He laughed again and answered easily, his eyes full with his amusement, “I shall have to consider this …” Without warning, he leaned over and lightly, easily managed to kiss her lips, parting them, and expertly found refuge there for his tongue.
She was startled by the unexpectedness of it. She was shocked by her reaction both in her body and mind. She felt the blood race through her veins, calling all her nerve endings into action. She felt her heart begin to purr with anticipation. She felt a spot between her thighs tickle her with heat and an itch to be touched …
His kiss was everything she had expected the rakehell Hotspur’s kiss to be, and, more, it was what she wanted it to be.
She went to war with herself and somehow found the ability to pull away abruptly. She put up her chin. “Am I to assume, then, we have not negotiated a truce?”
His laughter resonated on the breeze, and she found herself smiling in spite of the frown she tried to maintain. He said, “Must it be one or the other?”
“One or the other …” she answered firmly.
“Then I think not,” he sai
d brightly. “War it is, my lady, and to the victor go the spoils.”
She made a show of sighing heavily. “Well, you still needn’t worry I shall aim my cap your way. You are not at all the sort of man I am after.”
His pique set his jaw, and she had an urge to giggle but managed to control herself.
“Oh, really? What sort of man are you after?”
She beamed mischievously. “What every girl wants, of course. A knight of the Realm, a hero, a man of principles and romance—a man who will always take her side …”
“He doesn’t exist,” retorted Tarrant harshly.
She looked at him sideways. “Then I am destined to be a spinster.” With this, she clicked her horse and took off into a heady canter.
He caught up to her in a moment, for she could see his black did not mean to be left behind, and they collected their horses and moved along head in head. They slowed as the field ebbed and the wooded path opened before them.
Taffy brought her horse to a stop and allowed him to graze on some nearby tall grass. “Oh, that was lovely,” she said breathlessly. “What a fine animal you have, my lord. But never say you ride him tamely in Hyde Park.”
“I’ve schooled Demon myself. He will go as sedately or as wildly as I ask of him.”
Again, she saw the arrogance, the self-confidence, the high opinion he seemed to have of himself. She bristled. “Of course, how foolish of me to doubt you,” she said in mock meekness.
He looked at her sharply. When he did not remark on it, she was sure he thought she was poking fun at him.
“Tell me why it is that both your uncle, young though he is, and your brother allow you to go off alone like this … without even a groom in attendance?”
She took umbrage. “I suppose that is my business and theirs.”
He laughed. “It certainly would have been theirs had you fallen back there and been injured, fledgling.”
“Well, they are off to a cockfight, and I am quite used to riding about unattended.”
He smiled, and there was a tease in his voice as he admonished lightly, “In addition to the fact you could take a tumble, riding freely as you do, it is not at all the thing for a lady to ride astride and without the protection of at least her groom.”
She put up her chin. “I am well enough known in our village and surrounding area. Who would accost me?” She shrugged this off. “And as to riding astride, I prefer it. Riding in a lady’s saddle is not always an easy or comfortable task. Why we should have to do so is outrageous. Taking a tumble? If I were missing, someone would come looking …”
He raised a brow quizzically. “As to who would accost you—any man with eyes in his head, sunbeam.”
“But any man with a brain in his head wouldn’t dare. There are consequences they would have to incur, and I am no easy prey.”
He inclined his head, and she could see he had decided to change the subject. “Ah,” he said, looking into the distance, “Grantham looks quite lovely from this hill.”
She eyed her home and smiled. “Yes, yes, it does …”
“And with it in sight, I am afraid I must leave you, sunbeam, as I am headed for the village.” He tipped his beaver hat. “Perhaps I may see you in London.”