“No, I suppose not,” she managed to push out though her uncertain tone suggested otherwise.
“Hmm.” He stepped past her. “So, if I told you that I actually loathed it, you wouldn’t care?”
“Youloatheit?” Her eyes widened, as though her worst suspicions had been confirmed.
“Always so quick to assume the worst,” he chuckled, shaking his head.
“Only becauseyou nevergive me a straight answer about anything,” she huffed, growing more frustrated by the minute.
“Then, let me make it simpler.” He closed the distance between the two of them again. “Iabsolutelydo not loathe it, but I do think this is rather bold of you. I cannot decide whether I admire that—or find it reckless.”
“I—me? Reckless?”
“Yes,” he smirked. “Very reckless indeed, changing my study without so much as a word. I am sure that the staff must have warned you against it, and yet you decided to make the changes anyway.”
“You were never here,” she argued, planting her hands on her hips.Thatwas reason enough.
“So, you felt that gave you the right?”
“I felt it gave me an opportunity,” she corrected. “And one that I took because, as I have already told you, this place really needed the changes.”
He surveyed the room again, and Isadora found herself holding her breath. “I suppose I shall have to admit that it is… improved.”
“That is all you have to say?” Isadora was on the brink of her patience.
Impossible, impossible man.
That was the only way to describe him. “You have been toying with me all this time, and I have had quite enough of it. In fact?—”
“I love it,” he interrupted her, and the relief that flooded through her felt like pure ecstasy. She realized that this was something Evan was quite astute at—bringing her to the brink of frustration and then giving her what she needed to hear all along.
“If you are only saying that to appease?—”
“I am telling youdirectlywhat I think,” he cut her off again. “Iloveit.”
“Oh,” she said quietly, glancing away before the warmth of a blush spread across her face.He loved it.
“Oh?” he echoed, smirking. “After all of those demands for an answer, that is all you have to say?”
“What else would you have me say?” she retorted though she was unable to keep the smile off her face.
“I don’t know,” he mused. “Perhaps ‘thank you, Your Grace, for your patience as I needlessly panicked over a perfectly well-executed endeavor’?”
“I did notneedlesslypanic,” she defended.
“Yes, you did,” he smirked. “It was rather endearing to witness, actually.Sodetermined to please me.”
His words took on a darker edge towards the end of his sentence, and Isadora felt a shiver run down her spine. An unspoken tension hung between them, almost as if he, too, felt the same as she did in that moment.
“I was…” she scrambled to justify herself though her throat had gone suddenly quite dry. “You were the only one who had not seen it. And I suppose… I wanted you to see what I had done.”
“So many words to say,” he said slowly, smirking. “You were seeking my approval.”
“I—” she stopped herself, flustered. “That is not?—”
“Let’s not deny the truth, Isadora.” His voice was like velvet. “That will not do either of us any good.”
Heavens.He always knew exactly how to fluster her.
