“That so?”
He spread his hands wide. “So, I have a solution.”
“What’s that?”
“You must witness my noble deeds.”
Miraculously, his rakish, wastrel past was of use to him here, for he’d not only turned their bargain a hair to his advantage, he’d given himself some of the whip hand, too.
And—as if that wasn’t enough—he would now get to spend more time with Miss Birdwell and her interesting perspective on life and her buoyancy of the soul.
At last, she nodded. “All right.”
The triumph that sheered through him was surely too exaggerated for the accomplishment.
But it didn’t feel that way.
It felt like the first good thing to have happened to him in years.
“When’s your next day off?” He didn’t plan on dragging his anchor.
“I don’t really take days off.”
“When do you have time to yourself?” He felt his brow furrow. “When do you have fun?”
“That’s not how I look at life.”
“Then how do you look at it?” He genuinely wanted to know.
“Every day and every moment of the life I live now is better than the one that came before it.”
It wasn’t that she’d uttered some earth-shattering, awe-inducing statement, but rather her words were the opposite.
They were simple and humble and struck a place inside Rhys that knew the truth when he heard it.
She reached for her reticule and sat it on her lap, a none-too-subtle indicator that their tea was nearing its end. “How about you send me a note with the date and time for your first noble deed, and I’ll be there. Then soon enough, you’ll never have to see me again.”
Rhys froze.
You’ll never have to see me again.
He didn’t like the sound of that—the finality.
Instinctively, his best charming smile found its way to his mouth—the very smile the rake in him had spent years refining—and he said in a low, crushed-velvet voice, “Didn’t you enjoy our afternoon together, Miss Birdwell?”
An ineffable something flickered behind her eyes, and her mouth twitched as if it wanted to smile, but caught itself.
Ground gained…ground lost.
“I did,” she said as primly as a woman like her could.
Women like her fancied a little frivolous flirting.
And Rhys had always taken great pleasure in flirting.
So, here they were—flirting.
Which was why he asked, “Now, why wouldn’t you want to see me again?”
