bound to spend the remainder of this fortnight together. I find you are not as disagreeable as I once supposed you to be. Indeed, you are quite affable when it pleases you to be.”
Affable. A fancy nib’s word, that.
Yet another reminder his world and milady’s could not be further apart, even if they were currently inhabiting the same space. Everything was temporary. When their fortnight of banishment was at an end, he would return to the East End rookery where he belonged. And she would marry her Lord Dullerton.
“Not as disagreeable as you supposed,” he repeated grimly. “And affyble, aye?”
“Affable,” she corrected him gently. “Forgive me. That was discourteous of me. I meant to say I…like you, Mr. Winter.”
She…liked him.
Lady Evangeline Saltisford. Daughter of a duke. Blonde beauty. Diamond of the first water. Liked him.
Devil stared at her, at a loss for how he might offer proper response. The need to kiss her thundered through him, brash as any storm. He tamped the desire down. Ignored it. Had to. There was no place for desire here. Lady Evangeline would wed her Lord Dullerton. He would carry on guarding and protecting The Devil’s Spawn. They came from different worlds.
Like Romeo and Juliet. Wasn’t going to end well for either of them.
He stared at her, searching her face. Committing it to his memory, in truth. There would come a day, all too soon, when he would not see her with such regularity. When he would perhaps never see her again. The knowledge was a physical ache, tearing through him.
“Have you nothing to say, sir?” she asked softly, plumbing his gaze with her deep, mahogany-and-honey stare.
He had been silent again, he realized. All too often, he held his tongue in a show of power. He had learned long ago that what was left unsaid could be more powerful than words. But when he was silent with Lady Evangeline, more and more, that lack of speech was down to the way she made him feel instead.
He did not like it. Not one damn bit.
But he liked her. Far too much.
The last time he had allowed himself to feel anything had been with Cora.
He inhaled sharply at the reminder. “You like me, milady?”
Her cheeks went pink. He could not look away. When she was flushed, she was more beautiful. What must it be like, to have such a woman to call one’s own? He had never in his life coveted what another man had before. Not even Devereaux Winter, who had been born on the right side of the blanket. The legitimate heir to their sorry sire’s empire. But part of him raged at Dullerton making Lady Evangeline his wife.
“I do not think you as vexing a man as I once supposed, when I first met you,” she said softly. “There is far more to you than you allow anyone to see and know, I suspect.”
The urge to wrap his hand around her nape, pull her mouth to his, and claim it as his own was strong. Strong and mad in equal measures. He had no business longing for a proper lady.
“Not as vexing as you supposed,” he repeated wryly, though he knew he should not.
Knew he ought to leave it alone. To leave her alone. To do everything in his power to dispel this ridiculous desire pulsing to life within him. Entirely unwanted. Wrong in every way.
She caught her lower lip in her teeth, then released it. “You are misunderstanding me, Mr. Winter.”
“Am I?” He studied her, giving no quarter. “How?”
“I like you. Not because you are no longer as vexing as I supposed. Not for any other reason than yourself. Forgive me for suggesting otherwise. I find you to be a most agreeable companion.”
A most agreeable companion.
As if he were a duenna. A governess. Someone in a gown and petticoats seated in the corner of the room instead of a man thrice her size who was drowning in unexpected—and unwanted—desire for her.
He shot to his feet, needing to be anywhere other than near her. “Thank you for the honor you pay me, my lady. Your most agreeable companion has had quite enough of lessons for today. Mayhap we can try again tomorrow.”
But when he would have departed from the study in which they had found themselves for his cursed reading lessons, a small hand on his arm stayed him. Hers. On a growl, he turned back to her, ready to unleash his displeasure.
Her countenance had him stopping, turning back to find her watching