She clenched her teeth. “You know perfectly well his name is not Fitzbore.”
Rafe didn’t miss a step. “It might as well be. He didn’t even look at you the entire time you were speaking. He can’t have been good company.”
Daphne clamped her mouth shut. Rafe’s point hit home, but even more annoying, he was looking straight at her, despite his being head and shoulders taller than she.
“What do you know about it?” she shot back.
There went that arched brow. “Quite a lot, actually. I’ve been told I’m charming.”
“Really? Who has told you you’re charming?”
“Your aunt and your cousin for two and that’s just within the last few hours.”
“Aunt Willie and Delilah told you that?”
“Among other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like Delilah told me she’s considering faking a case of the plague to keep you from engaging yourself to Lord Fitzbore and your aunt informs me that I’m one of the best-looking young gentlemen she’s ever seen.”
Her mouth open, Daphne stopped walking and put a hand on her hip. “Aunt Willie saidthat?”
“Most assuredly. Would you like me to call her over and ask her to repeat her words to you?”
Daphne turned away from him and continued walking again. “Oh, shut up.”
“I must admit, I’m a bit worried for my virtue around her. She mentioned that she’d like to pinch me.”
“I find it exceedingly difficult to believe you’re worried for your virtue given the fact that you’re one of the biggest rakes in the land.”
Rafe looked a bit chagrined. “Who told you that, Grey?”
“Stop calling me Grey.” She glanced around. “And no one had to tell me, or are you forgetting the blond woman I found in your bed?”
Rafe scowled. “Now, listen—”
“No. I’m decidedlynotlistening to you any longer,” Daphne replied with her nose in the air.
“Very well. Tell me, what did Fitzbore say that was so stimulating?”
“I never said it was stimulating. I—” She coolly lifted her chin. “Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”
“But how can I be charming if I shut up?”
She covered her unwanted smile with a gloved hand. “There’s hardly a need to be charming with me.”
Rafe smirked. “That’s right. You’ve already rejected me.”
Daphne stopped abruptly. “I never—”
“Didn’t you?” He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Aren’t you the one who is so hell-bent on an annulment?”
Daphne’s heart lurched in her chest. She jerked her head from side to side and glanced about to ensure they would not be overheard. “I refuse to have this conversation with you here.” She continued to walk again, mindful of the few sets of eyes that had turned their attention to the two of them.
“Come with me to the library then,” he challenged, still whispering and staring into her eyes.
Daphne concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Her heart rose and fell in her chest. He wanted to meet her in the library? She was frightened, she realized. Anxious. But why?
