When there was no movement beyond the door, nor did he hear anyone, Sterling then placed his hand on the round knob in the center of the door and pushed it open before he stepped inside and turned toward the desk.
Seated behind, a lamp illuminating the parchment before her, dark curls falling over one shoulder, and staring at him with wide eyes wasCaroline. Not her father.
“Mrs. Sutcliffe, what are you doing in my house at this hour?”
*
Caroline couldn’t think.She couldn’t speak. It wasn’t for the lack of a ready excuse. It was because Wyndham was barely dressed. The candle he held cast shadows upon his face and enhanced the definition and sharpness of his high cheekbones and the perfection of his straight, narrow and well-defined nose usually only seen on Greek statues.
He was far more handsome than he’d been earlier, with his thick hair tousled from what she assumed had been slumber and light scruff along his jaw and chin.
Wyndham also wasn’t wearing a shirt and his banyan had come open revealing his muscular chest and flat, hard stomach.
Caroline blinked and her mouth went dry.
“Mrs. Sutcliffe,” he prompted when she had failed to answer his question.
“I…” She looked at the parchment before her, the quill, and ink stains on her fingertips. What could she tell him?
“I did not expect you to be awake so early, Lord Wyndham,” she said.
“Is that your way of claiming that you would not be here if you thought anyone was about?” he inquired with an edge to his tone.
Yes, she wanted to answer. “I am just surprised, that is all.”
“You still have not answered my question, Mrs. Sutcliffe.”
He was every bit the employer, though her father’s, demanding an explanation, which she had ready. “I was preparing the reports for my father,” she answered as she looked at him again. “His handwriting is no longer neat because of pains in his fingers.” That part was true. “However, as I can still read what he has written, I recopy the reports and accounting into a neater hand for presentation to you. I had nothad an opportunity to do so before you arrived today. I intended to have them finished by the end of the week when they were to be sent on a packet to England.”
Wyndham frowned and she feared that he might doubt her excuse. She hadn’t told a complete falsehood; she just had not been completely honest.
“I had noticed the change in penmanship a few years back. I assumed your father had hired a secretary, though found it odd that there were no wages paid to one.”
“I do this as a favor to him and so that you have legible documents to review.” She smiled in hopes that he would accept her response without further questions.
Wyndham studied her, his blue eyes slightly narrowed as if he were trying to decide if he were going to believe her.
“Why are you awake so early, Lord Wyndham?” she asked in hope that a change in topic would cause him to abandon his current line of inquiry.
“I am hungry.” He pushed his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “I had not meant to sleep so long when I took a rest earlier and find I missed dinner completely. Given that I have already slept longer than I usually do, it is unlikely that I will be able to return to slumber.”
Her heart pounded. He must go back to bed. She had work to finish, even though she was near the end.
Wyndham placed a hand against his stomach. Was he in pain? Had he gone too long without food? From what she viewed beneath his open banyan, it appeared that Wyndham ate exactly what he needed. While there was no extra flesh, he certainly was not emaciated either. Not overly muscled and finely formed.
Goodness!
The room had suddenly grown warm and her body heated with a desire she had thought died along with her husband. Instead, it hadonly gone dormant and now her body tingled with awareness. She truly believed such pleasures were behind her, as they should be, but apparently, they were not.
Lust!
She hadn’t lusted after anyone, except for her husband. Back then, he had introduced her to the delights of the marriage bed and Caroline had assumed those desires were only for him.
Apparently, that was not accurate because she was currently lusting after the Earl of Wyndham and she must stop immediately.
“I am certain that you will be able to find something in the kitchen or perhaps the larder.” Caroline smiled. “Please, do not let me keep you.” She needed him to go. Not only because she had work to finish, but them being alone in a darkened room with only a few candles lit to chase the shadows while Wyndham was only partially dressed, was rather intimate. She needed her concentration to be on the report and not his chest, and flat abdomen where a line of hair disappeared into his trousers, leading to…
Caroline blinked and tried to focus on his face and not think about his partially clad body.
