“You, oh,faultlesslord.”
“The most infamous criminal couldn’t have picked better,” he went on.
She snorted. “Now I do feel a sudden urge to repent.”
Perish the thought.
Jackson’s good humor returned. “How convenient, we shall never be locked out of the house again.”
“Speak for yourself, Duke.” There was a sly tilt to her mouth. “I could be persuaded to render my services, however, for a fee.”
He laughed. “You’d charge me?”
“You can afford it.”
“Wecan afford it.”
“Hmm.” She stepped into the house, and that cocky grin of hers disappeared, replaced with wide eyes and parted lips.
Moonlight cast everything in pale light: marble floors; large, round table holding a stylized clock with a gold-rimmed face; tall dome ceiling housing a crystal chandelier it took over an hour to light. Opulent, yes. Excessive? Indubitably.
As soon as dawn broke, the hand-painted frescos on the wall would come alive in vivid color, the classic scenes a common theme throughout the house.
“Well?” he asked.
She stared up at the chandelier as she circled below. “I want to say it is appallingly gauche.”
“But . . .”
She stopped and threw him a look. “It is appallingly gauche.”
He chuckled, the surfaces around him taking on new life with her in view. “Shall we continue our battle in the library?”
Her brow quirked at his motion to indicate the door at the end of the hall. “Eager for your utter defeat, Duke?”
“I’m far more intelligent than that,” he said.
“Your surrender, then?”
He shook his head. No one could argue like Anna. Less an argument and more a one-sided brawl.
“I believe I’ll hold off flying the white flag until you’ve told me why you were at the gaming hell.”
She stiffened. “And if I told you it was all a misunderstanding?”
“I’d eat my hat willingly.”
There was a slight puckering between her brows. Her tell.
He sighed. Ridiculous to be disappointed he wouldn’t be dining on black silk tonight. “Come. I believe I’ll need a drink to get through the next assault.”
Her booted feet clipped against the tiles as she followed him down the hall. “I hope you have better luck with your liquor consumption, Duke, than you do your debating skills?”
Jackson stopped in front of the library door and turned with his hand on his chest. “My dear Miss Greene, your barbs are positively vicious.”
Chapter Six
Anna had waitedfor him to rebuke her sharp tongue. She should be using her limited repertoire of charm to stay in his good graces for the sake of Will, but Jackson Cole had always had the ability to scratch her paper-thin veneer of civility with the slightest of annoyances.
