Page 6 of Scandal With A Viscount

Chapter 3

Georgiana

Louis Prescott was going to be the death of her, and she wasn’t even certain if the arse knew what he was doing.

The archery targets had been set up on the south lawn after breakfast, and Georgie had been doing a fine job of ignoring him until he stepped behind her to correct her stance. His hand hovered near her elbow—not quite touching—and his voice dropped so low that it sent ripples through her entire body.

“Your arm is too low.”

She adjusted her stance. “My arm is fine.”

“You'll miss.”

“I won’t.” She released the arrow. It struck wide of the center mark, and his quiet laugh behind her made her grip tighten on the bow.

“And you intend to blame me for that, I assume?”

“Perhaps you are the one with the guilty conscience, my lord.” She turned and found him closer than she'd expected, the late morning sun catching the line of his jaw and the disarming crook of his mouth. He'd kept his distance all morning—polite, charming, the same Louis who'd walked her to her door last night and said goodnight like a well-intentioned gentleman. When she had wanted him to shove her against the wall right there in the hallway. She'd lain awake for an hour afterward, staring at her ceiling, wishing he had done just that. And then she’d fumed, wondering if he had snuck into someone else’s chamber that night.

“Your turn.” She stepped aside without looking at him. “Since you think you are so skilled.”

He took the bow from her, his fingers brushing hers in the exchange. Her body heated, and she jerked her hand away too fast. He winked at her, then drew back and released in a single fluid motion. The arrow hit the center. Then he looked at her with that insufferable grin.

“As I said. It’s all in the arm placement.”

“Remind me—does archery count toward our wager, or only cards?”

“Only cards. Unless you'd like to add archery, in which case I'll happily take the advantage.”

“You're tied with me at the card table, Louis. Don't get ahead of yourself.” She plucked the bow back from him and took aim again just to have something to do with her hands. “What would you even dare me to do, if you won?”

His grin shifted into something less polished. “I have time to consider my options.”

“That's not an answer.”

“It's the only one you're getting.” He held her gaze a beat too long, and the warmth in his eyes had nothing to do with the sun. There was no way she was imagining it. “Some things are better left as a surprise.”

She wanted to push. She wanted to ask what was behind that look—whether he'd spent last night the way she had, replaying the moment at her door, cursing his own restraint. Or worse, climbing into the bed of someone else to ease that ache. It had been obvious that a certain widow had taken notice of him and would surely try to get him into her bed.

But before she could speak again, she noticed Thea and Maddie crossing the lawn toward them, and the question died in her throat.

The rest of the day was its own kind of torture. She caught Louis’s eye over luncheon when Lady Hurst leaned too close to him. He shifted away with a tightness in his jaw that gave Georgie more satisfaction than it should have. During the garden walk she spotted him through the hedgerow playing lawn bowls with Wes and John, his coat discarded, his shirtsleeves rolled to the elbow. It had caused her to lose the thread of Thea's conversation so thoroughly that Thea had to repeat herself three times.

By the time the evening card games began, Georgie's patience had worn to nothing.

She sat across from him at the vingt-et-un table. She won two hands. He won two. Thea swept the rest and declared herself an unstoppable force, while Wes shook his head with the resigned expression of a man long accustomed to losing to his wife.

But Georgie couldn’t focus on anything but Louis. The way his tongue ran along his bottom lip when he was thinking, and the sly smirk when he knew he had the upper hand.

After a few hours, the party had thinned. When Maddie and John retired, Maddie pressed Louis's arm on the way out and murmured something Georgie couldn't hear. She could guess he didn’t appreciate it from the way his expression flattened. Then one by one the drawing room emptied until there were just a few others left.

Her mother had seemingly forgotten that Georgie was supposed to be chaperoned, not that Georgie minded the bit of freedom.

“It appears we are tied now at four wins each.” She stacked the cards together on the table. “I might have to actually start trying.”

He cast her a disbelieving glance. “I’d like to see that.” His gaze lingered on her, and it made her want to throw herself at him right there in the middle of Wesley’s drawing room. He had to stop looking at her like that. He had been doing it all day, and it drove her mad wondering if he would agree to what could be a mutually pleasurable arrangement.

Louis cleared his throat and stood. “I think I shall retire for the evening.”