Chapter Twenty
Bea stood in the front hall with her gloves on and her chin lifted, pretending she could not hear her own heartbeat thumping too loudly in her chest.
Outside, Nicholas’s carriage waited… The closed one, again.Another deliberate choice, and they both knew it.
When the butler announced him, Nicholas entered as if he belonged there—coat immaculate, posture irritatingly relaxed, eyes bright with that particular brand of arrogance that should have made Bea want to throw something heavy.
Instead, her stomach tightened.
He bowed over her hand with maddening courtesy.“Lady Beatrix.”
She did not offer him a smile.She offered him a look.A deliberate one.
Nicholas’s mouth twitched as if he enjoyed trying to guess her mood.
Bea dropped her hand before he could linger.“To what do I owe this…call?”
Nicholas straightened, gaze lingering on her mouth for a beat too long to be accidental.“I’ve come to ask if you’d like to go riding in the park.Unless…there’s another political salon you’d like to attend.”He blinked at her innocently.
She narrowed her eyes on him, then stepped past him toward the door without waiting to be offered an arm.“Have you come to attempt to seduce me again?”she whispered scandalously as she walked past.
Nicholas fell into step beside her, voice smooth.“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“I’m not certain I believe you.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”His tone turned conspiratorial.“I must say I’m surprised you don’t have another salon picked out.I thought you might miss the thrill of publicly humiliating grown men.”
Bea’s mouth betrayed her with the smallest twitch.“I do nothumiliatemen.”
Nicholas opened the door for her, the morning air rushing in cool and bright.“Of course not.They humiliate themselves.You simply…hold up a mirror.”
Bea paused on the threshold, struck by how accurate that was.She regained her composure in half a breath.“Where are we going, then?”
Nicholas’s eyes warmed.“Riding.”
“In Hyde Park.”
It wasn’t a question.
Nicholas’s grin was pure wickedness.“You read my mind.”
Bea held his gaze for one long, steady moment.Because she did read his.
Because they both knew no one wentridingin a closed carriage with the windows drawn for the sake of fresh air.
They went because the world outside could not see what happened inside.
Bea’s pulse stumbled.She turned briskly toward the steps as if she hadn’t felt it.“Very well.If my father asks, I shall tell him you wished to admire the trees.”
Nicholas’s laughter was low.“The trees.Yes.”
Bea marched down the steps like a woman going to battle.Which, she told herself, was essentially what she was doing.She was simply—strategically—allowing Nicholas to take her—ahem—riding in the park.
That was all.Nothing to do with the fact that Nicholas had stood beside her at Hillary House.Nothing to do with the way he’d looked at her afterward, as if she were brilliant and dangerous and worth listening to.Nothing to do with the way his wink in the coach had made her toes curl.
You don’t have to marry the man to enjoy him.
Bea cleared her throat and proceeded him to the coach.She reached the conveyance first.The door was already open.Nicholas offered his hand.
