Mistress by Midnight by Nicola Cornick

Apart they would have been considered incomparable. Together they were dazzling.
    And then Merryn walked in. Her eyes met Garrick’s and he found that he could not look away. Where Joanna Grant and Tess Darent had a cool, empty beauty, Merryn was all fire and passion. She stopped dead in the doorway so that Tess Darent almost walked into her.
    “What the devil is he doing here?” she exclaimed.
    Her loathing of him was completely unconcealed. It blazed from her blue eyes. There was antipathy in every line of her slender body. Garrick thought she was about to turn on her heel and walk out.
    “You might have warned us, Mr. Churchward,” Joanna Grant said, with what Garrick thought was admirable restraint.
    “And then we need not have come!” Merryn snapped.
    Garrick smiled at her and was rewarded with a glare in return. He knew that it was not simply dislike that motivated her. If he chose to reveal anything of their previous meetings she would be in a very difficult situation indeed. He raised his brows in quizzical challenge and saw her blush before she looked away. Her lips set in a tight, angry line.
    “Lady Merryn,” he said. “A pleasure to see you again.”
    That brought him another fierce snap of anger from those blue eyes.
    “I was not aware that you had met his grace of Farne recently, Merryn,” Joanna said mildly.
    “We met at the library yesterday,” Merryn said.
    “And a couple of days before that,” Garrick put in, “in my b—”
    “Bank!” Merryn said loudly. Everyone looked at her.
    “At the bank?” Joanna sounded surprised.
    “Acre and Co. in the Strand,” Merryn said. Her gaze, equally as challenging as Garrick’s own, held his for one long moment. “I was admiring the architecture. Such a fine design.”
    Tess Darent gave a little yawn, hiding it behind one languid hand. “Lud, Merryn, how very like you,” she said.
    Merryn smiled. Garrick saw the flash of triumph in her eyes.
    “I bank at Coutts and Co.,” he said gently, “for future reference, Lady Merryn.”
    “Then perhaps you were admiring the architecture, too,” Merryn said sweetly. Her look dared him to go further, to expose her. He could see the defiance in her eyes. He could also see the pulse that fluttered in her throat. Merryn Fenner was nervous, he thought, for all her daring.
    “I was certainly admiring something,” he murmured. “I found our encounter most stimulating.”
    He dropped his gaze to her mouth. Merryn blushed, biting her lip, a gesture that only served to emphasize how full and luscious those lips were. Garrick felt a punch of lust, which was not, he thought, the appropriate physical or mental state to be in for a meeting with his lawyer.
    Churchward cleared his throat. “Ladies, Lord Grant…” He ushered them all into their seats. Tess and Joanna arranged themselves prettily. Merryn sat bolt upright, her gaze pointedly turned away from Garrick. A glacial silence fell.
    “If we might proceed…” Churchward said. “I must thank you all for coming at such short notice.” He fixed his dusty spectacles more firmly on his nose. “And for your forbearance, ladies. I asked you here today because the Duke of Farne—” a thread of disapproval entered his voice “—wishes to make you an offer.”
    “Not of marriage, I hope,” Merryn said shortly.
    “Not unless you desire it, Lady Merryn,” Garrick said smoothly.
    “I’d rather you gave me the plague,” Merryn snapped.
    “Merryn,” Joanna Grant said reproachfully, and Garrick saw Merryn grimace. A shade of pink came into her face and she fell silent.
    “Let us not be too hasty.” Tess Darent was sitting a little straighter in her chair and showing some interest in the proceedings for the first time. Her gaze inspected Garrick thoroughly. “I might be happy to add a Duke to my collection,” she said.
    “Not this one, Tess,” Joanna said dryly. “He looks too healthy for you. He could not be relied upon to die within a year of