“Bring them here.”
“Very well.” She advanced quickly, deliberately sunk his clothes into the water, and retreated back against the wall. “Whoops,” she added, feeling along the tiles as she edged toward the door. “I suppose we’ll have to stay the night, now.”
“Why?” He stared down at the clothing slowly disappearing into the water around his legs. “Whymust you plague me?”
“You had your chance to leave,” she quipped.
“Right now, I wish Ihadhanded you over to the rector.”
She leaned forward, giving him a gaping view of her breasts. “You don’t mean that.”
“Right now,I said.Right now, I’m thinking a lot of things, and none of them pleasant.” He took a deep breath. “In fact, you’d be wise to take yourself back to your room. You’d be wiser still to book a passage by mail back to Southford.”
She stopped moving. “You don’t want me to leave.”
“I do.”
“Well”—her gaze dropped again—“thatpart of you doesn’t want me to go.”
He swished through his water-logged clothes and stepped out of the tub. “Thatpart has a mind all its own.”
“A mind all its own? Really?”
His manhood jerked.Devil take the thing.He wished she’d avert her gaze. “Go,Julia.I don’t—I can’t—trust myself when I’m angry.”
“I trust you.” She lifted her eyes to his. “You won’t hurt me.”
“I’m not sure that’s true anymore.” He combed his fingers through his dripping locks. “I’m not sureanything’strue anymore.”
“Why?” She threw up her arms. “Because Farring tricked us both? He wouldn’t have had to if you could just admit what you feel.”
“Do you want to know what I feel? I amfurious. You andFarring. Good God. I crossed an ocean to purge you. Yet you remain.”
She cocked her head. “Meaning…you haven’t purged me yet?”
He folded his arms. “You’re spoiled enough to think you can have anything you want. But you can’tforceme to act. I am not yours to manage.”
“I wasn’t trying to—” Her face blotched red.“Damnation!”
He snorted.
“Is my language amusing?”
“Actually, yes. Rather like hearing a mouse curse a cat.”
“Let’s try another word, shall we?” She narrowed her eyes. “Cock. As in yours. At attention.”
His amusement disappeared.
“Mousy enough for you?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Almost musical, as a matter of fact.”
“Cur. Beef-witted, jingle-brainedass.”
His member jerked again.
“And how could I leave off the first gem you taught me—fuck.”
