Read Online Seven Secrets of Seduction by Anne Mallory - Free Book Online Page B

Dreaming.
    â€œYes. Industrious of you to discover it.”
    His smile grew. “I think you will find me quite industrious.”
    Something wild and strange surged within her, making her fingers jitter. She clasped them together and nodded toward the unsigned paper. She needed that paper signed. It was something tangible and concrete. “Is there something I can do to increase your industry even more?”
    â€œI do find myself in dire need of assistance. Would you care to help me with something?”
    â€œWhat sort of something?” she asked cautiously, fingers twining together, all sorts of mad imaginings springing to mind.
    â€œNothing too perfidious, I promise.” He smiled widely, charmingly, all white teeth showing.
    â€œWill you sign for the package, if I do?”
    â€œYou don’t want to keep exchanging visits?”
    â€œI expect that you do want your package sometime,” she demurred, trying to corral her rampaging thoughts and the way her body responded to his very voice and presence. “You came to the store twice solely to pick it up, so it must be important.”
    â€œDid I?”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “I saw you in the store for it just yesterday.”
    He smiled and leaned back farther in his chair, rocking it back on its heels. “So literal sometimes, and at other times with your head in the clouds.”
    â€œI hardly think you aware of the normal sway of my thoughts, your lordship.”
    â€œMmmmm. And it’s Maximilian or some such variety, Miranda.”
    â€œIt is purely Miss Chase, my lord.”
    â€œA pity. I had so been hoping to call you Miranda.”
    â€œI can’t possibly imagine why.”
    He rose and walked around the desk. She stood still, unwilling to bolt like a scared rabbit as he neared her position. He came within a hairbreadth of touching her before leaning back so he was sitting on the edge of the desk facing her. “It’s a lovely name. Quite Shakespearean.”
    She didn’t dare breathe because of the short distance between them. “I think you are a tease, my lord.”
    â€œNo, a tease is someone who only promises without following through.” His fingers interlocked, and one thumb slowly traced a pattern around the edges of the other. “I guarantee you that I am a man who follows through.”
    She was worried about expiring? About breathing?She didn’t know if she had breath left. She pointed at the package at his side, grasping the last tendrils of sanity. “Then sign for your delivery.”
    Consternation and a touch of something else passed through his eyes. “Touché, Miss Chase.”
    He fiddled with the paper for a second, then let it fall back to the desk. She waited for him to pick it up and sign it, but when he failed to do so, she suddenly bent over him, gripped it herself, and held it to him.
    She could feel the internal heat coil beneath her cheekbones and flare out, but she held her hand steady.
    He slowly took it from her and paused before picking up a pen in his right hand. He dipped the tip and signed with a strange flourish. The signature was a bit sloppy. The g at the end trailed awkwardly as though he didn’t write it often. She had merely been grousing the day before when she’d said it, but possibly he rarely did pick up a pen.
    â€œAnd now your task is at an end,” he said, his voice holding a note of something she couldn’t identify.
    Relief vied with something equally unnameable inside of her. “That it is.” She carefully folded the slip and placed it in her hanging pocket. “Thank you.” Something reached out of the confusion and clawed to the surface, prompting her to say, “And the task you’d like assistance with?”
    â€œAh, yes. A dire matter of settling an argument as to the placement of a painting.”
    She blinked, but before she could say anything, he rose to his full height,