Once dinner was finished, Katherine kept a close eye on Paisley. He retired with the rest of the gentlemen, but as planned, within minutes he was walking down the hallway toward the far end of the study.
Perfect.
Katherine went in search of Benedict who was at that very moment walking down the same corridor with Lady Anastasia.
“You see, I cannot find the button, and it means the world to me!” Benedict pleaded with her. Though Katherine thought he was laying it on a little thick.
Most likely Lady Anastasia thought the only way to escape his presence was to actually go into the study and look for the blasted button.
“I’ll just be here waiting, shouldn’t follow you in, isn’t proper and all that.” Benedict coughed.
Katherine rolled her eyes from her hiding spot in the hall.
Once the door clicked shut, Katherine hurried to his side. “Tell me you have the key.”
“Oh, I have the key. Did you know…” Benedict turned the lock. “That Lord Marks is quite the fellow. He offered to pay me to get those two together in such circumstances. Jolly fellow, should probably send him a Christmas ham.”
Katherine stifled a laugh when she heard Paisley’s voice begin to rise.
“How much port did he drink?” Katherine asked.
“Enough to hold her hand, possibly enough to be tempted to kiss her.”
“What’s wrong with you!” Katherine pinched him in the arm. “You had one job, well two. Get him foxed and find the key.”
“Listen,” Benedict pushed her against the wall playfully, his hands resting on her hips. “I did the best I could. What were you thinking wearing a dress like this?” He seemed mesmerized as his hands slowly caressed the satin.
“What?” Utterly confused and a bit tipsy from the many glasses of wine she drank at dinner, Katherine could do nothing but stare at him in disbelief. ”What the devil does my dress have to do with anything?”
“Heavens, I love your dirty mouth.” He winked, his hands still playing with the fabric, twisting the ribbon around her middle with his fingers. “Your dress, my lady, is distracting. You’re lucky I was able to concentrate on the mission, let alone not drink myself into oblivion without touching you.”
“Oh.” She wished in that moment that she would have thought of a better response, but she was yet again dumbstruck by his dark sensual looks, his hooded eyes, and full lips.
“Shall we?” His voice was husky as he offered his arm.
Telling herself it was silly to shake or be nervous around someone she was marrying so soon, she nodded and gave him her arm.
Thinking he would lead her back to the party, she began to get somewhat alarmed when he escorted her outside.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,” he mumbled in her hair before bestowing a kiss on her temple.
Far be it for her to argue a surprise.
Such a stark contrast between the glowing white snow and the dark sky. The moon hung in the sky like a picture. Benedict led her around to the front of the house, where a carriage was waiting.
“What’s this?”
“Your Christmas surprise,” he answered sweeping her into his arms and placing her in the seat. Fur blankets were stacked to the right, a bottle of wine and glasses in a basket to the left.
Grinning from ear to ear like a small child, Katherine managed not to throw her arms around his neck and laugh.
He remembered.
She had no idea he had listened that night when she was but seven years of age.
“I want my own Christmas carriage!” She wailed and wailed until her father announced he was going to sell all the carriages if she kept complaining.
“Silly goose.” Benedict sat next to her. At fourteen, he seemed so much older, darker, and of course wiser.
“I’m not silly.” Katherine crossed her arms and lifted her chin into the air, trying to prove to him that she was absolutely an adult who could make her own decisions, and at that point in her short life, she wanted her own Christmas carriage. “It just isn’t fair.” She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve.
Benedict laughed then, a boy laugh that was more amused than mocking. “Then we shall just have to get you one, but not now, for your father looks ready to shoot anything that speaks.”
Katherine giggled. “When, Ben? When can I have my own Christmas carriage?”
He pulled her to his side, she tucked her feet underneath her and sighed as the weight of his arm held her in a warm embrace. “How about I tell you a story, and in that story you’ll see. Hmm?”
“Oh yes!” She clapped her hands with glee.
“One day when you are all grown up and going to lovely parties with sparkling ball gowns and handsome men…”
“Like you?” she asked, for she thought him quite handsome.
“Yes, like me.” He blushed. “One of these days, you will catch the eye of one of those men, and he will proclaim his undying love to you. He’ll offer to buy you any dress in the world if only you will love him. He’ll offer to sail to the moon.”
“That’s silly!” Katherine covered her laughter with her hand. “One cannot sail to the moon!”
“Exactly my point, Kate, one cannot sail there, but his love will be so deep, that in his mind, he has already decided that if it is within your desires, he will find a way to do it.”
Katherine sighed then, for she did not know that type of love existed.
Benedict had coughed and cleared his throat. “So, when that moment happens, when you see the stars shine in his eyes, when you see his eyes reflect the same feelings you have inside here,” he tapped his own chest, “then you shall ask him for your Christmas carriage. Because you waited, it will be even more special. You will also be sharing it with the person who cares the most for you in the world.”
Katherine sighed. “I like that story. Is it true, Ben? Oh, tell me it is true!”
“I promise.” He ruffled her hair and kissed her on the cheek and she hopped up to bed, with dreams of Christmas carriages dancing in her head.
Benedict’s weight made the carriage tip, just slightly. “Do you like it?”
Katherine wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Instead she just stared at him, his face a mixture of apprehension and… love.
“Your eyes,” she said.
“My eyes?”
“They reflect the stars.” Katherine moved to sit near him, placing the blanket over both of their bodies. Benedict tapped the roof and they were off, in their Christmas carriage for a ride through the snow.
He kissed her, a feather-light kiss across the forehead. “Yes, love, yes they do.”
Chapter Nineteen
Temptation, Thy Name is Katherine
Benedict wasn’t sure if he was more amused, irritated, or pleased that Katherine had fallen asleep during their carriage ride.
He hadn’t the heart to wake her up, not when her tiny hands reached inside his jacket and hugged his middle.
It was a shared moment, perhaps the most intimate moment of his life. To have a woman, in her sleep, completely trust him, forsaking her own safety and sanity, and cling to him. Well, it made him feel like the past few years of his life had been for nothing but selfishness. What had he been thinking?
He looked down at her sleeping form. This feeling, this raw desire, this primal need to protect her from everything even if it killed him, was what he had been missing. And he hated himself for being so blind and stupid.
In fact, he was quite ready to shout it to the world, but again, he didn’t want to ruin the moment.
He could have spent hours watching her sleep. The way her lips fell slightly open, her eyelashes resting against her pale skin. Her furrowed brows when she must have been dreaming, and the way her breathing seemed to lull him into a relaxed state, he could listen to her breathe all day.
And again he was hit with that thought, he had completely and totally fallen for this bewitching beauty, his childhood nemesis, the one girl he thought he couldn’t possibly come to care for in such a way, let alone bring himself to marry.
The carriage pulled to a halt. He carefully lifted Katherine into his arms and carried her quietly up the stairs and into her chambers.
The desire to stay with her was such a strong pull. He was half-tempted to run nak*d in the snow in order to shake him from his feelings.
His valet would love that.
At least he’d been wearing clothes as of late, and at least trying to be amiable to the man. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t like being fussed over or touched by a man in places no man should be touched by another man.
Regardless, he managed to set her on her bed, and kiss her just lightly across the lips before walking to the door.
“Benedict?” Her voice was groggy from sleep.
“Yes?” Run, run! His head screamed at him, old habits died hard, and he wanted desperately to show her how much he cared for her, to make her his before the vows were said.
“Thank you for my Christmas carriage.”
His heart melted, then began hammering in his chest, it was nearly painful, the way her words affected him, making him want to hit himself in order to return to reality.
“You’re welcome.” His hand touched the door.
“Benedict?”
“Yes,” he near growled. She had no idea the danger she was in of losing that precious virginity a week before she planned.
“Stay.”
Fighting the urge to roar like a Neanderthal, Benedict chuckled. “Love, that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Please?” She rose from the bed just slightly, her hair falling across her shoulders in waves. His imagination would never be able to dream up a woman of her beauty, of the absolute devastating pull she had on him.
“If I stay…” Benedict groaned and leaned his head against the door. “I’ll only stay until you’re once again asleep, love, then I need to leave.”
She sighed and lay back down on the bed.
He walked cautiously to the other side, not bothering to take off his boots, for that would be the beginning of the end. As far as his body was concerned, taking his boots off while lying next to a beautiful woman meant he was about to take off the rest of his clothes.
And he wasn’t sure he would be able to stop with his boots.
Hilarious that the Devil Duke would need to keep his boots on in order to keep his lust in check.
“Sleep.” He kissed her forehead, but she reached up and pulled his head closer to hers, opening her mouth to him.
He should have run.
He should have escaped when he had the chance.
He should have said no.
Hang honor, hang it all.
His lips crushed hers, Benedict’s hands grasped her wrists pinning her to the bed as he nipped her lower lip, tugging it between his teeth.
She moaned.
He cursed then straddled her because at the time it seemed the only option, not that it was intelligent by any stretch of the imagination.
Her body fit perfectly underneath him. Of course it would. He tugged at her bodice, pulling it down to her waist.
And then froze.
Time stood still.
He hated he was using such clichés in his mind, yet time did seem to stand still as he glimpsed her.