Page 3 of A Talent for Temptation
But he hadn’t expected her tostabhim, for God’s sake. Next time he plotted something like this, he should make sure she wasn’t armed. Not that there wouldbea next time. He wasn’t idiot enough to try this again.
“Come,” she said, slipping her slender arm about his waist. “We need to get you inside.”
Wonderful—now she thought him an invalid. As she tried to guide him up the steps, he muttered, “I can walk perfectly well, you know. I’m not wounded in the legs.”
“Yes, but you’re losing blood and you might faint.”
Which wouldreallymake him appear the fool. And now that she’d put the idea in his head . . .
Don’t faint, don’t faint, don’t faint, he chanted to himself.
“Which is why I need to get you inside where you can lie down,” she added. “I need to tend to that wound.”
Huh, that sounded promising. And he did rather enjoy having her supporting him. It might even be worth the searing pain in his arm.
If he didn’t bleed to death first. “Do you actuallyknowanything about tending to a wound?”
“I know enough,” she said evasively.
There she went again, throwing out one of her usual enigmatic remarks. Would he ever parse out the mystery that was Meriel? Did he even want to? After all, what sort of woman carried a blade in her reticule?
But in for a penny, in for a pound. He might as well see this through. As long as she didn’t find out that the “abduction” was staged, he ought to be safe.
They’d reached the top of the steps, and the door swung open to reveal an alarmed servant, whose livery showed him to be a butler. “Madam, what the devil—”
“Nunley, this is Mr. Raines,” she said as she led Quinn inside. “He came to my rescue when a man tried to abduct me, and he got hurt as a result.”
Paling, the butler took her cloak from her. “Iknewour carriage had been sabotaged. I was just coming to tell you when I saw that you’d gone out. Thank heaven you weren’t harmed.”
“Don’t thank heaven,” she said. “We have Mr. Raines to thank forthat.”
Quinn fought a surge of annoyance at her speaking of him as if he were some stranger. Even now, she was reluctant to admit she knew him. It was what any respectable widow would do to preserve her reputation. Still, he’d had enough of sneaking around with her and pretending not to know her, when he yearned every moment of every day to make love to her.
“Shall I send for Dr. Worth?” the servant asked.
“No need,” Quinn said, determined to keep Meriel to himself as long as possible. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” She inclined her head toward the butler. “Unfortunately, Dr. Worth isn’t presently in town, and there’s no one else I trust. So fetch my apothecary box. I shall take care of Mr. Raines myself.”
The butler seemed not the least surprised by that, blandly saying, “Very well,” before heading off down the hall.
She led Quinn into a parlor and to a settee, which he practically fell onto. The damned armreallyhurt now.
With the efficiency of a woman oddly comfortable with knife wounds, she peeled off his coat and waistcoat. “Lie down,” she ordered. “I need to elevate the arm.”
He did as she asked. Lying down was good. Very good. Though it would be better if she lay down with him.
She drew a footstool up to the settee, then pulled his arm up over his head and pressed hard on his wound.
Fire streaked through him. “What the hell are you doing!”
“I have to stop the bleeding,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Well then,” he gritted out, “carry on. Can’t have me expiring in your parlor.”
Regret suffused her face. “Honestly, Quinn, if I’d had any idea you were nearby, I would never have drawn my—” She paused. “Whywereyou nearby, anyway?”
His stomach lurched. Another way in which he hadn’t really thought this plan through. “Does it matter? If I hadn’t shown up when I did . . .”
