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CHAPTER 1
Goodness Just look at it Thick as love and worked it like a fan, chasing the flush froenteel coe, she’d been marked as the hope of the family Destined, her mother vowed, to catch a nobleman’s eye
But here, in the srated
How could she help staring? The man had wrists as thick as her ankle
As always, he wore his sleeves rolled to the elbow, exposing forear the flames to dance
Broad shoulders stretched his ho low on his hips As he re bit of metal froaped
Diana averted her gaze--but not fast enough She caught a limpse of pure, superheated virility Sculpted chest muscles, bronzed skin, dark hair
"Behave yourself," he said
The words startled her breathless
He knows He knows He’s realized that refined, perfect, gently bred Miss Highwood coawp at his brute manliness Behave yourself, indeed
She felt ridiculous Ashamed Exposed
And then--suddenly--relieved
He wasn’t speaking to her He was speaking to his work
"That’s it" Perspiration glistened on his brow With a steady hand and a low, rich baritone, he finessed the broken clasp "Be good foron the floor Neatly swept and fitted stones paved her half of the sround around the forge was packed with black, sy cinders And the border between the two could not have been ful
Here was the division between custoentlewo man’s domain
"There we are," he said "That’s the way"
Oh, goodness She could look away from his thick forearave herself a brisk shake Tiroo four-and-twenty this year It was surely no sin to adht to concentrate on theto do with carnality
The Highwoods had coe for Diana’s health, but she’d co their stay, she’d learned a great deal about rural life She knew a good village smith was indispensable He shoed the farmers’ draft horses, and he hbors were ailing, he pulled teeth and set broken bones The nails struck on his anvil held the whole village together
This forge was the glowing, iron heart of Spindle Cove, and Aaron Daas its pulse Strong Steady Vital
She watched hi
Now her eyes were fused to that forear to change the subject "It’s been a dreadful March, hasn’t it?"
He grunted in agreeht noithout sun"
He plunged the heatedbucket A cloud of stea the short hairs at the nape of her neck
"That should do," he said, exa the cooled clasp of her necklace He polished it with a scrap of cloth "Let’s hope it lasts this tiave him a nervous smile "I do seem to have bad luck with it, don’t I?"
"This is the third time it’s broken this year, by my count You must think my craftsmanship is faulty"
"No," she hastened to assure hiood work, Mr Dawes I’m just careless, that’s all"
"Careless? You?" His gaze locked with hers froht hi at her like this soe She didn’t knohat tosort of confusion
He mopped his brow and neck with a da, Miss Highwood You don’t strike me as the clumsy sort"
She shifted on her seat, uneasy
"And of all things," he said, "I’d think you’d be careful with this"
She watched as he threaded the tiny vial back on its chain In the vial was a tincture of shrubby horsetail She kept a dose with her at all tiht" Despite her accelerating pulse, she forced an easy smile "I should be more cautious I will be, in the future"
He looked up at her "Are you well?"
"Quite"
"You look flushed"
"Oh Er"
He walked behind her and placed the chain about her neck, standing close to do the clasp If she’d been flushed already, now she was enflah he’d soaked all the heat up fro all her knotted places Like the heated brick she took to bed when she had her courses
Oh, Lord The last thing she needed right noas thoughts of bed Much less this big, solid brick ofit
"Still don’t kno you ed to s it in a drawer And finishing the deed with a rock
"I don’t know, either," she prevaricated Her heart thumped wildly in her chest
"I could almost believe someone did it on purpose I know accidents happen But they don’t usually happen the same ice"
As he fastened the necklace, his fingertips brushed her neck
Diana sucked in her breath She wanted to pretend the touch was an accident As he’d said, accidents happen
But they didn’t happen the same ice
He caressed her neck a second ti down the soft skin at her nape