"I hope you can read my mind. I wouldn't want to think this was so routine, you-"
"If it were routine, darling, I'd have the towels close by."
"Excellent answer. You're eligible for a prize."
"I hope you can read my mind," she noted playfully, "in terms of prizes."
He was already halfway across the room. "No problem there."
"Good. Bring extra towels."
"I don't suppose it would do any good to mention that men don't like women who tell them what to do."
"If you don't mind being told that women abhor dictatorial men."
"I'd say you need some schooling in the finer points of courtship," he observed playfully. "Aren't women supposed to be pleasant and agreeable?"
"I doubt what just transpired was courtship. Unless the word has taken on a new meaning since last I heard?"
"I meant it in the broadest sense." Looking back, he wet his finger with his tongue and ticked off an imaginary mark. "Another demerit, Miss Ionides, to add to your list. You may not receive your reward if you're not more complaisant."
"Perhaps I can think of some way to please you," she purred.
He disappeared into the bathroom and reappeared quickly, carrying several towels. "See, you're learning already."
Her small moue was enticing. "If you weren't so well endowed, my lord, I wouldn't be inclined to listen to you at all. However…"
"I am-with all due modesty." His gaze was amused.
"Lucky me."
"Lucky us," he said. "But if I offend you with my teasing," he added with a new gravity, "let me know. I don't wish to offend you."
"Don't worry, darling. I have no trouble speaking up."
He liked the sound of darling when she uttered it, the endearment gentle to his ear. And their benevolent mood may have continued indefinitely had not a man's face at the window brought him to a standstill. Tossing her a towel, he gruffly muttered, "Jesus God, he's back."
She turned, following the direction of his gaze, and found herself looking into Harry's soulful eyes. Suppressing the exclamation that came to her lips, she quickly swiped the towel over her stomach and, rising from the bed, wrapped the sheet around her. "Excuse me."
"Will you be gone long?" A contentious note rang in his words.
"No, but if it's a problem for you, you're excused."
"Maybe he brought you more flowers."
With Harry, one never knew. "I'll be right back."
"Fucking hurry."
She turned at the fiat in his tone. "I beg your pardon?"
He glowered for a fleeting moment and then said with exquisite restraint, "I'd appreciate if you'd return as soon as possible."
Chapter Nine
"What are you doing?" Harry lamented, gazing at her with his puppy-dog eyes as she walked up to him in the garden.
"I might ask the same of you." Alex sighed, the summer light illuminating the youthful beauty of Harry's face, his pale golden hair, the dew-fresh texture of his skin. "Darling," she said in a kinder tone, "you can't do this. You know I see other people."
"I wish you didn't."
"But I do and I will and I made all that perfectly clear from the beginning."
"I adore you, Alex… I can't sleep-I can't paint…"
"Don't talk like that, Harry. You're too good a painter not to concentrate on your work."
"Come and see me. Then I'll work."
"Don't you dare do that to me. I'm not taking responsibility for your career." Having spent enough years subordinating her own wishes to those of others, she turned to leave.
"I'm sorry." The young man grasped her arm. "Alex, please… I'm sorry. Tell me you'll come and see me again."
Tall and coltish at twenty, he towered over her, but the misery in his eyes was plain to see. She was overcome with guilt. "I'll come over on Friday, but promise me you'll work."
"I will… absolutely." Swiftly bending, he kissed her and as quickly said, "I'm sorry… I couldn't resist. I'll finish the Brighton seascape by Friday and you may have it."
"You'll sell it to Beecher. He's been waiting for it for months."
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a grin, his spirits restored. "Whatever you say. And I'll have flowers for you on Friday because the roses in Hyde Park are in full bloom."
She smiled at him. "You're a cheeky brat and I forbid you to steal any more flowers."
"Didn't you like the larkspur? I did a small pastel sketch of them before I brought them over. You may have that if you won't take the Brighton painting."
"Harry, darling. Sell the pastel too. You can use the money for new paints, and Beecher will buy anything you have."
Pushing his hair behind his ears in a quick, brushing gesture, he smiled. "Now that I'm painting again."
"I'm going to have to find you a nice young lady your own age, so you'll settle down and work," Alex declared.
"I don't want one. I want you."
"But I can't always be there to inspire your painting mood. Now, be a darling and go home. I have company."
"Ranelagh came back, didn't he? You know, he's not your type, Alex. He's notorious."
"Thank you for the advice, you wet-behind-the-ears pup."
"At least he won't stay long. He never does, they say. And then you'll have more time for me," he observed cheerfully.
"You're full of pleasantries today," she remarked, although she was pleased at his altered mood.
"You'll see. While I'll be faithful forever because I love you with all my heart."
"I don't want you to love me with all your heart. I've told you before, I want you to find other amusements, Harry. I'm too old for you."
"Of course you're not." But he had no intention of arguing now that she'd agreed to see him again. "Do you want me to cook dinner on Friday?"
"You work. I'll bring something."
"Just you is enough." He quickly kissed her again and then turned with a wave and, whistling, walked away.
"No more flowers?" Sam asked as Alex reentered the bedroom.
"Harry says you're notorious and won't stay long and he was quite cheerful when he left."
"You must have promised him something."
The man was prescient and she hesitated, debating how truthful to be.
He recognized the moment of evasion and obligingly changed the subject. "He's young. Where did you find him?"
"He found me. You don't approve?"
He shrugged. "It depends how young, I suppose, although it's none of my business."
"That's true."
"As long as we won't be interrupted again, it's not a problem." He'd had time in her absence to come to his senses.
"I doubt we will, although, as you say, Harry's young-and rash." She smiled at him. "Not altogether a youthful trait."
"My reckless behavior doesn't include voyeurism."
"Really… never?" She'd heard of the tableaux vivants in the brothels.
"I recognize a leading remark when I hear it-but I'm too involved"-his smile was lush with suggestion-"in my own affairs to worry about others."
"Like now."
"If you're still in the mood after your adoring swain."
"Adoration has its disadvantages."
"So I've discovered."
"We've become blase, it seems," she said with a small smile. "Do you ever wish for the naivete of adolescence? Or perhaps a man like you was never naive."
"Like me?" He grinned. "What the hell does that mean?"
"I can't picture you in an adoring mood."
"Just because I don't have long blond hair and calf's eyes?"
"No, because you're too jaded and cynical."
"But not worth dismissing for all that," he said, one dark brow raised in conjecture.
"No," she replied softly. "Even for all that."
His smile was distinctly uncynical. In fact, it was gloriously inviting. "I'm glad."
"These feelings we have-I have-"
"We have," he countered. "Have brought us here against our best judgment."
"And kept us here when we both know if we were thinking clearly, we'd walk away."
"While we could."
She looked at him for a salient moment. "Surely, it's not that dramatic."