She couldn’t help but warm to the sound of her name in his deep voice. “Not without you.”
Silence filled the room, the only sound the muted crackling of the fire. He stared at her, and she couldn’t read his expression, but it definitely wasn’t promising. “You’re a child,” he said after a moment.
“I’m twenty years old. Most women are married by my age. I want you to take me to bed.”
“You want me to ruin you,” he said, and there was no missing the exasperation in his voice. “That’s the last thing I’d do.”
This wasn’t going well. “Why?”
“I’ve been trying to look after you, not destroy you....”
“Why?”
“My life is complicated enough without an overgrown girl in love with me,” he snapped.
“Well, at least you admit that I love you.”
“It’s a crush, nothing more. If you were just out in society, you’d find someone more suitable and?—”
“I found someone more suitable. Andrew Salton. And he was in love with my sister. In fact, you’re the only man who’s ever preferred me. I’ll have to make do with you.” She’d hoped to coax a smile from him, but he was deadly serious.
He was also beautiful, with those mesmerizing blue eyes, haunted now. “There will be plenty of men who prefer you to her. You haven’t given it a chance.”
“I don’t want to....”
“I’m not arguing with you, Georgie. You’ve thrown my life into disarray and I need to get it back. As soon as Stiles finishes with the house, I’m taking you back there, and you’ll help me clean up the mess he made.”
“Of course,” she said sweetly. “If you tell me what he’s looking for. What you’ve been looking for—don’t pretend you haven’t. You were searching down in the coal cellar, you were looking through my father’s office. What is it you’re looking for?”
He looked at her in frustration. “It’s none of your business.”
“It’s my house. Of course it is.”
“If I tell you, will you go to bed?”
“Of course,” she said promptly.
He sighed, leaning against the door. “I used to work for a man who had a great deal of money. Ill-gotten money, and he hid it before he died.”
“And you think he hid it in our house? Why?”
“It was his house before he...was killed. He often stashed things there, and we’ve searched everywhere else. It’s somewhere at Corinth Place, and Billy Stiles is determined to find it.”
“And you?”
“I’m determined to find it too, just to get Billy off my back.”
A cold certainty settled down around her. “So that’s why you agreed to become our butler? Because you needed to search the house?”
“You gave me the perfect opportunity. With any luck, I should have been able to find it in a day or two. But as far as I can tell, it’s nowhere.”
“But why did you take such good care of us if you were only there to find some stolen treasure?” she said, fighting the disappointment that filled her.
“Temporary insanity,” he said irritably. “If I’d known you were going to read all sorts of foolish things into my efforts, I never would have done so.”
“So you’re supposed to share this so-called treasure with Mr. Stiles?”
“I don’t think sharing’s in the picture. He’ll take it all, and I’ll let him. I don’t need the damned money.”
