A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver

Author:Ashley Weaver [Weaver, Ashley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The startling words took me by surprise for just a moment, but then I realized what he meant. Being caught kissing would be much less troubling than being caught snooping around someone’s library in the semidarkness. After all, it had been the plan to make it look that way if we were discovered leaving the lecture together.

All the same, it occurred to me a simple embrace wasn’t going to be enough to explain our presence here, so far from the ballroom when we might easily have shared a kiss in the alcove or the deserted drawing room. We needed to be convincing.

I glanced around us, at where we stood near the doorway, thinking how ridiculous and implausible it would look to anyone walking in that we might just be standing here kissing.

As whoever was talking stopped outside the door, I grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the cluster of furniture in the center of the room, stopping near the leather sofa.

“Do a proper job of it,” I instructed. Reaching up, I quickly unbuttoned the top button of his tunic and reached up to muss his hair. Then, before I could give myself too much time to think about what I was doing, I fell upon the sofa and pulled him down with me.

Whatever else might be said of Major Ramsey, he was a quick study. He ran a hand through my hair in return, pulled one strap of my gown down from my shoulder, and—in a rather smooth gesture—slid one hand beneath the hem of my skirt and up my leg as the doorknob rattled. I didn’t have time to marvel at this exceptionally efficient tousling before his mouth found mine.

The kissing was done as he did everything else: thoroughly and extremely competently. We were meant to appear to be caught in the middle of a passionate embrace, not at the beginning of it, and there was no reservation or hesitation in his manner as we commenced to full-fledged necking. He did a proper job of it, all right, and I had to admit that it was not at all unpleasant. It was all an act, of course, but it was a natural enough thing to wrap my arms around his neck and participate.

By the time the door opened, we were caught in a thoroughly compromising position.

It had only been a matter of moments since the kiss began, but I was still a bit dizzy as he pulled his mouth away, disentangled himself from me, and stood up quickly, turning to face the door. Sir Nigel stood in the doorway. Whoever he had been talking to in the hallway was no longer there. I’d hazard a guess it had been Jerome Curtis.

The major’s shoulders stiffened as he adjusted his tunic, calling attention to the buttons I had managed to undo.

I sat up on the sofa, pulling up the strap of my gown, smoothing out my skirts, and patting down my hair, all while doing my best to affect a thoroughly embarrassed expression.

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