Lastly, he stood opposite her and taught her how to advance and retreat.
“Fencing is not unlike our game,” Heath commented as they slowly moved back and forth across the floor. “You engage and disengage and try to score a hit while keeping up your own defense.”
“I can see that,” Lily replied a little breathlessly. “Your skill is amazing,” she declared a while later when he allowed her to rest.
“A little more practice and you will be ready to take me on.”
She laughed outright. “It will take me a lifetime of practice to ever be a good enough match for you.”
Heath couldn’t agree with her. Lily was easily a match for him already. Not with foils, of course. But her zest for living, her spontaneity, her endearing high spirits, delighted him down to his soul.
It was remarkable, the bond he felt with her after such a short acquaintance. Marcus’s younger sister Eleanor was the only other woman who’d ever engendered such sentiment in him. And in truth, Lily acted toward him much the way Eleanor did, as if he were her older brother, her demeanor friendly and platonic.
Heath intended to change that very shortly, but he relished the feeling, in large part because it reminded him so much of his closest friends. He had distant relatives still living, but no immediate family, yet he thought of Marcus and Drew as his brothers. He cherished the bond he’d shared with them over the years. The joys and sorrows, the camaraderie, the friendship.
He would greatly miss that closeness now that they had each found brides. But seeing their happiness made him wonder what he could have with Lily.
If she were his wife, he would be able to spar with her regularly, to laugh with her, to tease her and provoke her and challenge her as he was doing now. And he could have her in his bed. It was highly pleasurable to imagine awakening with her beside him every morning, making love to her slowly and thoroughly…
He wanted to take her right now, Heath thought, gazing down into her laughing eyes. She was so utterly desirable, he wanted to bury his hands in her lustrous hair and back her against the wall and make a delectable feast of her.
But he would not allow himself. He didn’t want a hurried affair; he wanted Lily for his wife. More crucially, a careless seduction would surely wound her, no matter how it might assuage the stinging needs of his body. And then there was her reputation to consider. Lily had lived under a cloud of scandal for years, and he wouldn’t make it worse for her.
No, he intended to leave her a virgin until she was his bride. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use passion to persuade her to accept his hand in marriage. He wanted more than her surrender, however. He wanted her to know the blissful pleasure that could exist between a man and a woman…
Heath didn’t realize he had gone still until Lily looked up at him quizzically. “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all. But it is time for your next lesson.”
“What lesson?” she asked, her expression suddenly a bit wary.
Not replying at once, Heath stepped toward her and took her foil from her, then set both rapiers down on a side table. When he returned to stand before her, the need to have his arms filled with her was almost overwhelming.
“I mean to teach you about arousal,” he said as he drew Lily against him.
Her breath catching audibly, she raised her hands to push against his shoulders, but Heath refused to release her.
“Have I mentioned that seeing you in those breeches makes my imagination run riot? I’m afraid it has had the opposite effect than the one you intended.”
“What effect has it had?” she demanded, her voice nervous and uneven.
“You have aroused me quite painfully,” he said, his gaze locking with hers.
“I most certainly don’t mean to.”
“And you can’t deny that I arouse you.”
Lily’s mouth opened as if to do just that, but then she closed it again. “Of course you arouse me. You are a renowned lover who can seduce anything in skirts. But my response doesn’t mean a thing. It is purely an involuntary physical reaction.”
“You dismiss physical pleasure readily enough when you know little about it.”
His hands moving to her waist, Heath held her flush against him, enjoying the fine tremor of her body. “You are a woman of great passion, Lily. Too passionate to live the rest of your life as a spinster. Too warm-blooded and intense. And I mean to prove it to you.”
Her chin lifted stubbornly. “I think passion is highly overrated.”
“I know you do. But you won’t after today.”
Lowering his hands to her hips, he slipped one knee between hers, parting her legs. With a soft gasp, Lily tried to pull back, but his tightening grip pressed her abdomen into his loins.