Chapter Six

L ennox’s hand lingered against Flora’s back as they walked into the townhome. The show of intimacy had not gone unnoticed by the servants. However, none of them raised their brows in shock or sneered at her in contempt. They continued their duties as if were an everyday occurrence for the lord of the manor to bestow favors on the supposed governess.

Lennox had manipulated Vivian’s correspondence to his advantage to hire her under a false pretense. Flora would demand answers before the day ended. They needed to air their lies if they hoped to make peace between them.

“Shall we hold our discussion in the library?” Lennox asked.

Lennox’s tone had softened into a musical caress to her senses. Flora weakened at the husky melody. His touch alone heightened her desire for the brush of his lips against hers. His seductive essence wrapped her in a haze of unrequited need. She must shield herself from the full onslaught of his entrapment. If not, then she would succumb to his charm and her pride be damned.

Flora stepped out of his grasp before mumbling, “If you wish.”

Lennox pressed his lips against her ear. “I wish for more than you can imagine. However, a conversation will do for now.”

Flora shivered at his bold declaration. Her body begged its silent message for him to show her. However, she stayed firm with her resistance because she didn’t dare permit her heart to flutter its answer. She refused to allow him to lure her with his seductive words.

Flora rushed to the farthest chair, away from the other furniture, and sat down. She smoothed out her skirts and placed her hands in her lap, waiting for Lennox to begin the conversation. She could get through their encounter with her wits about her as long as he didn’t touch her or deepen his voice to a seductive caress. Flora wasn’t as immune to his charms as she wished she were.

Lennox chuckled as Flora hurried across the library. She amused him by choosing to sit as far away from him as possible. However, she gave herself away too easily. He noticed how she reacted to his touch. No matter how she distanced herself, it wouldn’t stop him from attempting to seduce her.

“Is that necessary?” Flora choked out when Lennox closed the doors.

Lennox strolled farther into the library and settled on the settee. “For the conversation I intend to have, yes.”

She bristled. “’Tis most inappropriate.”

He arched his eyebrow in the most sardonic manner. “Is it now?”

“Aye.”

“No one would consider a private conversation between a husband and his wife to be inappropriate.”

She opened her mouth to argue but slowly closed it when the full impact of his statement hit her. “They know.”

“Aye.”

She gulped. “How long?”

“Since the day we wed.”

Flora closed her eyes at her embarrassment of not realizing the servants she had lived with over the past few months were part of Lennox’s clan. She could only imagine what opinions they held of her.

“Was your objective to add to my humiliation?” Flora snarled.

Lennox sat forward. “Nay. My priority was to keep you protected until I could arrive.”

“Why offer your protection now?”

“Ye are my wife, and I protect what is mine.”

“Wife.” Flora scoffed. “Do ye not mean your burden? Something our parents saddled ye with for eternity.”

“Is that your belief and the reason you ran away?”

Flora pinched her lips, refusing to pour her heart out at the cruelty of his question. It had devastated her to learn the truth of her marriage. And from his mistress, no less. After she confronted her parents and listened to their version of events, she had searched for Lennox, only to add to her heartache when she watched him lead his mistress into his bedchamber. The very bedchamber where he had become her husband in the fullest meaning of the title. Their marital bed was no longer sacred in her eyes.

Lennox tugged at his cravat until it hung around his neck. The heartache reflected in Flora’s gaze choked him with regret. He never should have agreed to play her false with their courtship. Nor should he have married her without confessing his deceit. If he had only been honest with her, Flora never would’ve been involved in a scandal followed by threats. Because of his cowardness, he had placed Flora at the risk of the whims of a villain.

However, he hadn’t realized what Flora meant to him until it was too late. He had agreed to his parents' agenda because it suited his purpose in finding a bride, a task he had neglected because of the tedious rituals involved in selecting the perfect choice to appease his parents—and Lennox himself, for that matter. When he first laid sight on Flora, he had realized he would suffer through no hardship with her as his wife.

The road to winning her heart had been no easy feat. She had been the most difficult lass to charm. But once he had, Flora had transformed his concept of marriage. No longer did the idea pacify him. He longed to prove himself worthy of the love she bestowed upon him.

“Since you returned with me, am I to assume you have chosen to stay?” Lennox asked.

Flora raised her chin in defiance. “Ye have left me with no other choice.”

“’Tis never stopped you before, lass.”

“Nor will it now.”

Lennox smirked. “Ah, there she is.”

Flora’s eyebrows puckered together in confusion. “I have been here the entire time.”

Lennox sprawled back against the cushions. “Not ye true self. Only a false version of who you want others to perceive ye to be.”

Flora gripped the arms of the chair. “Ye are a fine one to talk. Ye layer one lie within another with every word you speak. The way the gentlemen treated you this afternoon only showed proof of how you swindled them with your charm.”

Lennox let out a boisterous laugh. “The same charm that won you over once upon a time.”

Her foot started tapping in a repeated rhythm as she turned her head to avoid his gaze. She wanted to growl her frustration at his endless blabbering. He bested her with each put-down she attempted by throwing her naivety in her face. Flora didn’t need to be reminded of what a fool she had been to fall for his supposed charm. She lived with the memory every day.

She never should’ve let her guard down around him. When he first pursued her, she had refused to believe someone as handsome as he would desire someone as plain as her. Flora had sparred with him at every encounter. However, she had allowed him to wear down her resistance with one flirtatious comment after another. Even now, he exuded a charismatic approach. He lured her to abandon her disgruntled attitude and explore the possibility of being his wife in the actual sense.

Although he never mentioned if that was his intention. If so, wouldn’t he have followed her before now? Perhaps he only arrived to deliver her back to her family. She had risked her family learning of her return to Scotland when she accepted the governess position in Edinburgh. However, at the time, no other option was available.

“You overthink too much.”

Flora jumped at Lennox’s closeness. While she was lost in her thoughts, Lennox had closed the distance between them and hovered over her. The warmth of his breath caressed her cheek. Her eyelashes fluttered from the effect of his presence and her control slid from her weakened grasp. When his hand slipped behind her neck to tilt her head back, a soft sigh glided past her lips.

“Just feel, my love,” Lennox whispered before claiming Flora’s lips.

His kiss was as soft as his seductive words, a brush across her lips to tease her before coasting along her cheek to return to her mouth. With a nip at the corner, he teased her lips apart to ravish her like a man starved for her affections. His bold domination stole her senses to surrender to the onslaught of the passion he unleashed on her soul.

While Flora had hardened her heart against Lennox Fraser, she had secretly longed for the passion he ignited in her from his mere touch. She had been unprepared for his seduction, believing she could resist him. But once again, he made a fool out of her. She fought between wanting to push him away and hoping he never stopped kissing her.

Lennox was a bastard for preying on Flora’s vulnerability. He watched her battle her emotions and took advantage of the situation. But in his defense, Flora’s desirability reached new heights when she was in a snit. He loved to rile her temper. It was the only way for her to admit what troubled her.

Also, he longed to drink from her scrumptious lips. They had pouted with her agitation, and he wanted to soothe them into the plump fruits of what he most desired. He captured her sighs with one kiss after another. His tongue slipped inside her mouth to caress hers. Oh, how he had missed her sweetness.

Lennox tried to keep the kiss simple, but the tampered-down passion between them exploded. His fingers sank into her strands, causing her hairpins to scatter to the floor. Their kiss turned into a hungry onslaught of their emotions battling against one another. Her heartache mixed with his regret fought for dominance.

But the ache of their desires would go unfulfilled. Before they gave themselves the freedom to love one another, they had many barriers still to cross.

Flora’s fingers fluttered against her skirts, grasping the fabric to keep herself from sinking her hands into his luscious strands. To urge him closer, to slake his desire, to show her what she had missed by running away from their marriage. However, the harsh reality of why she had run caused her to stiffen. Eventually, she would’ve learned to live with the reason for their union, but she couldn’t live with the fact her husband sought another to fulfill his needs. She refused to live in a marriage filled with dishonesty.

Flora ran from their passion, much in the way she had two years ago. The only difference was that he wouldn’t stay behind. He would fight for her love. Lennox would give Flora the distance she needed to accept him in her life, but he refused to lose her again.

He broke the kiss off and stepped back. His hand lingered on her neck for a brief second to savor the silky softness. With reluctance, he pulled away and turned his back to her. Lennox inhaled a deep breath to gather his control. The blush across her cheeks and the smokey haze in her eyes urged him to gather her in his arms and stride to his bedchamber to remind her of the passion they shared.

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation after dinner.” Lennox strode from the library before giving Flora a chance to answer him.

Flora sat in a dazed mess as she watched her husband rush away after devastating her senses with a kiss that left her shaken to her core. The passion he teased her with was nothing compared to the passion they had shared before. Flora brushed her fingers across her lips, hoping to capture his warmth. He kissed her as if her absence affected him to a profound degree.

A preposterous notion.