“I didn’t know it was you.”
“Who did you think I was?” Jealousy flashed in his eyes and tightened his voice.
Good. He might have Gladys at sixes and sevens, but Medford at least was still falling right on track.
“You shouldn’t kiss a lady without permission.”
“Are you a lady?”
“Are you a gentleman?”
“Not in the least. And I’ve never had to ask permission before.” He tilted his head. “If I ask it of you, will you say yes?”
“You’ll have to find out the same way everyone else does.”
“May I kiss you?”
“No.”
He clutched his heart as if struck by an arrow. “You are a villain. I have been desperate to see you again since the moment you left the labyrinth.”
“You can barely see me in the darkness, and you couldn’t see anything at all a moment ago when you were kissing me with your eyes shut.”
“You watched me? Your eyes were open?”
No. Her eyes had been closed too, just as they were on that night so long ago.
Rather than answer, she raised her brows at him.
He raked a hand through his hair. “May I see you, then? Really see you? Somewhere with sun, or at least chandeliers?”
“I don’t wish to be seen with you.”
“You don’t?”
“I have a reputation to consider.” She slanted him a wry look. “Don’t you? The most prolific rakehell in England, publicly wooing a random spinster. Good God, what would the gossips think?”
“I never said I planned to do any wooing.”
“Then what, exactly, are you proposing?”
He stared at her in consternation, the wheels in his brain clearly spinning. “Is it still ‘wooing’ if both parties know their time together won’t lead to matrimony?”
“Are you referring to sexual acts?” she asked archly.
He flung out his hands. “I’ll pour tea for you and discuss the weather, if that’s the only way you’ll agree to see me.”
“So you’re asking what it’s called when two people spend non-sexual time together in voluntary companionship. I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘friendship’.”
“With a woman?” Medford said in mock horror.
Or perhaps he wasn’t acting. He famously never saw the same woman twice. It did not take much imagination to realize he did not think of his conquests as friends. He didn’t think of them at all.
Until now.
She inclined her head. “I will accept tea and nothing more.”
“Nothing more?”
