“Tell me about this legacy.”
“There is not much to tell. It came to him soon after my mother died, from a distant relative he did not know. They had never met. Lawyers had spent years tracking down an heir. He never told me how much it was. All he said was fortune had finally smiled on him and provided money to live on, and he could afford to send me to school.”
I’ve the means to buy you an education now. I’ve not the patience to be a child’s tutor, the way your mother was, or to have a girl underfoot, so this is the best for both of us.
He flicked the edges of the notes with his fingertip. “No one will believe that.”
“And if they don’t?”
“The money will be confiscated.”
It would kill her to give this money up. It was unfair for it to fall from the sky like a gift from heaven, only to have it disappear just as quickly. She looked at him, searching for the kind, sympathetic lord who could appear at times. “They cannot confiscate that which they do not know exists,” she said.
His lids lowered. He crossed his arms. She waited for the barrister to explain all the legalities she did not want to hear.
“I should inform the magistrate of what I found, of course,” he said.
Except he had not, had he? He had brought that money here instead. She had half-won this battle before he entered the door.
“I have asked Mr. Notley to investigate the legacy,” she said. “I promise I will not spend any of this until he confirms its existence.” At which point, she would declare this money the proceeds. Not that she would say so now. “In the meantime, I will keep it very safe.”
A final flash of indecision showed in his eyes. On impulse, she stuffed the banknotes down her bodice.
He laughed, darkly. “The fashions today do not lend themselves to that maneuver with such a large number of notes. One or two at most.”
She looked down at the ridiculous bulge between herbreasts. “Still it is safe from any gentleman with inconvenient notions of duty.”
“Some gentlemen would decide duty was a good excuse to pluck it back out.” He came closer to her. “You have all but invited me to try.”
She swallowed hard. “But you won’t. Correct?”
No response came. No nod. All she received was that deep consideration to which he so often subjected her.
“I wonder,” he murmured, as if to himself.
“Wonder what?”
“That first night, you came close to trying to bribe me.” He tipped her chin up with his hand. “Have you been trying that, Padua, in more subtle ways? Are you attempting that now?”
“I am not the one showing up unexpectedly inyourlife.Ihave not been the one interfering. Do not blamemejust because you—you—”
“That is true. You are blameless. I am my own undoing.” He angled his head and kissed her lips, first with a gentle touch, then more fully.
She pretended to suffer it, when in truth sensual sparkles descended in a shower. She turned her head in halfhearted resistance. “Shouldn’t you be showing more fortitude? Thinking of duty and such?”
“I suppose so. And yet—” His kisses enlivened her cheek, her jaw, then the sensitive skin below her ear. He embraced her, his firm arm encompassing her waist. “If I am going to turn a blind eye to one small point of dutyregarding that money, I don’t see why I should deny myself on another.”
“I am flattered to know I am a small point.”
“Youare not. I have decided that kissing you is, though.”
They both knew that was not true. She did not think he would listen to reason now, however. Nor could she muster enough sense to make the argument. The possessive manner in which he began to caress her became too distracting. Thrills commanded her attention so she could barely think at all.
Still, she really should stop this, except—a touch on her breast made the idea dissolve.
That hand just rested there, on the top of her breast, while his arm pulled her closer to his body.
She looked into eyes like faceted dark emeralds, unable to read his thoughts. Except one. He knew she enjoyed this too much to deny it. He knew he had won without much effort at all.
