Girl Behind the Scandalous Reputation

. He’d quite forgotten he’d agreed to partner Amanda at the wedding.

‘She’s no threat to you. She’s just a family friend, and she isn’t really my guest.’

Lily gave a derisive laugh. ‘I’m not threatened.’ She tilted her champagne flute towards the light and watched the bubbles fizz. ‘But the local grapevine says she wants to be a lot more than just a family friend, and she does have the correct lineage.’

Tristan frowned. As if he cared about Amanda’s lineage…‘Forget Amanda. She’s irrelevant.’

‘She’d no doubt be upset to hear you say that.’

Tristan frowned. This conversation was not going at all as he’d planned. He declined a glass of champagne as a passing waiter stopped, and determinedly turned his back on an Italian count he’d befriended at Harvard.

‘I’d like to thank you for your help in solving my case,’ she said politely.

‘It was nothing.’ Tristan waved away her gratitude.

‘Still, I’d like to pay you for your services and—’

‘Pay me!’ Tristan thundered, halting her mid-sentence. ‘Don’t be absurd, Lily.’

She didn’t seem pleased with his response, but no way was she paying him for something he’d wanted to do for her—had needed to do for her.

His narrowed eyes lingered on her face. ‘Is this because I didn’t bring you your tea this morning?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Don’t play games, Lily. You know what I’m talking about.’

She raked him with her gaze and he felt as if she’d actually touched him.

‘Or are you upset because I didn’t try to see you today?’

‘Didn’t you? I didn’t notice.’ She smiled, her wide kohl-rimmed eyes staring at him as if she’d like to slice him in half, her glossy peach-coloured lips clamped together tightly.

He wondered incongruously how the gloss tasted and felt an overpowering need to prise those lips apart and sweep his tongue inside the warm haven of her mouth. At least then they’d be communicating a little better than they were now.

‘Look, I’m sorry. I would have but I thought you’d be—Damn, did I mark you?’ His eyes had drifted down over her neck to where a slight shadow marred her golden skin.

‘Er…no.’ She automatically lifted her hand to the exact spot he had been talking about. ‘I…scratched myself with the hairbrush.’

He didn’t even try to curb the grin that spread across his face. Hairbrush, my foot.

‘What’s wrong?’ he murmured softly, deciding it was time to cut to the chase.

She shrugged and glanced over his shoulder at the nearby guests. ‘Wrong? What could be wrong?’

‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. But I’m not going to keep at it all night.’

That brought her eyes back to his. ‘Is that supposed to be a threat?’

Why couldn’t she just be happy he was willing to ask about her feelings? He knew plenty of his friends who wouldn’t have been. Hell, he would never have even considered having this type of conversation before Lily. He would have moved on long ago.

So what’s different this time?

He couldn’t answer his own question and so pushed it aside.

He ran a hand through his hair and shifted the weight on his feet. ‘Lily, we had wild, uninhibited sex last night and now you can barely look at me. What’s wrong?’

She smoothed at an invisible smudge on her cheek. ‘I hardly think this is the place for that type of discussion.’