Baron could not suppress his smile this time. He wrapped his arms around me, and for the first time all evening, I relaxed.“Maybe that servant girl needs to be looked after so she doesn’t go around attacking nobility, and the sheriff knows it, so he has to pay extra attention to her.”
“She sounds like a handful,” I said.
“She is.”
I grinned up at Baron. “So are you going to give this troublesome servant girl the extra attention she needs? You wouldn’t want to flaunt a date in front of her and have her be jealous, now would you?”
“Oh, did I do that?”
“You did.”
Baron tightened his hold on me. “Then it serves you right. Do you have any idea how much you tormented me today?”
“I have a rough idea.” I ran my fingers up his shirt so I could trace the stubble along his jawline. “And speaking of tormenting,” I went on. “I need some money. I tore this dress and have to replace it. Luckily for me, I know the sheriff personally, and he’s becoming very wealthy now that he has his new, higher wages. Do you think he’d be able to help a poor, struggling servant girl?”
Baron snorted. “I don’t know. Isn’t Leopold rich? Maybe you should ask him. It seemed like he was more than happy to help you out today.”
“I don’t think he’d be so keen on that anymore, even though it was his fault the dress was torn in the first place. I could hardly move in this stupid thing when it was still together.”
Baron’s gaze dropped briefly to the torn seams along my sides, and his humor faded as his fingers picked at some of the scraps of fabric hanging down. His jaw tightened before he looked back at my face. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.” I softened my voice, because for all his teasing, there was real concern beneath the question. “He tried, but he failed. I broke his nose, actually.”
Baron nodded once, but the hard look did not leave his eyes. “Good.”
“Good that he failed, or good that I broke his nose?”
His mouth curved again. “Both. If you hadn’t broken his nose, I’d have broken every bone in his body.”
I laughed softly. “You should’ve seen him. He kept acting as though I were the unreasonable one.”
“I did see what he looked like afterward,” Baron said, smug satisfaction in his voice.
“He deserved it.”
“I have no doubt.” Baron stroked his thumb once along the torn edge of my sleeve, careful not to pull the fabric farther apart. “But you know, as the sheriff, I can’t just go giving out money to every criminal who breaks the law, no matter how pretty she is. It would be bad for my reputation. Fortunately for you, Leopold wants to keep your little incident hushed up so no one knows a girl got the best of him. Want to fill me in on the details of what happened?”
I told him my version. Baron listened without interrupting, though his scowl deepened when I described what Leopold had tried to pull. By the time I reached the part where Leopold followed me into the corridor, Baron’s hand had curled into a fist at his side.
“But really,” I finished, “he was so drunk by the end of the evening that a six-year-old could have gotten the best of him in a fight. I doubt he will remember anything accurately tomorrow.”
“You certainly left quite a few impressions on him that he will not soon forget,” Baron said. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You’re a terrifying woman.”
I laughed and pushed playfully against his chest. “I’ve got nothing on you. When you walked out onto the field today, you looked so scary. Everyone was talking about that intimidating new sheriff.”
“And what do you think?” he asked, threading his fingers through my hair and holding the back of my head. “Am I scary?” He lowered his face and pressed his lips against mine.
I leaned into him at once and kissed him back. I drew back just long enough to mutter, “So scary,” before melting against him and letting him deepen the kiss.
It had been too long since we had any time alone together. All evening, we had been forced to pretend we were strangers. The whole day had been one long performance, and I was tired of pretending. When Baron drew back, he stayed close enough that his forehead touched mine.
“I changed my mind,” I said. “I don’t think you’re scary at all. You’re just a big puppy dog.”
His eyebrows rose. “A puppy dog?”
“A very large, very grumpy one.”
His lips grazed my jaw. “I should arrest you for that.”
