Free Seducing the Enemy by Noelle Adams Page A

got more and more annoyed, and whirled to chase it full speed toward the library door.
    It was then that she discovered she wasn’t alone in the room.
    Harrison and Andrew stood in the doorway watching her antics in stunned silence.
    At that point, however, there was no way she could halt her momentum.
    The wasp cleverly flew between the two men in the doorway.
    Marietta’s magazine landed hard on Harrison’s face, the impact forcing her to an abrupt, clumsy halt.
    Harrison made a muffled sound of surprise and clutched at his eye. “What the hell?”
    Marietta froze with dismay, jarred by the unintentional blow. Still clinging to the magazine, she gaped at Harrison.
    Andrew gave a whoop. “Assaulted in our own library!” he declared, choking on poorly hidden laughter. “Don’t deny you deserved it.”
    “Oh no!” Marietta gasped. She’d landed a really good blow to Harrison’s face. “I’m sorry. Did I get your eye?”
    “Looks like it.” Andrew was nearly doubled over now with his hilarity. “And I’m usually the one women want to smack in the face.”
    Marietta shot him an annoyed look and stepped over toward Harrison. “Did I hurt you? Let me look at it.”
    Harrison avoided her investigative hands. “Enough,” he gritted out. “Woman, you are a disaster.”
    This sent Andrew off into new peals of laughter.
    “I didn’t mean to.” She was distressed at having whacked Harrison, but Andrew’s amusement was infectious. And Harrison looked so outraged, clutching his eye and shaking with fury.
    “There was a wasp—” Her voice cracked on the last word. She had to glance away to keep from giggling, which did nothing to ease his mood.
    With a growling sound in his throat, Harrison commandeered the magazine, folded it in half, and swung. He didn’t appear to have even aimed, but his smack landed precisely on the wood molding, neatly squishing the wasp.
    “Oh!” Marietta felt a surge of indignation that Harrison could have so easily killed the wasp that had gotten her into trouble.
    Her response was evidently too much for Andrew. He fled, his howls of laughter echoing through the hallway.
    Because he’d lowered his hand, Marietta could now see the damage to Harrison’s face. His left eye wasn’t fully opened, and the cheekbone below it was bright red.
    She tried to feel pleased that she’d given Harrison a black eye.
    If anyone deserved it, he did.
    …
    Harrison was still stewing over Marietta that night.
    The woman was a disaster. A full-fledged, unmitigated, hopeless disaster.
    When he finished in his office, he took the long route back to his room so he could walk past Marietta’s door—in case she was up to something.
    He shouldn’t have been surprised—much less faintly disappointed—when Marietta verified his suspicions by sneaking out of her room. She closed the door quietly and turned down the hall.
    Only to draw to an abrupt halt as she saw him.
    “Taking a midnight walk?” he drawled.
    She scowled at him. “Were you staking out my room?”
    “I promise, Ms. Edwards, I have better things to do.”
    “Well, why don’t you go do them?” She gave her head a quick shake. “If you must know, I was going to the library to return this book and get another.”
    She held up the book as proof. Little Women , he noticed.
    “I see.” He fell in step beside her as she started down the hall.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I’m going with you.” His tone was mocking in its excessive civility. “We would hardly let a guest wander our halls at night unchaperoned.”
    Her nose wrinkled with annoyance, but she made no objections. They walked in silence to the library. He watched her browse the shelves, and it seemed to him she took an inordinate amount of time picking out a book. Probably being slow on purpose.
    She wore a white cotton nightgown with lacy straps and a ruffle on the hem. It was oddly old-fashioned. Almost virginal. But when she moved in front of the only light in the room