The Elusive Lord Everhart: The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series by Vivienne Lorret Page A

not expect was the way his gaze shifted to her mouth.
    She blinked. He was impossibly close. His breath was sweetly scented with cloves and cinnamon as if he’d been drinking mulled wine. The firelight caught the growth of golden whiskers along his jaw, his chin, and lining the edge of his upper lip. A wild impulse to brush her fingertips over those short hairs rushed through her.
    She managed to tamp it down when she saw his lips compress in a line. Lifting her gaze to his, she noted the blue-green intensity had returned. He was either going to shake her or scold her. She wanted neither.
    Bewitching? Hardly. “I had no intention of doing so.”
    Everhart scrutinized her face quite thoroughly, as if searching for evidence to support his statement. “Your hair is down.”
    Unsteady from the oddness of this exchange, Calliope tilted her head, hoping to find understanding at this new viewpoint. She didn’t. However, she did note that his lashes were quite long, and darker too, like his brows. “The strands are rather fine and tend to escape their confines.”
    “Like attracts like, or so they say.”
    She frowned, absorbing the meaning. “Are you suggesting that I’ve escaped my confines as well? I was not under the impression I was a captive here.”
    “Perhaps you should be,” he said, his voice softer, lower but no less accusatory. “You certainly shouldn’t be wandering the halls, disturbing those who would rather be sleeping.”
    She harrumphed. “I would happily leave you to your slumber, if you would unhand me.”
    “That I cannot do.” Unexpectedly, his lips spread into a slow, swoon-worthy grin— if one were inclined to swoon. She, however, was not. “You are holding me up.”
    “Oh.” She’d forgotten about his injury. Looking down, she saw that he was balanced on one leg, the other bent at the knee. Even standing like a wounded pirate captain at the helm of his ship did not detract from his virility.
    There I stood, transfixed by a foreign sensation. In that moment, I was a voyager witnessing land after a lifetime at sea, and blind to the rocks jutting up between us . . .
    The words from the letter suddenly thrummed through her heart. No , she said to herself. Absolutely not . She was not going to slip into another one of her daydreams while standing in front of Everhart. She could only bear so much humiliation.
    In a hurry to end their encounter, she turned to stand beside him and settled her arm around his lean waist. Ignoring the staggered look he cast down at her, she took a step, urging him forward. “Do not be alarmed, Everhart. I’m merely offering assistance, as I’ve learned to do for my father when he suffers a bout of weakness.”
    Yet even she knew that this was not the same. A quaking sensation trampled through her limbs. Which was not entirely unpleasant. Far from it. At the moment, she didn’t want to think about how overly familiar or inappropriate the gesture was, or how warm and solid Everhart felt pressed to her side. She only wanted to help him to the sofa and leave as quickly as possible.
    His acquiescence came by way of his arm draped over her shoulders. “Offering assistance? No, what you are doing is ensuring that I will not sleep at all this night.”
    Not even a word of gratitude. “Perhaps you are the one disturbing me and deserve the full blame.” She produced a believable huff of exasperation to let him understand that she was acting against her will. Mostly.
    “I think not.” He ground out the words.
    “You needn’t have opened the door with such force. In addition, I would not have stood there at all, had you not employed nefarious tactics.” The gall of him, standing in front of her with so much of his flesh exposed for her to admire. No matter how many novels she’d read, nothing could have prepared her for that.
    He chuckled, the sound rumbling from his body and through hers, eliciting all sorts of unwanted but enthralling sensations. “And what might