No.
She was done with this… foolish infatuation.
But she couldn’t help shivering as he leaned close enough to almost press his cheek against hers.
“Then why are you here?” he whispered in her ear, before he rocked back on his heels just enough for her to have space to breathe.
Tingles went all the way through her. Edwina forced herself to look up into his eyes. She was absolutely not blushing. “I am here because the Prime of the Order of the Dawn Star has officially authorized me to investigate this mess in Bletsoe.” She couldn’t help flipping her lapel to show him the little pin that the prime sorceress had given her. “I am a venatori in my own right now.”
“Ah.” A hint of amusement flickered through his eyes. “I thought you were done with hunting the creatures who rule the night.”
“I didn’t say that,” she snapped. “One can hunt these things in a reasonable manner. There will even be time for tea and crumpets if I have my way.”
“Well.” He rocked back on his heels. “You’ve earned it. I think the Prime was impressed with the way you sent those imps back to hell with their tails between their legs.”
There was something about the way he said it…. “You knew?”
“You do realize the hunter’s guild has a journal? The names of any new venatori are listed quite prominently. The latest edition arrived on Thursday. Congratulations.”
Oh, well, that was alright then. For a second, she’d almost imagined that he’d had some hand in it.
“You’re my equal now,” he said, and she had to be imagining the challenge in his voice. “How about that?”
“Lead investigator,” she pointed out, because when she’d been called before the Prime herself this morning, Lady Rathbourne had made a point of saying that. Embarrassment flared again. The shock of hearing who she’d be paired with for her first official case had been ringing in her ears, so she’d had to ask Lady Rathbourne to repeat herself.
The Prime.
She’d asked the Prime Sorceress to repeat herself.
But the truth remained: Edwina’s first officially sanctioned case for the order was to work hand-in-hand with Lord Sterling Reed.
“Really?” he drawled.
“I have the paperwork in my satchel?—”
“Oh. I don’t doubt you do.” That secretive smile was back—as if he knew something she didn’t. “You are always prepared Miss Sheffield.” His gaze dipped to her skirts, and then back to her face once more. “I like the armor, Edie.”
“Armor?”
His voice roughened. “What else am I meant to call it?”
And there she was again, right back there in that moment when he’d held her in the wreckage of the library, while she gasped and shook in the wake of the imp’s attack.
“I’ve got you, Edie.” His rough hand stroked her hair as he held her. “I’ll never let anything harm you….”
She didn’t know what had come over her in that moment.
She’d looked up and there he was, staring at her with an intensity that threatened to set the library alight again.
And somehow…. She’d moved before she’d even thought the moment through. Simply lifted onto her toes and kissed him and?—
“Apart from an abomination,” Sterling added, his words cutting right through the seething quagmire of emotions heating through her. “I have never understood your insistence upon hiding your feminine form behind acres of ugly fabric.”
Her choking memories died a swift death.
Edwina scowled. “It’s a very workmanlike material—especially when your employer is prone to setting things on fire.”
“It’s a lie.”
