AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Juno? Explain yourself.”
“It is no concern of yours.” She fixed her gaze on the street in front of her. “I had business with Lord Renshaw.”
“What possible business could you have with Renshaw? If this is connected to what you overheard yesterday—” He stopped short. “Bloody hell, you did not come to see Miss Macey?”
Juno threw up her hands and whirled to face him. “I am sick of the lot of you. As if anything less than an emergency would induce me to set foot in this dreadful part of town.”
Eyebrows raised, he let his gaze roam pointedly over the grand, polished houses that lined the square, with their judgmental doors and self-righteous windows and condescending flower boxes.
“Dreadful?” he repeated dryly.
“Dreadful,” Juno confirmed with a haughty sniff. “I might catch a nasty case of arrogant presumptuousness. There seems to be a lot of it around here.”
Oh, but his cool composure was irritating. How she wanted him discomposed!
There were a million other things she wanted too: to explore the contours of his body, to tear open his heart and discover what made him tremble and what made him howl, to solve the riddle of why he treated her as he did.
She whirled about and marched on.
“Where are you going?” he asked, once more at her side.
“As far from here as possible.” She twisted to check on Mrs. Kegworth, who trailed behind them, gawking up at the houses. “For your own good. You do not want Renshaw to catch you talking to yourdoxy, as he calls me.”
“He insulted you thus?”
His sharp tone made her snort. “What will you do? Call him out? Lords like you don’t fight duels over women like me.”
“That’s not fair. I don’t fight duels over anyone.”
He caught her forearm. Fireworks crackled off the pressure of his touch. Time stopped as they both stared at the point of contact. Slowly, carefully, he removed his bare hand and curved his fingers over the head of his walking stick. One slender finger traced the intricate rosettes carved over the stick’s head, just as his fingers had traced shapes on her body the day before.
She looked away from his hand, only to meet his eyes, and that was even worse.
“Careful, Leo. You wouldn’t want to harm your courtship. Miss Macey is welcome to you.”
“No one in Renshaw’s household can see us now. Explain why you’re here.”
She tossed her head. “You explain whyyou’rehere. Courting Miss Macey, I presume? I do hope you have not neglected to bring flowers. Or have you a sweet sonnet tucked in your pocket?”
“I was walking home,” he said mildly. “My house is…” He twisted, pointed at the stately building that dominated the other side of the square. “Right there.”
“Oh.” With a groan, Juno covered her face with one hand. “I shall stop talking now before I embarrass myself further.”
“Or start talking before either of us jumps to more conclusions.”
He slipped his fingers around her hand as gently as if it were a newborn kitten and lowered it from her face. A heartbeat too long he held it, then once more let her go. “Why did you call on Lord Renshaw?”
She nursed her hand against her stomach and vowed to display calm and poise.
“If you must know,” she said, in a most dignified tone, “Lord Renshaw has come into possession of certain papers of mine that would embarrass me if they were to become public. I sought to retrieve them.”
A frown slowly formed and deepened on his face. “Am I to believe the Earl of Renshaw isblackmailingyou?”
Her dignified facade crumbled. “Blackmail? Why on earth would you think—? Oh, yes, it does sound like that, doesn’t it? In his defense, he does not know he has these papers.”
“He’s not the one you need to defend right now. Forgive myarrogant presumptuousness, but you have no connection to him, except a very tenuous one through me. I’d know of any connection, as we know so much about each other.”
“We don’t, though, do we?” she said quietly. “Until two minutes ago, I did not even know where you live.”
