“No harm done, Mr. Cameron. My gown may be a bit rumpled, but it remains intact.”
“It isn’t the frock I was worried about.” He stared down at her, his eyes dark and roiling with sensations she still didn’t understand.
She smiled and slowly rose to face him. “It strikes me, Mr. Cameron, that you and I must work on our introductions. Every time we meet, someone ends up flat on their back. Usually me. Fortunately, this time it was you. I think it would have been a lot messier had you fallen atop me, your weight on my body.”
Your glorious, crushing weight.
As she thought about it, her cheeks began to flame. Discomfort always made her sputter and ramble. “And speaking of weights and bodies,” she said, pausing to sputter and let out a nervous titter. Stop talking! Of course, she couldn’t. Another titter. Another sputter. “It brings to mind one of Galileo’s experiments. Quite fascinating. Did you know he climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa with a pair of heavy balls, and when he reached the top he dropped his balls—”
“Lily!” Eloise let out a burst of laughter, reminding her that she and Ewan were not alone. “Child, how you do go on!”
Of course. She was rambling and making a fool of herself, something that couldn’t be helped while Ewan held her in his arms. How did she get back in his arms? No matter. She wasn’t complaining. He was silently laughing. About to explode with laughter. She could feel his shoulders shake beneath her palms. “Well, you get the point. No need for me to go on.”
There was nothing funny about Galileo’s experiment. It proved an important point about the laws of gravity, but it was no use continuing the explanation. “Obviously, no one appreciates Galileo’s balls.”
Ewan opened his mouth to say something, glanced at Eloise, and then changed his mind and snapped it shut. He removed his hands from her waist and took a step back, this time careful to avoid Jasper, who was still underfoot, his tail wagging and tongue hanging out of his mouth as he joyfully panted, so proud that he’d obeyed her command to sit. “Your days are numbered,” Ewan said, scowling at the dog.
Jasper scrambled to his feet, scurried over to Ewan, and began to lick his hand. Ewan sighed and patted him affectionately on the head.
“Well, that was most extraordinary,” Eloise said. She turned to Ewan’s stricken sister. “See, Meggie, even your perfect brother can make a complete ass of himself. You will notice that the sky hasn’t fallen. The walls haven’t crumbled down around us.”
Meggie, her lips now quivering, glanced at Eloise and promptly burst into tears.
Lily sighed. She had her work cut out with the girl.
***
After calming Meggie and righting Eloise’s elegant tea cups—which had been tipped over but not chipped or broken in the debacle—Ewan managed to settle down with the ladies to afternoon tea and a discussion about what was needed to make Meggie’s stay in London pleasant. He didn’t think anything would help, but Eloise and Lily were game to try and he was grateful for their assistance.
Conversation flowed smoothly, though he participated very little. His thoughts were still on Lily and the way she’d fit so perfectly against his hard frame. She’d been atop him. Soft, warm, the look in her eyes warning that she’d be willing to let him do anything to her that he wished. He’d wanted to kiss her beautiful lips for starters, then kiss his way down to her lush, perfect breasts... and further down to taste the heat between her thighs.
Bollix!
Eloise would bludgeon him with that cake knife now in her hands if she knew the manner of his thoughts. Damn. The wily old dowager probably knew exactly what he was thinking. He braced himself for the private conversation between them that was sure to follow, Eloise eager to lecture him about his marital status and the need to find himself a proper wife.
He wasn’t looking for a wife. Wasn’t going to happen. Not while he was in London fulfilling that damnable promise to his father. He needed to pay full attention to his malicious, manipulative grandfather, and he didn’t need a female to distract him.
Especially one as distracting as Lily.
Problem was, almost an hour had passed since he and Lily had been lying on the elegantly carpeted floor with their bodies plastered to each other and their limbs entwined. He had yet to calm his body down. Damned traitorous thing was a man’s body.
Eloise interrupted his thoughts by calling for her writing paper and pen. “Now, let’s get down to business,” she said, dipping her quill into the ink pot also provided by the ever-efficient Watling. “Meggie, can you sing?”
“No.”