Liz Ireland - Prim And Improper

He waggled his brows together. “No, but I’m full to the brim with dishonorable ones.”

“That I can believe! Never once today have you mentioned poor Sally.”

“She’s a pretty little thing,” he told her with a negligent shrug. “She’ll find someone else, maybe even someone you can approve of. I hear there are a few unmarried princes left over in Europe.”

“My sister is not a thing,” she lectured angrily. “She’s a young woman with a vulnerable heart.”

“Unfortunately, my heart is invulnerable.”

“I’ve never met anyone so callous in my life!”

“ I’m callous?” Ty asked. “What about you? You’re the one who told your lovesick sister she couldn’t be seen with the likes of me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “And apparently I was right to do so!”

Ty looked into her lively eyes and couldn’t help smiling. In spite of himself, he liked her pluck. He was even beginning to admire the way her pointy chin stuck out so stubbornly.

Caleb had done a good job of softening her today, and now Ty had performed equally well in riling her. But he was too tempted by the opportunity the moonlight and melodic night sounds presented to let Miss Livingston storm inside just yet.

Maybe he was just too tempted by Louise, period.

Either way, he knew just what to do to make her livid, and confirm her good opinion of Caleb’s character.

“You know,” he said, calculating his words to have the most infuriating effect, “I think you might be jealous of your sister.”

Her face turned the color of a Mexican pepper. “Jealous!”

“Come now,” he said, taking another step toward her. “Don’t think I’ve missed those little looks you’ve given me when I come into the store.”

Louise’s full red lips parted in horror. She took a step backward, then swallowed in a gulp of air. “Looks?”

“It’s understandable, you know,” he assured her in a low, purring voice. “An older woman like yourself…alone…around all those men.”

She let out a muffled shriek. “How dare you even suggest—and I’m not old. I’m twenty-three!”

He slipped an arm around her shoulders and hauled her against his chest. Her body was as rigid as an old creaky board, and her breathing came in shallow gulps.

“Then maybe all you lack is a little experience,” he said, tossing aside his cigar and then dipping down to taste her lips.

She gasped in surprise and pressed her palms flat against his chest to push him away. Only the push never came. Ty pulled her more tightly against him and moved his mouth against her lips teasingly, testing her response. Her body remained still, both unyielding and unprotesting, as if in anticipation of what his next move would be.

Unable to resist, he deepened the kiss, tasting her sweet mouth with his tongue. At the same time, he drank in her delicate, clean, soapy scent, and ran a hand up to feel the luxurious thickness of her hair. She moaned, and he suddenly realized what a sweet, tantalizing trap he’d fallen into. It had been too long since he’d held a woman in his arms. In fact, the last time had been when he’d held this woman in his arms. His body was as tightly wound as a steel coil. He wanted her.

And yet he had succeeded in making himself the last man on earth she would want.

With a silent groan of regret, he lifted his head, putting an abrupt end to their kiss. His hands dropped to his sides, and he took a short step back.

Her round, unblinking eyes looked dazed at first, then sparked with indignation. “How dare you!” she cried, heat visibly flooding her cheeks even in the moonlight. “Let go of me!”

“I did.”

She looked down in dismay at her freed limbs. Her embarrassment at this discovery only added fuel to her ire. “That was the most despicable thing you’ve done yet!”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Letting go of you?”

“Kissing me!” she cried.

“You seemed to enjoy it,” he told her, assuming an air of arrogance while at the same time attempting to discern whether there was any truth to his words. “Leastwise, you didn’t kick up much of a fuss.”

“I was in shock!”

“A lot of women say that,” he said, posturing proudly. “It just takes a certain prowess.”

Her eyes narrowed and her fists rested on her hips. “Tyrone Saunders, you’re lower than low. I’m leaving here tomorrow and I never want to lay eyes on your hide again.”

“We had a bargain,” he warned her. “A week, remember?”

“You can’t expect me to stay here now!”

“I would expect that you would be a little less forward during the rest of your stay, as befits a woman of your superlative breeding.”

“Less forward? Me?”

He shot her an innocent glance. “ I was out here minding my own business, enjoying my solitary stroll with only my cigar for company.”

“A smelly old cigar is about all the company you’re fit for!” she said angrily. “You can rest assured that I won’t throw myself at you again!”

She twirled and stormed to the house, coming just short of slamming the door behind her.

He should have been smiling, but he couldn’t. Though the encounter had been a triumph in terms of making Louise think he was a boorish lout, he’d hit upon a disturbing discovery while kissing her. His heart wasn’t so invulnerable after all.

At least, not to one particular woman.

“What is all this for?” Louise asked.

In the short amount of time it had taken her to feed the chickens and gather the few eggs available, Caleb had transformed the kitchen from its post-breakfast mess to a sparkling clean place to take a bath. The table had been pushed back, and in its place was a large washtub, half-filled.

“I thought you might like a bath,” Caleb announced as she stood staring in wonder at the light fog created by the steam from the water he had been heating on the stove.

“A bath? At nine in the morning? The idea’s too decadent even to consider.”

There was no masking the disappointment on Cal’s face. “I thought after all the work you’d done for us…”

“Work!” she cried, nearly dropping her egg basket. “You’ve hardly allowed me to get myself dirty enough to need a bath!”

“Why, that’s crazy,” Caleb said as he tested the heating water on the stove with his finger. Deciding it was ready, he hauled it over to the tub and poured it in. “Didn’t you practically cook dinner single-handed last night?”

She had single-handedly warmed up the remains of the feast Caleb had prepared the night before. But he had prepared the fresh corn bread, and done most of the scrubbing up afterward, refusing to let her lift a finger. In fact, this bath seemed just another way for Caleb to show that he intended to wait on her hand and foot. Which made her wonder what the purpose in dragging her all the way out here was.

“Caleb, I couldn’t,” she insisted. “There’s so much else I could be doing.”

He shook his head. “Not in the house, ma’am,” he said flatly. “I’ve seen to most everything there is to tend to. Ty’s mending a rail on the pen out by the barn, so I thought I’d go help him for a while, if that’s all right with you.”

All right with her? Compared with his brother’s rude behavior, the young man’s kindness nearly brought tears to her eyes. He was so obviously trying to make up for his brother’s brutish manner.

“All right, Caleb,” she answered finally, giving in. “Since you’ve gone to all this trouble.”

He smiled joyfully. “It was no trouble, Miss Livingston.”

She couldn’t help grinning back. “Caleb, I certainly think you can call me Louise now. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such a nice surprise as this.”