An Offer From a Gentleman (Cinderella)

Chapter 29

He took a step into slightly deeper waters, the soft sludge of the pondbottom squishing between his toes. Now the water reached a couple of inches higher. He was bloody well freezing, but at least he was mostly covered up.

He scanned the shore, looking up into trees and down in the bushes. There had to be someone there. Nothing else could account for the strange, tingling feeling that had now spread throughout his body.

And if his body could tingle while submerged in a lake so cold, he was terrified to see his own privates (the poor things felt like they’d shrunk to nothing, which was not what a man liked to imagine), then it must be a very strong tingle indeed.

“Who is out there?” he called out.

No answer. He hadn’t really expected one, but it had been worth a try.

He squinted as he searched the shore again, turning a full three hundred and sixty degrees as he watched for any sign of movement. He saw nothing but the gentle ruffling of the leaves in the wind, but as he finished his sweep of the area, he somehow knew.

“Sophie!”

He heard a gasp, followed by a huge flurry of activity.

“Sophie Beckett,” he yelled, “if you run from me right now, I swear I will follow you, and I will not take the time to don my clothing.”

The noises coming from the shore slowed.

“I will catch up with you,” he continued, “because I’m stronger and faster. And I might very well feel compelled to tackle you to the ground, just to be certain you do not escape.”

The sounds of her movement ceased.

“Good,” he grunted. “Show yourself.”

She didn’t.

“Sophie,” he warned.

There was a beat of silence, followed by the sound of slow, hesitant footsteps, and then he saw her, standing on the shore in one of those awful dresses he’d like to see sunk to the bottom of the Thames.

“What are you doing here?” he

you doing here?” she countered. “You’re supposed to be ill. That”—she waved her arm toward him and, by extension, the pond—“can’t possibly be good for you.”

He ignored her question and comment.

course not,” she replied, and he rather believed her. He didn’t think she possessed the acting talents to fake that

“I would never follow you to a swimming hole,” she continued. “It would be

then her face went completely red, because they both knew she hadn’t a leg to stand on with that argument. If she had truly been concerned about decency, she’d have left the pond the second she’d

He lifted one hand from the water and pointed toward her, twisting his wrist as he motioned for her to turn around. “Give me your back while you wait for me,” he ordered. “It will only take me a moment to pull on my

“I’ll go home right now,” she offered. “You’ll enjoy greater privacy, and—”

“You’ll stay,” he said firmly.

“But—”

He crossed his arms. “Do I look like a man in the mood to be argued with?”

She stared at him mutinously.

“If you run,” he warned, “I will catch you.”

Sophie eyed the distance between them, then tried to judge the distance back to My Cottage. If he stopped to pull on his clothing she might have a chance of escaping, but if he didn’t . . .

“Sophie,” he said, “I can practically see the steam coming out of your ears. Stop taxing your brain with useless mathematical computations and do as I asked.”

“Now,” he ordered.

depended on it. The infernal man wasn’t being particularly quiet as he went about his business, and she couldn’t seem to keep herself from listening to and trying to identify every sound that rustled

had a dreadfully wicked imagination, and there was no getting around it.

fire, and she was certain her cheeks must be eight different shades of red. A gentleman would have let her weasel out of her embarrassment and hole up in her

moved one of her feet—just to flex her toes, which were falling asleep in her shoes, honest!—barely half a second passed

asleep. And hurry up! It can’t possibly take so long to get dressed.”

“Oh?” he drawled.

“You’re doing this just to torture me,” she grumbled.

“You may feel free to face me at any time,” he

ment. “I assure you that I asked you to turn your back for the sake

“I’m just fine where I am,” she replied.

After what

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