Twist, Tome 3 : My Lady, My Lord

“Pelley is in there.”

Corinna halted her flight and looked over her shoulder. Ian stood in partial shadow, his long legs and handsome face slanted with torchlight.

“He is?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “I thought that might stop you.”

“Are you telling the truth?”

“I never lie.”

She bit her lower lip. “I didn’t consider the possibility of his presence here.”

He frowned, his gaze slipping along her bodice to her hips. “Apparently.”

“Don’t look at me with such disapproval,” she snapped. “Your doxies wear much less than this.” How on earth had she gotten herself into this? What had she been thinking? He was right: this was not she. She was trying to be something she wasn’t and making a fool of herself. And now Lord Pelley would see her in this scandalous gown and any last hope she might still have of convincing him she was the serious woman to whom he should sell his publishing company would be lost.

“I don’t disapprove,” Ian said. “Quite the contrary. I’m merely curious as to your motive.”

The words that were so easy to practice alone in her dressing chamber now clogged her throat. His eyes sharpened. For a moment that seemed like forever, neither of them spoke.

He strode forward and grasped her arm. Raindrops pattered on the shoulders of his dark coat and her lashes.

“I’m taking you home.”

She resisted. “What if I don’t want you to?”

“Oh,” he said in a low rumble. “You want me to.”