The smile that gathered on his lips froze.
Langley rose from behind the snow creature they were building. Not a creature, a man, he thought. Christ, he hoped by the end of it the thing wouldn’t look like Langley. Wolfstan shook his head and watched as Langley brushed off his breeches and strode to the stables.
This is your chance to catch her alone.
Wolfstan would be damned if he wasted it.
***
REBECCA STOOD BACKand dusted the snow from her gloved hands. She stood back and regarded her handiwork. All that was left was to mold the face. She loved building snowmen. Ever since she was a little girl, she would build all sorts of animals, castles, and stick figures.
I want you to sketch me.
The haunting words grazed against the edges of her mind, and she shoved the voice,hisvoice, from her head. She did not care to think about that wolf at the moment—the wolf in sheep’s skin she would now only refer to as Wicke. Or wolf. Or beast. Or all three combined.
“Are you attending the Masquerade Ball this year?” Langley asked. Like her, he had been up before dawn and had announced his decision to join her in making the snowman when they crossed paths in the dining room.
“I never attend,” Rebecca answered.
“You should change your mind.” She thought she heard a smile in his voice.
“Why?” Rebecca asked, patting at the neckline of her snowman. “Will there be acrobats?”
“Do you like acrobats?”
“Everyone loves acrobats.”
He chuckled. “No acrobats. Though if you did attend, you would be the novelty, my lady. The beautiful Lady Rebecca Flowerdy to make a rare appearance at the Stapleton Masquerade Ball. What mask might she be wearing? Who might she be?”
Rebecca laughed. “A rare silly notion.” She stepped back from the snowman. “What color eyes shall we give him?”
Langley rose from behind the snowman and nodded. “I’ll go hunt down a pair of stones if you agree to join us for at least one activity this year.”
“You are relentless.” Inside, her heart gave a nervous flutter. Could he perhaps be considering . . . An image of Wicke set upon her mind. Her lungs seized at the memory of his lips assaulting hers. Lawd, what had he done to her? She shook off the thought, and said, “I shall consider attending.”
Langley grinned, and the volume of his smile caught her off guard. She glimpsed a wealth of mischief in those brown eyes. Gazing upon him in that moment, Rebecca could not imagine kissing him now. Damn that wretched wolf-beast.Hehad done this.
“I believe you will, Lady Rebecca. Join, that is.” He winked.
Rebecca watched his long legs stride away with amusement. Had all the men lost their heads? There was no denying Langley was a handsome man. There was also no denying Wolfstan’s words. And his kiss. Times two. She would rather not think of the last one, which had disturbed Rebecca the most. The first had been shocking, but the second . . . that kiss had wreaked havoc with her dreams.
Luckily, she need only recall the beast’s rude remarks to blast away any foreign sentiments his kisses had provoked.
Rebecca scoffed.
She might not be as experienced as Wolfstan but neither was she a fool. Rebecca had always known Langley had in all likelihood not meant his words in a literal sense. It had beenherdecision to give Langley her first kiss. She had never, not once, expected more or looked beyond what would happen after that moment. After all, she’d known the moment she bought Knightley’s that she’d chosen a different life for herself.
And Rebecca quite liked that life.
Which made it all the more mortifying Wicke had seen Rebecca’s sketches. He believed her infatuated with Langley. Well, let him believe what he would.
“You are doing it all wrong.”
That voice. Even the throaty timbre that had been so familiar to her over the years did not sound the same. Rebecca whipped around.Hestood two feet away from her, arms folded at his back, staring at her. How odd. There was a quality she’d always found peaceful in Wicke, and now, that same quality set her blood on fire.
“I beg your pardon?”
He pointed at the snowman. “That is not the right way to do it.”
