“No,” he responded feeling much more the thing now that he was teasing her again. ”But then, I never said a lady did it.”
She growled in response, and it was all he could do not to pluck her from her stomping little feet and carry her off somewhere to do something about all that frustration.
Yes, indeed. He was in very big trouble.
Never,ever before hadOlivia dealt with such an array of emotions in such a short space of time.
She was already exhausted; mentally wrung out, and they hadn’t even begun discussing what they should do about her irresponsible sibling.
Alexander was acting as though he had run mad, and she couldn’t deal with his madness. Not when she was trying hard not to descend into the same state herself after that kiss.
Good Lord. He’d kissed her. And she’d let him.
This was not good. Not good at all.
How could she stand in pious judgment of Jane when she went around kissing Alexander? And he was far more irritating than his friend, she was sure of it.
Pressing a hand to her temple, she tried desperately to claw back some semblance of normality.
There would be plenty of time to mourn the loss of her sanity later. And plenty of time to guiltily enjoy the memory of that toe-curling kiss and what it did to her insides.
She watched the man in front of her now, as his green eyes finally focused on her.
He seemed terribly distracted. And that wasn’t very flattering really. It seemed that even with a kiss involved, she couldn’t hold his attention.
“If you didn’t write to Jane then it must have been St. Clare,” she started through gritted teeth, ignoring the feeling of relief that swept through her, “and given that she gave me an insultingly awful excuse not to join me in the park this afternoon, I’m guessing he asked her to meet. Obviously, he’s lying to get her alone. And—” This was the part she hadn’t wanted to confess, but Olivia had always been the honest sort. “—and she didn’t seem too averse to the idea.”
“And?”
Olivia frowned. Whatever did he mean, ‘and’?
“And he’s obviously an utter rakehell,” she said firmly. “So, we need to stop them from spending any alone time with each other.”
He remained silent so long that she was contemplating slapping him. And not just because she’d rather enjoy it.
Finally, he sighed and looked at her with those direct, probing eyes of his.
“I have some bad news. News that I was going to share with you. At eight,” he added.
Her jaw dropped open again. He was the one who’d warned her about this! He was the one who’d wanted to meet today in the first place.
“What does it matter if it’s now or at eight?” she shouted.
“No need to shout.”
“I did not shout,” she shouted again.
Alexander smiled his maddening smile.
“Allow me to guess; ladies do not shout?”
Olivia squeezed her head at her temples again.
“Alexander,” she began as though talking to a particularly dim child. Which he was. If an overgrown one. ”Remember that we are both concerned about Jane. Though quite why you’re involving yourself is beyond me. But I cannot stand idly by and allow my sister to be hurt by your friend.”
She watched as some emotion, something akin to panic, flittered across his face.
“You assume he means to hurt her?”
