Page 86 of Aurelia

“No. This is for something else—a personal project. I will reimburse you for the canvas, of course,” she hastily added.

He smiled but didn’t say anything.

“Please, you needn’t stand while I look through the canvasses,” Aurelia said, relieved when he finally sat.

She went to the wooden rack where a dozen or more canvasses were in the various slots. With shaking hands, she selected a medium-sized one and turned.

The earl was watching her. He was leaning back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head, shoulder muscles and biceps rippling beneath the fine linen of his shirt.

Aurelia was vaguely aware that she was gawking at him, but… how could she not?

“What are you working on, Miss Burton?”

She blinked and tore her gaze from his body. “Er, I’m sorry?”

“I asked what you were working on?”

“Mrs. Walker has asked me to paint a portrait of Guustin.”

His expression at the mention of his former lover and the mother of his child was… well, she didn’t know what it was. Other than complex and inscrutable.

“That is very kind of you,” he said after a long, pregnant pause. His chest rose and fell with slow, even breaths, the movement pulling her gaze down. He wore a shirt, cravat, and waistcoat. Logically, he was every bit as covered as if he had been wearing a coat.

But there was nothing logical about her body’s reaction to him.

Aurelia knew she was standing and staring. Again. But she no longer cared if she were making a spectacle of herself. This man! Oh, this man and his ability to discompose her just by sitting in a chair.

“A portrait is an excellent idea.”

Her head jerked up. “I’m sorry?”

“I was just thinking that I should engage you to paint both Guustin and Celsa, Miss Burton.” He cocked his head. “Or may I call you Aurelia?”

Plenty of people had said her first name during her life, but there was something about hearing Aurelia without the Lady in front of it that seemed almost… naked.

She licked her unaccountably dry lips, briefly wondering how she could be all but drooling, and yet her lips were sticking to her teeth. “I am not sure that would be wise.”

“Why not? Guustin and Arthur use your Christian name.” His eyelid lowered. “Or don’t you like me… Aurelia?”

“It has nothing to do with liking or not liking.”

“Then what is the issue?”

“You are my employer.”

“And employees and employers are forbidden by some royal edict from calling each other by their Christian names?”

“No, of course not. It is just—” she flailed. “Well, I don’t know. It does not seem wise.” She shut her mouth before any more idiotic babbling could pour out of it.

“Hmm.”

Aurelia squirmed beneath his brooding gaze until she could bear it no longer. “I will leave so you can return to your work.”

Naturally, the earl stood, because he was a gentleman.

“Why do I feel like you are always running away from me, Aurelia?” he asked, strolling across the room until he was right in front of her.

“I do not run,” she said in a giddy, girlish voice that was most certainly not her own.