Why hadn’t she taken precautions to keep her location secret? In the early days, she’d been careful, but she’d grown lax. She’d trusted him, confound the man.
The elaborate system of defenses she’d constructed to keep her lover and her real life apart now seemed fragile as paper. Beneath her anger, sour fear churned. Fear fed her temper.
“You had no right,” she said in a shaking voice.
He arched his eyebrows in that damnably familiar expression. “You’ll let me into your bed but not your front parlor?”
“Don’t pretend to misunderstand.” His innocent act didn’t gull her. He was aware what a crime he’d committed. “You know I wanted our liaison kept secret. I didn’t go to your house. I definitely didn’t want you to come here. I made all that clear at our first meeting.”
His smile, like his tone, was dry as dust. “You labor under the misapprehension you’ll get everything your own way just for the asking.”
She took a trembling step toward him. “And what have you proven? Apart from that I can’t rely on your word.”
A severe light entered his eyes. “I needed to know if you have a husband.”
Bafflement stole her breath. “Why would I lie? I told you from the beginning what I wanted. Whether I was married or not was of no importance.”
Displeasure compressed his mouth. “It seemed a rather one-way bargain. In my favor. I needed to know what you got from the arrangement.”
“You accepted readily enough,” she said acidly. “You got a willing woman in your bed. I would have thought you’d appreciate my lack of demands.”
His jaw hardened into a stubborn line. He looked like a man who could conquer empires. He looked like a man who knew what he wanted and intended to make sure he got it. “That may have been true, but my requirements have changed.” His tone was inflexible, matching the diamond-hard purpose in his face.
He clearly meant to daunt her, but he’d chosen the wrong target. She glared back, wishing he hadn’t done this mad thing, wishing everything remained as it was this afternoon.
No, even that was too complicated, too riddled with future unhappiness. She wished instead that this affair was the sordid, shabby, unemotional mating she’d planned.
Instead of…
Her mind shied away from describing how she felt in Ashcroft’s bed. It brought her too close to heartbreak.
She met his uncompromising green stare with an uncompromising stare of her own. She forced out a stark answer. “My requirements haven’t changed.”
“Too bad.”
“Did you follow me home? You must have dressed faster than lightning.”
He shook his head. Curse him, he didn’t look remotely regretful or guilty. “Perry’s people followed you. They reported back, and here I am.”
“Yes, here you are.” She shot him a scowl and flounced away in a rustle of skirts to stand by the window. Even as she strove for control, genuine distress seeped into her tone. “What got into you, Ashcroft? What did you imagine would happen when you arrived? A warm welcome and a glass of wine for your refreshment?”
He settled more comfortably upon the desk. Devil take him, he had no cause to look so at home. “Now there’s a capital idea.”
She ignored his answer. He couldn’t charm his way out of this. She spread her hands in helpless incomprehension. “What if I were married after all? What if my husband had answered the door? Would you have tipped your hat, wished him good evening, then asked for your mistress?”
He gave a short laugh. “Your staff assured Perry’s men that two ladies live here alone, without the benefit of masculine supervision. You and Miss Smith.”
“Why, why did you think I’d lied?” Then even more pertinent, “Why would you care? You’ve had married women in your bed. What does it matter if I’m another?”
He lowered the stick from the door and set it on the floor, twirling it absently in his long-fingered hand. No need to bar the door. They both recognized she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “You know you’re more than that.”
She stared at him with utter dislike. At this moment, she sincerely wished she’d never met him. “Why would I know that?”
He shrugged as if he didn’t say anything unusual or unexpected. “Because you’re a frighteningly intelligent woman, and you don’t miss much with those glorious gray eyes.”
She couldn’t bear him to say it. If he said the words aloud, they could never pretend this affair was a passing fancy. For eith
er of them.