The sudden urge to laugh hit him.
He clutched his heart. “Mortally wounded.”
“My lord?” The butler’s brows raised to his hairline.
“’Tis a joke, Wentworth. Get me the goddamn Sauternes, if you please. One glass. Theladywill not be staying.”
At his mocking emphasis on the word lady, Julianna’s lush lips tightened.
Damn her thrice to hell and back. How had she gotten more alluring since he had seen her last? Were her breasts larger? Her eyes bluer? Her hair more vibrant? Skin creamier?
He didnotfucking care.
“Are you certain, Lord Shelbourne?” Wentworth pressed.
“Utterly.” He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Get out, Wentworth.”
His butler bowed and made haste on his retreat.
Shelbourne turned to his most unwanted—and despised—guest. “What the bloody hell are you doing in my house, Lady Julianna?”
She sniffed the air. “Are you drunk, my lord?”
“Not as drunk as I am about to be,” he said cheerily, rising to his considerable height. All the better to tower over her. One thing had not changed. Julianna was still deuced petite, the top of her head not reaching his shoulders. He refused to think about the way her body had fit with his. “You did not answer my question. Why are you here?”
Her tongue darted over the lush fullness of her lower lip. “I need to speak with you.”
He threw back his head and gave in to the mad urge for laughter which had been flirting with him ever since his tumble to the floor. He laughed. And laughed. And laughed some more.
When he was finished, he took a deep, calming breath, and held her gaze. “How amusing you are. Unfortunately, for you, I do not give a damn what you need.”
“Lord Shelbourne,” she began.
“Get out, Julianna,” he bit out atop anything else she would have said, all pretenses gone. “Now. Before I do something we will both regret.”
Like kiss her.
Damn it, but the old desire had remained, festering beneath the resentment like a gangrenous wound. He had known it, of course. But seeing her now—having her within reach—made the bloody yearning so much bloody worse.
“This is imperative, Shelbourne, and I have not much time.”
He snorted. “Quellecoincidence. I have not any time. For you. Goodbye, Lady Julianna.”
And good riddance.
Why had she returned? Two years gone, an entire ocean between them. And now, she was here. In his own home. Trespassing.
Hardly mattered what she wanted.
There was only one thing he wanted from her, he told himself, and he had already had it. No different than what he could get from any other woman. There was nothing special about her. His attraction to her was all down to his inconvenient, raging cock.
Getting sotted made him randy. Apparently.
Or mayhap that was just getting sotted and then having his solitude interrupted byher.
But she had not gone. The infuriating woman had thrown her shoulders back in defiance, and she was refusing to retreat. “I need you to have time for me tonight, Sidney.”
Sidney.
