Kate adored her sister. She truly did. And she knew better than anyone that Edwina’s heart was as beautiful and radiant as her face. She didn’t like to think herself jealous, but still…somehow the comparison stung right to the core.
“I do not hate you,” she finally replied. Her eyes were trained on his chin, but she had no patience for cowardice, especially within herself, so she forced herself to meet his gaze when she added, “But I find I cannot like you.”
Something in his eyes told her that he appreciated her stark honesty. “And why is that?” he asked softly.
“May I be frank?”
His lips twitched. “Please do.”
“You are dancing with me right now because you wish to court my sister. This does not bother me,” she hastened to assure him. “I am well used to receiving attentions from Edwina’s suitors.”
Her mind was clearly not on her feet. Anthony pulled his foot out of the way of hers before she could injure him again. He noticed with interest that she was back to referring to them as suitors rather than idiots. “Please continue,” he murmured.
“You are not the sort of man I would wish my sister to marry,” she said simply. Her manner was direct, and her intelligent brown eyes never left his. “You are a rake. You are a rogue. You are, in fact, notorious for being both. I would not allow my sister within ten feet of you.”
“And yet,” he said with a wicked little smile, “I waltzed with her earlier this evening.”
“An act which shall not be repeated, I can assure you.”
“And is it your place to decide Edwina’s fate?”
“Edwina trusts my judgment,” she said primly.
“I see,” he said in what he hoped was his most mysterious manner. “That is very interesting. I thought Edwina was an adult.”
“Edwina is but seventeen years old!”
“And you are so ancient at, what, twenty years of age?”
“Twenty-one,” she bit off.
“Ah, that makes you a veritable expert on men, and husbands in particular. Especially since you have been married yourself, yes?”
“You know I am unwed,” she ground out.
Anthony stifled the urge to smile. Good Lord, but it was fun baiting the elder Miss Sheffield. “I think,” he said, keeping his words slow and deliberate, “that you have found it relatively easy to manage most of the men who have come knocking on your sister’s door. Is that true?”
She kept her stony silence.
“Is it?”
Finally she gave him one curt nod.
“I thought so,” he murmured. “You seem the sort who would.”
She glared at him with such intensity that it was all he could do to keep from laughing. If he weren’t dancing, he probably would have stroked his chin in an affectation of deep thought. But since his hands were otherwise engaged, he had to settle for a ponderous tilt of his head, combined with an arch raise of his eyebrows. “But I also think,” he added, “that you made a grave mistake when you thought to manage me.”
Kate’s lips were set in a grim, straight line, but she managed to say, “I do not seek to manage you, Lord Bridgerton. I only seek to keep you away from my sister.”
“Which just goes to show, Miss Sheffield, how very little you know of men. At least of the rakish, roguish variety.” He leaned in closer, letting his hot breath brush against her cheek.
She shivered. He’d known she’d shiver.
He smiled wickedly. “There is very little we relish more than a challenge.”
The music drew to a close, leaving them standing in the middle of the ballroom floor, facing one another. Anthony took her arm, but before he led her back to the perimeter of the room, he put his lips very close to her ear and whispered, “And you, Miss Sheffield, have issued to me a most delicious challenge.”
Kate stepped on his foot. Hard. Enough to make him let out a small, decidedly unrakish, unroguish squeak.
When he glared at her, though, she just shrugged and said, “It was my only defense.”
His eyes darkened. “You, Miss Sheffield, are a menace.”
“And you, Lord Bridgerton, need thicker boots.”
His grasp tightened on her arm. “Before I return you to the sanctuary of the chaperones and spinsters, there is one thing we need to make clear.”
Kate held her breath. She did not like the hard tone of his voice.
“I am going to court your sister. And should I decide that she will make a suitable Lady Bridgerton, I will make her my wife.”