Page 46 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge

The older woman seemed intent on marrying them off so they would need to be careful. If she so much as caught them looking at each other with passion in their gaze, they would likely find themselves in front of a blacksmith. At least that’s the way Harlow had heard they did things in Scotland.

Perhaps it was best if they kept their distance from each other so not to get caught. Disinterest would help to convince the countess there was nothing between them.

Not that there was anything between them. Except, she found she very much wanted there to be. Once she’d decided on her plan, she hopped out of bed eager to set it in motion.

Opening her door, she looked to her left. Harlow wondered if the countess usually stayed at the opposite end of the hall from her son, or if Reese had done that for some other purpose. Maybe that slight hostility between them was more serious than she’d thought.

Harlow would figure that out later. All that mattered now was that the woman would be far enough away that she wouldn’t hear Harlow leaving her room and heading in the opposite direction.

Harlow winced and froze when her door squeaked upon opening wider. After a few seconds when nothing happened, she continued on her way.

Wiping her damp palms on her dressing gown, she padded silently down the hall to the room she knew belonged to the earl.

Listening at the door, she waited making sure she didn’t hear him speaking to his valet, and then she tapped lightly, the sound so much louder in her mind that it probably was. In fact, it must have been too quiet for it seemed he’d not even heard it.

She knocked again a little firmer and a few seconds later the door opened.

Reese stood before her in only his breeches with his braces hanging at his hips. His chest was bare and she noticed the slight bit of gold hair between flat, brown nipples.

She looked up into his brown eyes and her mouth fell open.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked past her into the hall. Surely, he must think the castle was ablaze. For what else would have brought her to his door in the middle of the night?

“Might I come in?” she asked, doing her best to sound sure.

He tilted his head as if trying to puzzle out her motives. She wished him luck in that for she hadn’t figured it out yet, and she had the advantage of hearing her own thoughts. Though her thoughts were quite a muddle at the moment so maybe that was no benefit.

“Your head?” he asked. “My mother said she would call for me if you needed a doctor.”

“My head is fine. In fact, I only stayed in my room because I didn’t know how I might sit in the room with you.”

He frowned, but eventually stood aside so she could enter. He then shut the door behind her.

“You’re angry with me. About what happened. I can’t tell you—”

“No. I’m not angry,” she said quickly, but she didn’t share anything else.

Now that she was there in his room she had no idea what to do next. She looked about with her hands linked causally behind her back as if it was no more than a visit to see the color of his walls and what trinkets lay out on his dressing table.

The answer: blue, and his table held only a watch fob and a comb.

She needed to think of something clever to say. Or perhaps, if clever was beyond her, she might try seduction.

The idea nearly brought a round of laughter to her lips for she’d never attempted such a thing before and had no clue as to how to progress.

She’d seen the women in the ballrooms, the way they’d fluttered their fans and looked down demurely. She had no fan, but perhaps she would try the looking down bit.

She cast her eyes down and noticed his feet were bare. In the dim light of the room she noticed the slightest of blond hair on his toes. Of course, she knew men had hair on their toes. She’d grown up with five examples. But her brothers, all dark-haired like her, were quite different.

Why did seeing his feet send a shock of warmth through her body to pool in her stomach? It was an intimacy she could imagine no other woman had ever seen. She was not so foolish to think she was the only one. He was a worldly man. She’d seen evidence of it in the way he’d kissed her and the devilish grin he’d given her on occasion.

“Your toes…” God, why had she said that out loud? If there could be something further from seduction, mentioning a man’s toes must be it.

“Aye. I’ve ten of them.” He wiggled them. “Just like most people.” He waited a moment longer before asking. “Did you come here to make sure?”

“No, of course not.” But she was still looking at them as her face flushed hot. She couldn’t bring herself to look up at him now. She might have fled the room but she was not one for giving up on something she’d set her mind on doing.

“Would it be rude of me to ask why you have come to my room at such a late hour?”