She listened. His lips lifted slightly but it was his eyes and the warmth in them that caught her most.
“To answer your question, I would prefer to know your system, all of it. I am confident I will be able to follow along if you show me what things mean. I want to catch the ones who have been snooping around but I feel a need to protect myself while that is in motion.”
Disappointment filled her. It was only work, regardless of the flirting. And this would be a sizeable account she was losing the money from. The hit would hurt but she could do it and survive. After all, that’s what she did. Survive.
Yet he did share a bit more personal information with me about looking into the people digging around his place.
Her smile never slipped. She rose and walked over to the small bag she always carried. His eyes were on her but he didn’t try to stop her. Fyre crouched by the bag and opened it, then rifled through the things she had in there.
When she’d located the sheet she wanted, she rose and walked back to the seat and retook hers, this time making sure there was a bit more space between her and Phillip.
“I need to make a copy of this first. I apologize I did not have it ready prior to this meeting.”
A slow smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Damn it, it was a sexy, impish grin. And the results impacted low in her gut.
He stretched his legs out and laced his hands behind his head. “Take all the time you need. I will just sit here. Watching you. Imagining things.”
He was a dangerous man. She knew this and wouldn’t try to dispute it just to make herself feel better.
Instead, she chose to ignore him. Not an easy feat, especially with a man like him. Even if he were being silent, there was this presence about him that made her mind and heart do crazy things.
Taking a back page of his ledger, a blank one, she began to copy the sheet she had in her possession.
“Are you not curious as to what I will be imagining?”
I am. I certainly am.
“Not at all, my lord.” She didn’t slow in her pencil strokes.
His leg pressed more tightly to hers and she could have sworn there wasn’t a single article of clothing between them because of the heat that shot through her. When he’d moved closer, she couldn’t even say.
“How did you get into this?”
The abrupt change in the subject threw her for a moment. Flicking her tongue over her lips, she made a few more scratches on her current page before angling her head to gaze at him.
Phillip wasn’t doing anything but waiting for her to look at him. Those sharp eyes of his saw far more than she wanted to admit she liked. It wasn’t easy to remove her gaze from his. One, she didn’t want to. Two, she knew—from somewhere deep inside—she had to. Staring at this English lord wasn’t going to do anything but put her in danger.
Gaze averted, she began finishing up the final few line items that she needed to copy.
“Matter of necessity.”
His long, lean body shifted on the seat beside her. The rasp of his finer clothing against hers stirred something inside her. Fyre bit down on the inside of her cheek.
I do not need to think this way. Just do my job and leave. Find another way to get money.
“You say those three words, Fyre, like that will appease my interest.” Another subtle shift of his leg against hers as he leaned forward toward the book she wasn’t currently using. “Quite the opposite. I find myself even more intrigued.”
She was in big trouble.
Chapter Four
Her scent was driving him fucking insane. Phillip swallowed and exhaled slowly through his mouth. To his ears, it was loud and sounded like a hiss, but she didn’t move aside from continuing to make her succinct, perfect strokes on the paper.
As she worked, he kept his mouth clamped shut because this woman rattled him. Unlike any of the women from his past—mistresses, young chits at parties looking for a husband, whores, or wives trying to cuckold their husbands, this woman, Fyre, had him tongue-tied.
Her own musk combined with a light floral scent was playing havoc with his body. The wild curls she had yanked back into a serviceable braid had him longing to release them. He’d seen it down the day in the store, when she’d had her hair drawn behind her loosely. Not like today, where he wondered if she had a headache it was such a tight braid.
Although it was no easy feat, he kept his gaze glued to the book he held in his lap. He stared so long at the page the numbers and symbols all blurred, and when someone cleared their throat across from him he looked up with a glare, not liking that he’d been interrupted. Nor that he’d been off guard.