Manton told me I was one of the first to have it.”
“One of the first,” Jackson emphasized. “It appears Lady Celia was the first.”
She shot him a warning look. He ignored it.
“What Mr. Pinter meant to say,” she said smoothly, “was that Mr. Manton probably tells all his customers that.”
“That is not what I meant to say, my lady,” Jackson retorted, unreasonably annoyed. “I said what I meant, and I’d thank you not to put words in my mouth.”
“I’d thank you not to provoke m-“ She caught herself, casting a furtive glance at her listening suitors. “Forgive me, sir. I wasn’t trying to ‘put words in your mouth.’”
“Of course you were.” He was more than willing to draw her fire if it drove her into showing her real self. “That’s why you spoke as if you could read my thoughts. Which we both know you can’t.” If she could, she’d know that right now he wanted nothing more than to drag her away from these curst gentlemen and kiss every inch of her.
“I say, Pinter,” Gabe put in, “you’re awfully argumentative today.”
“The word you’re looking for is ‘prickly,’” Celia said, a militant glint in her eye. “Mr. Pinter doesn’t like having a mere woman speaking for him.”
That sparked his temper. “I don’t like having anyone , man or woman, speaking for me. I daresay you feel much the same.”
She colored but didn’t turn away, her eyes flashing at him.

Auteur: Sabrina Jeffries