Page 22 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
“Try to flutter your lashes now,” Daniel said.
She did, but it looked odd and forced. After a few tries, her attempt was still unbelievable. Daniel made a move to touch her again but dropped his hand, and said, “I don’t think you’ll master that today. Try to look up under your lashes.”
Harriet nearly laughed; with the innumerable times she had done the very same thing at school—for drastically different reasons—she had mastered that art. Dipping her head, she looked up, and Daniel’s quick inhale told her that she had mastered what he wanted of her.
Daniel’s head was turned away, and the tips of his cheekbones were tinged red. Reaching out, she laid a hand on his arm, holding on even when he flinched a little.
“Are you all right?”
His head twisted, and the look in his eyes was dark and unfathomable. “Yes,” he cleared his throat, “that was well done. I think you’ve done well, but you need to keep practicing until it's artless.”
Looking out at the flurry of snow, Harriet replied, “I’ll have plenty of chances, tonight, and the balls beyond. Which reminds me, there is going to a masquerade on New Year’s Eve. Do you have a costume?”
Daniel rolled his eyes to the ceiling, “Until they knit together a costume to show my pure contempt for such frivolities, I’ll not attend.”
Taking his hand, Harriet held his hand tightly, and used the same submissive stance and flirty look that she had nearly perfected, “Please, come. It would mean the most to me if you did.”
His jaw tightened, and his face was taut, “That was unfair.”
“Did it work?” she asked, hopefully, still peeking at him from under her lashes.
Daniel let out a sigh, “Fine, fine; I’ll attend the party. I’ll have to go shopping—and I despise shopping.”
Hopping on her toes, Harriet clapped her hands, “Wonderful. I’ll help you shop. I can see you as a warrior from ancient times, a hunter, an emperor, a Shah—”
She continued naming out the choices while Daniel led her to another room, where a pianoforte stood. He circled it, “Music, as well, can be a seductive asset. You said that you could play?”
Harriet nodded, and Daniel waved at the instruments, “Please.”
Taking the seat, Harriet ran her fingers over the ivories, then played a soft, mysterious melody, and Daniel said, “Look at me. When I move, find a way to give me an inviting look.”
Turning her head to give him her profile, and to offer him the flirty looks from under her eyes, Harriet’s head moved with the music, while her fingers moved over the keys. A dreamy smile curved her lips as she lost herself in the magic she was creating. For a moment, she forgot Daniel was there until he cleared his throat.
“That smile is lovely, but not mysterious or inviting enough,” Daniel said. “Think of those books, a scene that made you want to act it out yourself. Bring that up in your smile.”
Thinking of the wicked kiss, Lord Lucifer had given the lady Angelica in the last passage she had read, and felt a different curve twist her lips.
“Good,” Daniel said, “keep that thought, and follow me.”
With his slow moments around the room, Harriet followed Daniel with her eyes, managing a few times to give him the come-hither look he had asked her to portray. Once, with a racy passage running through her mind, she looked at Daniel, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
She held the look, and he didn’t move, before he shook his head and came around to sit near her. “Was I able to render you motionless?”
“Brave of you think so,” Daniel replied as her fingers flew over the keys, “May I ask, what was in your mind, a while ago?”
“I’d rather not say,” Harriet replied, flicking her eyes to him. “I wouldn’t want to scandalize your sensibilities.”
To her befuddlement, Daniel’s laugh was hollow. “Believe me, Harriet, there’s not much you can say that’ll accomplish that.”
A jolt of surprise ricocheted through her frame at the sound of her name on his lips. The tune began to reach its end, and after she pressed the final note, Harriet dropped her hands to her lap and turned to him, “And why would that be…Daniel?”
Chapter Seven
Instead of an answer, Daniel’s eyes dipped to her plump, pillowy lips and he felt his blood heating at the sight.
Harriet was looking at him with wide eyes, and he could see her pulse flutter in her neck. With a timid sigh, her lips parted, as if she was preparing for her first kiss, no doubt hoping to feel the press of his lips, and to experience the flames of passion igniting in her veins.
But his lips lingered an inch away from hers, and his voice, like his cologne, was smoky and dark, “To tell you that,I’llbe the one scandalizing your sensibilities.”
