Dare shooed the bird away when it aimed to land on his shoulder. Or was it his head the thing was after? “Damn it!”
Leonora laughed, stepping away from him with wide eyes. “Just let it land on you!”
“On my dead body, sure,” Dare bit out, sidestepping the crazy thing, “but not while I am breathing.”
All the fascinated eyes that had followed the bird from the beginning were now fixed on this damn scene. On him. Them.
Another burst of laughter. “What did you do?”
Dare gave another swat. “What do you mean what did I do?”
“I remember reading somewhere that birds remember when someone has wronged them.”
“Hogwash.” Dare retreated several steps in hopes the bird would give up on him and choose another target. “I did nothing to this blasted creature.”
Dare glared at the temptress standing off to the side, hand covering her mouth as she tried her bestnotto burst into peals of laughter right in his face. This was what a man got for chasing the sun.
The bird loomed over him like a bad omen. The price he paid for being greedy.
“Hand me your fan,” Dare demanded.
“My fan? I don’t like to carry one. What would you even do with it?” She stepped forward and held out her arm so that the bird could settle there, and to Dare’s astonishment, the bird changed course.
His face went blank. This colorful monster would bloody Lady Leonora’s milky-pale skin with its claws! Dare sidestepped to block the bird’s path to her arm, shoving his shoulder at the thing instead.
There!If you want to land somewhere, use me.
The bird accepted his offer and settled on his shoulder. Dare stilled as the bird’s feet clenched around his shoulder. It didn’thurt, but he could feel the strength of its talons through his clothes.
Leonora blinked at him with wide eyes.
It was then that Dare realized that he and Lady Leonora were tangled up in each other. Not in an obvious way but, then again, perhaps too obvious in the eyes of their audience if one were to consider it from another perspective. One of her hands had grabbed hold of his when he’d blocked the bird, the other settled on his chest.
Dare stared into sparkling blue eyes, forgetting entirely about the bird. “You’re staring, Lady Leonora.”
“You’re staring too, Lord Dare.”
“The earl’s an idiot!” the bird cried.
He flinched.
Ah, yes. He was an idiot. Perhaps the biggest idiot in all of London. Because right at this moment, with a damn bird on his shoulder and her so near to him, he didn’t want to move. He didn’t want her hand to leave him. Not even for the sake of propriety. And that scared the hell out of him.
“Everyone is staring at us.” He hadn’t looked away from her, but a marble statue would be able to feel all the stares on them.
Regrettably, her hand fell away from his chest, and she took a step back, clearing her throat and patting her cheeks. A horse bursting into the hall right now would be less obvious. Her gaze flicked between him and the bird. “Shall we just blame the parrot?”
“Naturally, it’s the parrot’s fault. Speaking of which,” he deepened his voice and called across the ballroom, “can our hosts please come to collect their bird?”
“The earl is an idiot!”
Dare scowled. “I’m a rake, not an idiot.” Should he just shrug this bright mass off his shoulder? Its talons were beginning to bite into his shoulder, and the thing wasn’t light. Moreimportantly, its beak was huge. If it decided to nip at him, it was going to hurt. A lot.
Leonora’s bubble of laughter finally spilled over. “This is most amusing. You know, most men won’t refer to themselves as rakes. They justare.”
“I’m not most rakes.”
She shook her head. “I cannot refute that.”
