"Because I won't allow it."
Before she could utter the "Why?" he could see in her dark eyes, he drew her to him and kissed her again. After an instant's hesitation, she relaxed and let herself flow into the kiss. The rose garden was private; too tempting. Her bodice was open, his fingers fondling one breast when she pulled back on a gasp and looked down.
"What are you doing?"
He circled her nipple with one fingertip. "I'm sure you can guess."
The gaze she lifted to his face was shocked. "But… I've told you all I know."
She drew back; he let his hand fall. Puzzled, he tried to see her eyes as she fussed, rebuttoning her gown. Her expression was still calm, if just a little determined. Determined about what, he couldn't guess. "What-?"
"There's nothing I've left out." Gown neat again, she picked up the basket and stood. "You know it all."
Rising, too, Lucifer was certain that last wasn't true. An unwelcome suspicion formed in his brain.
Lifting her head, she stepped out. "I assure you there's nothing more to be gained from continuing to seduce me."
She'd taken only two paces when his fingers locked around her elbow and he swung her back.
"What did you say?" Eyes narrowed, he looked down at her.
She returned his gaze; irritation swam in her eyes. "You heard perfectly well." She twisted her arm; he let her go.
"Why do you think I seduced you?"
She drew herself up-suddenly, he could no longer read her eyes. "You seduced me in order to learn what you wanted to know. Now I've told you all, there's no need…" She gestured and swung away.
"That isn't why I seduced you."
His tone stopped her. She took a deep breath, then turned to face him.
"Why, then?"
Her challenge rang clearly. Yet she'd asked the very question he didn't want to face, the one he couldn't bring himself to answer truthfully. He looked into her dark eyes, and he didn't want to lie.
A gong bonged, the sound carried on the breeze from the house. They both looked, then Phyllida turned. "That's the gong for lunch." After an instant's hesitation, she walked on.
A moment later, he caught up and fell in beside her.
She didn't speak again until they were climbing the steps from the sunken garden. "If you meant what you said about allowing me to search the Manor, I'll come by this afternoon."
"I meant what I said, but we can walk back together." Lucifer halted on the top step. "Your aunt invited me to lunch."
Phyllida turned toward the house. "How convenient."
His hand on her arm halted her. She glanced back.
He held out a small pouch. "Before we go in, you'd better take these."
Puzzled, she took the pouch. And felt the buttons inside. Heat rose to her cheeks. "Thank you." Without meeting his eyes, she tucked the pouch under the roses in her basket, then continued along the walk.
Three hours later, Phyllida sat in a chair before the desk in the Manor's library, carefully scanning entries in the ledger open on her lap. Seated in the chair behind the desk, Lucifer watched her from beneath his lashes.
They'd left the Grange after lunch and walked to the Manor through the wood. All the way, Phyllida had maintained her usual calm composure, answering when spoken to but otherwise treating him-reacting to him-as if he were any other reasonably intelligent gentleman. She hadn't, admittedly, attempted to treat him with the dismissive air she employed with her other suitors, but by the same token, she definitely wasn't treating him like the man she'd shared a bed with last night.
He'd spent enough nights with more than enough women to know how they should greet him the next day.
Not Phyllida.