Page 35 of Heart of Iron
“I could hardly refuse such a gracious offer.We’ll start tomorrow.”She ran her gaze over Will’s unkempt hair, the glorious honey-brown strands that tangled about his shoulders.“Though heaven knows where I’m going to begin.”
“He doesn’t need to be perfect,” Leo said.“Just polished.And taught what to say.”
“Or rather, what not to.”Her eyes narrowed.“He’ll have to look like a gentleman at least.A haircut, a shave…possibly delousing.”A smile blossomed.“A complete new wardrobe.Dancing lessons.”
Will arched a brow.“I ain’t dancin’.”
“You’ll dance if I tell you to dance.You’ll bow when I tell you, and you’ll keep a civil tongue.”A part of her almost couldn’t wait.“Otherwise I’ll wash my hands of this whole affair and you don’t want that, do you?”
Oh no, he wanted to be nice and close.To keep an eye on her.
His eyes narrowed, the message in them perfectly clear.This would be war.But he had no choice but to accept her terms.
Leo looked between them.“Is there anything that I should be aware of?”
“No,” both she and Will retorted.
“Nothing at all,” she added, glaring at him to make sure he didn’t mention anything to Leo.
***
“I suppose you think this is amusing,” Lena said, pulling on her gloves with a sharp jerk.
Will leaned against the wall, lazily watching her.Her cheeks were pale but her eyes spat fire.He wanted to kiss her, wanted to press her back against the Chinese wallpaper and lick his way down her throat.
Dangerous.
He could control this urge, this desire.He had to.
Flexing his fingers, he glanced down the hallway.The chaperone was hovering like a service drone, her eyes flaring wide every time she saw him looking, as though she half suspected he’d pounce on her.Will was tempted to snarl at her.See if she had an attack of the vapors.
“Would it bother you if I admitted I were enjoyin’ every minute of this?”
Lena paused, her top hat resting rakishly on her head.Her fingers tangled in the purple ribbons and their eyes met in the mirror.
“I warned you,” he whispered, leaning closer so that his image came into the polished glass too.With his dark coat, he looked like an enormous shadow behind her slender purple figure.The big, bad wolf, ready to devour her.
Her scent enveloped him, tempting him to do just that.He wanted to press his face into her neck and breathe her in, let his hands run down over the corseted curve of her hips…
Lena looked up at him helplessly.Some hint of his hunger must have shown on his face for her lips parted with a soft exhalation.
“I will find out what you’re up to,” he warned.
She broke the spell, tugging sharply at her ribbons as she tied them.“Enjoy the moment, Will.It shall be the last time you get the better of me.”With a sweet little smile, she added, “And consider this my warning.”
“What d’you mean?”
She turned in a froth of skirts.“This is my world now and you’ve got no idea what the rules are.You’re not going to learn a thing and I…I am going to take great pleasure in this.”
She tried to step past him and he refused to back away and give her room.Lena’s breathing hastened, but there was no sign of it on her face as she squeezed past, her hips brushing against his thigh.
“What do you—?”
“Tomorrow.At noon,” she said, fetching her parasol, some lacy bit of fabric that would do naught to stave off the weather.“It wouldn’t do to have you come here too often.People might start to wonder.So I’ll come to you.At the warren.I can claim to be visiting my sister or helping her with some project.”She ran one last glance over him.“Do try to be clean and appropriately dressed.Tidying you up for society is going to be a rather monumental task as it is.”
Eight
Will paced the edge of the roof, staring out over the wall that encircled Whitechapel.Chanting and shouts echoed from the north, near the exit of Bishopsgate.It sounded like the low rumble of thunder, and every hour built the intensity of the storm until even Charlie and Lark could hear it.
