A Reckless Beauty by Kasey Michaels Page B

in his evening clothes. “Good evening, Brede,” she said, unable to meet his eyes. “As you did not visit your sister today, I had thought you might not be in attendance this evening.”
    “I said I’d be here,” Valentine reminded her. “It was… necessary. Lieutenant, I’ve heard a compliment about you.”
    Rian pulled himself up very straight. “Yes, sir?”
    “Yes, indeed. Sir William Ponsonby told me you aren’t half-inept,” Valentine said, smiling. “High praise, indeed, from Ponsonby. Fanny? How would you like to meet his grace?”
    “The Duke?” She would adore meeting Wellington, at any other time. At the moment, she had no desire to do anything more than go back to Lucie’s town house and bury her head under the covers, hope to understand why Rian’s defection didn’t bother her half so much as Valentine’s casual way of speaking to her, as if they’d never kissed last night. “I’d be delighted, of course,” she said brightly, accepting his offered arm.
    “You go, Fanny,” Rian told her. “I’ve seen enough of the man these past few days.”
    “Your brother’s hot for battle,” Valentine told her as they made their way around the perimeter of the large, square room. “And he is doing well, Fanny. He’s already made one suggestion Wellington has taken under consideration, pointing out what he believes the best position to make good use of our cavalry if attack should come from the west. I should have known Jack wouldn’t have asked me to do a favor for an idiot.”
    “He’s not inept, he’s not an idiot,” Fanny said, looking up at Valentine. “Such high praise. Is that the best you can do when handing out compliments?”
    Valentine stopped, and then guided her behind a potted palm, took her hands in his. “How’s this, then, Fanny,” he said, his voice low, intimate. “I’ve thought of you every moment since last night, even during a few moments when I most definitely should have been thinking of anything and anyone but you. And now here you are, looking so young, so fresh, so very beautiful, and I know what a bastard I am to want to take you from here, now, take you back to my own house, and kiss you, hold you, until we’re both too exhausted to do anything but sleep. I don’t know, Fanny, if you’d consider any of that a compliment, or even know what it means for me to make such an admission. But that’s how I feel, and the world is moving so fast, the future is so uncertain for any of us, that I had to say it all, say it now. So you’d understand.”
    Fanny’s heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that his words seemed to come to her from a great distance. She didn’t know how to answer him, what to say. So she told him the truth. “You frighten me. I hate that you frighten me.”
    Valentine sniffed slightly, smiled. He felt young, foolish, and yet older than time itself. “Well, then, we’re even, Fanny. Because you frighten me. Shall we blame it all on the moment? Danger everywhere, Bonaparte on the march? Those damn trousers you were wearing when I first saw your dirty, smudged face? Yes, let’s blame it all on that. Now, I believe I was about to introduce you to the Duke.”
    “Brede, I—”
    “No,” he said quickly, lightly pressing a finger against her lips. “Don’t say anything more, Fanny, please. I’ve disgraced myself enough as it is now. Another day, another few weeks, the world back where it belongs, Bonaparte back where he belongs, and I’ll be sane again, I promise.”
    “And mean, and cuttingly sarcastic and odiously arrogant?” Fanny asked him, aching to help him climb out of the hole he’d so unexpectedly dug for himself. “In other words, Brede—more like yourself?”
    His smile widened. “Unquestionably,” he agreed, leading her out from behind the palm. “I’m much happier with myself when I’m biting off heads.”
    “And you’re quite good at it,” Fanny told him as they wended their way around the perimeter of