“The man you are meeting.”
“I’m not meeting anyone, you idiot!”
“Have you hurt your ankle then?” he asked in a casual tone, dismissing her nasty comment.
“No, I have not hurt my ankle, though I hardly see what that has to do with anything.”
“Then I can only assume you make a habit of getting about on your hands and knees. You know you really should have warned me, Countess. One could get the wrong idea when one is presented with such a view.”
“Oh! For Heaven’s sake! I am simply stuck by my skirt.”
He smiled, stood, and held out his hand. “Then let me lend you assistance. I would hate to have you tear such a lovely gown.”
She shook off his hand. “You really are intolerable, do you know that?”
He looked at his hand to see what had been so distasteful to her then let it fall back onto his thigh. His very impressive thigh. Thighs. Right at her eye level.
He looked down at her. “I thought you found me irresistibly charming?”
She lifted her gaze back up to his face, glad to be focusing on something other than his thighs. “Not in the least.”
“Then I will simply have to try harder,” he said with a chuckle as he hauled her up by the shoulders and against his massive chest which Lisbeth imagined would be what it would be like to slam into a warm, and not bad-smelling, cliff face.
Damn the man. She immediately tried to put space between them by turning her back on him and crossing her arms over her chest. “Go away, Bellamy.”
He ignored her as usual.
“Do you realize you have the most beautiful neck? These little curls back here are very fetching, indeed. They are like little gates guarding the treasure beneath.”
“Oh, please!” Lisbeth rolled her eyes but his whispered words and hot breath had sent sparks down her spine. Confused, she went to turn towards him to give him a good push in the chest, so she could storm out, but the warm cliff was in her way.
“Shh!” he said, stopping her. “Why don’t you try being quiet for a change.” He turned her back around towards the desk and for some unfathomable reason she let him.
He leaned in close behind her and spoke into her ear again. “You put both of us in a devilish position when you scamper off to play treasure hunt.” His voice was deep and seemed to vibratethrough her whole body in quite an unexpectedly pleasant way. “Especially, in the middle of a ball containing over a hundred people. All of whom are waiting for you to do something… Raven-ish. Disappearing was not wise.”
She closed her eyes for a moment as sensation tingled from her toes right to the top of her head. She wanted to tell him to go to the devil, to leave her be, that she had changed her mind and would find some other way to find her husband’s killer. Although she knew there was no other way. All her nerves were singing, trying to tell her danger was near but her traitorous legs were frozen to the spot as his fingers caressed her bare neck and shoulders and her voice caught in her throat.
“Perhaps we should return then,” she finally choked out, her voice just above a whisper.
“Perhaps you should just tell me what it is you are looking for?”
Lisbeth, still facing away from him, placed her hands on the large mahogany desk, as her legs wobbled. She could not tell him. He wasn’t a man who could be trusted, yet she would have to tell him something.
“I thought I had lost my ear bob.” Willing her legs not to desert her, she focused on the ghastly deer head mounted on the wall.
“On the floor, in Wainwright’s study?”
She looked sharply over her shoulder at him. “No, Bellamy, in the Tower of London. Of course, here, you lack-wit.”
He smiled as one of his fingers tugged on one of her curls. She was seriously starting to think he actually liked her to call him names. She looked helplessly at her reticule on the far end of the large desk.
“All right, Countess, why were you in here in the first place?” He was tracing the edge of the back of her gown where it dipped low.
She shivered again and hoped to God he did not notice. “I was looking for the withdrawing room and I got… lost. I was about to return when I realized my earring was gone.”
“How unfortunate. Let me help you find it. My eyesight is exceptional.”
Tiny sparks of awareness erupted all over her body. She panicked, felt hemmed in by the desk, her lie, and his body. “No, it really doesn’t matter. Let’s return to the ball.”
