She was serious.
His brow gathered. “Are you actually angry with the weather?”
“I’m not going to take it anymore,” she exclaimed and strode out from beneath the protection of the folly—and straight into the rain.
All Dev could do was watch, bewildered, even as he admired her spirit. If anyone could take on the elements, it was Beatrix.
She made it about twenty yards.
Then she stopped. Her shoulders heaved up and down with, presumably, a great frustrated sigh, before she whirled around and dashed back to the folly.
She was now irredeemably soaked. Hair, a clumpy, tangled mess…boots emitting a soupysquish-squoshwith every step…the fine muslin of her dress utterly ruined.
And utterly transparent.
Below her spencer, ivory fabric had found every inch of wet skin and clung on as if for dear life. Outlining…framing…displaying…every valley and hill… Her mons pubis a dark shadow beneath gossamer muslin.
Oh, she was a mess.
An utter, ravishable mess.
“You’re staring.”
His gaze lifted, and he didn’t deny it.
Instead, he shed his greatcoat and held it out, bridging the few feet between them. “Here.”
“I don’t need your?—”
“Spare us the ten minutes of back and forth and take the blasted coat, woman.”
She looked as if she might fight on, then she snatched the coat from him and shrugged it on—grudgingly.
It wasn’t only she who needed protection.
But he from himself—and his baser urges.
Urges which were presently rioting through his body and making their case.
Again, he experienced that contradictory spark of irritation.
She’d only taken his coat when presented with no other choice.
As if she couldn’t bear any part of him touching her, even if it was only the residual warmth from his body.
As if she were playing another game of pretend below their other game of pretend.
This game of pretend, however, was solely between the two of them.
It sounded complicated, but really, it was simple.
She was pretending their night together had never happened.
That he’d never touched her.
That she’d never touched him.
That they’d never taken pleasure from one another.
