“I’ll come back and search for them properly. I’m not bringing you down that lane with me,” he said in a no-nonsense tone that got her hackles good and raised.
“And how do I know you’ll come back?” she demanded, digging her heels into the frozen ground.
“Can’t you just trust me?” he asked with a disarming smile.
Oh, how I wish I could.
“I trust you about as much as I trust Mama’s pet dog. And that’s a vicious, irritating thing as well,” she said then stalked ahead of him.
He was either goingto throttle her or kiss her senseless, Alexander decided as she marched away from him, imperious as a duchess.
She was driving him bloody well mad.
After that explosive kiss in the carriage, he’d thought that maybe she’d begun softening toward him.
But Olivia still had a heart of solid rock; he was convinced of it. For while he was caught up in flames just by looking at her, her demeanour remained colder than the frigid air around them.
He needed to remember how dangerous she could be.
Anyone who looked so doll-like and angelic, and still managed to wreck the havoc she did, was not to be trusted, even for a moment.
“You really do need to do something about that temper of yours,” he called as he caught up to her.
“I have no problem with my temper. I have a problem with you.”
“Why?”
He distinctly heard several whispered curses before she spun back around to him.
“Because you’re distracting and — and flustering. And I cannot think properly when you stand so close.”
Her words where music to his ears.
“And you can rid yourself of that smile. It’snota compliment.”
Seven
“Don’t you worry sweetheart. i’m not so stupid as to think you’d ever compliment me. at least, not on purpose.”
Olivia ignored him and continued toward the lane way.
Suddenly, Alexander was there. All six feet of him looming over her.
“You’re not going down there, Olivia,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
So naturally she argued.
“I beg your pardon?”
Alexander crossed his arms looking as intimidating as he was handsome.
“I said, you’re not going down there. There are people out there who are a lot less palatable than me, shocking as that might be to you. And I’m not having you exposed to them.”
“And what if Jane is there with that scoundrel?”
“I suppose you want to chase after her? And what if you find them tupping? What will you do?”
His words brought a scarlet heat to her cheeks, she could feel it. And was grateful for the darkness that would disguise it from him.
