“Angry that your dog decided to make a meal of my ear whilst I was asleep? Angry that she isn’t in the stables where she belongs? Or angry that you insulted me to the hound in question?”
Her lips parted.
He wished she weren’t so bloody beautiful.
“Have I rendered you speechless, Miss Fox?” he pressed, rather enjoying himself.
He had no doubt that she wasn’t ordinarily silent. The woman was bold and opinionated and brazen.
“I’m never speechless,” she countered, apparently having found her tongue. “What did you mean when you said Dandy made a meal of your ear?”
“I felt teeth.”
She nibbled her lower lip, drawing Lion’s attention to the sensual allure of her mouth. “She adores ears. She’d never truly bite them hard enough to cause harm. But sometimes she’s enthusiastic and forgets herself.”
The dog was as ill-mannered as Miss Fox was.
For some reason, Lion didn’t say that thought aloud.
“What are you doing wandering about in the midst of the night?” he inquired instead. “Surely you realize it isn’t done to leave your chamber without at least a dressing gown.”
He would not look at her nipples. He would not look at her nipples. He would not?—
His gaze fell to where the puckered buds continued to protrude in an erotic taunt from beneath the fine fabric of her nightgown. His cock twitched. What was wrong with him? Lion forced his stare back to her face where it belonged.
“Dandy was scratching at the door,” Miss Fox explained. “She needed to venture out of doors for a moment. But after we came back inside from the garden, she had one of her happy bouts and raced away, and I couldn’t find her. She must have run into the library and discovered you there.”
Lion was reasonably certain the woman was as mad as a Bedlamite.
“A happy bout? Good God, what is that?”
“It’s when she suddenly tears off on a joyful sprint,” Miss Fox explained. “There’s no telling where she’ll go or when it will end.”
And the mongrel was equally insane.
“I’ve never heard of a dog doing something so illogical.”
Miss Fox beamed. “Well, now you have. Dandy doesn’t give a fig about logic. Do you know why, Your Grace? Because she’s a dog. Her primary concerns are being loved, being warm, and not allowing anyone near her favorite blanket or her bowl of food.”
Her incessant cheer vexed him. Why was she always smiling? Why did she speak to him as if he were a small child incapable of understanding complex thought?
“You should go back to bed, Miss Fox,” he told her.
But damn him if uttering the wordbedin reference to his unwanted houseguest didn’t cause his stupid cock to harden. It was her scent. Her nearness. All that glorious hair tumbling down her back. The exquisite fullness of her breasts.
Those nipples.
His breath was tight in his chest. It had been a long time since Lion had allowed himself to be tempted by a woman. Since he’d permitted himself to feel the slightest stirrings of attraction.
She cocked her head, considering him. “Why are you not abed at this hour? Why were you sleeping in the library?”
He wasn’t going to admit it was because her presence had caused him so much upheaval that he hadn’t been able to sleep. That he had ventured to the library to read and sip port until he had finally, mercifully passed out.
“Because this is my home, and I can do whatever I wish in it, whenever I choose to do so,” he snapped, annoyed with the fire in his blood, all caused by her.
She was unsuitable. Far from a lady. Appallingly mannerless. He disliked her. Quite strongly. This mad awareness of her wasbase lust, and he could control himself. He was a gentleman above all else.
But then she smiled serenely, and when Miss Adelia Fox smiled, she was nothing short of gorgeous.
