She was appalled. Stricken and frozen in place.
The butterflies in her stomach felt no such thing. Those traitorous creatures were glancing heavenward to smile at the angels. Thank you, thank you!
Ewan’s half-naked body was so close to her she could feel the heat radiating off his golden skin. Oh, he looked sinfully good! His hair was slicked back and still wet from his earlier bath, several wet strands curling about his neck. She glanced up to meet his gaze. Realization struck her just then. He’d shaved!
“Lily, you’re staring at me.”
He’d shaved for her. At her urging. The first step to turning him into a proper gentleman, and not a heathen to be attacked at horse auctions, then blamed for starting the fight. His family would be surprised. All of London would take notice. She’d thought him handsome before, but this... this was incredible. Nicely firm jaw, well-shaped mouth. All perfectly situated on his ruggedly appealing face. His hard, muscled body was perfection, too.
She let out an eep! as he lifted her into his arms and carried her downstairs. She wrapped her arms around his neck to steady herself as he strode toward the library. His skin was deliciously warm, his body delightfully hard. She touched a hand to his clean-shaven cheek. Angels, did I thank you yet? Let me thank you again. And again.
“You did this for me,” she said in a whisper.
He ignored the comment as well as the palm she was now resting against his cheek. He lightly kicked open the library door with his boot and set her in a chair beside the fireplace. “Wait here.”
She nodded.
Meggie and Dillie had followed them down. She heard their smothered giggles.
Ewan paused beside his sister. “Meggie, don’t pull another stunt like that again.”
He shot all three of them a warning glance and stalked out of the library, firmly shutting the door behind him.
“Lily, are you all right?” Meggie asked. “Your face is the deepest shade of crimson I’ve ever seen.” She paused to study her more closely. “Oh, dear. You’re angry with me.”
“Meggie, that was so wrong. So scandalous. So improper. So—”
“Worth going straight to hell for it?” Dillie suggested.
Lily burst out laughing. “Yes, you evil twin. He shaved! I’m so pleased.”
Dillie swallowed her own laughter. “Wait, that’s what has you in raptures? His face? Didn’t you look at the rest of him?”
“I couldn’t stop looking,” Lily admitted. However, she wasn’t feeling quite so mirthful as her partners in crime. Skulking beside Ewan’s bedchamber had been a stupid prank, but the powerful force of attraction she’d felt when seeing him in his half-dressed state was no laughing matter. Her sister could giggle and ogle and make jests, but she couldn’t.
What she’d felt went far beyond mere attraction. Her senses were still reeling. She understood how Jasper must have felt that day at Eloise’s when trying to stop himself in mid leap, clawing the air and trying in vain for a soft landing as he fell.
And she was falling hard for Ewan. Painfully hard.
She wasn’t certain she could stop herself.
***
Ewan returned to his quarters after depositing Lily in the library, and then dressed and hurriedly returned downstairs. He was relieved to find Lily alone where he’d left her in the library. “Meggie and Dillie are in the dining room sharing a pot of tea.” She set aside the book she had been reading and started to rise. “Shall I call them?”
He saw that she’d been engrossed in a publication of Sir William Maitland’s early explorations. She probably knew it by heart. He wondered if there was a chapter on those baboons that seemed to fascinate her so much. “No, lass. It’s you I care to see.”
Her eyes rounded in surprise, probably in response to the awkward phrasing of his sentence. He did care to see her. Always liked seeing her. Preferably naked, but that wasn’t likely ever to happen.
She sank back down in her chair and waited for him to take the seat beside her. “Lily, I expect I know the answer to this question, but still, I must ask it. Do you have any enemies?”
She pursed her lips and frowned, looking quite adorable and earnest. “Other than your grandfather and the entire male membership of the Royal Society? No.”
He dismissed those old codgers and their newest Fellow, her friend, Ashton Mortimer. “Think on it. Anyone who’s ever been mean to you or wished you ill? Outside of those fossils in the Royal Society.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m certain of it. Why do you ask?”
“My cousin’s rudeness to you at the dressmaker’s can be explained. He was actually there to scare Meggie. But I don’t understand why that blackguard came after you at Tattersalls. It troubles me. It doesn’t fit into a neat explanation and that puts me on edge.”