anything. Still, she took four steps toward him until she caught his fragrance of bay rum mingled with the aroma of freshly dug earth and inhaled his scent deeply as though she’d just emerged from years of living beneath the ocean and was finally free of it to take air into her lungs, filling them to near bursting.
His hair was lighter in shade, longer, curling against those massive shoulders. His jaw was shadowed by bristles as though it had been several hours since he’d shaved. Although, maybe he kept it that length on purpose. It made him appear tougher, more dangerous, someone to be reckoned with. However, his eyes served the same purpose. They no longer reflected a lighthearted, teasing mien. As a matter of fact, she was left with the impression that he might not ever laugh at all any longer. She’d never realized before how well she knew each detail of him. How it gratified and angered her at the same time.
“This establishment isn’t open to those who are claimed,” he said in a flat, curt tone.
“Then, I suppose it is fortunate that I am not claimed.”
She noted a fissure of anger in those blue-gray eyes before he narrowed them. “You turned him down?”
“He has yet to ask.”
“Then, you had better bloody well get yourself out of here. He won’t take kindly to your being in a place that encourages scandalous behavior.”
“Why should you care?” She took a step nearer. “You reaped the rewards of his selecting me for courtship. I heard you made a bloody fortune with your damned wager.”
His jaw tautened. Good. Let him be angry. She was furious. Days, weeks, months of frustrated fury building to near exploding. Fury because of the wager. Fury because she often found herself worrying about him. Fury because he’d probably never given her another thought, had never deemed her important enough to send word to in order to let her know he was well. Sparking the fury further was the bitter disappointment that he might, in fact, have the skills necessary to slip undetected into another’s bedchamber, but couldn’t be bothered to steal into hers and reassure her that he was still alive.
“I believe I have a right to see how your ill-gotten gains have benefited you. I think I have a right to see if it is worth what it has cost me.”
He looked as though she’d punched him. “What has it cost you, Lady Kathryn?”
“Do you want to discuss this here, Mr. Stanwick?”
An even harder punch, perhaps two or three. Her address indicated that she recognized he was no longer a lord, but also acknowledged it was the first time she’d seen him since he wasn’t.
“Come with me to someplace more private. We’ll discuss your membership there.”
She supposed he added the last for the benefit of those who appeared to be straining to hear what they were saying between clenched teeth or perhaps to give some legitimacy to her following him up the stairs. And she did follow, more fool she. She wanted to notice all the changes he’d made to the building since he’d shown it to her, but she seemed unable to concentrate on anything other than the breadth of his shoulders, the manner in which his back narrowed down to his waist. He was lean and sinewy, and yet there was strength mirrored in his graceful movements.
She wasn’t quite certain what his expression revealed, but those coming down the stairs paused to flatten themselves against the wall. She suspected it was the stomping of his feet that caused those ascending ahead of them to pick up their pace and hasten to their destination.
At the landing, he waited until she reached him before continuing down the hallway. She nodded at the few people she recognized and was relatively certain Kingsland would hear of her visit, in spite of the fact that nothing that happened within these walls was supposed to be whispered about beyond them. Some gossip was simply too tantalizing not to be shared. To be honest, she wouldn’t mind seeing the duke exhibit a spark of jealousy.
At the end of the hallway, he opened a door and stepped back to allow her to precede him into the small room. It contained an intimate sitting area designed for seduction with two sofas. Even if a lady and gent started out sitting opposite each other, eventually they would no doubt share a sofa. Or the fainting couch that rested a short distance away. It appeared