Ellie stared at her.The prospect of asking the next question made her wish she could squirm out of her own skin.“But do you harbor any actual… er…romantic inclinationstoward my brother?”
“Don’t be silly.”Constance dismissed the idea with a wave.
“It’s only that you did once suggest making him your…”
Ellie’s throat dried up on the word.
“Lover?”Constance filled in easily.“Well—yes.But that was just a passing notion.”
“So you aren’t attracted to him,” Ellie clarified hopefully.
“I didn’t say that.Your brother cuts a reasonably fine figure.”
Ellie wondered when the carriage had begun to spin.
“But there’s a substantial difference between being attracted to someone and actively planning to lure them into bed,” Constance finished helpfully.
“There… is?”Ellie frowned as she thought of her own sense of physical attraction, which had been roused from years of relative dormancy to raging, hungry life by Adam Bates.
It had most definitely involved luring him into bed.
Not that she had to lure very hard.
“I have no interest in making love to your brother,” Constance asserted.
Ellie tried not to look queasy at her words.“Only to fake engage him.”
“If it should become necessary.”Constance cast Ellie a careful look.“You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“What on earth does it have to do with me?”
“You are my best friend,” Constance pointed out.“And he’s your brother.”
A new dart of worry pierced through the mess of uncomfortable feelings roiling Ellie’s gut.“Youwouldmake it clear to him that it’s a fake engagement?”
Constance waved a dismissive hand.“It’s hardly fake if only one of the parties involved knows it.”
“Well, then,” Ellie returned awkwardly.“It’s hardly any of my business—assuming Neil is willing to participate.”
“Why wouldn’t he be?”Constance blinked with surprise as though the question truly hadn’t occurred to her.
It might not have.Constance made her mad plans hard to resist.
Back in the other tonga, Neil was waving his hands enthusiastically as he chatted at Adam—which meant he was probably rattling on about the provenance of a historical place name or the ongoing effort to translate Cretan hieroglyphics.
WouldNeil go along with a fake engagement to help Constance escape from the pressure to choose an actual husband?
Ellie wasn’t at all sure that she knew the answer to that question.
“They do tidy up nicely,” Constance murmured appreciatively beside her.
Ellie’s focus shifted from her brother to the man beside him.“Adam hates jackets,” she commented distractedly.“I’m surprised he had that one with him.”
Adam wore his dinner dress well, the jacket hanging elegantly from his frame, but something about the sight felt wrong.Ellie fought against an odd impulse to shove the garment off his shoulders.
“Aai made him get one,” Constance informed Ellie.
Ellie didn’t answer.Her mind was busy picturing how Adam would look once she got the jacket off him.Better,she thought, conjuring up the precise gleam he’d have in his eyes as he gazed down at her in his shirtsleeves—deeply appreciative and tinged with lust.
