She began to walk away but Robert took hold of her wrist and pulled her back. As he looked down at her tearstained cheeks, something primal curled up and snapped inside him. He would have loved to beat Phillip Destonbury to a bloody pulp, but the look in Charlotte’s eye stopped him. She needed him and he would not leave her. Not for the world.

“What did your father say to you?” he asked.

She slowly met his eyes, wanting so much to be wrapped in the comfort she knew he would give. “He said I’m becoming a useless shrew just like my mother. He said I’m spoiled and willful and if I don’t do everything in my power to convince you to marry me, he will make me live to regret it.”

Robert’s free hand balled into a fist. If he heard much more, he didn’t doubt that he would throw Charlotte over his shoulder and take her away from this place forever, consequences be damned. “Tell me what I can do to help you. Tell me how to make this right and I will.”

“I want to forget things for a while,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Can I do that? Just for one night?”

She didn’t wait for an answer. Charlotte turned to Robert and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to crash her lips to his. Robert was surprised but more than willing as his arms instantly locked around her waist. She had finally come to him on her own and he had no intention of letting her go.

The kiss escalated as the two finally crossed some kind of invisible line. Charlotte opened her mouth to him, demanding more and kissing him with an innocent abandon that nearly brought Robert to his knees. He answered her passion with a growl and fitted her even more tightly against him.

Time slid away until Charlotte pulled back, gasping for air. The look in Robert’s eyes sent delicious shivers through every inch of her.

“Come to my room tonight,” he pleaded, bending forward to kiss the side of her throat. “Once the house is asleep, I’ll send my valet to bring you to me. Say yes. Be mine, even if only for tonight.”

Charlotte tilted her head back, giving Robert full access to the sensitive skin along her neck. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yours, tonight...”

I stop typing with a naughty smirk. Things are about to get real in Greenspeak Park! My oven timer sounds a second later, forcing me away from my characters, who are completely ready to go for the gold.

To be continued.

I close my laptop and rush from my desk to the kitchenette.