Rosemary Rogers - A Reckless Encounter

Yes…

A faint smile curved her lips as she tilted back her head to look up at Northington through her lashes.

Shadows draped the recess beneath the stairs, and light filtered through potted palms into the alcove to barely illuminate Celia St. Clair’s face. Wide-eyed, she stared up at Colter in the thin light. A delicate fineness of bone structure rescued her features from the ordinary and made them striking. High cheekbones, a full mouth with well-shaped lips, a hint of cleft in her chin, and wide-spaced gray—no, green eyes were made unusual by a trick of fate. Harvey was right. She was a prime article.

She was also feigning a swoon and doing very badly at it.

“I’ve seen better actresses in the pit at Covent Garden,” he said when she did not reply to his observation, and saw her eyes widen, absorbing dull light like a cheap mirror.

“No doubt you have, my lord,” she said with a lift of perfectly arched eyebrows. “But what has that to do with me?”

“Your swoon. You’re not faint.”

A smile curved her mouth into a tempting bow, and she met his gaze boldly. “Not in the least bit.”

Her voice was husky, low-pitched and slow, each word a rich drawl. He smiled.

“Ah, then I am to understand that you wished to avoid my company.”

“You’re very astute, my lord.”

Little baggage! It was an unexpected response. He had anticipated the usual demur, the protests that she truly was of delicate constitution—or maybe even a shy confession that she had wished to speak with him alone—but not this frank surrender and even more blunt admission that she did not desire his company.

His suspicions may be wrong; her acquaintance with James Carlisle could be as innocent as it had seemed.

“Am I that heinous?” He moved to sit beside her on the bench. She did not move coyly away, but gazed at him with a steady stare. A pulse beat in the hollow of her throat, ivory skin gleaming softly in the pale light as she seemed to consider his question.

“Having just made your acquaintance, I could hardly come to such a conclusion so rapidly. Did you follow me just to ask that question, my lord?”

“No.” He observed her with growing amusement. “Your cousin sent me after you. A rather obvious ploy to extend our acquaintance.”

“Then I trust you are now convinced I had nothing to do with that.”

“Not entirely.” His eyes narrowed, noting that brown lashes lowered over a gleam in her eyes she couldn’t quite hide. For the first time that he could recall, he wasn’t certain of a woman’s motives. It was intriguing.

He leaned closer, saw her involuntary recoil. “It could be a conspiracy between you to compromise me. You needn’t work so hard at it. I can be quite adaptable.”

“That’s very enlightened of you, my lord, but I fear you overrate your charms.”

She turned slightly, giving him an excellent view of the tops of her breasts above the edge of her bodice—a deliberate ploy that revealed an enticing shadow between them. Tempting. Provocative. And damned distracting.

He dragged his attention slowly away when she said in husky, beguiling tones, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I do not wish to court unnecessary gossip or nasty speculation as to our activities in a dark corner. Your reputation may thrive on such, but mine, I assure you, will not.”

She rose from the bench and he rose with her, putting out his arm to delay her progress, stretching it in front of her so that she halted and turned to look up at him with a haughtily lifted brow.

“You are impeding me, my lord.”

“Only for a moment.” He resisted the sudden impulse to touch a single golden curl that draped over her bare shoulder; it drew his attention back to the pale gleaming breasts, rounded and perfect above her demure bodice.

“If you are through ogling me, my lord, I wish to pass. Please move aside.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. “But perhaps I’m not through ogling you, Miss St. Clair. I find the view most enticing.”

“And I find you boorish. Step aside or I shall call for a footman to remove you from my path.”

She meant it. There was determination in her eyes, a hot, fierce gleam that convinced him. He let his arm drop and she moved past him without a backward glance to glide gracefully across the hallway and toward the ballroom.

Colter crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Twice in the space of a few minutes, she had given him the cut direct. It was as irritating as it was intriguing.

“I say, old man, looks as if the lady ain’t that interested. I’m shocked.” Harvey loomed out of the dim alcove shadows, grinning like an idiot. “My first opinion of her intelligence has just been proven.”

“Devil take you, Harvey.” Colter watched as she moved across the hallway to enter the ballroom. “You’re enjoying this far too much.”

Harvey glanced after Miss St. Clair with a thoughtful expression. “Not at all,” he said with a shrug. “But the lady certainly is. If I were as plump in the pocket as you are, I’d have a go at her myself, but I need a wealthy wife instead of a beauty.”

It would do no good to remind Harvey that he had only himself to blame for his lack of coin; gambling whittled away what fortune he had inherited from his mother, while his father, the Baron Leawood, habitually gambled away his own bank account. “You should make wise investments,” he said, “so you can afford her.”

“What of your shipping investments?” Harvey asked, hazel eyes reflecting the dim glow of a wall sconce that barely lightened the alcove shadows. “Is it true that one of your ships went down with all hands and cargo aboard?”

“It’s always possible. Nothing is known for certain yet.”

“Rumor has it that you’re negotiating to purchase a fleet of steamships now that a vessel has successfully navigated the Atlantic. Deuced amazing thing, the powering of ships by steam instead of sail, but efficient enough, I suppose. These iron monsters are said to be safer, more reliable in storms without the weight of top masts and sails, but bloody strange looking.”

Colter regarded him with a lifted brow. “Where did you hear that rumor?”

Those negotiations were private, and still not yet completed. It was his own venture, since his father and the board were reluctant to take on any new, unproven mode of transport yet. A foolish failure to seize new opportunity in his opinion. How the hell did Harvey know of it?

Startled, Harvey shrugged. “It’s just a vague rumor I heard at White’s—or maybe it was Brooks’s. Damned if I can remember who said it or when. Been meaning to ask you about it. Intriguing business, these new inventions, but risky at times.”

“Any business venture is risky. Without risk, there’s little profit.”

“And you’re a master at taking risks, old boy.” A faint smile curled his mouth. “A hero with a drawer full of commendations and medals. The risk of investing funds in precarious ventures does not compare.”

“I never knew you to be so interested in my business affairs, Harvey.” It was said softly, but there was a steely warning beneath the comment that was obvious even to the baronet.

Harvey shrugged.

“Not so much interested as intrigued, on an idle basis. You know where my interests lie for the most part. I merely envy your ability to spin gold from straw.”

Amused, Colter drawled, “It still takes effort on my part to do the spinning, Harvey. Think of something other than cards and drink and your fortunes will change quickly enough. Marry a wealthy widow.”

“That’s easy enough for you to say, when all you have to do is crook your finger and females flock to you. It’d be simpler to understand if it was only your money, but from the sighs and moans of unrequited love I hear, you’ve something more to offer than mere coin.”