Page 39 of The Study of Seduction
“Clearly he’s neither, since the ‘lie’ sent the major off with his tail between his legs. What is that saying about fire and smoke?”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?”
“No, where there’s smoking, there’s fire, and the major was smoking, to be sure.”
“You see what you started?” Clarissa complained to Edwin.
“Don’t blame me if your friends are idiots,” he shot back.
“Hey!” one of the pups said in mock outrage. “I am not an idiot. I am a fool.”
“At least you’re not a misinformer,” another said, and they split their sides laughing.
“Oh, you gentlemen are too awful,” Lady Margrave said, tittering along with them, as did her cronies. “The poor major. And he does have such a fondness for my daughter, too.”
“A fondness for her fortune, you mean,” Edwin said sharply, not in the mood to endure Lady Margrave’s lack of perception.
Clarissa lifted an eyebrow. “I do hope you’re not implying that my only attractions are my fortune, Edwin.”
“If he is, he’s blind,” chirped a pup lounging against the wall. “You’re the jewel in England’s crown, Lady Clarissa, with eyes of emeralds and ruby lips and hair of spun gold.”
“Jewels? Gold?” she said tartly. “Sounds as if you still have my wealth in mind, sir.”
The young man blinked. “I only meant—”
“She knows what you meant.” Edwin met her gaze, which he found more the quality of warm, rich jade than cold emeralds. “And she knows perfectly well whatImeant, too. She’s just toying with us both.”
She smiled sweetly. “Am I, indeed? Do I detect a note of criticism?”
“You do not. I’m merely making an observation.”
Her smile broadened as she moved up next to him. “Take care, sir. With each of your ‘observations’ about me, you slide closer to criticism.”
Lowering his voice, he stared down into her lovely face. “You will not win this wager.”
“Ah, but I will.” She tapped his chest with her fan, provoking a slow, steady simmer in his blood. “You can no more stop taking me to task than you can stop breathing.”
“It’s better than turning you into a pile of jewels.”
He and Clarissa were close enough to kiss, to embrace, to behave in the most wildly inappropriate manner. He could smell her cinnamon-scented breath, see the taunting tilt of her smile. The others disappeared for him, and all he could think was how badly he wanted to seize her and kiss that impudent mouth over and over until he’d broken through to the real Clarissa, whoever that might be.
Her smile faltered a little, and a dark awareness flickered in her eyes, as if she’d read his thoughts and guessed exactly all the ways he wanted to taste and caress and plunder her.
Then a feminine voice sounded from the doorway. “Are we interrupting anything?”
Clarissa started, then glanced over and renewed her smile. “Do come in, Lady Anne. How good to see you.”
“I hope you don’t mind,” the young lady said, “but I brought a friend with me.”
“Of course I don’t . . .”
As her words died, Edwin saw a change come over Clarissa. When she began to flutter her fan in front of her bosom again and her posture stiffened until she looked like a deer poising for flight, the simmer in his blood cooled to ice.
Edwin turned to find Durand standing there with Lady Anne.
Bloody, bloody hell.
Nine
