Feeling giddy with happiness, he said, “The food isn’t the surprise. Or rather, it is, but not all of it. Here, look at this.” He lifted the domed lid of the cloche. “For you, my lady. Brie!”
“Yes?”
“No, not Lady Bri. Brie,” he said, but she frowned. “This cheese. It is Brie.” He pointed at the creamy slices on the plate. “From France.”
“Oh, Brie!” And she laughed her delightful laugh again.
Vincent adored making her happy. He enjoyed watching her taste the nutty, smooth cheese for the first time, and he wanted to kiss the bread crumbs from her lips.
“It is like nothing I have ever tasted. I am the luckiest Diamond after all to be named for such deliciousness. I vow I could eat this every day for the rest of my life.”
“I vow I could eatyouevery day for the rest of mine.”
She dissolved into a fit of giggles, and he was grateful she didn’t understand the salacious thoughts inflaming his passions.
“I think wine was the correct choice,” she said. “Warm, milky tea would not have been nearly so good as this claret.”
“Agreed. But then, have we disagreed about anything?”
A shadow crossed her face, and he knew it was about his music, but he wasn’t ready to discuss “Sonata in A,” which he’d once foolishly called “Lydia” and that idiot had named “The Hummingbird.” It would only put a blight on this otherwise perfect day.
On the other hand, he was ready to grant her request.
“Will you do me the honor of listening to some of my music?”
She pushed her chair back and was on her feet before he could even stand. “The honor is all mine, my lord.”
“Vincent,” he said.
She tilted her head and considered. “How funny. I recall now when your cousin introduced you, I was thinking of a hundred other things, of how handsome your face is and how attractive your velvet gray eyes are. I have thought of you as Hewitt until this moment. However, Vincent suits you nicely.”
There were so many compliments in her words, he felt his cheeks warm. But all he said was, “Thank you.”
He took her into the room he never took anyone, not for many years, not since Lydia and Ambrose obliterated his trust. Strangely, he felt a little shy.
“I noticed when I was here last,” she said, “you did not invite us to see this room. Thus, I am doubly honored.”
Somehow, she understood! He relaxed and looked around his conservatory with her. It held little except his piano and a bench, which he preferred to a stool, and a divan. When the music overwhelmed his brain, he often reclined upon it with closed eyes. Sometimes, the notes would sort themselves out more easily than if he remained doggedly at the piano keys.
“I thought it would be strange having someone else in here, but I feel perfectly comfortable with you.”
Instead of seating herself on the sofa, she went to his piano and leaned against it with her elbows propping her up, facing where he would sit.
“Now I feel a littlelesscomfortable,” he quipped.
She smiled. “I thought you didn’t suffer from stage fright.”
“I don’t. But above anyone else, I want you to like my music.”
Brilliance rolled her eyes but had a satisfied look on her face. “Go on,” she said, encouraging him with a gesture of her hand. “Please. Play as though I am not even here.”
But that was nigh to impossible. Quite without an ounce of self-consciousness, she was leaning over, giving him a thoroughly distracting view of the upper curves of her beautiful breasts. For a few moments, his mind emptied of music, and all he could think of was burying his face between their bounty.
“Vincent,” she prompted into the silence.
“Very well,” he said. “But I also feel like the rudest looby for taking a seat while you stand.”
“Stop procrastinating,” she ordered.
