Chapter 2

"You are definitely not him."

Jane stared at the strange man as her panic began to subside. Her panic had increased after her plan to hit the intruder she believed to be Lord Lewis failed.

She had gone through different scenarios in her head and yet, none of them involved her getting out of the situation with her reputation in tact or without ending up married to him.

"Him?"

She looked at the strange man and this time, when she pulled her hands from his, he released his hands, allowing her to wrench free.

"Never mind that."

"Considering how close I came to being smacked due to this him, I believe I have a right to know who he is and what this is about."

"Ah, but it is as you said. You came close to being smacked but you were not. So, why don't you leave me alone and carry on your way," she suggested with a raised brow.

"Leave you alone?" he scoffed. "I saw how tense you were when you thought I was him and that you had been unable to inflict harm. Do you still wish to be here and chance him finding you?"

Jane stared at the strange man in disbelief.

Are all men like this or am I just unlucky enough to meet only the ones who irk me?

"You, sir, have no right to lecture me on what you think I should or shouldn't do. Pretend I am not here if you will and do go on your merry way," she said, rolling her eyes at the absurdity of the situation.

It seemed there was no peace to be found whenever men were around her.

"In case you haven't noticed, you are sequestered in a garden alone, with a man, and without a chaperone, a fact that should have been painfully obvious to you by now if you were not so intent on trampling on my good intentions."

"Perhaps if I had asked for your good intentions, I would not be so quick to trample on them as you put it," she responded, not ready to back down.

He had another thing coming for him if he thought he could push her around. Years of always arguing with her father had left her prepared for situations such as these.

"You should be thanking me, you know. I am doing you a favor," he said with a voice filled with arrogance.

She would feel pity for him if he hadn't been so quick to act like a man and try to tell her what to do despite knowing nothing about her to begin with.

"Doing me a favor you say," she scoffed, utterly amused.

"Yes. You need to return to your chaperone so that you can leave me alone with my thoughts and the peaceful garden I expected when I came here."

"Perhaps you should be the one to leave. Much like you, I came here to be away from the noise and chaos out there and I do not intend to return until I have had my fill of the peace that is to be found here."

He shook his head, staring at her as though she has grown two more where one should be.

"Have you no care for your reputation if you are caught here with me?"

"If you cared so much about my reputation, then you would heed my words and realize that the best thing a gentleman could do at this point would be to leave me alone with my thoughts while you returned to the party and forgot that you ever met me here."

He had another thing coming if he thought he could so easily intimidate her into giving in and running away because he said so.

"Jane?"

Jane's eyes widened as she listened to be certain that she had indeed heard her sister's voice.

"Are you in here?"

She swallowed back a gasp and jumped into action, grabbing the annoying man's hand in hers as she pulled him with her, dragging him into hiding.

Stunned by her sudden move, he followed after her, not putting on resistance, although his face registered his confusion.

She crouched low behind some thick bushes, pushing him down to do the same as she poked her head through the side, waiting to see if her sister was going to walk by.

"What do you think you're doing? Why are we hiding from whoever that was when you should be going to them and away from the garden?"

"Shh."

She covered his mouth with her hand, glaring daggers at him as he pestered her with his many questions. She could never understand why some people just didn't know when to keep still.

"What do you think you-"

She tightened her hand around his mouth until his words came out jumbled and glared at him when he continued to try to speak through her hands.

"How is this not enough to deter you from speaking?" she asked, rolling her eyes at him when he finally quietened.

She poked her head out through the corner of the bush once again, and listened for her sister's voice, relaxing when she could not hear her calling out once again, although she could not be relaxed enough until she was certain that her sister had gone elsewhere to look for her and would not return.

A hand clamped on hers and she looked back in shock. Her eyes widened as she stared at her hands that were pressed against his face, against firm lips that moved against her hands as he once again tried to speak.

Shocked, she allowed him remove her hand from his lips as she gazed at him. She looked down at their fingers that remained intertwined, hanging as they locked eyes at each other.

The strange man watched her with a frown on his face as she took in his appearance. Even crouching as they were, she had to look up to be able to look at his face. He was a tall man, his hands which held hers were large and firm, with broad shoulders that were an indication of just how strong he was. At first she hadn't noticed all of this due to his obnoxiousness.

His black hair was parted in the middle, with the short locks hanging down the side of his face and stopping just above dark green eyes. Those eyes that seemed to be staring straight into her soul, looking at her as though they could tell all of her secrets without much thought to it.

He was beautiful. Even with the frown that hadn't left his face, he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen in her life.

Her eyes trailed down to those lips that her hands had covered only moments ago. She ached to touch them once again, to run her hands against the thin, firm pinkness that formed his lips.

Despite herself, she slipped her hand from his and raised it up to his face slowly, as her eyes remained stuck on his dark green ones that reminded of her a swamp.

Colin could not say that he had ever been in a situation like this, crouched behind a thick bush as he stared down at a woman who only mere moments ago, had been about to deliver a blow to him

Self-preservation and his determination to be a gentleman meant that, although he wanted nothing more than to remain crouched behind the bushes with this mystery woman, he needed to find a way out of this situation.

Her blue eyes that reminded him of the time he's seen the ocean when he journeyed were fitting for just how feisty of a person she was. Much like the ocean, calm in a moment and then violent the next, she appeared to be innocent as she stared up at him, although he knew that she was anything but.

She was by no means short, however, his tall build towered over her smaller one, a difference that was obvious even as they remained on their knees, crouched and waiting for whoever had been about to find them, to go away.

A lock of brown hair had strayed from its place, falling down her neck and curling up on her collarbone. His hand itched to run a hand down the length of it and curl it up between his fingers but he resisted.

Colin caught the hand that had slowly begun to creep up his face as her eyes lowered to his lips. He cleared his throat to put an end to the thick air that suddenly surrounded them and took a moment to steady himself as she jumped and stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Are you quite done?" he asked her, partly to bring her out of the trance she seemed to be locked in, although a small part of him wished to see her flustered and out of her element.

He could only imagine what she would do if she was caught off guard, nothing like the quick recovery he had encountered when she had thought him to be someone else and was about to hit him.

It was a topic that plagued his curiosity, however, something told him that she would never allow the details to slip out of her lips if he asked and so, he stayed his tongue.

Her cheeks pinkened, a soft color that did a lot to soften her expression but not by much. As she had done earlier, she snatched her hand away from his and leveled him with a glare.

"Yes, quite."

She stood up, moving away from him as she dusted the grass that clung to her skirt.

Colin hurriedly stood up with her, although a part of him wished they remained bent on the floor. He frowned. Where had that come from?

He had only just met the woman and there should be no reason why he would wish to spend a moment longer with her, not when it could cost her her reputation. And that was definitely not the type of person he was.

"Do you always have a frown on your face or is that because of me?" she asked him, taking one last peek through the bush before she walked to the other side of the garden.

Colin chuckled, surprising himself with the sound. She was quite different from all the other women he had met today. He never would have believed anyone would have been able to treat him as she had, him, a Duke. Not that she knew he was one. Although he had a feeling she would not have treated him different if she knew.

"What is your name?" he asked, not answering her question.

"Why do you wish to know my name?" she asked him in return, moving away.

"I wish to know how to address you the next time I see you," he replied and watched as something in her eyes changed.

"You were right. I should not be here and you should not have to address me if we ever met again because we should not have met," her words rushed out as she looked around with panic in her eyes.

"I merely wish to know your name. Surely, that is not enough to cause panic?" he asked, confused by her sudden behavior especially after how brave and stubborn she had been all along.

"I should not be here. It is quite inappropriate for us to be alone in a garden, with no chaperone as you have said," she carried on, pacing the open space as her eyes began to fill with even more panic.

"My father would have an even longer lecture for me if he finds out about this. That is if he hasn't already discovered my absence and already has plans to do so anyway."

Colin watched in fascination as she rambled on endlessly before pausing. She spared him one last glance and without a word, turned around and ran out of the garden, leaving him standing there, baffled as he contemplated what just happened.