One Night of Passion: The Night that Changed Everything / Champagne with a Celebrity / At the French Baron's Bidding. Kate HardyЧитать онлайн книгу.
all right.” Rhiannon tumbled to the temptation exactly as Edie had dared hope. “I’ll call him. I guess I should since he tried to call … and if he texted you …”
Ree sighed, then lifted her gaze to look at Mr. Trouble. “He loves me,” she explained. “And I love him—even if he’s maddening. So I probably should call him. But,” she added a bit wistfully, “I really would have loved to see the architectural renovations in your bedroom.”
“And I’d have been pleased to show them to you,” he said gallantly.
Edie’s jaw dropped. She slammed it shut at once. Rhiannon didn’t notice. She gave them both a little wave and tripped gaily off toward the doors to the Great Hall where, please God, she would call Andrew and make up with him.
Edie watched her go, holding her breath until Rhiannon was out of sight. Then she turned to make her excuses and disappear, only to discover that the man Rhiannon had been pawing wasn’t looking in the direction Rhiannon had gone.
His dark eyes were now on her. A slow smile touched his lips. And then he winked at her.
Winked!
Something kicked over in her chest. It was almost electric, as if she’d been dead and was suddenly jerked back to life.
Like Sleeping Beauty and the prince? she sneered at herself. But the sensation was so real and caught her so totally unaware that for a moment she couldn’t speak. She hadn’t felt this sort of awareness since Ben.
When she did finally find her voice, she said, “Architectural renovations in your bedroom?”
Next thing you knew he’d say he’d been going to show Rhiannon his etchings.
But Mr. Trouble just grinned at her and she felt another jolt. “Scout’s honor,” he said, eyes alight with amusement.
Edie refused to think it was funny. She glowered at him.
“You don’t believe me? I’ll show them to you.” He offered her his arm.
Instantly Edie folded hers across her chest. “Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not going to your room. And Rhiannon wouldn’t have, either,” she lied a second later, needing for some reason she didn’t quite understand to deflect the focus back to her sister. “She does love Andrew. They just had a disagreement. And she … lost her head.” Not to mention her sense of propriety. “She wasn’t offering,” she added firmly.
“No?” His brow lifted. “Apparently you didn’t hear as much of the conversation as I did.”
Edie’s cheeks burned. “She wouldn’t have—have …”
“Slept with me?” He was laughing at her now. “You don’t think so?”
“No!” At least Edie hoped not.
“Well, don’t worry, I wouldn’t have slept with her.”
Edie’s eyes widened, and she was surprised again by another unexpected feeling, this time one of something akin to relief. “You … wouldn’t?”
He shook his head, meeting her gaze. “Not on your life. She’s a child.”
“She’s twenty.”
He nodded. “Like I said, not my type.”
“You have a type.” It wasn’t a question.
Of course he had a type. Men like him always did.
“Well, um, good,” Edie said, because she felt obliged to say something in the face of the steady assessing look he was giving her. She started to back away.
He followed. “Who are you?” he demanded. His gaze was intent now, his eyes so dark they were almost black.
“Rhiannon’s sister.” No one ever believed it until Mona swore on a stack of Bibles that she’d given birth to them both. Her sister was blonde and busty, all curves and come-on. Edie was all angles, elbows and knees. Always had been. With nondescript brown hair and green eyes. Not the color of jade. Not the color of emeralds. Pretty much the color of grass. “Half sister,” she corrected.
“Do you have a name, half sister?”
“Edie Daley.”
Something else she and Rhiannon didn’t have in common. Her sister was named after some ethereal mythological Welsh goddess. Edie was named after her father’s mother.
“Ah. Edie.” He grinned and reached out and tugged one of her nondescript locks of hair. “My grandmother’s name.”
Exactly.
“I’m Nick.”
As in “up to the old nick,” no doubt—as her grandmother used to say when describing the family’s mischief makers.
“Nick Savas.”
“Demetrios’s brother?” Edie knew he had several, but she hadn’t been introduced to any of them. She just knew that almost all of the tall dark-haired, sinfully gorgeous men at the wedding were related to the groom.
Nick shook his head. “Cousin.”
Trust Rhiannon to flirt with a member of the groom’s family. The most handsome member of the groom’s family, come to that. All the Savas men were handsome as sin. But this one was definitely the most gorgeous of the lot.
That was doubtless why she’d felt the sudden jolt of awareness. She wasn’t interested, but she wasn’t dead! She was just able to appreciate a handsome man.
“I apologize if my sister’s behavior was inappropriate, Mr. Savas—” she said politely, again beginning to edge away.
“Nick,” he corrected.
She didn’t repeat his name. She recognized it for what it was: an invitation to continue the conversation. And she didn’t want to do that. Her awareness of him made her nervous, though she wasn’t sure why.
“If you’ll excuse me …” She turned abruptly to take the same route her sister had toward the doors. Her duty was done, she could go back to her room, shed the ugly dress, kick off the pinching shoes and spend the rest of the night with a good book.
But before Edie could take a step, strong fingers manacled her wrist, anchoring her right where she was. She looked back at him, eyes wide. “What?”
“You’re not going to follow her and make sure she calls him, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“So, why are you running off? Stay and talk to me.” There was a smooth, persuasive note in his voice.
“I—” She stopped, wanting to say no, expecting herself to say no. She always said no. But now she couldn’t seem to form the word. “About what?” she said finally, warily.
He raised a brow. “The architectural renovations in my bedroom?”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed.
It was the sort of wry remark that Ben would have made. Her husband had never taken himself very seriously. And after years spent in her mother’s world of overinflated egos, Ben’s easy-going approach to life had been one of the things she’d loved the most about him.
She hadn’t expected that same dry humor from Mr. Trouble, though. But Nick Savas laughed, too, then grinned at her. “There,” he said. “See? I knew I could get you to smile.”
Edie resisted the pull of attraction. “I’ve already smiled. I smile a lot,” she contradicted him.
“But how often do you mean it?” he challenged softly.
“Often!”
“But not to me,” he said. “Not until now.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he touched a finger