The Duke Is Mine - Eloisa James [75]
Her eyes flew open and her whole body went rigid. “Oh, God, I’m the worst sister in the world. Let me up!”
He shook his head, dragging his thumb along the curve of her jaw. “Your skin is beautiful.”
“I feel sick to my stomach,” she said, fierce and low. “And you—you’re seducing me!”
“Yes.”
“Stop it. And let me up!”
Reluctantly, he rolled to the side but kept his arm across her body. “I can’t marry her, and it has nothing to do with you.”
“Liar.” She glared at him, and he took a moment to savor it. Olivia was like a flame.
“Actually, I never lie.”
“You’re lying now. If you had never met me, you would have married Georgie and been happy as two bedbugs in a mattress or, more to the point, two alchemists in a laboratory.”
“I can’t know for certain, of course, but I don’t think so. It wasn’t until my mother brought Lady Althea and Miss Georgiana here that I realized I could not simply marry whomever she chose for me.”
“She chose rightly,” Olivia said, stubborn as ever. “You’re perfect for each other. This thing between us is nothing more than a forest fire, as you described it. Temporary. It will burn itself out. Let me rise, please.”
“I don’t believe that I know what love is, at least the sort that people talk about between men and women. But I would venture to say that some people characterize the feeling I had for Evangeline as love. I think care about is a more accurate description, especially if one understands the phrase to include an abiding desire.”
She stilled. Raised a hand, touched his cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t a good marriage. She wasn’t in love with me, and she had a deep urge to be with other men. It was problematic. But I cared about her, even when she made me a cuckold and finally left me. I couldn’t stop. Stupid, I know.”
Olivia leaned over and gave him a kiss that clung to his lips. “Actually, you should be proud of your loyalty. You are wonderful, Quin.”
“No, I’m quite foolish. I should have stopped myself. Somehow.”
“I don’t think anyone has the ability to choose whether or not to fall in love.”
“Exactly,” he said with deep satisfaction. “I agree with you. When I told you that I don’t lie, I meant it.”
She shook her head. “I must return downstairs in case Georgie decides to rejoin the ball.”
“I am telling you something.” He tried to remember what it was, but it felt as if his entire body was focused on the plump, sweet curves of her lips.
“You never lie,” she said, sitting up and breaking their eye contact. “I accept that.”
“I’m not good at . . . interpreting complex statements.”
She pulled up her knees, wound her arms around them, and then rested her chin on them, looking at him curiously. “And yet you’re the most intelligent person I’ve ever met.”
“Only because you haven’t been to university.”
She gave a deep chuckle. “Most people would prevaricate on hearing that compliment, and insist that I was exaggerating.”
“As I said, I don’t lie. The possibility is extremely good that I am the most intelligent person you’ve met. But that doesn’t mean I’m the wisest. Witness the fact that I cared so deeply for Evangeline.”
“A fact that proves you human.”
“It’s a miserable way to achieve humanity,” he said wryly. “My point is that I couldn’t say those vows without meaning them.”
“Vows?” Her eyes changed. “Oh. The marriage vows.”
“ ‘To have and to hold,’ ” he quoted. “ ‘To love and to cherish, till death us do part.’ ”
She swallowed. “Poor Evangeline.”
“She’s in the past now.” And he meant that. “But I can’t say those words to just anyone. They mean a great deal to me. They’re powerful.”
“Even though Evangeline was not respectful of those vows?”
“Yes. Do you know how she died?”
Olivia hugged her knees more closely. “No.”
“She was leaving me. She had decided to run away to France with her current lover, a scrap of absurdity named Sir Bartholomew Fopling.”
Olivia choked.
“I’m not joking,” he said. “Fopling was a most gifted man: he could sing in any number of languages, dance everything worth dancing, and his cravats were