He paused, his broad shoulders stiffening, before he turned to face her. He was dressed unusually. Trousers of flannel, a strange jacket. He had been fencing, she realized belatedly.
His green gaze burned into hers as she continued her hasty approach. “Lady Julianna, what the hell are you doing here? Did I not turn you out on your pretty rump last night?”
“No, you did not.” She stopped just short of him. Near enough she could touch him, if she chose. Not close enough to give in to any disastrously foolish temptations. “I left because you were threatening me and being a boor.”
“Threatening you?” He raised an imperious brow, studying her in a way that was far too familiar.
In a way that made her nipples go hard and sent a rush of heat to the apex of her thighs even as she told herself she must remain unaffected by him. And shewouldremain unaffected. He was handsome. She had cared for him once. She had shared her most intimate self with him. He had been the first and only lover she had ever known. But that would change, in time.
There was no place for Lord Shelbourne in her world now save one.
“Yes,” she told him, holding her ground, squaring off against him in the fashion of a pugilist. “You threatened me. Told me you would toss me over your shoulder and haul me from your home if I did not leave. Do you not recall? You were dreadfully soused last evening. I can understand if you do not remember a bit of what happened.”
He cocked his head. “And yet, if I were such a brute, one cannot help but to wonder why an intelligent lady such as yourself would dare to return and once more place herself beneath the behest of my boorish whims?”
He was not wrong. Coming here again, seeking him out to begin with, had been a gamble. It was still a gamble. She had no reason to believe he would be amenable to the agreement she offered him. And if he denied her, she would have to find someone else.
But she would not fret over that now.
“Because I need to speak to you, Shelbourne,” she ventured. “Just as I said to you last night. I will not go until you allow me to say my piece.”
His lip curled, and he allowed his gaze to fall over her body in a way she could not help but to find insulting and titillating at once. Drat the man. He did such strange things to her, left her in perpetual upheaval. She did not know whether to kiss him or slap him.
Slap him, urged her conscience.
Kiss him, said her stupid heart.
She ignored them both.
“I have a dinner engagement, my lady. If you want to speak with me, you shall have to do it on my terms.”
His terms? What could they be?
Unfortunately, she did not have the luxury of caring.
“I will have my audience with you however I must,” she said boldly, relief hitting her at his sudden and unexpected capitulation.
“Good,” he said, grinning.
Her breath caught.
And she knew, undeniably, that she had just made a bargain with the devil. One she would soon regret. But that was why she was here, was it not?
The devil she knew was better than the one she did not.
Julianna could only hope that proverb proved correct in this instance.
Chapter 3
My darling Julianna,
I have been spending a great deal of recent time wondering. What could I have done differently? Was I mistaken in thinking you cared for me? Did your kisses lie? Was I too far gone in my own foolish feelings for you that I failed to see the truth? Some days, I want to believe you are not the viper who crushed my heart with a careless laugh and a smile. Other days, I persuade myself you are. And then, inevitably, I turn to drink for solace…
Still yours (damn you),
Sidney
Sidney had gone mad.
