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Harry frowned down at Hester in alarm. “What do you mean, the wrong one?” He grabbed the bottle from her unresisting grip. “Brown’s Linctus,’ you said.”
“Exactly! That’s Blue Nile Lily!”
He sat back on his haunches. “Oh, hell. What does Blue Nile Lily do?”
“The Bey’s doctor gave it to Uncle Jasper. He said it was primarily a painkiller—”
Harry expelled a relieved breath. “That’s good then—”
“It’s definitely working. My ankle doesn’t hurt so much now.” Her eyelids started to droop.
“You’re not fainting are you? I can’t stand women who faint.”
She let out a soft laugh. “No. I’m fine. Just sleepy.”
Her voice had taken on a dreamy quality, slightly slurred, as if she’d been drinking. Harry frowned. “Well, then. No harm done.”
“Unless I experience the other effects the doctor mentioned,” she murmured.
A fresh jolt of alarm hit him. “What other effects?”
She waved her hand in front of her face and almost swatted herself on the nose. “It’s nothing. Really.”
Harry squinted down at her. Her cheeks had turned a delicious shade of pink. “Are you blushing, Morden?”
“Of course not.”
“What other effects?”
She let out a huff and rolled her eyes. “Like becoming. . . amorous.”
His brows rose to his hairline. “You mean it’s alove potion?” He tried to squash his crow of laughter and failed. “I’ve given you Uncle Jasper’s love potion? Oh, that is priceless.”
She turned her face away but he caught her chin and forced her gaze back to his. Her pupils were dark pools, almost drowning out the color of her irises.
“Look at me, Hester. Are you feeling amorous towards me?”
She batted his hand away and glared at him. “Stop teasing. It won’t work on me. I don’t even like you.”
He chuckled, but she continued to look at him, studying his face with sudden intensity. And then she reached up and traced the line of his jaw, trailing her fingers from his ear to his chin and up over his lips.
Harry was too stunned to move. She’d never willingly touched him, ever, but the potion seemed to have loosened her inhibitions. Her caress left a tingling sensation in its wake.
“Youareextremely handsome,” she murmured. “I’ll give you that.”
“Uhm, thank you?” he said faintly.
“The ladies in the harem would be sighing all over you.”
Before he could come up with a suitable answer to that, a frown marred her smooth forehead.
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried to get rid of me by selling me to the nearest harem.”
He fought to keep his tone light, even though her touch was doing funny things to his insides. “Believe me, I’ve been tempted.”
She seemed to have forgotten that she was touching him—she was playing with a curl of hair by his ear now—but he was acutely aware of her touch. His body hardened to the point of pain. He cleared his throat.
“I doubt anyone would have you. Even if I offered to throw in a couple of camels and a nice Hamadan rug. Too much trouble, they’d say. And, by God, they’d be right.”
