“Teddy, wait.”
He went very still. Only his gaze slid in her direction. “Yes?”
She licked her lips and saw his eyes track the movement, then an unmistakable flash of heat. An answering flame ignited within her.
She should let him go. He was remembering. He didn’t really need her around to do that, evidently, and it would be better for him if she left well enough alone.
Then again, he was remembering. Soon he would be gone.
Words spilled from her mouth as if someone else was speaking. “I thought, perhaps, it might help if I…” She bit her lip and cursed her own selfish nature. “Told you another story—about us.”
He should leave.Though he hadn’t the specifics, he had all the confirmation he needed as to his guilt. He’d done something bad, likely involving this Lady Catherine. Possibly involving Georgina’s brother, Drake.
But he’d made the fatal mistake of touching her. Her hands. Her skin was so very soft. Her fingertips, he knew, were smooth as silk. What he wanted more than anything was to feel those gentle fingers tracing his cheeks, those gorgeously plump lips under his.
So instead of leaving as he ought, he set the book aside, draped his arm over the back of the sofa, and angled his body toward hers. “All right.”
Her silvery eyes widened, her lips parted, and she nodded. So veryeager to please him. To keep him near.
“Umm. Okay. Let me think.”
A slow smile he could not contain curved his lips.
Her gaze dipped to his mouth and held there, unblinking.Good God. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. But he hadn’t needed the reminder. He already knew that. If he were any sort of gentleman, if he had any care for her, he would remind her of the annulment she sought.
Evidently he wasn’t, or perhaps, the draw of having her eyes on him appealed more than maintaining his honor. Arousal burned through him. It was all he could do not to drag her hand to his face to feel those cool, searching fingers over his heated skin. By the time she looked away, he was desperate for her touch.
“Oh, I know,” she said, clapping her hands together and holding her fingertips to her chin. “It was before you’d declared your intentions.”
“This can’t be too terribly exciting then, can it?”
She slanted him a suppressive look. “We’d had a tiff, and I was still a little put out with you.”
“Me? Darling, I’m sure there was a perfectly good explanation for whatever I’d done.”
She grinned at him and her dimples flashed. “You and Drake planned an outing for the four of us at our favorite spot at Hampstead Heath. You planned everything. The day, the time, you even had my favorite picnic foods prepared—”
“Which are? No, wait. Let me guess.”
She sent him a shy, and utterly charmed, smile. “Very well.”
“Butter,” he announced, then added, “and bread.”
She laughed in delight. “Isn’t that the wrong order? Shouldn’t it be bread and butter?”
“Not in your case. Butter first, always.” He did not know from where the idea had sprung, it had just sort of spewed from his mouth.But now he waited on tenterhooks to see if his off-hand guess proved correct.
A brilliant smile curved her lips. “Correct. I’ve always been a butter fiend.” A moment later, her smile faded and her cheeks went pink. She gazed down at herself as if finding flaws. “Is it my…er…that is…never mind.” A self-conscious laugh spilled from her lips.
He could read her so easily. She thought her beautiful, utterly feminine figure had led him to presuppose she enjoyed the rich taste of butter—as if her body could be any more alluring.
“Darling,” he murmured in all seriousness. “You’re perfect. No, you, are,” he insisted, when she shook her head in denial. “I don’t know why I said it other than I sort of knew. Of course, you would enjoy butter. It’s delicious, somewhat decadent, and you clearly have a taste for the finer things.”
Her face glowed. Her silvery eyes went soft with a powerful emotion that shot dangerous tentacles of warmth throughout his entire body. “In addition to butter,” he said, once more in a playful tone, “you have a preferred drink.” He considered. “Not lemonade. Ginger beer.”
Her lush lips parted. “Teddy, are you teasing me? Do you actually remember everything and are just having a bit of sport with me, now?”
He shook his head, laughing. “I’m right again?”
