Oh yes, he had her where he wanted her. Well, notexactlywhere he wanted her. Not physically, anyway. That would have to wait for a more opportune moment. One containing both privacy and a bed.
He smiled. “You needn’t worry about past conquests, you know.”
“Wonderful, because I wasn’t.” She diverted her attention to the road, an elegant and icy queen.
God, she was delectable. When she was cool with him, it made him want to do wicked things to her.
“Wonderful,” he repeated cheerfully, allowing a silence to fall between them because he knew it would only heighten her discomfiture.
In his mind, he began to count, suspecting he wouldn’t make it beyond a full minute before she surrendered to the need to speak.
Thirty.
One-and-thirty.
Two-and-thirty.
Three-and-
“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?” she burst out.
He cast a glance in her direction, admiring the creamy column of her throat, where a dusting of coppery freckles disappeared into her bodice. “I was seeing how long you could last without speaking to me.”
Her head swiveled to him, giving him a view of her entire lovely face rather than only her profile. “I beg your pardon?”
“Just over thirty seconds,” he added, unable to keep a note of smugness from his voice. “I don’t blame you for yearning to hear my voice.”
“Perhaps I was bored,” she countered. “About to expire fromennui. Have you considered that?”
Brandon grinned. “Not even once.”
She made a small huffing sound that made him grin harder whilst he turned his attention back to the road as they approached Hyde Park. A crush of conveyances had already begun to descend upon Rotten Row. Everyone would know, and in quite short order, that the Duke of Brandon had been seen with the Countess of Grenfell.
“Only think of what the gossips shall say when they see the two of us on a drive together,” she said, almost as if he had spoken his thoughts aloud. “You ought to have asked Lady Lavinia to accompany you instead.”
“I’m not courting Lady Lavinia,” he said, keeping his tone mild.
“You aren’t?”
They were in the official procession, traveling down the bridle path as onlookers watched from the rails.
“I’m not,” he affirmed.
“Whoareyou courting, then?”
You, he might have said. But again, Brandon knew the woman at his side well enough to understand that such news would not be greeted with enthusiasm. No, best to conduct his courtship covertly. To plead his case without her aware of it.
Until it was too late.
“You certainly have taken quite an interest in my romantic entanglements,” he observed instead.
“I’m merely trying to help you,” she countered.
He slanted a glance in her direction. “Generous of you.”
She shrugged. “My mother taught me that one must perform good deeds in one’s life.”
“A clever woman indeed.”
