Page 12 of Gabriela and His Grace (The Luna Sisters #3)
Gabriela Luna was a thunderstorm. Sebastian had always thought it, but he was reminded of the comparison as he watched her stalk toward him with lightning flashing in her hazel eyes and thunder in every step she took across the deck.
He slowly planted his hands on his hips as he waited, steeling himself for the onslaught.
“She doesn’t look happy, does she?” Little Samuel Ellis murmured, his lip stuck between his teeth.
Miss Catalina Ortega cocked her head, her pigtails falling across her shoulders as she studied Gabriela’s approach. “Did you do something to upset her, Your Grace?”
“If I did, I have no notion of what.” Sebastian narrowed his eyes when Gabriela did the same. “She’s probably annoyed I’m breathing.”
Catalina nodded her head in understanding, while Samuel frowned.
Gabriela came to a stop before him, her musky violet scent filling his senses. “I’d like to play.”
His lips twitched around a smile. “Did Brodie bully you into it?”
“Perhaps,” was all she allowed.
“He does it to me all the time.” Sebastian barked a laugh when Gabriela spun about on her heel to shoot Brodie a glare, no doubt realizing how the Scotsman had manipulated her. “It’s sort of comforting to know I’m not the only one he manages.”
She rubbed her temple. “He knew just how to spark my temper.”
“Or your competitive nature,” Lucia Moreno said, coming to join them.
“Or that.” Gabriela’s throat worked on a swallow. Not that he noticed. “I should have known better than to let him provoke me.”
A strange sensation burned in Sebastian’s gut to discover he understood the frustration Gabriela was feeling.
He liked to think he was a logical, dispassionate man, ruled not by his heart but by his head.
It had been an uncomfortable realization that his mood—his pride—could be ignited with the right sort of provocation.
Brodie had perfected the talent, and while Sebastian knew the valet did so only to encourage him to get out of his own way, it still chafed.
Just as Gabriela’s talent to provoke him did . The thought irritated him to no end.
“Whether Mr.Brodie convinced you or not, you should play.” Miss Moreno squeezed her arm. “It’s the most fun I’ve had so far.”
“Perdóneme,” Gabriela cried, her face twisted in faux outrage, “but I thought we’ve had an entertaining time together.”
“Well, aside from the time I spent with you, of course,” Miss Moreno hastened to add, and the women shared a laugh.
Sebastian was almost certain the women had met only a few days ago on the docks, yet they now appeared to be confidantes. Once again, he marveled at Gabriela’s ability to make friends wherever she went.
He tapped his cane on the deck to draw their attention. “Are we ready to resume play, ladies?”
The women exchanged a smile, but then Gabriela surprised him when she crouched before Catalina and Samuel, who’d been lingering nearby.
“I would love to play, but I am afraid I may need some help. It’s been so long since I’ve played hopscotch, and I could use a refresher.
Would the two of you be willing to review the rules with me?
I noticed that you’re both talented players. ”
Biting back a sigh, Sebastian watched as the children succumbed to Gabriela’s charm, eagerly explaining the fundamentals of hopscotch.
The next ten minutes passed by quickly, with the children alternating between shouting encouragement or instructions at Gabriela. She caught on quickly because really, it’s not like they were playing chess. It was bloody hopscotch.
It was the reason Sebastian suggested it to the children to play in the first place.
He’d been walking along the deck after an early breakfast when he’d seen young Samuel, Catalina, and a group of their friends moping about, bored and directionless.
From Sebastian’s own experience, bored and directionless were a dangerous combination.
It reminded him of his brothers, whose small, frail bodies were brimful of rambunctious energy.
Somehow or another, Sebastian found himself outlining a hopscotch court on the brick patio at Whitfield Manor for the boys, and the trio spent hours hopping about.
Members of the staff eventually joined them, for their laughter had been infectious.
An ache throbbed deep in Sebastian’s chest whenever he thought of the boys, but playing with the children now had dulled it slightly.
The activity, and the children’s near-constant chatter, had also quieted the anxieties about the Camino Rojo mine that had been plaguing him since he left London.
The children were occupied for a spell, and so was Sebastian. It was a mutually beneficial situation.
Until Gabriela arrived. She’d directed only a handful of comments at him, yet she had become the center of his attention.
Sebastian fidgeted with the chain of his pocket watch while Gabriela patiently listened to her pint-size teachers explain the mechanics of hopscotch, and he did his best to avert his eyes when she lifted her skirts to hop down the court.
Not that Sebastian had ever been tempted by the mere flash of a woman’s ankle.
Now, the gentle slope of her calf or the sensual silky skin between her thighs was a different matter—
Sebastian clamped his jaws together as he tore his gaze away and focused on the white-tipped waves dotting the horizon.
“Are you ready to join us, Your Grace?”
Jerking his eyes from Gabriela, who had just tilted her head back to laugh at something Brodie said, Sebastian turned to meet Miss Moreno’s amused gaze.
“Is Miss Luna done practicing?” He leaned his cane against the railing and moved toward the court. “Is the novice ready to test her newfound skills?”
“I believe I am.” Gabriela spread her arms to encompass the children. “Thanks to my new friends, I may be unstoppable.”
Sebastian held up his hands. “I don’t think the world could handle an unstoppable Gabriela Luna.”
Her eyes twinkled as she moved a step toward him. “I would only use my powers against Napoleon and the French.”
“I’m not sure I believe you.” He edged closer. “Viscount Mathers once said you were ferocious, and I quite agree.”
“Mathers.” Gabriela said the name with a roll of her eyes. “The viscount continued to speak over me and interrupt, even when I kindly pointed out his rudeness. He deserved the setdown he received.”
“Oh, I quite agree.” Sebastian pressed his lips together to keep from smiling when her eyebrows flew up. “Mathers is a rude bore, but that doesn’t negate the fact that your willingness to scold a member of the peerage for his bad behavior makes you ferocious.”
“Or an idiot.” Her expression slipped for a second, but it was enough for Sebastian to glimpse a smidge of regret in her hazel gaze.
But Gabriela quickly recovered, and the curve of her mouth turned impish.
Sebastian was immediately on guard. “Regardless, I hope to be a ferocious hopscotch competitor, right, children?”
The throng of urchins cheered loudly, and Sebastian shook his head in faux outrage.
Rubbing his hands together, he reached out to take the token from Samuel, and walked toward the court he’d drawn on the deck with chalk.
Sebastian pointed the token at Gabriela, infusing a taunting note to his words when he said, “I can be a ruthless competitor, too. You’d underestimate me at your peril. ”
Gabriela winged up a brow and then prowled toward him. “Let us have a true competition, then. Would you be willing to make a wager?”
Ignoring how Miss Moreno gasped, Sebastian curled his palm around the token and slipped his hands into his pockets as he considered this overconfident virago.
Christ knew it was no hardship to look upon her.
It had been her beauty, after all, that had drawn him to her in the first place.
With her silken mahogany curls, delicate features, big striking eyes, and graceful figure, Sebastian had been captivated.
But he should have known her angelic persona was just a ruse for her fiery disposition.
And he’d been burned one too many times.
“What did you have in mind?” Sebastian finally asked.
Gabriela shrugged, twirling a hat ribbon around her finger. “If I win, you have to promise not to antagonize me when around my father.”
He frowned. “I wouldn’t dream of doing that.”
She mashed her lips together. “Be that as it may, I would prefer not to have my temper sparked in front of him.”
Various thoughts darted about his head, such as why Gabriela would be worried about such a thing. And did Sebastian provoke her temper so easily that she would be concerned he’d do so—
“And what of you?”
Gabriela’s voice wrested his attention, and he flattened his mouth into a line.
What did he want? If he were making a wager with any of the degenerates he encountered at the gaming hells he used to frequent, Sebastian wouldn’t think twice about fleecing his opponent…
but of course he couldn’t do that to her.
“Dance with me at a time and place of my choosing.”
Sebastian had no notion of where the idea came from, and based on how her eyes widened, Gabriela was as surprised as he was.
“Dance with you?” She wrinkled her nose. “Why would you want to dance with me?”
He shrugged, feigning an indifference his pounding heart did not echo. “We’ve never danced together, and that seems like something I should rectify.”
“We’ve never danced together?” Gabriela pulled her chin back. “How is that possible?”
Snorting, Sebastian said, “Would you have consented to dance with me if I had asked at any point in the last four years?”
Pink crept over her cheeks, but Gabriela met his gaze head-on. “I suppose we’ll never know because you never asked.”
She could play coy, but they both knew that she would have turned down any request Sebastian made with a firm no. Why would he subject himself to the ignominy?