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Again, his face blanched. “I fell out of a tree as a young boy. It hurt, laid my up for a couple of weeks with a strained ankle, so I’ve never done it again.”
She shrugged. “Time to face that fear.”
“You’re the only woman I’ll allow to bedevil me,” he muttered as he approached the tree in question. “Not even my mother has that much latitude.”
“Just another thing that sets me apart from the rest,” she parried. Not for worlds would she admit to the knots of anxiety pulling in her stomach as he began his climb.
When he’d reached a height of twenty feet, one of his boots slipped from a branch. With a strangled sort of cry, the viscount tumbled out of the tree to land heavily upon his back.
“Benedict!” Anne screeched in panic as she raced over to this location. “Oh, please tell me you’re all right.” Her heart pounded frantically as she bent over him, running her hands up and down his body in the process of checking for broken bones. “Talk to me!”
“I’m fine,” he wheezed while he struggled to catch his breath. “Mostly my pride is bruised, and no doubt I’ll have many of those in other places come the morrow.”
“Your back isn’t broken?”
He moved from side to side. “Not that I can tell. Just had the wind knocked out of me.”
“Oh, thank God.” Relief coursed down her spine. She peered into his face while her pulse ricocheted wildly. “Don’t frighten me like that again.”
“You’re the one who pushed me to those heights… as you often do.” The cheeky man grinned, and her heart squeezed. “Taking a risk does have a good reward occasionally.” He wrapped a hand about her nape, pulled her downward, and then gently kissed her lips.
“Wicked man,” she whispered against his mouth, seconds before she gave herself over to another series of quick kisses that lit tiny fires in her blood and fired her imagination. How was it possible to wish to throw caution to the wind and lose herself in this man? A man she hadn’t known a week ago. A man who attracted her like a magnet until she’d begun to dream of things she shouldn’t, not if she wanted to retain her freedom. “If I didn’t know better, you fell from that tree on purpose.” She scrambled into a sitting position at his side and put much needed space between them.
Else she’d lose control of herself and truly cause a scandal neither of them would recover from. As it was, no one had glanced their way nor cared about what they were doing.
“I guess we’ll never know, for you did nearly dare me to make that climb.” He tucked his hands behind his head and crossed his ankles, clearly in no hurry to leave the area. “But it’s gratifying to know you might care a smidgeon about my well-being.”
She held up a hand, and with her thumb and forefinger indicated an inch of space. “Perhaps a little.” When she laughed, she smiled, but a twist of panic went down her spine.
So much for wishing to keep him at arm’s length and not become too fond of him. I need to do better in not letting him distract me, for I’m not looking for a romance.
Right?
Bed sport was quite fine in its place, and the rush of it helped to clear her head and blow out her worries, but the balloon flight was in three days. She had to be ready lest her future be forfeit thanks to her own damned wager that even now had been listed in the betting book at White’s. To say nothing about it probably having made the gossip rounds.
Why am I so impulsive?
