Free Miss Molly Robbins Designs a Seduction by Jayne Fresina Page B

as he liked to think of them.
    After that brief loss when he mentioned her father’s drunken mishap, his assailant was now getting her color back. Had she much bosom, it might have been heaving with the exertion of her temper, but her shape was carefully guarded from his assessment, securely buttoned up under the armor of her green coat. He considered that first button, imagined his long fingers slipping it free of the hole and then proceeding to the next. And the next.
    “Get a hold of yourself,” he muttered. “There is no occasion for hysterics.”
    “Clearly you don’t understand the cause of my distress.”
    Her distress? Oh, she had no idea. “Well, there does seem to be a blasted lot of it, but then females are prone to exaggeration in general.”
    She sucked in her cheeks and stared at him.
    “Is your corset too tight?” he offered politely. “That could be your problem.” One he would willingly help her out of.
    “Your lordship, let me explain my problem in plain terms. The baroness ordered three day gowns and three for evening. You will pay for those gowns, therefore, paying back your own loan. Which means, your lordship, that this is not a business loan to me at all, but a gift. That was not what I asked from you.”
    “So what? So it is a gift.” Laughing uneasily, he rocked on his booted heels. “Most women would take it and be damned grateful.”
    “As we already ascertained, I am not most women.”
    No indeed, she was not, he thought bleakly. He could neither seduce nor frighten her. There went the jabbing pain in his tooth again.
    “I don’t want gifts from you,” she continued. “I don’t want anything I cannot repay promptly. Money may not be very important to you, as it has always been in your possession, but for me it is a serious matter. I certainly do not want anyone thinking I’m one of your women, taking you for every penny while your transitory, puppy-dog attention lasts.”
    “Puppy-dog?”
    “I came to you for a loan because I thought that you… I mean it …would be simple.”
    “Aha! Now that was a slip of the tongue, was it not? You assumed I would blithely give you money and forget about it the next day, because I am too stupid to take an interest.”
    “Not give. Loan. I don’t want you to give me anything. I’m not another of your loose women. I was raised to have some self-respect.”
    “Ah yes, your blessed virtue. What bothers you more, Mouse? The money I spend, or the women I spend it on? Perhaps your real disdain is for them.” Her lashes were very full and lush, he noted for the first time as they blinked impatiently. There! He caught her looking at his grass-stained knees again and, if he was not mistaken, something above them. Interesting. “Or…perhaps you’re jealous.”
    Her eyes widened, flicked back up to him and dragged him closer. Carver found himself staring down into treacherous, bottomless wells. He very nearly lost his balance, but she was the first to retreat.
    “Don’t be nonsensical,” she sputtered, taking two steps back. He followed with three. In her next movement she backed against a corner china cabinet. “As if I care how you throw your attentions about so indiscriminately. Your lack of a moral compass, or theirs, is not my concern. My reputation, however, is.”
    He laughed huskily, still thinking of her too-tight corset and what he might do to ease her distress. “My moral compass?”
    “I don’t suppose you know what that means. I doubt they teach you that at Eton and Oxford.” Each breath shot out of her with a jagged edge, as if ripped out haphazardly. It was a rare display of temper that shredded her usually prim and cool demeanor.
    “I’ll be damned if my sister’s lady’s maid, one of my household servants, is going to lecture me on my principles.”
    “I am no longer a servant.” The words tumbled out in haste and filled the narrow space between them, making the air thick and hot.
    “Then why take such an