“It might explain a few things…”
“Oh!” A soft, startled, feminine voice came from the doorway.Celine.
The single syllable was a punch to the gut. I turned, slowly taking her in. She was so damn beautiful it hurt. Still all honey curls, golden skin, and wide downturned olive eyes. She wore a simple gray dress with blue flowers. The cut was modest, merely hinting at curves I had caressed. She held a thin file in her clenched hand, insignificant in comparison to the deluge of paperwork in the office.
“Cee, glad you’re here. We’ve some documents that require your signature.”
“You do?”
“I do. I didn’t get a chance to mention them at the ball the other night. Will and I have made some… arrangements for you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Oh, damn, Cee! Nothing like that. I’ve just arranged for an additional dowry if you choose to wed again. And we’re giving you some authority over funds in case Davina boards a boat to the Americas and you need to send someone to fetch her back before she weds a Puritan.”
“She would hardly wed a Puritan. She’s flighty, not a prude.”
“I just need you to be able to authorize the funds for someone to fetch her before she develops the abhorrent accent.”
“And a dowry? What precisely made you and William believe I required a dowry?”
“Oh, Will very much didn’t. I did. I want you to have any option your heart desires, Cee.” He turned to me. “She is able to spend it as her own if she does not wed, correct, Will?”
“Indeed.” I sounded as though I swallowed a frog and it was stuck halfway down. I cleared my throat awkwardly.
“Very well, which documents do I need to sign, surely not all of these?” She gestured to the whole of the room in a teasing manner.
“Hilarious. Will, can you go over them with her? I’ll go see if I can harass someone into tea.” He slipped out of the room, entirely oblivious to any protests. She released a weary sigh as he darted down the hall.
“William.”
“Lady Rycliffe,” I answered. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I caught a flinch as she passed me to take Xander’s seat. She settled her folder on top of one of the piles and directed her attention to the stack before her.
Proximity was a necessary evil since I needed to flip through the pages and point to places for her signature. Unfortunately, the closed distance made her warm, sensual scent all the more noticeable, distracting, arousing.
“This one gives you control over the dowry Xander is bestowing on you.”
“Do you mind if I read it?”
“Of course not. You should. I just find that it’s rare that people do.” She read silently before signing her name with a flourish.
“This allows you to manage some additional funds that Xander is bestowing on Her Grace and Lady Davina.”
“He probably should have mentioned that…”
“I think he’s a bit distracted.” And so it went. Explanation, reading, questions, signatures, desperately resisting the desire to bury my face in her silky curls.
Xander took an extraordinarily long time with the tea. By the time he returned, she was on the last swirl of her name on the last document, and he was bereft of tea.
“Couldn’t find anyone with a spare moment. I hope you don’t mind,” he muttered, navigating his piles of parchment.
“Not at all.”
“I think I will be going. I’ve found everything I need, Xander,” she said, grabbing a file off one of the stacks.
“Celine…”
“Goodbye, Xander. Mr. Hart,” she said my name as if it was a curse, before vanishing through the door as if she’d never been there at all. Xander sighed after her, slipping around to his seat behind the desk.
