Winter's Woman (The Wicked Winters #9) - Scarlett Scott Page 0,30

help herself. What was it about Theo Winter that made him more handsome when he was irritated? Mayhap it was the way his upper lip curled. Or the way his eyes darkened. Perhaps it was the tensing of his strong jaw.

Oh yes, she would have him agreeing to more kissing lessons in no time.

With that thought, she dipped into a makeshift curtsy, clutching his counterpane around her. It smelled like him, she thought, and she was keeping it. He could find another.

“Good evening, Theo. Sleep well.”

As she made her way into the hall, careful to make certain no servants were about, she swore she heard him grumble not a damned chance of that.

Chapter Eight

She was the devil in petticoats.

He had never been more certain than after five more days of working together on their lessons. Her lady’s maid was once again otherwise occupied today, leaving them alone. He was certain the devious minx had orchestrated something to keep Smithton busy just so they would be unchaperoned.

This time, she had copied some short sentences on paper. Her penmanship was neat and flowery, as he would have expected. The mark of a gentlewoman to whom every advantage had been given in life.

And she was seated beside him, smelling of ripe fruit and temptation. He had never wanted another woman more.

Not even Cora.

The realization had hit him when she had first crossed the threshold, sunlight gleaming in her burnished curls and roses in her cheeks. It had required every bit of self-possession he had to keep from stripping her out of her night rail and making love to her the night she had gone to his chamber. To stop himself from keeping her with him all evening long, showing her all the reasons why he could not offer her further kissing lessons, damn it.

Because once he started, he would not be capable of ceasing.

Desiring her had become his driving force.

He had spent half the long night every night since tossing and turning in his bedclothes, thinking of her, before finally surrendering and taking himself in hand. The releases had given him precious little relief, because he was still harder than an anvil by morning, and he still longed to take up where they had stopped when their lips had last met.

He wanted them beneath his now, more than he wanted his next breath. Actually, he wanted her beneath him now…

Dangerous thoughts indeed. Thoughts best avoided altogether.

“Do try this one, if you please,” she told him, her voice soft and warm as her skin.

He could listen to Lady Evie speak all day and night long. He could also go on touching her and worshiping her body for a bloody eternity.

But neither of those thoughts were doing him one whit of good any more than the reckless ones which had preceded it had.

His days of practice with Lady Evie had taught him there were certain words he struggled with, also certain sounds. She made an excellent teacher, however, and her gentle tutelage, coupled with his rudimentary past knowledge, had painstakingly turned into something promising. Just as well, for their time together was almost at an end. Difficult to believe the speed with which the last fortnight had passed.

He would miss Lady Evie Saltisford. Would miss her luscious apple scent, her smiles, her gold-brown eyes, her generous curves, and…having her near. Christ. What was the matter with him?

He forced his attention back to the words on the page she had written out for this lesson, struggling to make sense of the letters before him, strung into words and sentences. To follow the loops and swirls of the ink. To find meaning. Damnation, trying to read was not much different from trying to make sense of the way Lady Evie made him feel. Both seemed nigh impossible.

But try he would.

“The,” he read haltingly, his ears going hot with acute shame as he revealed the extent of his inability to her. “The… ball… stared to roll.”

Made no damned sense. Not any more sense than the way he felt about her did. A lady. Finer than Cora had been. Out of his reach. Betrothed to a fancy nib who would never appreciate her the way she deserved.

He sighed.

“Excellent work, Theo,” she praised, beaming at him as if he had just conquered all the world for her and laid it at her feet as spoils. “But try this word again, if you please. Sound it out slowly to make certain you are seeing all the letters.”

He tore his gaze from