Stephen watched her curiously, waiting for her reply to that wholly improper confession that had left her momentarily speechless and charmingly flustered.
“I don’t believe you,” she finally said through her stunned surprise, which he was certain she’d meant to utter with all the frosty haughtiness of an octogenarian governess but which actually emerged as a husky purr. “You didn’t write, you didn’t say of word of this until now...”
“Because you weren’t ready to hear it.” He still wasn’t certain she was, even now.
She gaped at him silently for a long moment, as if she simply couldn’t fathom him. Then with an irritated scowl, she spun on her heel and stomped away, the dog once more loping behind at her heels.
Stephen stared after her. So, he’d rattled her. And quite thoroughly, too, judg
