She didn’t smile so much as bare her teeth at him.
“Do I?” she returned, stepping forward herself. This wasn’t like the night prior, when he had advanced and she retreated. She was as much the aggressor as he, and Aaron wondered how—again—things with this woman had gotten so out of hand so quickly.
But he still was the man that he was. And that man didnotback down.
“Do you know,” he said musingly, even as he admired the flush on her cheeks and the way her eyes shone when she was angry, “I don’t think you’re wrong about our society.”
He’d said it to put her on the back foot, and it worked—metaphorically, at least. She did not physically retreat.
“I am?”
He lifted a shoulder. “In the navy, you see another side of life than what transpires on Mayfair streets. And in those parts of the world… Yes, there are still roles for women and roles for men. I daresay that happens everywhere. But I challenge anyone to watch a shepherdess carry a sheep over each shoulder while herding a passel of children as well and suggest that women are weak and inherently needful of men’s protection.”
He kept his tone level, watching the minute changes in her expression as he spoke. She really was the most expressive little creature. Her eyes told him what he wanted to know—that the hook was well and truly baited.
“It does make me wonder,” he said in that same level tone, “whereyouhave been going unchaperoned, Miss Turner.”
She sucked in a breath, her cheeks flushing anew.
Well. That was telling.
“This—it’s not about me,” she said blusteringly. “This is about you. I’m not intimidated by this little show of yours.” She waved a hand between them, very nearly touching him. “If something happens to my sister, I will blame you. And you willnotlike the results.”
Oh, this little hellion!
He leaned in.
“Tell me, Miss Turner,” he said softly. “How do you plan on unleashing that fury?”
His nose was inches from hers; it would be so easy to kiss her again. So easy, so tempting. He warred against his better judgment.
But it was her judgment that won the day. She sucked in another breath, this one sounding more like a sigh.
“We can’t,” she said, finally breaking her gaze from his. “We shouldn’t. It was a mistake—one we shouldn’t repeat.”
He took a step back, and so did she.
“Very well,” he said. He tucked his desires back into the box where he kept them. He had a lot of practice at this, but still, it was harder than it ought to have been.
She didn’t say anything, just kept looking at the floor. And somehow—even though half the things she said drove him absolutely mad—this silence stung even harder than her rejection.
He pushed that hurt away, too, as he left. She would be gone from his life soon enough. And then he could go back to his orderly life… which was, he told himself again and again, just the way he liked it.
The ride home from Redcliff Estate was… uncomfortable to say the least.
Lord Turner spent the entire time—a full two hours or more, as the two estates were not close to one another but notterriblyfar apart, either—glaring at his daughter. Phoebe would have beenimpressed by his determination if she were not too busy with her own thoughts… the kind of thoughts that she did not want to be unduly scrutinized while having.
She couldn’t believe that he’dagreedwith her about Society. Yes, it had clearly been—at least in part—a trick to get her to confess her secrets, but she thought that he meant it.
That was surprising. It was a version of surprising she could stand to think about.
She couldnotstand to think about the part where they had almost kissed.
Again.
She was getting really, truly tired of these absurd repetitions. Was she not an intelligent woman? Could she not learn from her mistakes? For goodness’ sake.
She might be absolutely fit to be tied at Hannah at the moment, but that didn’t mean that her sister deserved the betrayal of Phoebekissing her betrothed. Not even if Hannah seemed to be… looking elsewhere. Not even if the whole thing might have been destined to head nowhere.
