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Once Rotherby caught up with Seb, he walked at a more moderate speed until he reached a corridor at the back of the shop. He turned a corner, then knocked twice on the narrow door at the end of the hallway.
“Bufonidae,” he said through the door.
Rotherby rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what that word means, but I’ve an idea, and you both need to expand your social circles.”
“It’s the name for the toad family,” Seb said.
Before he could add that he’d expanded his social circle considerably only an hour before—and with astonishing success—Grace said through the door, “Enter.”
After making certain that no one was observing them, he and Rotherby went into the room, then shut the door securely behind them.
The chamber was a small one, with room for one table, three wobbly, mismatched chairs, and one battered wingback chair currently occupied by Grace. Her maid sat in one of the rickety chairs, nose stuck in a book, but Seb barely gave the servant a glance as he took in Grace’s radiant face.
“You were marvelous.” She shot to her feet and wrapped her arms around him.
For a moment, he couldn’t move, frozen in place by the sensation of her soft body pressed to his. It was all he could do to keep himself from burying his nose in her hair and inhaling her fragrance.
He took a more moderate breath before embracing her. Loosely. Which went against his every instinct demanding he hold her close.
“Nothing for me?” Rotherby asked wryly.
Grace peered over Seb’s shoulder, but she didn’t move to hug Rotherby. “A fine performance from you, as well.”
To Seb’s disappointment, she stepped back, releasing her hold on him. She took her seat, and Rotherby did the same. Seb’s energized limbs protested the thought of sitting, so he remained on his feet. What he wanted, what he truly desired, was to kiss Grace. To feel his mouth against hers.
But that had been an experience he’d never have again. The thought tempered his ebullient mood.
“That was,” she said, eyes bright, “the most superb display of territoriality that I have ever witnessed, and I’ve observed the Coronella austriaca. The smooth snake,” she added for his and Rotherby’s benefit.
At her words, Seb fought to resist expanding his chest and puffing. He wasn’t used to feeling pleased with himself, and he instinctively reared back from that feeling. “It did go rather well,” he permitted.
“‘Rather well’?” Rotherby snorted in disbelief. “Old man, you could hear the pantalets dropping like autumn leaves.”
“An exaggeration.” Seb threw a glance at Grace before fiddling with the buttons on his waistcoat. Part of him wanted her to recognize that there were some women who found him attractive, but, even so, he wasn’t entirely comfortable mentioning pantalets in her presence.
“Not a bit,” Grace replied vehemently. “Every woman fluttered their eyes at you and giggled as if they were just out of the schoolroom. Surely you noticed.”
He coughed, unwilling to admit that he’d secretly been pleased by the female attention he’d received. “Not precisely.”
Which was something of an untruth. He had noticed, watching himself and the party guests from a distance as if observing a particularly fascinating social behavior. He had been both the performer and the audience, inhabiting the character of Sebastian Holloway, rake, while simultaneously watching the whole thing unfold as scholar Seb Holloway. He couldn’t wait to write about it.
“The response of the female guests was considerable,” Grace said sunnily. “It was as though they were eager to peel away your clothing.”
Seb lifted his chin, and reluctantly admitted to himself that it felt as though the top of his head brushed the ceiling. The women had looked at him with barely veiled sexual interest. Never before had he been the recipient of so much primal validation. It made him want to dig valleys out of solid stone with his bare hands. As though he could do anything.
“I just gave them a bit of eye contact and a husky chuckle or two,” he demurred.
“Whatever techniques you employed,” she said enthusiastically, “they worked. I wouldn’t be surprised if you wound up with a new paramour. Or paramours.”
