you rate your charms so highly?"
"Of course not! I only meant..." Biting her lip, Erin broke off. If she was to have any chance of coming through the next few weeks in one piece, she had to stop letting him provoke her.
As coolly as she could, she said, "I gather that we understand each other. However, I have one other point to add. If I agree to your terms, I want your word that you will be as discreet as possible about our situation. I don't want Meg or the Carmodys hurt."
There was some small measure of satisfaction in the knowledge that she had managed to surprise him. Storm looked down at her narrowly. "You actually seem concerned about them."
Erin let her silence speak for itself. After a long moment, he appeared to realize that she meant what she said. "I have no need to advertise our arrangement, if indeed we have one. It can be kept as quiet as you wish."
With her last objection removed, the moment she had dreaded was upon her. Averting her eyes to keep him from seeing the contradictory emotions warring within her, she asked, "When would you expect me to move in?"
Storm's response was unequivocal. "At once. There is hardly any purpose in delay."
"No, I suppose not." Taking a deep breath, Erin squared her shoulders. So softly that he had to strain to hear her, she said, "My trunk is in the carriage."
If she had been watching Storm at that moment, she would have seen the surprised look that flitted across his rugged features as he realized she had just agreed to his outrageous proposal. When he had made the offer, he had envisioned a long campaign of resistance before she finally admitted the inevitability of her plight. Instead, she was giving in after only the most token objections. He couldn't begin to understand why his victory caused him such conflicting feelings.
Without taking his gaze from the slender, straight-backed young woman before him, he moved toward her. The faint shadows beneath her eyes and the tightness of her mouth hinted at emotions she was struggling to hide.
For a moment, it was all he could do not to reach out to her, to soothe away her fears and promise everything would be all right. Guilt at what he was putting her through threatened to make him forget the wrong she had done him.
Only the memory of her body, warm and pliant in his arms, strengthened his resolve. It would do her no harm to find out that she could not trample on a man's heart and still expect him to remain bedazzled by her charms.
Accompanying her back to the carriage, he spoke briefly with his assistant. As he did so, Erin climbed back up onto the buckboard. She sat with her eyes downcast and her hands tightly folded in her lap. When Storm settled into the seat next to her and picked up the reins, she did not look at him.
"I'll arrange to have this returned to the Carmodys' later today," he said as he urged the horses to a brisk trot.
Erin merely nodded. Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of him glancing into the back, where her small trunk lay.
"Don't you have any other luggage?"
She shook her head. "I find that quite enough." If he thought her wardrobe less than adequate for the role he was thrusting on her, too bad. With the single exception of the dress she had worn to the Carmodys' dinner party, her clothes had little to recommend them beyond being clean, comfortable and well-suited to her active life. She was not about to give them up in favor of the cumbersome garments weighed down with lace and ribbons that she had once worn.
Storm shrugged, making it clear that her clothes were hardly his prime concern. The appraising look in his eyes seemed to see right through her modest cloak and neat skirt and blouse to the satiny skin beneath.
A pulse beat in his lean jaw, and the rugged lines of his face were drawn even more harshly than usual. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he was a man wrestling with his conscience.
From some hidden wellspring of courage she found the nerve to ask,
"Of course not! I only meant..." Biting her lip, Erin broke off. If she was to have any chance of coming through the next few weeks in one piece, she had to stop letting him provoke her.
As coolly as she could, she said, "I gather that we understand each other. However, I have one other point to add. If I agree to your terms, I want your word that you will be as discreet as possible about our situation. I don't want Meg or the Carmodys hurt."
There was some small measure of satisfaction in the knowledge that she had managed to surprise him. Storm looked down at her narrowly. "You actually seem concerned about them."
Erin let her silence speak for itself. After a long moment, he appeared to realize that she meant what she said. "I have no need to advertise our arrangement, if indeed we have one. It can be kept as quiet as you wish."
With her last objection removed, the moment she had dreaded was upon her. Averting her eyes to keep him from seeing the contradictory emotions warring within her, she asked, "When would you expect me to move in?"
Storm's response was unequivocal. "At once. There is hardly any purpose in delay."
"No, I suppose not." Taking a deep breath, Erin squared her shoulders. So softly that he had to strain to hear her, she said, "My trunk is in the carriage."
If she had been watching Storm at that moment, she would have seen the surprised look that flitted across his rugged features as he realized she had just agreed to his outrageous proposal. When he had made the offer, he had envisioned a long campaign of resistance before she finally admitted the inevitability of her plight. Instead, she was giving in after only the most token objections. He couldn't begin to understand why his victory caused him such conflicting feelings.
Without taking his gaze from the slender, straight-backed young woman before him, he moved toward her. The faint shadows beneath her eyes and the tightness of her mouth hinted at emotions she was struggling to hide.
For a moment, it was all he could do not to reach out to her, to soothe away her fears and promise everything would be all right. Guilt at what he was putting her through threatened to make him forget the wrong she had done him.
Only the memory of her body, warm and pliant in his arms, strengthened his resolve. It would do her no harm to find out that she could not trample on a man's heart and still expect him to remain bedazzled by her charms.
Accompanying her back to the carriage, he spoke briefly with his assistant. As he did so, Erin climbed back up onto the buckboard. She sat with her eyes downcast and her hands tightly folded in her lap. When Storm settled into the seat next to her and picked up the reins, she did not look at him.
"I'll arrange to have this returned to the Carmodys' later today," he said as he urged the horses to a brisk trot.
Erin merely nodded. Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of him glancing into the back, where her small trunk lay.
"Don't you have any other luggage?"
She shook her head. "I find that quite enough." If he thought her wardrobe less than adequate for the role he was thrusting on her, too bad. With the single exception of the dress she had worn to the Carmodys' dinner party, her clothes had little to recommend them beyond being clean, comfortable and well-suited to her active life. She was not about to give them up in favor of the cumbersome garments weighed down with lace and ribbons that she had once worn.
Storm shrugged, making it clear that her clothes were hardly his prime concern. The appraising look in his eyes seemed to see right through her modest cloak and neat skirt and blouse to the satiny skin beneath.
A pulse beat in his lean jaw, and the rugged lines of his face were drawn even more harshly than usual. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he was a man wrestling with his conscience.
From some hidden wellspring of courage she found the nerve to ask,
Similar Books
