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“I have it covered,” Hawk responded. “I’m proceeding only with the best reconnaissance.”
Colin gave another knowing laugh. “I’ll wager you are.”
Hawk shrugged, and then started toward Pia again, leaving Colin standing where he was.
So what if the look he’d given Pia made it clear that he found her desirable, and everyone knew it?
Pia was looking at him expectantly right now, though there was also puzzlement in her eyes—as if she wondered about his brief exchange with Colin.
“I won’t offer you a drink,” he quipped as he reached her. “You look fabulous, by the way.”
There was no by the way about it, he thought. Everything else was tangential.
Pia flushed. “Th-thank you. I wouldn’t mind a glass of wine.”
He snagged a couple from a waiter who happened by, and handed one to her.
“Cheers,” he said as he clinked his glass to hers. “How is the wedding planning going? I understand from my sister that she’s been to your apartment twice this week.”
Pia took a sip of her drink. “Yes, we were discussing invitations and décor. Fortunately, she already had a dress picked out.” She smiled as if sharing a joke. “Everything with this wedding is going smoothly, so far.”
“I’ve only been to your apartment once. Can I express envy?”
Pia raised her eyebrows for a moment, and then laughed. She tapped him on the wrist. “Only if you play your cards right.”
Hawk hesitated. If he’d heard her correctly, she’d just met his flirtation with a bit of her own. He was used to banter between them, but it wasn’t usually so…receptive.
“How is Mr. Darcy?” he tried, testing. “Perhaps he’s in need of a male role model?”
“If he is, would you be one?”
Ah. “I am more than willing to try.”
Pia gave an exaggerated sigh. “Are you ever serious?”
In response, he banked his amusement.
“Would it matter if I said yes?”
Though he could lapse into well-practiced flirtation—he remembered his old self well—he felt the weight of his responsibilities too much these days to be anything other than what was expected of him. A duke.
Pia searched his eyes, and he held her amber ones solemnly.
“That comment was rather unfair of me,” she said. “I’ve seen how you feel a responsibility to your sister as the head of the family. A-and you’ve certainly helped me.”
“Lucy has been talking?” he queried, not answering her directly.
She nodded.
“Burnishing my image, that’s my girl.”
Over Pia’s shoulder, Hawk glimpsed Colin approach Belinda before Pia’s friend turned on her heel and stalked toward the door. Colin followed at a more leisurely pace, drink in hand.
Realizing that she no longer held his attention, Pia turned in the direction of his gaze. “Oh, dear,” she said in a low voice as she swung back to face him. “Was that a confrontation I just missed?”
Hawk looked down at her. “A near-miss. Belinda walked away before Easterbridge could approach her.”
“In contrast to you and me.”
