Page 36 of The Viscount and the Vixen
“Not wanted, never wanted, but eventually I would have taken one.”
“So my arrival simply moved up your timetable.”
Stopping in front of a door, he faced her. “Don’t say it as though it was a small matter and you did me a great favor.” Before she could come up with some quip, he held out his hand. “The keys.”
“There’s only a study beyond the door.”
“I know.” He snapped his fingers. “Keys.”
She dropped the ring into his broad palm, and he began sorting through the iron. “You didn’t take a very close or detailed inventory of the rooms,” he muttered.
“I didn’t inventory them at all.” For some reason, she was insulted by his belief that she would. “Did you think I was searching for silver? I was merely hoping to find a room that would serve as a sanctuary.”
He held a key between his thumb and forefinger. “So you merely peered inside and carried on?”
“For the most part, yes. Until I discovered the music room. It was as though it spoke to me.”
He arched a thick dark eyebrow over those penetrating green eyes. “You do realize that makes you sound mad.”
She scoffed. “The walls didn’t literally speak to me, you ninny. I simply meant that I found the room to be welcoming.”
“Even with the spiders?”
She twisted her lips. “Not so much once I discovered them.” She tapped his boot on the floor. “But I was able to make short work of them.”
“So you did.”
Before he turned, she almost thought she caught sight of admiration twinkling in his eyes. He unlocked the door, swung it open, and stepped inside. She followed.
“This was the marchioness’s study,” he announced as he crossed over to a small secretary desk.
She could see it now. With the daintier furniture, the lighter colors. It might have been a cheerful room had it more than one narrow window.
On the desk, he lowered a door to reveal an assortment of nooks and crannies. Pulling open a drawer, he reached inside and withdrew a ring of keys, the metal circle much smaller than the one the housekeeper used. He held it out to her. “So you don’t have to bother Mrs.Barnaby for the keys in the future.”
She stared at the offering, wondering why her eyes were stinging. He was doing more than handing her bits of iron. He was demonstrating that he trusted her, that she had a true place within the household, in his life. He was handing her freedom, more than she’d had in a good long while. Slowly, reverently, she took them from him. “I don’t know what to say.”
“There’s nothing to say. You’re the lady of the manor. You’re entitled to a set of the keys.”
Of course he would ruin the gesture with a curt tone, but she wasn’t going to let him dampen her spirits entirely. “How did you know they were here?”
“I’ll tell you during dinner. Meanwhile, I’m quite famished and you still need your bath.”
“I’m looking rather forward to the telling.” She turned to go.
“Remember,” he called after her. “Don’t wear gloves.”
She glanced over her shoulder, giving him her most wicked smile. “I haven’t forgotten. As a matter of fact, I intend to wear very little except for my gown. Less for you to bother with later. Ponder on that during dinner.”
With her mismatched footwear, her exit wasn’t nearly as poised as she would have liked, but his low groan, bowed head, and fingers digging into the desk behind him managed to give her a great deal of satisfaction. The night might belong to him, but it was going to belong to him only on her terms.
Chapter9
She was going to drive him mad. He was fairly certain of it as he sipped his scotch, stared out the window of the library into the darkness, and waited for her arrival.
After hauling up the tub and water, he’d been incredibly tempted to lounge against the wall and watch as she removed her clothes, as she stepped into the bath, as she dribbled water over her skin. But if he’d stayed, he doubted that she’d get so much as her tiniest toe wet before he had her on her back. He yearned for her with a fierceness he didn’t want to acknowledge. Never before had any woman affected him as she did.
So he’d walked out simply to prove—more to himself than to her—that he could.
