Page 25 of Barbarous

“Have you indeed?” His warm, knowing look caused disparate parts of her body to tingle and heat.

She heaved a sigh of irritation to cover the disconcerting reactions. “Is there something I may help you with, my lord, or did you come to discuss ladies’ fashions?”

He lowered himself onto the settee beside her, his body ludicrously large on the tiny piece of furniture. When he shifted his hips to insinuate himself into a more comfortable position, the action brought his warm hardness closer to her. Daphne considered inching away but there was no place left to inch—no place that wasn’t filled by Hugh Redvers.

Amusement glinted in his green eye. “My dearest Lady Davenport,” he drawled, the honorific sounding even more intimate on his lips than her Christian name, “I should dearly love to discuss the latest fashions in hemlines with you. Or”—his smile shifted and became sly—“even German philosophy.”

Daphne could only stare; his recognition of Kant was so unexpected, so . . . erotic, the thumping in her heart dropped lower. She squirmed and her hip brushed his. A bolt of lightning shot from the point of contact and she sprang to her feet. He rose with her, making her escape only temporary as he towered over her, favoring her with a solicitous look while taking her hand. The feel of his warm, slightly roughened skin against her own caused her throat to constrict to the diameter of a pea.

“I apologize if my reference to ladies’ garments was . . . inappropriate.” His contrite expression was belied by the smoldering gleam in his eye and his fingers slid beneath her palm and brushed the thin, sensitive underside of her wrist.

Daphne snatched away her hand and used it to smooth her skirts, swallowing convulsively before clearing her throat. “I have business to attend to. I’ve been shirking my duties.” She hated how breathy and foolish she sounded, and glared up at him, as if her condition was his fault. Which it was.

“Shirking?”

Daphne ignored his invitation to banter. “You needed something from me?”

“Yes, I do need something from you.” He loomed over her, standing closer than politeness allowed.

Daphne waited. And waited. “Well, what is it?” she finally snapped, irked that he’d driven her to ask.

The corners of his mouth curled up and charming crinkles appeared at the corner of his eye. Oh, he was such a pest! Why did she keep rising to the bait he dangled? She crossed her arms over her chest and waited. She would not say another word. Not one more word.

“I just encountered Randall. He was looking for you.”

“Yes?”

“He was rather frantic. He has been called away on family business.” He waved a huge hand dismissively. “Something about a daughter and a child and so on.”

“His eldest daughter is close to her confinement.”

“I believe that was it. In any case, that means he will not be able to join us on our inspection of the Dower House.” He smiled slowly. “I’m afraid we shall have to do that together. Alone.”

Her heart stuttered. “If you’d care to postpone, we could—”

“I would not.”

Daphne filled her lungs and then slowly exhaled. An entire morning spent with him. Alone. She compressed her lips and nodded. “Very well.” She waited. “Was that all?”

“No, I also wanted to ask why you abandoned me in the library.”

“The library?” she repeated stupidly.

“Yes, you know—the room with all the books? You’ve emptied out that charming desk. Have I driven you away by some action of mine?”

Daphne’s mind raced. She could not tell him the truth—that she could no more concentrate on a book in Hugh’s presence than she could cartwheel to London. No, she could not say that. So she lied.

“I thought you might wish for some privacy.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Did you? And is that what you did when my uncle was alive—work in this room?” He glanced around the cramped, poorly lit room with an expression of distaste.

“No. I worked in the library.”

“But now you have abandoned the library so that I might have it all to myself?”

Frustration joined the host of other emotions roiling in her bosom. Why could he not leave her be? What was he getting at and why was he here?

“I have done so out of consideration for you. Courtesy,” she added, in case he didn’t know what consideration meant.