She waved a hand over the lean, strong lines of his body.Neil looked down at himself as though unsure what she meant.
Constance gave a huff of frustration.“A scholarly wizard with a flaming sword.”
Neil stared at her as though he was having trouble absorbing her words.“That is… not exactly how I would have put it.”
“Well, of course not,” Constance retorted.“You never could see your own appeal, outside of being handy with a library card catalog.”
Neil stiffened defensively.“I’m very good at libraries.”
“You’re exceptionally good at kissing as well, though I doubt you noticed that either,” Constance retorted crossly.
Neil’s stillness took on a different edge—one that felt just a little dangerous.“Am I?”
“Yes,” Constance assured him emphatically.
She raised her hands to the dupatta that hung around his neck and glided them down the saffron silk as she moved closer.“We’ve managed two stolen moments of perhaps three minutes apiece, and I can tell you with full and absolute confidence that I am nowhere near satisfied with the use I’d like to make of you.”
Neil’s breath hitched.His head dropped to graze against her unbound hair.“Blast it, Connie…”
Constance tightened her grip on his scarf as though some part of her was afraid that if she let go, he would disappear.“You will undoubtedly try to remind me that you are an unemployed academic from a family of no account in the world, and I will answer thatIdo not care.I have known piles of men with sterling credentials, and not one of them would ever have admitted when he was wrong, or faced a truth that utterly upended his world when he could just as easily pretend it didn’t exist.You haven’t the foggiest notion how rare that is.You haven’t the foggiest notion how rareyouare.”
The look he gave her was raw with feeling.“You really mean that.”
Constance tucked an unruly lock of hair back from his forehead.“Of course I do.”Her throat tightened as she continued, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.“If we never broke off our pretend engagement, then we would end up getting married.Is that what you want?”
Neil swallowed thickly.Constance followed the enticing movement of his throat.She wasn’t sure why the pulse of his Adam’s apple had such an effect on her—but by God, did it ever.
“I don’t think I have allowed myself to consider that question,” he admitted carefully.
“You must be considering it now,” Constance countered impatiently.
“Yes,” he answered helplessly.
The word shivered through her body like a caress.
Constance brushed her thumb along the sharp line of his cheekbone, and Neil’s eyes fell closed.
“It never occurred to me that something like this was possible,” Constance admitted, her fingers tracing the graceful angle of his jaw.“But now that you’ve put the idea in my head, I will admit that I find itdesperatelyappealing.”
Neil caught her hand and held it, his words threaded with a fragile hope.“You do?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”Constance took a step closer.“You could teach me your history.Show me pot shards and mud bricks and explain how terribly important they are.Take me to Egypt, or Greece, or Persia.I could see the world while you dig up all its lovely, ordinary secrets.”She swallowed, her throat suddenly tight.“You could fight for me.”
“You’re the fighter, Constance.”
Constance rolled her eyes.“Did you ever think that maybe I mightliketo have someone who would stand up to the rest of the world with me?Even if they did it with books and pens and stubbornness instead of that sword you don’t know how to use.And you would,” she added.“Don’t even try to pretend otherwise.You defend the things you love, Neil.I have already seen you do it.And there is a very great deal to admire in that.”
The lines of Neil’s face were drawn in the moonlight.“Is that it, then?You admire me?”
“Hardly,” Constance retorted.“I also want to do absolutelywickedthings with you.The most wretchedly sinful notions have been tormenting me since our experiment in the stepwell—or earlier than that, if I’m to be perfectly honest.I have been itching to get you out of all that tweed for weeks.You are a damnably attractive man, Neil Fairfax.”
Neil’s gaze darkened with a focus like sunlight through a magnifying lens.
Constance drew nearer until she could feel the warmth of his body through the silk of her gown.A deep, needful shudder moved through him in response.
“Are you attracted to me, Neil?”she asked, deliberately provoking.
“I think you are perfectly well aware of the effect you have on me,” Neil retorted tightly.
