“Is that right?”
“We’ll find out once we finish these drinks, won’t we?”
She laughed softly and shook her head. “And what else do you know about me?” She looked at him, glanced away, but then went back to looking into his eyes. Her voice was low, her stare was suggestive, and with the crackle and pop of the flames in the hearth, the dim lighting, the atmosphere built from an afternoon spent between them, Sebastian could quite literally feel the shift occurring around them. “I am curious just how perceptive you are.”
“Careful…” He smirked and raised an eyebrow at her. “That is a dangerous game.”
“If you are scared –”
“I never said that.”
She flashed her eyes. “I’m waiting then. Tell me…” Those same eyes flicked up his body, pausing on his lips. “Just how well do you think you know me?”
I have been with enough women to know where this leads. The way she is looking at me. The purr in her voice as she licks those lips and tempts me as she must know she is doing. I would say this is the most surprising turn, but neither of us would believe such a thing.
The question thus became… did Sebastian want it as Margot so clearly did? To that, he could not say.
This entire day had been a revelation that Sebastian had not seen coming. Indeed, he liked to believe that he had gone into this day with low expectations and a determination to behave himself. If he could get through the garden party without making things worse, while also putting on airs of happy marriage so the ton would concede that there was no scandal around, then he’d count himself as satisfied and leave it at that.
In one of those ambitions, Sebastian had succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. He was certain now that when people spoke of himself and Margot, they would praise the couple and admit to themselves that any rumors they had heard were either highly exaggerated or entirely made up. But as to the other…have I only made things worse? That I cannot say.
Technically, things were not worse off between him and Margot – they were better! The two were finally starting to warm up to one another, to engage and banter and treat the other not as some enemy but as an actual person. Better, a person who they both seemed to realize wasn’t nearly as dangerous as they once thought. It was, for all intents and purposes, a new path that Sebastian should have been looking forward to walking.
And yet that also presented a problem. A problem that he found himself in the middle of, and could not say what to do about it.
“What do I know about you…” He mused and rubbed his chin in thought
They were standing in the center of the room. Less than a foot separated them. The manor was asleep. The night was late. It was just them and them alone, the vibes that had propelled them to this moment still very much existing and seeming to grow as they looked at one another.
“You are not nearly as stand-offish as you would have me believe,” Sebastian started. “Guarded, yes. But not prickly.”
She scoffed. “What a nice thing to hear about oneself.”
“Nor are you as hostile. Mostly, it is an act, although I sense I have myself to blame.”
“Shall I tell you what I have learned about you?” She was looking up and into his eyes, her voice soft, her breathing heavy as she took a small sip of whiskey.
“To be honest with you, I can probably guess.”
She laughed. “I was rather vocal about my perception, wasn’t I? So let’s just say that most of what I thought has been proven as false.”
“Careful,” he said, a slight growl to his voice. “That sounded suspiciously like a compliment.”
“And your ego is big enough as it is.”
“Bigger than you think.”
“Doubtful,” she shot back. “In my mind, I wonder sometimes how you are able to stand. What, with the size of your head surely weighing you down.”
“And there it is,” he said with a wicked grin because his mind was starting to head in that direction. “Back to trying to hurt me. I should have expected it, and I suppose I should just be happy that, for a time at least, you treated me with less than your usual hostile temperament.”
“You just make it so easy.”
“And after I have been nothing but nice to you.”
She scoffed again. “Too nice, is what you were.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “And we both know why.”
He frowned as if he didn’t know exactly what she meant. “You might have to be clearer. How can one be too nice?”
