Hearing his name slip so easily from her lips ignited a flare of heat in his heart and he drew back to look at her. Her lips were parted; softly inviting and waiting for his kiss.
“Do you want me to kiss you, sweet Hero?” he whispered, his brogue thick with desire. In his efforts to seduce, he’d become the seduced. “Tell me.”
“I want…”
“Daughter! Daughter! Look at me.”
Diverted by her father’s urgent calls, Hero turned away only to squawk in a most unladylike manner and cover her eyes with a gloved hand. “Good Lord, Papa!”
Ian, too, turned in time to see the Duke of Beaumont running across the short dock then jumping into the pond with a shout of pure glee. Stark naked.
Chapter Twelve
“Ican’t believe you can keep this all straight.”
“It just takes practice and familiarity, both of which you will gain in time.”
“Don’t be so modest,” Ian chided. “You are an amazing woman.”
Hero flushed with pleasure at the praise but bowed her head, and he couldn’t help but smile at her modesty. She’d been in a constant blush most of the day, and he’d enjoyed every moment of it. Despite her father’s interruption, their picnic and walk home had been enchanting. She hadn’t been able to stop glancing at him from beneath her lashes all the while. He knew this, of course, because he’d been much the same.
Conversely, in the last several hours while they studied the estate accounts she hadn’t looked at him at all. He assumed she wanted to make certain he’d didn’t regret accepting her help and determined the way to do that was to remain as businesslike as possible. He, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to continue his slow seduction.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said. “I worked hard to learn all there was to know about running Cuilean.”
“And I’ve learned much already as a result. Far more than my month with Jennings.”
Ian flipped idly through the pages of the ledgers they’d been poring over. Though there was so much more to learn, Hero had shown remarkable intelligence and considerably more patience than Jennings in walking him through the workings of the property. While the scope of his new responsibilities was still daunting, he was beginning to believe that he’d eventually have it all within his grasp. “If Jennings had explained the operation of the gas house as concisely as you have, I may have gotten a handle on the entire situation long ago.”
“Jennings is one who thinks that one should just know how things should be or politely stand aside and allow him to take over,” she explained. “He has little tolerance for me, I assure you. Robert let him have his own way with the estate for too many years, and Jennings likes to do things his own way. I’m sure he was hoping you’d be the same way.”
“More likely he was hoping I’d never turn up at all.”
“Never that.” She laughed. “Jennings would have liked the alternative even less, I’m sure.”
Hero’s eyes finally met his and though a gentle blush blossomed on her cheeks, she held his gaze. She truly had the most unusual eyes he had ever seen. Such a remarkable blend of blue and green, each color defined until they met and blended. He could stare into them forever, Ian thought enchanted, before an even more profound realization struck him.
It wasn’t that he simply could do so, but rather that hewantedto.
Entranced by the intensity in Ian’s eyes, Hero couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Was he recalling that sweet interlude under the willow tree? Regretting his actions as thoughtless and rash? It was difficult to let her heart assure her of the former when logic told her that her own feelings seemed impulsive and rash. Surely more time was needed for her emotions to be so firmly engaged.
This was the time for gentle words like admire and esteem, not like. Not love.
She needed to remember that. To not rush herself or Ian. Her mother told her long ago that the swiftest way to disengage the attentions of a gentleman was to declare one’s feelings too quickly, and Hero didn’t want to risk alienating Ian.
“I’d like to apologize once again for my father’s behavior this afternoon,” she said finally, rising and taking a step away, breaking the intimate bubble that had cocooned them. “It was most unbecoming a duke of England.”
“Think nothing of it,” he responded, his brogue low and husky as he rose as well. He towered over her so she had to tilt her head back to look at him.
“And thank you once again for offering your aid in retrieving him. I don’t know how I would have gotten him out of the pond otherwise.” His eyes were dark with something she couldn’t define, but she soldiered on, “You’re very good with him.”
“He’s a good man, if a tad impetuous.” He paused and reached out to take her hand. “Though I do not cater to the duke to gain your favor, it gratifies me that in doing so I please you.”
She looked down at their entwined hands. He did please her ever so much. “He is a good man, and no one shows him the kind of patience and even camaraderie that you have today. Not my brother or sisters or even myself.”
“Perhaps I get on so well with him because I am a child at heart myself,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “But before you think too highly of me you should know that I so envied him the pleasure of jumping into those cool waters, I appreciated an excuse to follow him in. With the weather being so unusually hot, I would have been hard put not to encourage him to give it a go if he hadn’t leapt in on his own.”
She just shook her head and rising to her toes, pressed a tender kiss to his cheek. “Nevertheless, you are a good man, my lord Ayr. Thank you.”
