“Good God, you should have stopped me.”
“I could have happily listened all night. You were so passionate about it. I loved the way your eyes lit up. And I remember thinking you were just as much of a history geek as me, so…”
“You were turned on by that! This is good. We’re getting somewhere. If we can keep on this track, we’ll surely get to the rug.” He straightened. “You made some terrible joke about how I could flush out your systems any day.”
“Which you didn’t mind at all! I discovered that you became a major in the Army, just before you left, which made you ‘Major Tom!’”
“We sang the entire song.”
“I love that song.”
“Blimey, we talked a lot of shit. And we wentdeeptoo, or at least we thought we did. I bet if we listened to a recording of the evening, we’d be mortified.”
“We agreed it was the single best conversation we’d ever had. I was fizzing! And you joked that I fell in love with you the minute I saw your house.”
“Like Elizabeth seeing Pemberley.”
“And I said no, it wasn’t the house, it was the curtain fabrics.” She smiled, lowering her chin in a cheeky challenge. “Not that you believe in love at first sight.”
“Not at all,” he said automatically, “and neither do you.” But he was starting to realize why he’d felt so strongly connected to her, come morning. Salamander slime or not, he couldn’t remember ever clicking with someone on that many levels. It was as though they’d traversed a lifetime in the space of a night, though evidently a lot had remained unsaid.
She continued, still smiling: “I said that, not so long ago, someone like you falling for someone like me would have been…”
“‘A scandal of vast proportions.’” The memories were as clear as watching a video. And it wasn’t just that he was remembering their words from the previous night. He was alsofeelingthe memory, like when they were in Duncan’s kitchen: that intoxicating buoyancy of flirting with someone you clicked with. “Yes, keep going. What else?”
“You quoted fromPersuasion.”
“‘You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. I have loved none but you.’ And you countered withEmma. What was that quote?”
“‘If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.’ I couldn’t believe my luck that I was lying in front of a blazing fireplace in a country house in England with a beautiful man who could quote Austen.” Her brow furrowed and she blinked up at him, as if she were coming to after being hypnotized and realizing she’d said more than intended. “Must have been the brandy,” she whispered, her voice a little shaky.
“Must have been,” he said, just as unconvincingly.
“And then we just sat there, staring outside.”
“For ages.”
“You went to sleep for a while. I think I did too.”
“Or we blacked out. And I woke to a noise outside—a scuffling.”
“Oh yes.” She nodded fiercely, which made his own head dizzy. “And you said, ‘It’s okay, it’s just rats—they come inside for the winter.’ And I said?—”
“‘That makes me feel so much better, thank you,’” he said, emulating her sarcastic tone.
“Voices!” She looked over his shoulder as if she could see it playing out in the dark basement in front of her. “I knew I heard voices! Men’s voices! Arguing!” She slapped her palm on her forehead repeatedly. “I still don’t remember what they were saying. Damn.”
“The clock chimed!”
“Yes! It startled me.”
“Three! It chimed three times!”
She grabbed his arm. “And then we saw them, walking past the window. And we ducked down because, well, we were naked, under the blankets.”
“Yes, and…!” He slumped and blew out an exasperated breath. “Damn.Bollocks.”
“Still deep-sea fish?”
