He arched a brow. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter 7
Selina swallowed and drew a long breath to calm her racing mind. She’d been in difficult situations before, almost caught, and had always found a way out. She needed to do the same now. She just had to find an excuse. Except when Derrick speared her with those dark brown eyes, thoughts and plans and strategies were much harder to find.
“I was just about to go into my room,” she blurted out, and immediately regretted it because his jaw set.
“That isn’t your room,” he said softly, arching a brow as if daring her to press on her lie.
She glanced at the door and back at him. She needed to get herself back together, and quickly. She took a breath to calm her throbbing heart and come back to herself. She was the Fox, after all. She knew how to do this.
She smiled. “How silly of me. These big houses, you know, I get so turned around. Of course it’s that way.” She motioned behind him toward her actual chamber and then stepped forward, determined to pass him by and play this farce out.
He wouldn’t allow it. As she brushed past him, his hand snaked out and he caught her elbow, gently but firmly. She was captured, caught, far too close to him, far too aware as she tilted her face up toward his. He was leaning down, and it felt like there was only a breath between them. Her heart began to pound again, wild in her chest, fear and need combined and it was…intoxicating. He was intoxicating, and in that moment she wanted to just drink him down and let herself be changed for a little while.
“Selina,” he whispered, his voice rough in the quiet, but demanding. Firm.
She shifted, but didn’t try to escape his grip. She didn’t want to. But she did need a better explanation. She dipped her chin and batted her eyelashes. “I’msorry. I know you told me not to, but I wanted so much to help you.”
He let out his breath in a long sigh and his grip loosened slightly. He believed her. She didn’t feel particularly good about that. About the lie. Even if it was necessary to stay alive, stay protected.
“Don’t make that sound,” she continued. “I just thought I might look at Lady Winford’s chamber and see if I could garner any information about it to share with you.”
“I don’t need help,” he said. Then his lips pursed. “Though it is a good idea. It was mine, too, actually, to check out the chamber before the earl and countess arrived tomorrow.”
“You see! I am well-suited to help you!” she insisted.
The corner of his lip twitched like he wanted to smile, though he didn’t. She reached up and covered his hand with hers, feeling the lean strength of those long fingers as she brushed them.
“Please,” she whispered. “It isn’t truly dangerous, is it? Lord and Lady Winford aren’t here yet—no one will be in the room. I can help. Two heads and two pairs of eyes are better than one.”
His breath exited his lips again in another sigh, but this one she thought might be of acquiescence. He glared down at her, an unyielding look that curled her toes in her slippers, even as she tried to remain unmoved by it. By him. By…this. Whatever this was.
“It’s not a…badidea,” he said with a shake of his head. “And since you are here and I am here, then yes. We can search the room together.”
She grinned up at him. “Excellent! I’m so pleased.”
His fingers tightened on her arm and his thumb moved slightly, stroking the underside of her bicep and sending a shiver up her spine. “But Selina, you must understand, this is the end of your grand adventure. After this, you must remove yourself from any idea that you’ll help me investigate.”
She found her breath. “Yes, Derrick,” she whispered.
His pupils dilated at those two words and he released her, stepping back. “Is the door locked?”
“No,” she said, facing the barrier again so that she wouldn’t have to look at him. “It’s unlocked.”
“Then let’s go,” he said. “Before morehelpfulguests arrive and we have to move the entire party into the chamber.”
Derrick tried to find his focus, but it was almost impossible to do as Selina opened the chamber door and stepped into the darkness. It obscured her figure, making her nothing more than alluring curves and edges. Things he so wanted to explore, even though he shouldn’t. Just as he shouldn’t have let her come search the room with him.
But it was happening, so he had to make the best of it.
The room was unlit, of course. No servant would light a fire here until tomorrow when the earl and countess were closer to arrival. As a result, Selina was just a shadow as his eyes adjusted. A shadow who seemed very comfortable in the dark, for she moved forward and found a candle. He heard flint rasp and then she turned, the light haloing around her face.
“There’s another one here, take this one.” She held out the candle and he took it. Their fingers brushed and the same awareness that had shot through him when he took her arm in the hall rocketed through him now. More intense because they were alone. In a bedchamber. And no one was going to come looking for them here.
He cleared his throat and watched her light a second candle off the flame of his.
“Very good,” he muttered, wishing he could think of something better to say. He backed away and turned to begin pacing the perimeter of the room. He wanted a sense of its scale, the edges of it. While he did so, he occasionally glanced over his shoulder.
