Someone Irresistible by Adele Ashworth

narrow-brimmed beaded hat. She turned when she heard him walk in, and once again he was struck by the vivid darkness of her large, brown eyes as they dauntlessly locked with his. Her eyes were something he had never forgotten.
    “Professor Price,” she said evenly, a pleasant smile firmly planted on her face. Then she glanced to his attire, looking him up and down, and delicately frowned.
    Nathan couldn’t decide if his general appearance bothered her, since he wore only casual pants and an inexpensive linen shirt, or the fact that he’d not buttoned his shirt to the neck. Frankly, he didn’t care, but her unvoiced disapproval did annoy him.
    He strolled into the parlor proper and stopped about three feet away from her, legs spread wide, arms crossed over his chest.
    “Why, Mrs. Sinclair,” he drawled. “How delightful of you to visit.”
    Her lips thinned and she pulled her body erect, clutching her beaded reticule with both hands in front of her small, corseted waist. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Nathan, stop calling me that.”
    The fact that she snapped at him took him a little by surprise since it
    was, in fact, her name, but he tried not to let it show. Actually, her appearance surprised him, too, although he supposed a widow of her class would be appropriately dressed in purple. But this gown clung to her bosom exceptionally well, the fabric a fine… silk, he believed, the rich color enhancing her pale skin perfectly. Yes, if Mimi Sinclair knew anything it was how to dress to be noticed, even in half mourning.
    “Mimi,” he started again, dropping his voice and forcing a polite grin, “it’s lovely to see you. Would you care to be seated?”
    He could have sworn she huffed when she drew her gaze away from his and swept past him to lower her body into a wing chair near the slow burning fireplace. But he noticed more clearly the way she smelled when she passed by him—clean and fresh and… arousing. No perfume today, but he could tell she’d recently had a bath. It had been a long time since Nathan had experienced the scent of pure, clean woman, and it made him irritable that he encountered it now, here. From her.
    Instead of following her lead by sitting, he remained standing, though he moved a good distance away from her, positioning himself near the window and holding his hands behind his back.
    “So,” he carried on, watching her adjust her skirts for what appeared to be a lengthy stay, “what brings you to King’s Boarding House on a peaceful Sunday afternoon?”
    Sitting comfortably, with a gracious tip of her head and a wry smile, she replied, “I think you know why I’m here, Nathan, so let’s just get to the business at hand.”
    His brows rose and he glanced briefly to his scuffed, worn shoes.
    “Excellent suggestion, I suppose, but I did say at our last meeting that I would call on you.” Clearing his throat purposefully, he tried again, his words a bit more succinct. “What I want to know is why you came here today when you knew I would be returning to your home in another day or so.”
    She waited long enough for him to realize that this line of questioning plainly took her aback. Shifting her bottom in the chair, she turned her attention to the wall at her side, her gaze resting on a well-done floral painting.
    “I suppose I simply wanted to get these issues out in the open as quickly as possible.” She shrugged lightly. “Why wait until tomorrow when what one needs to have done can be done today?”
    That silly answer pushed him to the edge of laughter, but he held back to pleasantly agree, “Why, indeed?”
    She looked at him again, her eyes wide and bright, lips turned up in a half-smile of certain conquest. “I’ve considered your… request, Nathan,
    and although I find it in many ways troubling, I believe I have no choice but to prove you wrong.”
    He leaned his shoulder casually against the window frame and crossed one shoe over the other. “Oh?”
    The tight line of