Hell, yes.Everythingwas amiss. To begin, in an echo of the first night she had appeared in his library, she was upside down and he was on his back while she presided over him. He was not amused by the similarities.
He hoisted himself into a sitting position and spun on his arse to face her, hesitant to stand on his aching, bleeding foot just yet. “I kicked the damned chair leg, and now I am bleeding. All is well. Go away.”
Her gaze flicked to his toe.
He was wearing a dressing gown, but despite the fall he had taken, his cock was still covered. That was all he cared about. His legs were bare, so, too his feet. She could look her fill at those, but he would be damned before he allowed her to see the unfortunate effect she had upon him. Thankfully, the manner in which he had swiftly settled himself hid his rampant erection.
“Are you in your cups again?” she asked.
He deserved that question, and he knew it. Had earned it with his own boundless capacity for diversion in all the wrong places.
Still, it nettled. “Sober as a fucking teetotaler. Now…Get.Out.”
Mayhap if he enunciated, she would take her luscious curves and her almost transparent gown and her flowing red curls and her freckles and her full, kissable lips and her glorious, fuckable body and go back to where she belonged. Leave him to his misery.
But no.
The new Lady Shelbourne was on her knees at his side. And her scent hit him like a fist to the gut. Only a fist to the gut that made his prick more rigid than iron. Lily of the valley.Damn her.
“You are bleeding.”
He ground his molars. “I will live.”
“Your nail is…”
Her words trailed off. He hazarded another glance at his bleeding toe. Dizziness assailed him.Hell.He liked to think himself strong. But all that red, dripping…
“I will live,” he gritted.
“You are pale, Shelbourne.”
“Fuck! Get out.”
She flinched, and he hated himself. Hated the situation in which they found themselves. Hated that he wanted to kiss her.
It was the strangest urge.
Not strange, really. He was more attracted to her than ever. Since he had kissed her, all he had longed to do was kiss her again. And again. And again.
“I should tend to your toe,” she said.
“Julianna,” he managed past the lust roaring through him, the need which was fast replacing the pain.
Her gaze met his, her countenance sweetly concerned. And fuck her, because he wanted to kiss her all the more for that. When had anyone fretted over him aside from his sister Hellie? Never.
“Let me help you, Shelbourne.”
“If you want to help me, you will return to your chamber before I do something truly stupid.”
There. He had warned her. She should run back to the safety of her chamber and her empty bed. Far from him. Because if she dared to remain, he could make no promises. She was trespassing in dangerous territory indeed.
“Something stupid,” she repeated. “Such as?”
Oh, hell.He was doing everything in his power to send her away. But she would not go. Mayhap this was purgatory. He had died in his sleep, and he was doomed to be tempted and taunted by this woman for all eternity without ever getting to feel her body beneath his again.
“You want to know, Julianna?” he asked coldly, holding her gaze, his toe utterly forgotten now. “Truly?”
Her lips parted. She swallowed.
