you, as if your clothes were something to stop everybody but them from seeing into you. Ryder was one of them.
“I thought you said you would see me safely back to Fairlight.”
“And I will. Just as soon as you’ve finished eating.”
I felt an odd little stab of something like disappointment and a far sharper pang of annoyance. I wasn’t accustomed to indifference. I thought of slim Mrs. Patel and the pang turned sharper. I had expected a proper attempt at seduction, something overt and easy to rebuff, something that would give me a chance to put him firmly in his place and keep him there. But he wasn’t playing by the rules. Instead of rushing me, he’d merely left himself open, wanting me to do the work for him. It was a subtle strategy, and I had to give him high marks for it, no matter how grudgingly. He had baited the trap, but whether or not a willing woman fell into it was entirely up to her. If she didn’t, there was nothing to forgive, nothing to excuse. He’d merely offered dinner and conversation. But if she made a move to take him to bed, I had no doubt he’d rise to the challenge so fast she wouldn’t even have time to realise he was the one calling the shots. The beauty of this approach was that the average woman would never even recognise it as a deliberate seduction. She might even, given a little judicious manipulation, come to think of it as entirely her fault. But I wasn’t average—not by half, and it would be child’s play to push him past the limit of his control.
I put on my softest smile, the one that sat in my eyes and looked up through my lashes, inviting and coaxing and promising things I might or might not give.
“Weren’t you supposed to be trying to seduce me? I seem to recall you placed a bet regarding my virtue.”
He shrugged. “That’s a bet I’ve already lost. I knew I should have placed a side bet on Kit.” He shook his head and sighed. I felt my annoyance creeping higher.
“And it doesn’t bother you?”
“What? That you’ve slept with Kit Parrymore?” He threw back his head and laughed. “If I thought I would suffer in comparison to Kit, I would walk out into the bush and shoot myself for the vultures to eat.”
“Big talk,” I said flippantly.
He surged up then, pulling me with him. His hands were tight on my upper arms and his face half in shadow. I could feel the sheer power of him, like a force of nature, and I heard the blood beating swift and steady in my ears. My lips curved into a smile. Child’s play, indeed.
His hands bit into my flesh, hurting, and the pain felt good. That pain was power. It meant I had pushed him just that step too far and he was giving me what I had already given him. I parted my lips.
“Sin with me,” he murmured, lowering his head.
At the last second, I turned and his lips grazed my jaw, touching hard bone instead of the soft mouth he’d been looking for. He pulled back, confused, and the smile I gave him this time was for me alone.
“You didn’t really think it was going to be that easy, did you?”
He dropped his hands as quickly as if I’d burned him, and maybe I had. My blood was molten, and I could smell brimstone on my breath. He stepped back, putting the cool evening air between us.
“Didn’t anybody ever teach you it’s dangerous to play with fire?” His voice was hoarse and his hands were flexing, opening and closing on empty air instead of me.
I tilted my head, smiling. “You’re a real piece of work, Ryder White. You wager on my wreck of a reputation while you’re busy screwing half the women in Kenya, including poor Mr. Patel’s little jewel. Tell me, does he even suspect?”
“Probably not. Husbands can be remarkably shortsighted when they want to be.”
“Oh, that’s not unique to husbands. Now, we’re going to see quite a bit of each other while I’m here, so let’s get a few things straight. I do what I like with whomever I like, and I don’t give a tinker’s damn what anybody thinks about it. But I’m not just a carnival prize you win for putting your ball in the hole, and I’m nobody’s notch on a bedpost. I don’t belong to anybody but myself