She swung her fist, landing a solid punch in his gut. He coughed out another laugh. “That’s more like it.”
“How bold of you, Mortimer!”
“What else would you have me do?” Oliver asked. He’d acted out of instinct, but he still didn’t regret his actions. He’d do it again.
“I don’t know, but akiss?”
He straightened, fingers circling her wrist and pulling her towards the path that led to the stables. “It was but a peck, if it can even be called that.”
“A kiss by any other name is still a kiss!”
True. “A necessary evil.”
“Lawks, I cannot believe you just referred to a kiss as a necessary evil.”
Neither could he. The woman scrambled his brains.
Every single time.
Chapter Twelve
They were onthe road within a quarter of an hour. However, Louisa had never known time to pass in such a slow, daze-like pace. She could scarcely remember how she had gotten to the carriage, her head busy replaying detail for detail the brush of Mortimer’s lips on hers, his hand clamping around her wrist, him pulling her all the way towards the stables without letting go.
A peck, he had said.
What peck?
That made it sound as if it was nothing. A small little thing of no consequence. Nothing to dwell on. But if lips brushed lips, what else could it be called but akiss? A. Kiss. And what’s more, that was her first kiss.
Louisa couldn’t claim she had been obsessing over her first kiss and how it would occur since she was a little girl. She hadn’t. However, she had at least known to some degree if it should happen—when it did happen—that it would be special. Meaningful.Breathless.
Very well.
Ithadbeen breathless.
But what about meaning?
Fine, if she had to nitpick, then she supposed it did have meaning, since if he hadn’t kissed her,peckedher, they might have been caught. She just didn’t care much for this meaning. And special?
She shot him a narrow look.
Well, it was a little, very tiny bit special.
Because it washim.
“You can hit me more if you like,” he murmured, his voice low and laced with something infuriating that made her heart quicken.
She scoffed. “One punch was enough.” Quite honestly, she didn’t know if she could lift her armtopunch the man again. Both of them seemed to have gone rather numb. She handed him the ledger instead. “Oh, I recalled that we still have copies of the betting book. I would keep the ledger if I were you.”
The eyes that met hers glinted. “I recalled the same thing earlier as well. Do you have copies of the whole book?”
Louisa turned over her answer carefully. “I believe Ophelia might, though I’m not sure how complete her copies are or if she has done away with them. However, they are also all over London.”
He fell silent, then said, “There are other betting books the club should have filed away after they were filled, but I’d rather use the most recent one. And if my suspicions are correct, they will not use the same method again.”
Louisa nodded. “That makes sense. Then shall we copy the ledger?”
He nodded. “That is not a bad idea, Lady Louisa.”
