The Perfect Temptation (5 page)

the distance between them, to
more effectively pin her gaze

with his. "Let's go back to
where we were when you attempted

to derail me. WIll Mohan be a
wise leader?"

Clearly, he wasn't going to abide
by accepted social

conventions. "It's too early
to tell," she all but snapped.

"He is, after all, only ten
years old. His judgment is that of

a child."

He made no attempt to contain his
smile. ''That was physically

painful for you
,
wasn
'
t
it?"

''And the possibility of it
pleases you greatly."

''A
half-related
truth." He sat back once more and pushed

his hands into his coat pockets,
adding, ''That makes a fourth

way you can answer. I'm
impressed."

He had to be the most
insufferable man in all of London.

In all of England. Perhaps even
the entire British empire. The

possibility of enduring his
questioning and derisive comments

for the foreseeable future was more
than she could

bear. "Is there some
particular reason why you have this apparent

compulsion to needle me, Mr.
Terrell?" she demanded,

determined to resolve their
contest one way or the other. "Do

I remind you of someone you
especially dislike?"

"Well, you certainly don't
appear to have any difficulty
in

asking a direct question."

''A
related
truth, Mr. Terrell," she shot back
.
"Perhaps

even an attempt to change the
subject. But not an answer."

His smile was easy and broad,
crinkling the corners of his

eyes and sending a hard jolt into
the center of her chest. "And

you don't appear to like evasion
any better than I do, Miss

Radford. Shall we call a truce?
Or
shall we just continue to

verbally fence until one of us
actually succeeds in drawing

blood?"

A truce? Dear God, no. Not under
any circumstances. She

needed to keep as much distance
as possible between them;

he had a way of undermining her
concentration
,
of stirring

feelings that she suspected might
grow to be uncontrollable.

"I don't much care for your
manner, Mr. Terrell," she admitted.

"You're disrespectful,
sarcastic, and appear to be, at

best, only marginally interested
in the task to which you've

been assigned."

He snorted softly and his smile
widened. "I've been assigned

to the task for less than fifteen
minutes. The majority

of that time has been spent
trying to pry straight answers out

of you. And not altogether
successfully, I might add. Which

means that, to this point,
anyway, you haven
'
t earned my respect."

His smile faded and his eyes
darkened to the color of

a storm-shadowed sea "As for
sarcasm ... I don't like being

treated like a boot-licking
minion, Miss Radford."

"Especially by women,"
she clarified, her pulse racing in

the face of prodding his obvious
anger.

"Mostly by spinsters with an
inflated sense of self-importance."

There it was; the unvarnished
truth of it. He'd accurately

concluded that she wasn't the
sort of woman who would

ever wrap herself around his
ankles and beg him to deliver

her from evil. And since she
didn't meet his standards of

femininity, he wasn't obligated
to meet the expectations of a

modern Saint George. It certainly
wasn't the first time she'd

been declared insufficiently
female, but that truth didn't dull

the pain. In fact, inexplicably,
the barb seemed to have gone

deeper this time than ever
before.

Summoning every shred of her
dignity, Alex found what

she hoped passed as a serene
smile and said, "It's apparent

that we're not going to be able
to work well together,
Mr.
Terrell.

I
think
it would be best
if we had the driver turn back."

"As long as you
understand," he countered, "that I'm the

closest approximation to a
gentleman that Barrett Stanbridge

can assign to you.
If
you're
looking for abject subservience,

you're going to have to find
another private investigator."

Subservience would be perfect. It
was the way men had

usually treated her. It was one
of the more positive benefits of

being a royal tutor, the only
British member of a royal Indian

household.
"Mr.
Stanbridge
himself will do quite nicely," she

mused aloud. "He has a most
appropriate demeanor."

Terrell glared at her as another
of his derisive smiles

lifted one corner of his mouth.
Alex drew a slow, deep breath

and waited.

"If Barrett were the least
interested in being the one to

stand between the little raja and
harm, he would have stepped

up to it and you and I would have
ended our acquaintance at

his office doorway. But since
it's you and me sitting in this

rented hack together ... "

She'd been backed into a corner.
Ruthlessly tamping down

a swell of fear, Alex calmly
announced, ''Then I
will
simply

have to find another
investigator."

''Where?'' he inquired,
chuckling. "You've already interviewed

all of the reputable ones in
London."

"Excuse me?" she asked,
stunned that he somehow knew.

He settled his broad shoulders
into the corner of the carriage,

stretched his long legs out,
folded his arms over his

chest, and grinned
.
The
pit of Alex's stomach tightened even

as her skin warmed and tingled.

"You said that you put the
injured guard on a boat for India

three weeks ago," he began.
"Given your determination

to protect your ward, I'm
obsessing that you haven
'
t spent the

last three weeks forgetting to
hire a replacement guard. I

think
you've
made the rounds and went to Emmaline for a

recommendation only when the
obvious, more
-
publicly

known choices didn't meet your
standards. Barrett is a very

private investigator
.
You
only know about him by personal

reference. So, following the
deductive logic to the end ...

You have two options, Miss
Radford. It's me or go it alone."

He might actually do a decent job
of protecting Mohan.

His mind worked with surprising
precision and clarity. Not

that she was about to share that
bit of appreciative insight

with
him.
And not that she was willing to surrender control

of any situation to him, either.
''What credentials and experience

do you have, Mr. Terrell?"

He laughed silently and she knew
that he was thinking,

Change of subject.
Blessedly,
though, he found some grace

and didn't torment her.
"Relatively few, actually. I was once

ten years old and have younger
brothers, so I do have a basic

understanding of what goes
through the minds of boys.

Beyond that ... " He
shrugged. "Barrett has decreed that
I
shall

spend my life productively. I've
discovered that, for the time

being, it's easier to acquiesce
than fight him on the matter."

"Do you always take the
easiest course?"

"Rarely, actually. I'm
reforming at the moment."

Alex arched a brow, wondering
just how much of an improvement

she was seeing.

"No, not happily and not by
much," he supplied, apparently

able to read her mind. "But
since a child's life is in

danger, I'll manage to trudge
along."

She understood the edgy
resignation she heard in his

voice; she'd spent
all
of
her life trudging through one duty

after another. Nevertheless ...
"I don't find that attitude

very reassuring, Mr.
Terrell."

His smile faded slowly and, as
they had the last time

she'd prodded
him,
his
eyes darkened. "I'll do what I must to

protect Mohan for as long as
necessary. How you feel about

me in the process really doesn't
matter one whit."

Why on earth that taunt bothered
her-and bothered her

deeply-she didn't know. It was,
however, quite liberating if

not completely honest to counter,
"Which sums up perfectly

my sentiments concerning your
opinions of me, Mr. Terrell."

"Good," he said, openly
assessing her. 'We have an agreement.

Our first." .

"And quite likely our only
one."

"No. One more is absolutely
essential. I'm responsible

for the child's protection and
I'll make decisions in that regard.

You'll agree to respect
them."

"Only if I consider them
wise ones, Mr. Terrell. I won't

surrender my good judgment to you
or anyone else."

There was a long moment of
silence during which the

rented carriage slowed and drew
out of traffic. As it eased to

a stop in front of Emmaline's
shop, Terrell leaned forward in

the seat, took the door handle in
hand and said, "I'm a fairly

reasonable man. I'm willing to
discuss whatever issues may

arise, but only to a certain
extent. When I m:aw the line, it:s

drawn and I won't tolerate
dissension or reSIstance from eIther

you or Mohan." . .

"How very imperial of
you," Alex observed.

He grinned, dimpling his cheek
and sending another
jolt

into the center of her being.
''I
can go toe to toe WIth the best.

You've met your match,
duchess." Then he winked, popped

open the door, and vaulted out
onto the snow-covered walk.