LITMIR.BIZ

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to chase him, she concluded, while also deciding that she may be her own worst enemy when it came to defending her determined heart-whole plans for her life.

      “Since I feel no great need to repeat the exercise, I would rather say it was a resounding success. Watch what you’re doing, my lord. You nearly ran us into that ditch.”

      “Forgive me,” Lucas said, facing forward and taking control of his team once more.

      Perhaps she’d gone too far? Charlotte was always warning her that her sometimes outrageous speech and actions could drive an anchorite to strong drink. Nicole was silent for nearly the length of a mile, wondering if he’d meant she should forgive him for the kiss, or for nearly running them into a ditch, before admitting quietly, “It wasn’t all that terrible.”

      “I beg your pardon? I’m afraid I’ve lost track of the last few turns in this conversation.”

      She rolled her eyes. He wasn’t making things any easier for her, was he, and that he was doing it on purpose was obvious. “I said, it wasn’t all that terrible. The kiss, I mean. I still like you, much as I don’t want to. I think we may both be quite insane, and I know you shouldn’t be behaving toward me the way you are, or I toward you, but I still like you. I don’t know why.”

      “You can’t help yourself, as I’m naturally charming,” Lucas told her, handing over the reins once more. Nicole wondered if he’d made the gesture as a peace offering, but wasn’t about to reject his offer. “Cock your wrists just a bit more—ah, that’s it. Now, taking into account Fletcher’s possible impending apoplexy behind us, take them through their paces, because I know you’re dying to. The road is straight here and no one is visible for a good half mile.”

      She sliced a quick look at him, once more in charity with the man. In truth, she doubted she could ever stay angry with him, which probably didn’t bode well for either of them, now that she thought of the thing. “You mean it? I’m good enough? Or are you simply trying to apologize to me?”

      “Since I have a healthy regard for the state of my neck and being tossed from this seat is not in my immediate plans simply to make you happy, yes, I mean it. And I’m apologizing. Is it working?”

      “I think so, yes. I apologize, as well. I’m well aware that I behaved very badly, even if I was goaded into it,” she told him, for that was as close to an apology as she could muster. Then she turned her attention entirely to the horses, flicking the reins lightly so that they moved out of their easy canter. She felt the breeze tugging at the brim of her bonnet and smiled. “Ah, heaven.”

      “And tomorrow, if the weather remains fair, we’ll do something about exercising your mare. Juliet, isn’t it?”

      She nodded, her eyes still on the roadway ahead of them. “Oh, all right, I agree. Only because you’re, as you so modestly say, so charming. But don’t think that anything will come of it, my lord. There will be no more kisses.”

      “Well, now I’m crushed. But I agree, there will no more kisses like the one you think we shared at the inn.”

      Confound the man! She heard his words, but could not help wondering if he was actually saying the opposite of what she might think those words meant. His smile told her she could be right. “We’ll go on as we began—as friends.”

      “Until and unless you want something more or less, yes. But I am not without my motives for agreeing to this, Nicole. After giving the idea far less thought than I probably should have before speaking to you, I wish to strike a bargain between us. One you might consider an invitation to adventure. You did say you wanted adventures while you’re here in London.”

      As they turned at a bend in the road and other vehicles appeared, he took back the reins. She didn’t argue with him. She was much too intrigued by the tone of his voice. “That sounds ominous. You have motives?”

      “From time to time,” he said, looking at her rather intently. “Let me just say this quickly before my better judgment rears its head. For reasons I won’t bore you with, I believe it might be in my best interests to be considered a love-struck fool for the next few weeks. Or, in other words, harmless.”

      Now this was interesting, intriguing. “Only an idiot would ever consider you harmless. To what purpose?”

      “That’s not important. Just hear me out, Nicole, please. We’ve cried friends, we’ve warned each other off, more than once. We neither of us want entanglements at this time. You agree?”

      The sun was still shining, yet Nicole suddenly felt very much in the shade. “That’s what we said. All right, yes, we’re…friends.”

      “So if I agree to allow you to drive my curricle, if I take you for gallops with your Juliet—and anything else you might desire, within reason, of course—will you agree to be my companion in Society? Only for a few weeks at the outside, I promise. Then you can be seen to very publicly dash my expectations and move on to greener pastures in ample time to break at least a dozen more hearts before the end of the Season, both of us knowing we’d only been playing out a charade of sorts, and no harm done to either of us.”

      There was something in his eyes Nicole hadn’t seen before this moment. Some sort of determination that made him appear somehow stern, even forbidding, as well as definitely angry with himself. “I wish I could say I understand, but I don’t. Why would you need anyone to think you a love-struck fool?”

      “Surely I didn’t say fool, did I?” If his smile was meant to divert her, it had sorely missed its mark.

      “You did, yes,” she said, refusing to return that smile.

      “Then we’ll change that to devoted swain, all right?”

      “Not until you tell me why you want to look like a devoted swain, no.”

      His expression became shuttered. “Then never mind, Nicole. With friends, some things must be taken on trust, as I trusted you with the reins.”

      He was so infuriating. “Do you always give up so easily, my lord?”

      “When I realize I’ve just made an idiot of myself, yes. Forget I said anything, please. The idea only held merit until I voiced it out loud, at which point it seemed silly, not to mention stupid.”

      “No, that’s not true. As I spout lies so easily myself when it suits me, I can usually tell when someone is attempting to lie to me. You like your idea very much, as it somehow suits your purposes, whatever they are. You simply don’t like that I want to know why you feel some need to pretend something that isn’t true.”

      “I have my reasons. That’s all I can say.”

      “All you will say.” Nicole peered at him out of the corner of her eye, and saw a slight tic working in his jaw. “Are you in some sort of danger?”

      His smile nearly dazzled her. “And therefore applying to you to protect me? Hardly.”

      “Don’t be facetious,” she said without really thinking, her mind still working feverishly. “You can’t be a spy, because the war is over and there is no need for spies. Is there?”

      “None, no. Nicole, let it go. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

      “You’re right, you shouldn’t have. But you did, and now I will go out of my mind attempting to discover why you said it and why you obviously feel a need for certain people to believe something that isn’t true. Oh! Are you being chased by a particularly persistent mama who is trying to bracket you to her pudding-faced daughter?”

      “If I said yes, would you believe me?”

      She considered that for a moment. “No, I suppose not. You don’t seem the sort to fear petticoats.”

      “Present company excepted, of course,” he shot back, to both her delight and chagrin.

      “Yes, yes, I’m ferocious, I know,” she quipped lightly, still cudgeling

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