“I despise you.”
“As we have already ascertained.”
“You are obnoxious and difficult and I wish I had never met you.”
“Better,” he said, taking note of the way her chin rose. “Now look at me, little bird. Hate me all you will, but look at me.”
She did, raising her gaze to his face with those blue eyes spitting fire. When she forgot to be shy, she really was lovely, and he shut away the thought before it could take root, smirking at her instead. If he could just keep her hating him, these three months would go past quickly enough.
“Good. Always remember to look at the gentlemen you’re talking with. Now pretend I am a respectable gentleman approaching you,” he said. “I will bow, like this. What do you do?”
“Freeze, usually,” she said candidly, her irritation fading into frustration. “And I can hardly pretend you are one of them when you don’t scare me the way they do.”
“Scare you?” Of all the gentlemen she had spent time with of late, he would have thought he was themostlikely to scare a girl. “Why do they scare you?”
“Because they haveexpectations. Because no matter where I go, there are eyes on me. Watching. Which is bad enough, but when they speak to me, it’s like this crushing weight and I can’tbreathepast it. And then I stammer or stumble or worse, stand mute, and I know, I just know, they think I’m an idiot.” The colour had risen in her cheeks again and her breathing was erratic. “But they’re interested in my dowry, so they converse with me anyway and I want to sink through the floor every time they do.”
“But you attend balls.”
“Not of my own volition, I assure you. I can think of nothing worse.”
“No,” he said with a flash of amusement. “Me neither. So, in sum, you dislike conversing, especially with gentlemen?”
“Especially with strangers.” She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “I wish I wasn’t like this sometimes, but I am, and I can’t change it.”
“But you’re not with me,” he said thoughtfully. “I wonder if that has something to do with the manner by which we met.”
She sent him a dark look. “If you are suggesting I kiss all acquaintances in darkened rooms, you will find yourself greatly disappointed.”
“While I am certain that would do excellent things for your confidence, I amnotsuggesting that.” The thought made something dark and jealous erupt in his chest, and he ignored the feeling. It would do her a world of good to learn how to give in to someone, and that sort of confidence would sit well on her.
As it was, he would just have to teach her that she was desirable.
“Then what are you suggesting?” she asked.
“Flirtation.” He gave her the kind of lazy, wicked smile he knew people never looked past—and that he knew from experience would make her blush. “Think of it as a shield. People see only what you want them to see.”
“That is all very well,” she said, folding her arms across her chest, “but I do notknowhow to flirt.”
He remembered, somewhat against his will, the way she’d grasped his lapels in a mixture of desperation and fright while they were hiding from Helmsley. She hadn’t known then—how could she—how much he had liked the action.
But there was no room for lapel-holding while in ballrooms.
“Pretend I am a gentleman approaching you,” he told her now in a low voice. “Smile at me. Wider. Good. Now look up at me through your eyelashes.” She gave him an unintentionally scorching glance that had heat prickling down his spine. “Excellent. Now, I will say something inane about the weather. What do you do?”
She looked at him helplessly. “Flutter my eyelashes?”
“Not a bad idea. Try it.”
The way she looked as she squeezed her eyes shut and opened them in quick succession forced him to reconsider. “Softer,” he said, pulling them to a halt and looking down at her. “It’s a small movement.”
More of that delectable blush heated her cheeks. “I’ve never done it before.”
“Then let us move on. Bite your lip instead, like you’re thinking of the answer.” He demonstrated, and the way her gaze landed on his mouth sent another hot pulse of desire through him. It would be better if he didn’t know how she tasted, or how innocently clumsy her mouth had been as it returned his kiss.
“Like this?” she asked, taking her bottom lip delicately between her teeth and holding it there, the skin turning white.
“Yes,” he said, sparing it only the briefest glance. “Just like that.”
