The truth was she wasn’t as impulsive as people thought. She took careful consideration before acting. But it was simply her inclinations tended toward the unconventional, which made them easy for others to dismiss as wild and flighty.
But she was neither of those things. She simply wanted a life fashioned and forged by her own hand and talents.
And this summer she’d found it.
She couldn’t help wondering if now that she’d gotten a taste for freedom, she could leave it behind in a month.
After a good long while, Ravensworth switched direction and cut toward the shore…swimming directly toward her.
Every muscle in her body tensed with sudden anticipation. She was sitting on his clothes…effectively holding them hostage. That would tweak his nose. It wasn’t too late to jump to her feet and leg it down the trail back to her caravan.
Yet she remained silent and still.
“Can you stay away from me?”
He’d put the question to her a week ago.
And she had stayed away.
Until now.
Until she’d sat on his clothes, watching his naked form slice through the water.
Notstaying away.
The fact was she wanted to tweak him. She wanted to test him. She wanted to see him react to her provocation.
His head lifted to scan the shore, and her heart began racketing about her chest. Then his golden gaze found her and his forward momentum came to a sudden halt. It was the first time she’d met his eyes in days—since…
Sincea week agowas a fact established.
Thewhyof it, too.
No need to cover that ground yet again.
“What precisely are you doing, Lilah?” he called out, treading water.
Lilah.She hadn’t given him leave to call her by that name. But he didn’t need it—not when he was simply Seb.
“Enjoying the glory of the sunrise,” she responded, unable to control a grin. “Seb.”
The muscles of his neck and shoulders glistened with seawater and morning sun.
She couldn’t help noticing.
“Seated atop my clothes?” he asked, the question not a question at all.
She shrugged. This was fun. “They’re truly perfectly placed.”
“I’ll be needing them presently.”
Truly, she shouldn’t smirk. “When I’m ready.”
Who didn’t enjoy exerting a little power over a duke?
His eyebrows lifted, and even across this distance she caught a light enter his golden eyes—challenge.
An unhurried smile slid across his mouth, and a long, slow shiver purled up her spine. She’d only thought to taunt him, but it was occurring to her that she’d crossed an invisible line and had thrown down the gauntlet.
