Page 29 of Almost A Scoundrel

Could he?

No. Do not be ridiculous, Phaedra.

She must not have interpreted his gaze correctly. She must be mistaken. The strange look was probably due to the fact that hewasprivy to her deepest, most shocking behaviors.

For one, he’d witnessed other of her moments in this very drawing room. They had also shared a midnight kiss in his garden. And they’d formed a secret agreement.

But no man had ever looked at her like that before—as though she herself were the object of great fascination instead of the size of her dowry. As though he and he alone had a right to witness all her private moments. It was almost...

Possessive.

It was a heady feeling.

Phaedra loved that look.

She could get addicted to that look.

She headed to the window and lifted a brow. “I never thought I’d live to catch the earl-next-door peeping through my drawing room window,” Phaedra teased.

He chuckled. “I never thought I’d be caught in the act of peeping through your drawing room window.”

“Sounds positively wretched.”

“Only if the lady refuses to forgive me.”

“I shall forgive, but only this once.” She glanced beyond him. “Will you join me for tea, or shall we start a new craze of communication?”

A slow smile cracked his face, and Phaedra found herself grinning back at him.

Lord.

That was another thing about Deerhurst.

The man could smile.

*

He wanted tocaress her face.

He wanted to run each loose tendril of hair through his fingers. Just when he thought he had everything under control—his heart under control—the universe decided to show him this side of Phaedra Sharp.

It didn’t help that he had awakened this morning hard and wanting, Phaedra’s golden eyes swimming in his vision, naked, breathless, her hands all over his body. Christ, just thinking about the dream made him hard again.

He pushed the lingering images of her in his bed aside. Later he would let his mind run wild. He couldn’t very well knock on her door with a full-on erection. The butler will take one look at his breeches and shut the door in his face.

How the hell had he become like this?

If it hadn’t been for that bloody curse. Again, without conscious thought, his gaze had ventured to the Sharp drawing room windows as he passed, but this time he had stopped dead in his tracks.

Lady Phaedra had been in the room twirling in circles and laughing. A more striking sight he had yet to behold. At that moment, he couldn’t have looked away even if he’d wanted to. In fact, he had stepped up to the window and practically pressed his face up to the glass.

She was simply exquisite.

Carefree. Happy. Victorious.

What that laughter did to him. Never had a woman tied him up in so many knots.

Not eventhatwoman.