Page 20 of A Relentless Rake
“Should I be?”
“A proper lady like yourself, an unmarried innocent…” His eyes gleamed. “I’d have thought you’d have screamed to find a man in your bedroom.”
“In a mask,” she added helpfully. “Don’t forget that.”
He drawled with chagrin, “How could I?”
“If you’re not a thief, then why do you wear it?”What are you hiding?
“For protection.”
“From me?” She laughed. As if a tall and broad man with such hard muscles should need protecting! And from someone like her, no less. “Then it’s a good thing I left all the knives in the kitchen.”
When he smiled rakishly, her foolish heart skittered, and not from fear.
“Protection from the men your brother is working for,” he clarified.
Thatwas a turn of conversation she hadn’t expected and one she couldn’t follow. She frowned. “My brother works here, helping me run the school. His room is just down the hall. Should I call for him and introduce you?”
Her question was a subtle warning that if he tried to harm her, a single cry for help would have everyone in the building running to her rescue. She wasn’t afraid of him…but trusting him was a completely different matter.
“He’s not the Everett I’m interested in knowing better.”
Her breath hitched at that blatant flirtation, and her suddenly blank mind couldn’t latch on to the cutting reply he deserved. Not when her traitorous body wanted to let him do just that.
“Tell me, Miss Everett,” he murmured. “Do you often let your brother take credit for your work?”
So…not a flirtation after all.
Ignoring an inexplicable pang of disappointment, she arched a brow and challenged, “And doyouoften break into ladies’ bedrooms in the middle of the night?”
A slow grin crossed his face. The charm of it was disarming. “You’d be surprised.”
All kinds of wanton images filled her head, and beneath the coverlet, her body tingled shamefully. If she knew what was good for her, shewouldscream and end this encounter. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “Then you’ve entered the wrong—”
“It’s all you, isn’t it?” he asked.
She blinked, confused. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“His mathematical work, the lectures, the articles…” His eyes gleamed in the light of the banked coals like the devil’s own, tempting her into revealing the truth and selling her soul. “Henry Everett didn’t do those. You did.”
His husky whisper twined down her spine, and she shivered. She would never admit that. Doing so would end Henry’s fellowship with the Society before it had begun.
“I have no idea what you mean,” she repeated.
“It’s admirable, really, the brilliant gift you must have for it,” he mused, the compliment warming her more than his flirtations, “to be able to outshine your brother, who is no doubt a fine mind in his own right. What I don’t understand is why you let him take all the credit.”
Because that’s what a younger, foolish sister does for a brother who risked his own career to save her reputation.“We’re collaborators.”
“Oh? On what do you collaborate?”
From the way he asked that, as if he couldn’t have cared less what the answer was—oh, he very much wanted to know! But why? “Architectural mathematics, mostly.”
“Is there truly such a thing?”
She crossed her arms and blew out an aggravated sigh. Now her work was being disparaged by a masked intruder.Wonderful.“It’s a vital connection, I’ll have you know, that allows for—”
She broke off as an idea struck her. A devilishly preposterous idea…but could anyone blame her? She tilted her head as she studied him. Fairy godmothers came in all shapes and sizes, she supposed.
