How to Seduce a Scot by Christy English

Elizabeth. Maybe you can teach them one.”
    â€œMaybe I will.”
    He drew the duchess’s carriage up in front of her town house. “Why are we here, Alex? Aren’t we taking Catherine home?”
    â€œWhat happens to Miss Middlebrook is no longer your concern, Mary.”
    Catherine roused herself enough at this point to speak. “No, indeed, Alex. Mary is my best friend. I will see you at the dance tomorrow, Mary. You can teach me a reel.”
    â€œIt would be my pleasure,” Mary Elizabeth said, planting a kiss on Catherine’s cheek before leaping down from the carriage, into the road. Lucky for her, and less lucky for him, no other carriage was barreling by to kill or maim her in that moment. His sister gave him a jaunty wave before blithely strolling into the house. The forbidding ducal butler shot him an evil look before closing the door behind her.
    Catherine pressed harder against his arm to get his attention. His body was at full attention, but he turned his head at last to look down at her against his better judgment.
    Her lips were swollen as they always were, as if someone had just been kissing her. The telltale scent of whisky lingered on her breath, along with a hint of strawberries from the ice she had eaten. She leaned closer, if that were possible, raising herself up to whisper in his ear.
    â€œAlex,” she said. “I think it is going to rain.”
    * * *
    Catherine should be standoffish and ladylike around Alexander Waters, but ever since she had eaten her strawberry ice, she had felt at peace, at one with the world and every man in it. She could not quite remember why she was angry with him. She liked him. She knew he liked her. There was not much else to think about when it came to a man and a girl.
    Her grandmother’s strictures about proper decorum seemed very far away, as far as the river that ran by their house in Devon. As Mr. Waters drove her home in the busy traffic of the Mayfair streets, she leaned comfortably against his arm and looked at the sky. She could not see it properly, for her bonnet blocked her view, as it always did.
    She pulled away from Alexander for a moment and reached for the ribbons of her bonnet.
    â€œMiss Middlebrook, may I ask what you are doing? Please keep your bonnet on. We are almost at Regent’s Square.”
    â€œBalderdash, Mr. Waters. I am tired of not being able to see properly. I want this bonnet off.”
    She fiddled with the tie that bound her until the bow under her chin finally came free, and she drew the hat off her head. She sighed, and tossed the bonnet at her feet, where the ribbons fluttered at her gaily. It seemed for a moment that the cursed hat might take flight, so she set her neat-booted foot on it. It was a bit crushed, but it would not flap out of the carriage and scare the horses.
    â€œMiss Middlebrook, your lovely bonnet is ruined.”
    â€œI doubt that, Alex. May I call you Alex? I doubt that, but if it is, I have another at home that will suffice for everyday use, and one for Sundays.”
    Her hair suddenly felt tight on her head. The hairpins seemed to be sticking into her scalp more than usual, and she needed to loosen one or two. She reached up and drew out the two largest hairpins. A hank of curls fell across her shoulders and down her back. Alexander clucked to the horses and they picked up speed, bringing a lovely breeze against her heated skin and along her face. She drew two more pins out, and then two more, until her entire head of hair had fallen around her in a mass of curls.
    â€œThat’s better,” she said. Her reticule was caught under her thigh. It seemed she had sat on it. Rather than draw it out from under her in an unseemly show of maneuvering in the open carriage, she simply tossed the pins into the street.
    â€œMiss Middlebrook, I beg you, please do not take anything else off.”
    â€œAlex, I must remind you that I am a lady. A lady does not disrobe