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"Obviously, I wasn’t," he practically spat

Her eyes widened, flashing with pain, and then she turned, hugging her ar of reh his hair "I apologize," he said, for the second time in as many minutes "I will marry you, of course"

"What?" She whirled around "No"

George stiffened It was like soht up his spine "I beg your pardon?"

"Don’t be daft, George You don’t want to h to say so out loud

"And you know I don’t want to ly clear"

"You only kissed me because you’re upset"

This was not true, but he kept his y" Her chin rose "And ill never speak of this again"

"Agreed"

They stood there for a ht to be ju for the trees Or for her father And the vicar And a special license woven into the shape of a noose

But not Billie No, Billie just looked at hihtiness and said, "I hope you will accept y"

"Your --" What? His jaw dropped What the devil did she have to apologize for? Or was she et the upper hand? She’d always kno to unsettle him

"It’s not as if I can pretend that I didn’t return the… ah…" She sed, and he took some pleasure in the fact that she blushed before she finished the statement "The… ah…"

He took quite a bit of pleasure in the fact that she couldn’t finish the statement at all

"You liked it," he said with a slow soad her at such a ht "Everyone has to have a first kiss"

"Then I am honored," he said with a courtly bow

Her lips parted in surprise, maybe even consternation Good He’d turned the tables

"I was not expecting it to be you, of course," she said

He stifled his irritation and instead ave a jerky little shrug "No one in particular"

He chose not to analyze the burst of pleasure that rushed through hiht it would be one of your brothers," she continued "Andrew, maybe --"

"Not Andrew," he bit off

"No, probably not," she agreed, her head tilting to the side as she considered it "But it used to see irritation While she was not wholly unaffected by the situation, she was certainly not as affected as he thought she should have been

"It wouldn’t have been the sa your pardon"

"If you had kissed sonore the way his blood buzzed with anticipation "It would not have been the sahtfully so "I would expect not," she finally said "I reed