Page 10 of The Spinster's Secret Scoundrel
Here, on the steep bank out of view of Cavalier Cove proper, she lay on her back in the wan sunlight, coughing, panting, and contemplating her future. Now that she still had one.
“Mon Dieu. You’re alive.”
A shadow came between her and the faint warmth. With it came the solid heat of Thierry’s body. With it came a primal surge of desire. Hers responded without warning. Wanting. Needing.
The instinct she’d had when she was betrothed, and acted foolishly with the man who was meant to be her husband, before he left her ruined and shamed.
“Get off.”
Ada shoved. He hardly budged, though Thierry did stop bending his head down as if to kiss her.
“That would be much easier with a bit of warmth and assistance, chérie.”
Her mind was too marinated in near-death terror to piece together what he meant at first. His hard, lean thighs nestled between hers with nothing more than a few layers of fabric to separate them. Ada shivered violently.
From the road, if one squinted, one might see a pair of badly chilled people huddling for warmth on a remote, rocky beachfront outside of Cavalier Cove.
If one did not squint, one would very well presume they were engaged in the act of fornication.
Either way, she couldn’t afford to be seen in such compromising circumstances. Even if their actions were technically innocent—if one considered smuggling an innocent activity, which her uncle and his Riders absolutely did not—they certainly didn’t look that way.
“I meant, remove yourself from my person.”
“You first, Miss Naughty.”
She was caught between helpless laughter and wanting to strangle him. “I cannot go first, you ridiculous man. You’re lying on top of me. It’s physically impossible.”
“So, it is.” He cast her a chagrined look, and rolled away. “In case you were wondering, I would be delighted to trade places.”
Ada’s stomach erupted into flutters. The oddest part was that she did not find his overt flirtatiousness off-putting. She ought to know better than to trust any man with that sort of confidence, no matter how roguishly charming.
Ordinarily, she did. Today, however, she’d taken leave of her senses.
“I’d never take advantage of you in such a manner,” she said loftily. As loftily as one could while scrambling to her feet in a wet shift and stays.
“I am all disappointment,” he sighed, theatrically.
Ada’s heart fell. She was a joke to him, just as she was to everyone. A curiosity, an oddity to be teased and prodded and exploited. Sobering, Ada glanced at the sky, then at the boat they’d managed to beach out of reach of the waves, then at their pile of clothing. She began tugging on her stockings, petticoats and boots.
“Indeed, you are,” she said tightly. “Let’s get these crates up the hill and into my shed, shall we? I am not keen to lose out on my investment after all that fuss. I’ve earned the money you promised me.”
A quizzical expression crossed his handsome face, as if he realized he’d said something to upset her but didn’t understand what it was. Her reminded her of a puppy taken to task for doing its business inside the house. Ada couldn’t have explained her abrupt change of mood if he’d asked, so she was glad when he didn’t.
For the next hour, they furtively carried one heavy crate up the hill at a time, across the road, and into her dilapidated storehouse. They worked in silence, with one exception: when a coach bearing the crest of the Prescott viscountcy came barreling down the path in a cloud of dust.
“Stand here,” Thierry ordered, positioning her next to a bush and draping her damp skirt partly over it to conceal the last crate. “Don’t move.”
He laid stomach-down in the brush beside it.
“Are you daft? This will never work!”
Ada’s face burned at the thought that he was looking up her skirts—which she didn’t trust him not to do. She bowed as the fancy vehicle passed by. The driver barely glanced her way. It was over in a blink, and she realized she’d been fearful of nothing, as usual—a habit she’d fallen into ever since her failed engagement. Anticipating the next blow had become her default.
Ada didn’t want to live like that. She might not approve ofThierry and his incessant, irritating charm, but she couldn’t deny that ever since bumping into him this morning, he had pushed her to live more vibrantly than she’d done in years.
“I’ll take that.”
Cool air wafted up her thighs as he lifted her skirt to retrieve the crate.
