She didn’t sound like she wanted to do it. Hell, the last thing he wanted to do was make her fascinating to theton. Especially since the process would likely make her hate him, at least for a while. “I hope you will see that it is time worth spending.”
She shrugged and he was distracted by the shift of her breasts in the sunlight. “I shall view it as an experiment. And no matter how it turns out, the experiment is always time well spent.”
He could see that she was trying to convince herself of that more than him, but he straightened up and extended his hand to her. “Tell me of some of your unsuccessful experiments.”
She arched her brows even as she set her hand in his. “I just said they were all worthwhile.” She sounded definite in her words, but he was beginning to know her better. It was in the tilt of her head, he thought. And the way she watched him out of the corner of her eye.
“You know what I meant,” he said slowly. “You’re teasing me. Or maybe you’re testing me. I can’t tell.”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Oh no. You can’t play ignorant like that. I know how smart you are.” He leaned forward. “You are trying to tie me up in words and never answer my question. Why?”
She bit her lip and looked away. “I… I don’t know. No one ever seems to know when I’m joking or not. Sometimes I just play.”
He thought about that. He even cupped her chin—slowly—before turning her face so he could study it. “I think you are annoyed at me for making you do something you don’t want to do, and so you turned it around on me. You play a verbal game designed to irritate me as a way to get even.”
He wasn’t angry. In truth, he was pleased that he had figured it out. He saw it as a harmless kind of fun for a woman who was so much smarter than everyone she knew. Except he was a match for her intelligence—or at least he came close—because he had figured it out. And her next words confirmed it.
“How did you know?”
He smiled. “Do you think I could make love to you, propose to you, and not make an effort to understand you? What kind of man would I be if I took what I wanted and never bothered to see you?”
She arched her brows. “I don’t know how to answer that question. I never imagined a man would ever ask me that.”
He grinned. “It would seem that I am as unique as you are.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice low as she drew her brows together. “Yes, it would seem so.”
Then she set her hands to his torso. They both stood naked and so close that he felt the heat from her body. His cock bobbed between them, erect again and more than willing to lay her back down on the blanket. But he didn’t move to do so. First, they had no time. And second, he wasn’t willing to break the spell she seemed to be in as she moved her hands across his chest and onto his shoulders.
Finally, she lifted her chin to face him eye to eye.
“You have my attention, my lord, and that is rare indeed for a person. More than that, you have my respect.” Then she arched her brow. “I cannot fathom how you accomplished it.”
Coming from her, that was high praise indeed. “I did it by listening to you, Gwen. By being interested in you because you are a fascinating woman.”
“Don’t give me Spanish coin—” she began, but he cut her off.
“I’m not flattering you,” he said harshly. It irritated him that she didn’t see her own worth. But rather than repeat—again—how impressed he was by her, he went another direction. “I’m teaching you. You become fascinating by being fascinated by the person you are with. You become magical by being magical with them.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does to me.” He touched her mouth. As always, he went slowly, but he wanted to stroke that part of her. Or any part, really. “Will you try it?”
“If you give me more specifics on how it is accomplished.”
“I will.”
“And if we can come up here again.” Her eyes seemed to dance. “Soon.”
His cock jumped at that, but he held himself back. There wasn’t time, and he didn’t want to make her sore. “It would be my absolute pleasure.”
She nodded. “Oh, but I don’t have any more French letters.”
“I can get some.”
“Excellent.” Then she wrinkled her nose. “I am getting cold. We should either dress now or return to the blanket.”