She waggled her eyebrows. “It’s the theme toBeauty and the Beast.”
Rusty smiled and flicked a glance around the massive library. “Do you think Mrs. Potts and Chip will come to life?”
“I’m hoping.” Emily rubbed her handstogether. “I’ve been envisioning myself in a yellow ball gown all afternoon.”
Rusty laughed. Some of the tension caused by Ace’s censure leaked out of him. Emily had that effect on people. Oh sure, she was quick to boss and pester. But she was also quick to accept and encourage. It made her easy to be around.
“Fine. You can be Belle,” he told her. “But then which one of us gets to be Beast?”
“Christian, of course. He’s the surliest, most irritable of all of you.”
“Ha! Youmakehim surly and irritable.”
“Moi?” She feigned innocence. “What doIdo?”
“Tease him. Incessantly.”
She twisted her lips. “I can’t help it. He gets under my skin, and that bugs me. I’m beginning to think he’ll bug me for as long as I live. And then probably after I’m dead too, because the damnedcan do that.”
Rusty fought another smile and lost the battle. “Is that what you tell yourself?”
“And if what you say is true, that I tease him incessantly,” she said, ignoring his question, “then it’s for his own good. He’s too poised. Too collected. Too…” She waved a hand, searching for the right word. “Unaffected. Someone needs to ruffle his feathers.”
“You’ve decided that someoneshould be you?”
“Who else has the balls to do it? All that perfection, not to mention that stuffy English arrogance, keeps everyone else at bay.”
“Hmm.”
Emily thrust out her chin. “Hmm?What’s that supposed to mean?”
Since Rusty had already had all the confrontation he could stand for one day, he didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed up from the sofa and extended his hand. “Belle?Care to dance?”
“You’re changing the subject,” she accused.
“Quick on the uptake, aren’t you?” He started singing. “Tale as old as time.”
Emily threw back her head and laughed before accepting his hand and jumping to her feet. “True as it can be!” she sang in a lovely alto.
Together they belted out the third line as Rusty pulled her into a waltz that might have gone fairly wellhad she not fought him for the lead.
“Damnit,” he grumbled as she really gave her all to the chorus. “I’m the man. I’m supposed to direct this dance.”
To prove his point, he spun her around and dipped her low. Which is when something in the doorway snagged his attention. That something turned out to be Christian. And the look on the man’s face made Rusty want to reach up and pat his hair.You know, to put out the fire Christian’s laser-beam eyes had started there.
“Speak of the devil,” Rusty whispered in Emily’s ear as he pulled her to a stand. “Or would that be, speak of the Beast?”
