“You were outside with the Duchess of Gooding for a short time. But long enough to…did you kiss her?”
“Goddamn it, Theo,” Callum grunted as he returned to the parlor where they’d started their night and poured himself a far too large glass of whisky.
“I’m right, though. I can see it in your eyes.” Theo shook his head as he entered the room behind him. “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I was acting like a rake and a rogue and a bastard.” He downed half the liquor in one heated swig and took a moment to catch his breath from it. “Fucking hell.”
“How was it?” Theo asked.
Callum slammed the drink down. “That’s…that’s not a question that I should—”
“Oh, come now. You’ve had eyes for that woman for years. You acted like it was fine and rational and that you could ignore those desires, but here you are. So stop trying to be a monk with no heat in your blood and be honest.”
“It was…” Callum pursed his lips. “It was lovely. And very wrong. You saw her face when she left.”
“Yes, she was rather off kilter. Which must mean she enjoyed it too.”
Callum didn’t want to consider that option. It was a little too tempting. “Or she was so offended she could hardly stand to be in a room with me.”
Theo pondered that briefly and then shook his head. “No, if she was offended she wouldn’t have stayed after you did it. She would have slapped you, which I assume she didn’t.”
“No,” Callum agreed quietly, thinking of how Valaria’s lips had moved beneath his own. How she’d made such a soft exhalation of pleasure that made him burn and ache for her. “But whether or not the lady liked it or I liked it isn’t the material point, is it? She is only at the beginning of her mourning period, I was her husband’s close friend. It was wrong of me. And that is what I’ll tell her when I call on her tomorrow morning.”
“You’re…calling on her tomorrow,” Theo repeated slowly. “You’re going to her home to be alone with her and talk to her about kissing her on the terrace.”
God’s teeth, when his friend said it that way, it sounded like a very bad idea. It sounded like a situation ripe for further seduction.
Callum pushed away thoughts of that and straightened his shoulders. Like he could physically make himself behave. “I am going to apologize for liberties I’ve taken and see if I can make amends.”
Theo was quiet a long moment, his gaze flitting over Callum’s face for what felt like far too long. Then he shrugged. “There is nothing more I’d like to do than tease you further about this, but you have such a hangdog expression that there’s hardly any fun in it.”
“I feel guilty because I should,” Callum said softly. “I have betrayed a long-held friendship and crossed a line with a woman who already mistrusts me.”
“You said she enjoyed it. Did she kiss you back?” Theo asked.
Callum could have dodged the question for a while, but he knew Theo. This wouldn’t stop until he had the answers he demanded.
“Yes,” Callum grumbled.
Theo nodded slowly. “You know, not every lady actually mourns during a mourning period. I’ve personally helped several widows through their first year or isolation.”
Callum swallowed. “As fascinating as your utter debauchery is, Theo, I doubt I’m going to be in that position. She could barely accept a few books from me.”
“You gave her a…a gift?” Theo said, and now his eyes were wide.
“As I said, I made a mistake during a moment of high emotion.” Callum waved his hand and hoped it would dismiss the entire subject. “I’m assuming it was the same for her. We will discuss it and move on. End of story.”
“But—”
“End of story,” he repeated, and set his now-empty glass on the sideboard. “Please.”
Theo held up his hands in surrender. “So you say. I’ll honor that. But I hope you know you can talk to me about this again if you need to do so.”
For a moment, Callum considered saying something glib. It would have made him more comfortable. But then he thought of all the times he wished he’d been more honest or more direct with Silas, and instead he reached out to squeeze Theo’s shoulder.
“I appreciate it. I do.” He released his friend. “Now, what do you say we go play a hand of cards since the ladies have left us early?”
“An excellent notion,” Theo said, and slung his arm around Callum’s shoulders as they left the room together.
As Callum tried not to think of things Theo made him imagine when it came to his conversation with Valaria the next day.
CHAPTER 7
Valaria paced her parlor at ten forty-five the next day, watching her clock tick mercilessly slowly. She had been ready for an hour and had tried to fill her time first by organizing her small library, then by reading…but it was all for naught. She couldn’t focus or pretend that she wasn’t desperately nervous to see Callum.
Or that the butterflies in her stomach were only because of that nervousness. She was also…thrilled at the idea of seeing him. She had thought of nothing but the weight of his mouth on hers since the previous night. And it didn’t matter how dangerous that desire was, how deeply it might damage her. She still relived his kiss with a hunger that frightened her.
She glanced at the clock again. Had only three minutes passed? She was going to expire from anticipation before she was done.
She pivoted to pace her parlor again and found that Higgins had stepped into the entryway. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace,” he said. “But the Duke of Blackvale has arrived.”
Her heart began to pound and she clasped her hands before herself in the hopes her servant wouldn’t see that she’d begun to tremble almost out of control. “I see. You may show him in.”
Higgins nodded and departed, reappearing but a moment later to announce Callum. She heard his title, watched as he stepped around her butler and into the room. Dear God, he was handsome. So tall and lanky and perfectly pulled together. And that jawline, she so wanted to trace it with her fingertips. But she felt like she was behind glass. Everything seemed muffled and off kilter.
“Your Grace?”
She blinked as Higgins’ voice brought her back to reality. “I’m sorry?”
“Would you like tea or some other kind of refreshment?” he repeated.
“Tea, Your Grace?” She glanced at Callum.
He shifted slightly, his gaze focused on hers. “Whisky?” he returned with a nervous chuckle.
She flinched. Callum might mean that as a playful quip, but she couldn’t help but think of Silas and his whisky. Silas and what happened after too many whiskies. She shook her head at Higgins. “Nothing for now, thank you.”
The butler departed the room and Callum shifted. “I apologize for the joke. It’s obviously far too early in the day for a drink. I’m…er…a little tense.”
“You?”
He tilted his head. “You think it hard to believe?”
She stared at him, drinking in the lean length of his body, the casual confidence with which he always held himself. His handsome face with all those fascinating angles had certainly caused more than one stir amongst ladies in a ballroom or parlor. And now that she’d felt the brush of his lips to hers, she had to imagine he’d certainly kissed many women before her. He would kiss a great deal more once he’d long forgotten her and whatever obligation he’d convinced himself he had to her.