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"Of course I do," Marks said crossly "Why would I wear spectacles if I didn’t need theuise"

"My disguise?"

"Yes, Marks, disguise A noun describing asomeone’s identity Often used by clowns and spies And now apparently governesses Good God, can anything be ordinary for aze not quite focused For a moment, she looked like an anxious child whose favorite blanket had been set out of reach And that caused an odd, painful twinge in Leo’s heart

"I’ll find your spectacles," he said brusquely "You have o into the house while I keep searching"

"No, thank you If I tried to find the house ona rass, Leo reached out and closed his hand around the spectacles "Here they are" He crawled to Marks and faced her in an upright kneeling position After polishing the spectacle lenses with the edge of his sleeve, he said, "Hold still"

"Give them to me"

"Letco, doesn’t it?"

"No, it doesn’t," she said ih

"It’s no fun to bait you when you make it so easy, Marks" He placed the spectacles on her face with great care, running his fingers along the sides of the fralance Gently he touched the tips of the earpieces "They’re not fitted well" He ran an exploring fingertip over the upper riray eyes containing glireen Like opals "Such ser at the sides of her fine-boned face "No wonder your spectacles fall off so readily There’s hardly anything to hang theile she was, he thought Her as so fierce, her teet she was only half his size He would have expected her to slap his hands away by now--she hated being touched, especially by him But she didn’t move at all He let his thumb brush the side of her throat, and felt the tiny undulation of her s There was so dreamlike He didn’t want it to end

"Is Catherine your real name?" he asked "Will you at least answer that?"

She hesitated, fearful of yielding any part of herself, even that scrap of inforht caress seemed to disarm her A bloom of color rose from her throat

"Yes," she choked out "It’s Catherine"

They were still kneeling together, her skirts having billowed and settled everywhere Folds of flower-printed ht under one of Leo’s knees His body reacted strongly to her nearness, heat sliding beneath his skin and gathering in inconvenient places Muscles tightened, thickened He would have to put an end to this, or he was going to do soret

"I’ll help you up," Leo said brusquely, o inside I warn you, however, I’h with you yet There’s more I--"

But he broke off, because as Marks had tried to struggle upward, her body had brushed against his They went still, caught front to front, their breathintensified The two of thehted with the perfurass and scarlet poppies … and Catherine Marks was in his arht, her skin petal-soft Her upper lip was nearly as full as the lower, the curves as delicate and s at her mouth, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck lift in reflexive excitement

Some temptations, Leo decided hazily, should not be resisted Because they were so persistent that they would only keep returning, tiain Therefore such temptations absolutely had to be yielded to--it was the only way to be rid of the I’ll be annihilated afterward"

"You’ll do what?" Marks asked, her eyes huge

"This"

And his mouth descended to hers

At last, every h At last The sensation was so pleasurable that for a moment Leo couldn’t eveninto the feeling, Leo let it take hi and anything he wanted … tugging at her upper lip and then her lower one, sealing theirwith her One kiss started before another had finished, a chain of erotic strokes and ski in every vein and nerve

And God help hi to put his hands inside her clothes, and feel every inch of her body He wanted to drag his mouth over her in intimate trails, kiss and taste every part of her Marks responded helplessly, curling her arainst hi froled to press closer, tighter, their bodies pursuing a new and unsteady rhyth, it would have been outright love after he should have stopped, not only for the sheer pleasure of it, but also because he was reluctant to face ould happen afterward Their cantankerous relationship could not resu like this It had been set on a new track with an unknown destination, and Leo was certain that neither of the that he couldn’t release her all at once, he did it by degrees, letting histo the vulnerable hollow behind her ear Her pulse ift and vibrant against his lips

"Marks," he said on a rough breath, "I was afraid of this So off, he lifted his head and looked down at her

She squinted through the mist that had accuain"

"No, you haven’t There’s steaed spectacles cleared, Marks shoved at hi away his efforts to help

They stared at each other It was hard to say which one of the from her expression, it was probably Marks

"This never happened," she snapped "If you have the gall ever to ave her skirts a few agitated whacks to rerass, and shot Leo a fierce warning glance "I’ to the house now And don’t follow ain until dinner, a crowded affair that included his sisters Amelia, Win, and Poppy, and their respective husbands Cae Catherine Marks sat with Beatrix at the far end of the table

So far none of Leo’s sisters had chosen conventional men to wed Rohan and Merripen were both Romany Gypsies, which accounted in part for their ability to fit in easily with the off-kilter Hathaways And Poppy’s husband, Harry Rutledge, was an eccentric hotelier, a powerful man whose enemies reputedly liked him more than his friends did

Could it be true that Catherine Marks was Harry’s sister?

Leo glanced fro for siht The high cheekbones, the straight lines of the brows, the slight feline tilt at the outward corners of the eyes

"I need to speak to you," Leo said to Amelia as soon as dinner had concluded "In private"

Her blue eyes widened with curiosity "Of course Shall alk? It’s still light outside"

Leo gave her a curt nod

As the two oldest Hathaway siblings, Leo and Auments However, she was his favorite person in the world, not to reat deal of coht