, he felt laughter welling up inside him and could not help letting it slip past his lips. He did not think that anyone had ever insulted him quite so colorfully and vituperatively since his schooldays. This was all too ridiculous!

"Miss Hoskins, if you can promise me that neither your brother nor your father suggested that you set your cap at me tonight, I will admit that I have misjudged everything and will go back and apologize for my behavior wholeheartedly."

Folding her arms, Dorothy turned away from him with an angry frown. He felt potential sympathy then. It was, after all, possible that Miss Hoskins herself played little part in her family's scheming. Many young women were only pawns in such games, and it was not fair to blame them for the machinations of their elders.

Still, he must tread carefully around potential traps. Regardless of her intentions, this young woman was a trap in herself—too daring, too spirited, and far, far too lovely for her own good. If Miss Hoskins had any understanding of the impulses she aroused in him, surely she would run. Instead, she continued to stand there, provoking his self-control further and further.

"Then shall I take your silence as an admission that your brother at least instructed you to do exactly what I described?"

She bit her lip and continued to look away with an agitated expression that made Aaron think she might just be preparing a new list of insults to hurl at him. Or to make another kind of next move entirely.

He knew it was not impossible that Lord Prouton or Patrick Hoskins had deliberately sent Miss Hoskins out into the street to harangue him. They might be watching them from a window at this moment, waiting to see her take his arm, enter his gate, or even faint into his arms.

He could easily think of men, and women, who had been checkmated and cornered into marriage through more farfetched deceptions.

"Miss Hoskins, your actions tell me that you are either far too naive or far too clever for the situations in which you find yourself." He confronted her directly. "I cannot yet say which, but if you sought me alone with the intention of compromising me, it will not work. I shall not invite you into my home tonight, nor stroll with you in the garden, nor…"

Grasping the implication of his words, the young woman's eyes blazed once more, and he saw her small hand fly up to actually slap him.

"You play with fire, young woman!" Aaron warned her as he seized her wrist, but at least he felt sure now that her presence was not a deliberate part of some elaborate set-up.

No, it was sheer naivety and foolhardiness that had brought her out here alone with a man who was lusting for her body and almost at the limit of his self-restraint. Only naivety, too, could explain how she still appeared more angry than afraid.

"It is you who plays with fire!" she retorted, raising her chin in challenge to him yet again, despite his grip on her wrist. "Who exactly do you think you are? The Prince Regent? We all know how popular he is…"

The lamplight accentuated the gold speckles in her brown eyes and the fabric of her dress, making her seem like a magical creature as much as a beautiful human woman. She was like some wild fire nymph or spirit, summoned by quarrels and dissension and liable to burn anyone who drew too close.

"Dear God!" Aaron breathed, feeling himself inextricably caught in the sheer power of her gaze and barely even hearing her last goading words. "You want me too, don't you?"

Unintentionally, their hands had somehow shifted, and what had been simply his fingers on her wrist had become a mutual embrace. Their bare hands intertwined of their own accord, the warmth of her touch searing him. Skin on skin…

Dorothy seemed as surprised as Aaron to find her hand in his, her expression now a mix of fury, fascination and incredulity as she stared at her fingers, unable or unwilling to rebut his question. He was sure now of something in her expression that he'd glimpsed briefly in previous encounters.

Whatever insults Miss Hoskins might throw, and whether or not she recognized the sensation, she was as aroused by him as he was by her, and also maddened by the fact. What would it be like to bed such a passionate creature? To feel the fierce but yielding heat of her entire body bare and twining against his rather than only her fingers and palm?

Finally undone by this idea, the young woman was in Aaron's arms the next moment, soft and warm and gasping as he lowered his face and pressed his lips to hers.

Despite the peculiar circumstances, it was the most thrilling kiss he could remember, her mouth eager and alive and her hands pulling him to her by the lapels regardless of the fact that she had tried to strike him only a few moments earlier.

Her breathless hunger inflamed him further, prompting fantasies of how she might respond to him if he peeled off all her clothes while caressing her with his lips and hands.

Such thoughts only made him hold her even closer and deepen their hungry kisses as Dorothy moaned into his mouth.

"Disgraceful! And on a public road too…"

The disapproving voice of a shocked Society matron dragged Aaron back to his senses and into the previously empty street, where a carriage had now stopped on the other side of the pavement. Probably to get a good look at the culprits in the throes of such an indecent public display.

Aaron immediately pulled Miss Hoskins firmly behind him and hopefully out of sight. Thankfully, his partner in crime seemed to see the sense in his actions and did not object. The carriage soon pulled away, its occupant or occupants evidently having seen enough for one night.

"You should go home immediately, Miss Hoskins," he instructed once the carriage turned the corner.

Breathless, trembling slightly and with one hand on her lips, the young woman nodded and ran. He regretted that she had received such a shock—perhaps two shocks—but perhaps both experiences would teach the fearlessly insolent Miss Hoskins to be more careful in the future.

It was a salutary lesson to Aaron too. There were more dangers to continued bachelorhood than Patrick Hoskins and Lord Prouton at a front window. Still, with luck, only Aaron would have been recognized by whoever had been in that carriage, his companion being new to the area and lesser known in general.

If rumors did begin to circulate, he could always tell the fellows at his club that he had been caught and reprimanded for kissing a chorus girl in the street. If he added one or two comical details, the claim would no doubt be widely shared and provide amusement to the ton as well as deflecting any possible attention from Dorothy.

If, however, Miss Hoskins had also been recognized, then they could soon find themselves in a very, very compromising position…