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"I shall take that under adviseht No one smiled like Billie No one ever had He’d known this for years and yet… it was only now…
He indulged in a mental curse This had to be the most inconvenient attraction in the history ofhe’d never wanted in a wo, stupidly reckless, and if she’d ever had a mysterious, feminine moment in her life, he’d never seen it
And yet…
He sed
He wanted her He wanted her like he’d never wanted anything in his life He wanted her smile, and he wanted it exclusively He wanted her in his arms, beneath his body… because so le one of these delightful activities required that he marry her, which was so patently ludicrous that --
"Oh, for God’s sake," Billie e snapped back to attention
"Andrew’s co over," she said "Hold your horses!" she bellowed "I swear," she said to George, "he is so impatient"
"Said the --"
"Don’t callof the course As best as she could; she really did look ridiculous with her two-part li at her back "Are you sure you don’t want the black mallet?"
"I hate you!" she called
He couldn’t help but smile It was quite the merriest declaration of hate he’d ever heard
"I hate you, too," he murmured
But he didn’tquite happily by the ti of the Pall Mall course She was in a res considered Andreas still being abominably impatient, and Lady Alexandra was still the most awful person in the history of the world, but none of that seee He’d been following her the whole way, trading insults with a wolfish smile
"What are you so happy about?" Andrew dematically Let him stew for a bit Besides, she wasn’t sure why she was so happy She just was
"Who plays first?" Lady Alexandra asked
Billie opened her mouth to reply, but Andrew beat her to it
"We usually play youngest to oldest," he said, "but it does seem soiana announced, plopping the green ball down near the starting stick "No question about it"
"I should think I alance over at Billie
Billie ignored her "Mr Berbrooke, e?"
"What? Oh, I’m twenty-five" He smiled broadly He did that a lot "Quarter of a century, you know"