A Dangerous Love (30 page)

The endearment resonated deeply within her. “No,” she whispered.

“I tried not to. But I wanted you so desperately…”

“So did I,” she reassured him. “I’ve thought of nothing else for two days.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You seemed to have another man on your mind earlier.”

She laughed. “You’re such a jealous fool. All we did was talk about you. Your employer was determined to convince me you cared about me. I remained unconvinced.”

“You talked to him about me?” he said incredulously. “But…you planned to marry him. Didn’t you think he might take that amiss?”

“I hate to tell you this, for it’ll swell your head, but I never planned to marry him.”

“What? My God, you practically offered yourself on a platter to the man!”

His jealous tone made her smile. She pushed up on his chest to stare down into his face. A giddy joy seized her at the thought of marrying him. “I’ll have you know that Mr. Knighton is far more perceptive than
you
. He guessed at once I had no intention of marrying him. I only wanted to delay him somehow, and I thought if I agreed to marry him, I could lengthen the engagement indefinitely.”

“You’re saying it was a pretend engagement.”

“Precisely.”

“Then why did you let him kiss you?” he growled, temper flaring.

“Because we
knew
you were spying on us, you ninny, and he wanted to goad you. Besides, it took me quite by surprise.”

He clasped her neck, drew her down for a long, drugging kiss, then whispered, “There will be no more surprises like that, do you hear? Because you’re mine now, my sweet. And if I ever catch Daniel kissing you again—”

“Daniel?” she asked, perplexed.

Griff froze, his face draining of color. “Damnation.”

“Daniel? Who is Daniel? Wait, isn’t your real name supposed to be—”

“Yes. I suppose it’s time I told you what I’d come out here to say in the first place.” He sighed. Moving her gently aside, he sat up. “If we’re to be married, you probably ought to know my real name.”

Fear startled to life in her breast. Why did she sense she wouldn’t like this?

He ran his fingers through his hair in distraction, then gazed at her. “The man you know as Mr. Knighton is actually Daniel Brennan. And I’m not called ‘Griff’ because of the griffin. I’m called Griff because of my middle name, Griffith.”

His long shuddering breath struck dread in her soul. “My entire name is Marsden Griffith Knighton.
I
am your cousin, Mr. Knighton.”

Chapter 17

He that knew all that ever learning writ Knew only this—that he knew nothing yet
.

Aphra Behn, English playwright
, The Emperor of the Moon

G
riff braced himself for her anger. At least now everything was out in the open. He’d always believed in plunging right in, and this was a matter he could no longer avoid, especially if they were to marry.

He
would
marry her, no matter what her reaction. Making love to her had sealed his determination. He’d never experienced such a joining with any woman—never. It still struck him with awe, with untrammeled wonder.

And with a fierce desire to make sure he didn’t lose this precious connection with her.

He rose and jerked on his drawers, watching her warily. She’d already sat up, twisting herself into a tangle of limbs that hid the private areas of her
body. Looking dazed, she drew the blanket up around her. With a twinge of guilt, he saw that it was stained with her virgin blood.

“Rosalind, say something,” he growled as she stared sightlessly past him. “Call me a bastard, rage at me, anything.”

“How can I call you a bastard?” she said in a small voice. “If…you’re…telling me the truth, then you aren’t one, are you?”

If ever he’d needed proof that she knew nothing of her father’s plans, this was it. And she’d given him the perfect opening to spill out the rest of the tale.

He couldn’t, though, not yet. How could he when she sat there so still and quiet, her silence putting the death knell to all his plans?

“Oh, but I am a bastard,” he said hoarsely. “I should never have lied to you about who I was.”

She shook her head as if to clear it. “You really are Marsden Knighton? My cousin?”

“Distant cousin,” he reminded her.

A groan rolled from her. “I’ve been such an idiot. I should have seen it all along. The way you acted, the way you talked. I always wondered how Mr. Kni—How your man of affairs could put up with your insolence. It wasn’t insolence, was it? You’ve always given him orders. You were merely acting as his employer.”

Gratified that she finally understood that at least, he nodded.

She rose as if in a trance, tucking the blanket about her. “And his coarse manner—” Her gaze shot to Griff. “
He
is the son of the highwayman, not you. He’s the one who lived in the workhouse for a time.” A look of horror spread over her face. “Or was that a lie, too?”

“The only thing I lied about was my identity.”
Though I haven’t yet told you a hundred other things
. “I gave myself Daniel’s past and he took mine, but the details of our backgrounds are all true and they all match the names. It’s only that what I said about myself belongs to Daniel and what I said about him belongs to me.”

He could see her working it out in her mind, which alarmed him. Rosalind operated on emotion. She attacked with swords, she impetuously offered herself in marriage to save her sister…she threw herself passionately into lovemaking. To see her thinking the matter through instead of hurling the picnic basket at him worried him.

“So you’re the one who went to Eton?” she asked.

He nodded curtly.

“You’re our cousin.” She scrutinized his features. “Yes, of course you are. I only saw the miniature of your father once, but from what I recall you look much like him. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”

“Because people see what they’ve been told to see. You didn’t know us—you had no reason to suspect I wasn’t Mr. Brennan.”

At the sound of the name, her eyes went wide. “That means you’re not even half-Irish. That’s why he said…Ohhh…” She groaned and closed her eyes, obviously remembering something.

“What did
he
say?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. We just talked about the Irish and…It was nothing.” She mused a moment. “So of course you’re the one who made Knighton Trading such a success. How could I have been so stupid? I kept thinking you were the brains behind the company, but I couldn’t understand how you’d hidden that from his investors so long or why you’d let him take credit for your efforts.”

He laughed bitterly. “You know me too well to
believe I’d let anyone take credit for my efforts. As for Daniel—don’t let his rough exterior deceive you. He’s good at what he does, so good that his shrewdness about investments has enabled me to double my personal income in the past few years. He advises other men besides me. Indeed, he’s soon planning to open his own concern.”

He knew he was rambling, that she had no reason for wanting to know about Daniel, but he blindly sought to wipe away her look of betrayal.

She turned her face from him. It was dark enough now that he could barely see her, but he still hated having her turn from him.

“You asked me to marry you,” she whispered, “knowing that I thought you were someone else. Didn’t you think it significant enough to tell me?”

“Damnation, Rosalind, I’m telling you now!”

“Oh? Explain to me why you would even begin such a masquerade. And why, after you supposedly decided you wanted to marry me, you would continue it.”

“
Supposedly?
Goddamn it, woman, there was no
supposedly
about it. The minute I saw you in your father’s study, I wanted you. And after that day in my bedchamber, I knew I had to have you.”

“You mean…in your bed.”

“No! As my wife. I never lied about that.”

“Yes, but that day in your bedchamber, you didn’t offer for me. Why not? You could have just told me the truth then, told me I had nothing to fear, that you’d marry me yourself. Why did you wait until after I went to Mr.…to…”

“Daniel. His Christian name is Daniel. This will be easier if you call him that.”

“Nothing about this is easy!” she cried.

Her shoulders shook violently, and he prayed she wouldn’t weep. He couldn’t stand it if she wept.

“I thought I was in…I thought I cared for you,” she whispered, her features etched with hurt, “but whom did I care for? Not Griff Knighton, obviously. Certainly not Daniel Brennan. It was some…creation, a blend of you and your man of affairs.”

“That’s not true!” Why did she speak of caring for him as if it were in the past? He couldn’t lose her now, not over this. He must make her understand. “It wasn’t Daniel you accompanied about the estate. It wasn’t Daniel you played billiards with or discussed Shakespeare with.” Walking to where she stood enveloped in her blanket, looking lost, he reached up to caress the darling curve of her cheek. “It wasn’t Daniel who made love to you.”

At least she didn’t recoil from his touch. “You still haven’t told me why you would even begin such a deception. Or why you let it go on for so long.”

His hand froze, and a sudden terror seized him. Damnation, he couldn’t tell her the rest of it. How could he? She already felt betrayed and hurt. How much more would she suffer if he told her he’d come here on a search for something that would ruin her father and drag her sisters through scandal? How could he tell her he still planned to regain what was rightfully his?

He couldn’t, not now. Once they were married, he’d tell her. By then, he’d know exactly what he intended to do. As matters stood, he didn’t even know if she
would
marry him. So first he must secure her, then sort out the rest after they married.

It took him only a moment to think of a plausible reason. “When your father invited me here, he mentioned the possibility of my marrying one of you. To be truthful, I wasn’t interested. I had no reason to marry, or so I thought.”

“And you didn’t need to marry to gain the estate,” she put in tartly.

He merely nodded, incapable of lying to her so blatantly. “Nonetheless, I wanted to see Swan Park. My father spoke often of it, I knew I’d inherit it, and I was curious. So I devised a way of looking at it without being plagued by a group of women throwing themselves at me.” He managed a faint smile. “Believe me, if I’d ever guessed you were all so violently opposed to marrying me, I would never have considered the masquerade. But I’d been told that you were…well…”

“The Swanlea Spinsters,” she said, tipping her chin up with an amazing dignity for a woman in a blanket standing barefoot in the middle of a glade.

“Exactly. I thought Daniel could keep all of you occupied while I…surveyed the estate at my leisure. Of course, the longer the masquerade continued, the harder it became to admit to it.”

He brushed her hair away from her face. By God, she’d never looked so fetching as she did in that blanket. It completed his image of her as Athena the battle goddess, except that she needed to drape it lower, to reveal her lovely breasts in all their glory.

He forced down his randy cock and continued. “By the time I realized I wanted you, I didn’t know how to stop it. I wasn’t even sure you were interested in me as Griff Brennan, much less as Griff Knighton. You were spouting all that bloody nonsense about marrying ‘Mr. Knighton’ to save your sister, and I didn’t want you marrying
me
for that.”

“So you kept lying, to make sure I’d marry you for yourself and not for your property? Is that it? You manipulated me and—”

“Now see here,” he interrupted, his temper pricked by her outrage, “I wasn’t the only one manipulating people. You weren’t even really plan
ning to marry Daniel…I mean, me. Knighton. You were no more honest with me than I was with you, damn it.”

Her chin quivered. “I was fighting for my family. What were you fighting for?”

My company, my future
, he nearly said, but didn’t dare. “Rosalind,” he said, mustering a reasonable tone, “I know I should never have engaged in such a reckless scheme, but it’s done now, and I’ve told you about it. Can’t you forgive me? Can’t we put it behind us?”

Rosalind stared at him, not sure how to take his revelations. She wanted to hate him for masquerading and then continuing it so long, for making love to her while pretending to be someone else.

Yet how could she? His being the real Mr. Knighton made everything so much easier. She hadn’t looked forward to telling her family she was running off to marry the wrong man, the one who could
not
save Swan Park. She’d dreaded dealing with Juliet’s renewal of attentions to the man she believed to be their cousin.

Still, Griff had
lied
to her. Repeatedly. Egregiously.

In her heart she knew she could forgive him that…if she were certain it was all she had to forgive. But though his explanation seemed plausible enough, she couldn’t quite believe it. This had all been merely to keep the Swanlea Spinsters from bothering him while he looked over the estate? How could it be that simple?

She thought of Papa’s strongbox and stiffened. “And what of all your sneaking about the estate? What of that?”

He glanced away, a muscle tensing in his jaw. “I told you. I wanted to assess the place. I don’t work well with somebody hovering around, that’s all.” His gaze swung back to her, raking her boldly, mak
ing her blush. “Especially when the somebody is a fetching female who makes me burn. Who’s making me burn right now, truth be told.”

An irresistible need drew her gaze inexorably to his drawers. She swallowed to see that he didn’t lie about
that
at least, for the stockingette clearly outlined his arousal. He seemed to grow even more as she stared.

“I find myself in this state nearly all the time when I’m around you, my darling,” he said hoarsely. “Until now, I didn’t think I’d ever find a woman I wanted so badly. It makes no sense, I know, but the minute I met you…well…something altered inside me. It’s as if I was missing a part of me that I found when you entered my life.”