It didn’t work. She needed more distraction and something to subdue the riot of her thoughts and the herd of reindeer galloping through her stomach. When she’d taken control in the wardrobe everything had slowed to the speed of molasses. Perhaps if she demanded he finish what they’d begun in the library, she could finally have a restful night.
Jess decided she’d pay a visit to Cadoc Morgan once the rest of the house was snug in their beds.
Chapter Sixteen
Thedayhadnotbeen what Cadoc had expected. Jess’s family disguised their hostility with the barest veneer of civility, and everyone but the children had been guarded and wary. His dragonfly hadn’t allowed their disapproval to deter her, and her quiet belligerence had made him proud. Their foray in the closet had been unexpected too. Especially the way she’d ferociously returned his kiss - with a ruthless precision that made him want to keep her there, all to himself, for days. He’d been determined to make her come undone and she’d turned the tables on him. It was becoming more and more difficult to dismiss the effect she had on him because every interaction deepened his fascination instead of subduing it.
Once he’d rubbed down Bacchus, he found himself in his shop. The lighting mechanism he was working on for his new lamp design wasn’t coming together, and his fingers were clumsy. Even when he pulled it nearer and bent over it with his glasses perched on the end of his nose, his touch fumbled.
He felt like a coiled spring, and knew if he didn’t release all the energy that had crackled to life in her presence, the lamp would never be finished.
Carys and the children were due back in the morning, and it was the last night he’d be able to savor the solitude of a quiet house. He stripped off everything but his trousers and laced up his gloves. He pounded the sack of grain suspended from the ceiling with all his might. Like it was the source of all the ill and pestilence in the world.
It felt good to limber his muscles and dance on the balls of his feet as he cut and jabbed at his imaginary foe. He was bracing his hands on his knees when someone cleared their throat at the edge of the room.
He remembered he hadn’t locked the door and shot up, his fists clenched and ready for battle.
The woman he’d taken his leave of, not an hour before, was standing at the threshold, twisting her hands in front of her.
“I thought we agreed you would retrieve the other lens tomorrow night,” he said, his chest heaving.
He felt the sweat drip from his chin and splash his chest, and absently rubbed the space between his pectoral muscles. His guest’s eyes darted there, and even with the distance between them, he could see she was biting her lip.
She gave herself a little shake and raised her eyes to his face. “I’m not here for the lens. I’m here because I think we should talk about what happened in the closet today and what I think it means.”
“I thought it was clear what it meant. It’s all part of the wager.”
She remained silent.
He plucked a towel from the table and swiped it over his chest and behind his neck. “Isn’t it part of the wager, dragonfly?”
“I told you, I want to change the terms of the wager. I won today. And I think my victory deserves more than the return of my lens.”
He prowled closer, so close her breath feathered over his bare skin. When he raised his arm and planted his palm on the plaster just behind her head, her eyes widened in alarm.
“Did you jeopardize your safety to corner me in my home again, Miss Wainwright?”
Cad knew she and her sisters had neither horse nor carriage.
She shrugged and her shoulder grazed his forearm. “I decided to take the evening air. It seemed convenient to kill two birds with one stone.”
“You walked here,” he flatly said. He was furious at her rash disregard for her own well-being. He couldn’t fathom that she’d been reckless enough to brave the winter cold when he’d saved her from freezing to death in the streets a fortnight ago.
She thrust up her pointed little chin. “Of course I walked here. How else was I to convey myself?”
“If this conversation was so imperative it was weighing on your mind, you could have sent word. My carriage could have picked you up.”
She vigorously shook her head. “No. I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention or give my sisters reason for additional chastisement.”
“So you snuck out under false pretenses.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I didn’t feel like listening to a lecture on the impropriety of my actions.”
“As you continuously remind me, you’re a grown woman. The propriety of your actions are yours and yours alone to judge. Just like the consequences of them.”
“I know that. But trust me, a clandestine visit is much preferred to the bothersome headache I’d be subjected to if I sought their stamp of approval first.”
“Then tell me what you’re demanding from me.” He needed to hear her say it. That his irrational fury wasn’t unfounded. That she wanted more than his kiss.
