“I can do it, Your Grace,” the woman answered quickly, clutching her hands tightly before her. “Caroline... I mean, Miss Mason, would you please pick out your fabrics?”
“She will sit as a customer should, and you will bring them for her to choose from,” Damien commanded, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Of course, of course,” the woman said, nodding vehemently. “Please, take a seat, both of you, and I shall gather some choices.”
Damien turned his back to her dismissively almost at once and took a seat, but Caroline remained rooted in place until her employer all but ran to the back. The moment she was gone, Caroline whirled on him with a disapproving look, shaking her pretty head in disbelief.
“Was that completely necessary?” she asked, meeting his eye level now that he was seated. “You frightened that poor woman!”
“Oh, you mean the same way she was trying to frighten you?” he retorted, crossing one of his long legs over the other as he gotcomfortable. “She is used to being the most frightening person in the room; it did her some good to see that she will not always be.”
“She is my employer, and I was late!” Caroline insisted. “She had every right to be angry.”
“Shewasyour employer,” Damien corrected with bite in his tone. “As of this moment, you are her customer, not her employee. And even if she is angry, she is not justified in treating you like that.”
He took another look around the paltry shop and snickered.
“Perhaps we should purchase this place, andshecould beyouremployee. Would that not be amusing?”
Caroline shook her head, looking at him with those big brown eyes as if he had gone mad.
“No,it would not!” she whispered vehemently. “What is wrong with you? This is a civilized world! You cannot speak to people like that, and you certainly cannot buy every business that offends your senses! This is a person’s livelihood!”
“Youwere her livelihood,” Damien corrected, sweeping a hand around the shop. “Tell me, which of these dresses on display was made by your hands and not hers?”
Satisfaction rolled through Damien’s veins as her cheeks flushed a light bashful pink.
“Well?” he urged.
Caroline flicked her eyes toward the dresses.
“All... all of them,” she muttered.
“And has she even picked up a needle and thread since she employed you?” he asked.
Caroline gave him a tired look as her eyes came back to him, then sighed.
“No,” she sighed.
“Precisely,” he stated dryly. “Now sit.”
He expected her to stay standing out of stubbornness alone, but to his surprise, she crossed her arms and took the seat beside him.
“Whether you were right or not, I cannot abide you speaking to people so harshly. Iloathesuch behavior. If you want me to come back to London with you and fulfill our contract, you mustbehave.”
The way she said the word sent a strange jolt through Damien’s veins, and before he could help himself, he wound his finger around a loose tendril of her dark brown hair and rubbed the silky strands as he leaned closer to her.
“Are you so very sure you want me to?” he asked, letting his deep voice dip into a seductive tone. “You might very much like it the way I misbehave, dear Caroline.”
“Stop that, I said no touching,” Caroline snapped, slapping his hand away from her hair.
Even as she did so, though, fire burned in her veins at the way his voice had dropped into that sinfully seductive tone, and his devilish grin made his features even more handsome. Hercheeks felt positively aflame as Damien leaned away from her with a look of annoying satisfaction, and they both turned their attention to Mrs. Parks as she returned with several bolts of surprisingly elegant fabric.
From the selection, Caroline chose a buttercream yellow chiffon and a purplish blue taffeta. As much as she hated that he was right, Caroline did understand that there would be a need to once more don the more extravagant dresses the other noblewomen wore. From the plainer fabrics, she chose a dove gray muslin, a navy blue, and a simple black.
As Mrs. Parks began to take her measurements, Damien once more brought up the prospect of purchasing the shop from Mrs. Parks and turning it into something else, and the poor woman went so pale that Caroline feared she would faint.
She waited until Mrs. Parks went to the back of the shop again, then she narrowed her eyes at Damien and said, “Stop that.”
