Must you say things like that in public, for God's sake?"

"What do you mean?"

He lowered his voice to a hiss. "Remember yesterday at the inn? My 'pistol' is making an appearance, thanks to you."

She glanced down at his trousers, which only made them bulge more obviously. Then she lifted a mischievous gaze to his face. "Whatever will you do, now that you're in this...state?"

"Conjugate Latin," he said tersely. "Think of England. Think of anything but you and me doing--Bloody hell, there it goes again, and we're nearly to Rotten Row." He stopped short and stepped behind a bench with a high back that sat near the river.

She stood next to him, pretty as the proverbial picture, her eyes dropping to his trousers with virginal curiosity.

"Would you stop looking at me there? he growled. "You're not helping."

She laughed. "You're the one who started it by trying to seduce me with words. Serves you right if you have to suffer for it."

-Giles and Minerva

Author: Sabrina Jeffries