“I suppose it was a wise decision.” She said before rifling through the reticule strapped to her wrist and retrieving a small notebook. “There wasn’t the opportunity to tell you last night, but I managed to translate the first phrase you gave me, but the way.” The pride on her face was enchanting.
“Oh?” Ian sat back in his chair, recalling vividly the first Gaelic challenge he’d issued. It had been foolish to say such a thing to her, but he hadn’t been able to help himself.
“Tha mi a’ guidhe gun stadadh an saoghal a’ tionndadh agus mar sin cha tàinig am mionaid seo gu crìch.” Lady Juliette pronounced the words passably, halting only occasionally around a particularly foreign combination of sounds. “‘I wish the world would stop turning so this moment never ended.’” A pregnant silence followed, their eyes never breaking contact. “Did you mean that?”
The truth was, he had. Being near her made him reckless, but it also nourished his soul like nothing else had in years. She warmed a part of him that had grown jaded and tired.
It was Ian’s turn to flush uncomfortably. He nodded once in reply.
“It’s lovely,” she breathed, and he was inordinately pleased she thought so.
“Tha thu nad bhoireannach gun choimeas ann am bòidhchead agus tuigse,” he said impulsively.You are a woman unmatched in beauty and intelligence.She eagerly accepted the challenge and scribbled the phrase with a pencil in her little notebook, asking him to repeat it several times for her.
“I wish I could have someone teach me the language; half the fun of it is learning the nuances native speakers use. Tutors for the other languages I know weren’t all that hard to come by. Your Gaelic, on the other hand…”
Ian barely stopped himself in time before he offered to fill the position himself; the more rational side of his brain kicked in to save him. He was busy enough with his actual profession and there were not enough hours in the day to eat a proper meal, let alone play at tutor…not to mention that to do so would place him in the foolishly dangerous situation where he would invariably grow closer with this intoxicating beauty. He enjoyed and appreciated her earnest desire to learn, the mesmerizing glitter in her eyes as she hung on his every word. It would be far too easy for him to forget who she was—who he was…
“I will make some inquiries on your behalf,” he offered and then changed the subject. “However did you get free of the earl’s watchful eye?”?She leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial tone so her maid would not hear her through the doors left ajar. “I told him I needed to finish shopping since my last trip was interrupted. If asked—which I have no doubt she will be—my maid will have nothing else to offer other than my ankle began to trouble me with all the walking and we needed to retrieve more of your miracle pain powder here at your offices.”
Ian smiled in response to her cunning and then glanced at his timepiece, realizing he needed to head off to his next appointment. “While I appreciate the visit and the apology, Lady Juliette, I’m afraid I must be off.” He tried not to read too much into her crestfallen expression as he picked up his coat and slipped it on.
∞∞∞
Juliette watched Dr. McCullom don his coat, Lady Sommerfeld’s words echoing around in her skull alongside the conversation she’d just shared with the physician standing before her. She steeled her resolve and clenched her hands to bolster her bravery, hoping her expression was one of coy confidence.
“I suppose I will have to continue to find myself in odd predicaments if I desire to see you again.”
Dr. McCullom froze with only one arm in his sleeve. After a moment of stillness, he spoke and moved at the pace of molasses.
“I don’t believe that would be a good idea.”
“And I don’t see why not; besides, I don’t view you as a man who would leave one’s education lacking.” She gestured to the framed certificates, diplomas, and awards lining the walls of his offices.
“Education?” There was something unbearably charming about the two vertical slices appearing between his brows as he frowned.
“Why, kissing, of course.” He nearly choked on the breath in his lungs, but she continued determinedly. She’d already begun and that was the hardest part, wasn’t it? “If last night proved one thing to me, it is that I am sorely underprepared in that field. I don’t care to feel that way, and this is perhaps the only area of my life my brother cannot fix by hiring an expensive tutor.”
∞∞∞
Thank God, thought Ian, still somewhat unsure of the reality of what he was hearing. Surely Lady Juliette could not be serious? This must surely be some cruel joke women of breeding played upon men in service they found passably attractive. Ian had been propositioned many times under a variety of circumstances, but never anything such as this.
“You said so yourself that you found the kiss enjoyable, so it stands to reason this wouldn’t be a hardship for you,” Lady Juliette continued with the lift of one shoulder.
He scoffed in disbelief before making several unintelligible sounds. There simply were no words available in his vocabulary to respond to the situation.
“I’ve had so little freedom and excitement in my life.” Her tone was painfully soft, almost pleading. “Could you possibly deny me this? What harm could there be in it?”
“What harm?” Ian croaked out. Did she believe him to be as weak and harmless as a kitten? Was she so sheltered that she didn’t realize what he could do to her? What he really wanted from her? The thoughts that kept him throbbing and aching awake every night since the day he’d met her?
He rounded the desk in only a couple of steps to tower over Lady Juliette. His already frantic pulse increased when he caught the light scent of her perfume. If only she knew how he longed to bury his face in her neck, between her pale breasts and bathe in her unique aroma.
“What harm?” he asked again, lower instead of louder, a part of him still realizing there were others not all that far away.
Her instincts seemed to kick in and she stood so she was at less of an advantage. Ian stepped closer, backing her up against his desk, forcing her with his height to lean back and brace her hands on the desktop to look up into his face.
“It would be very dangerous, indeed,” he all but growled. “What your self-proclaimed ignorance cannot comprehend is that kissing you would only inevitably make any man wantmore.”
Chapter Seven
