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December 9 - December 11, 2022
Her canny intelligence always grated. “As usual, I have no earthly idea what you are talking about, either, Diana.” The more he got to know her, the more he became convinced she read him like a book, and that really galled him. Because Giles liked to think he was always the canniest person in any room and several paces ahead of the crowd—but she was always hot on his heels. Or more often, he trailed on hers.
If those dreadful experiences made her jaded and tough, then Diana was grateful for them. The world ate naive young ladies for breakfast and spat out the bones—but a savvy one with claws it left well alone.
Instantly, his addled, overworked brain pictured Diana, and a wave of unexpected longing hit him hard before he ruthlessly pushed the image away.
Toward a vexatious dark-haired vixen who never minced her words or pulled her punches. To the woman who had been the constant pithy, prickly bane of his life all the time he had known her. The woman who could expose his lies to the world in a heartbeat if she uncovered them, but also the woman whose reassuring hand and presence had stopped him falling into the abyss when the worst had happened. The woman his wary, frightened, lonely heart missed more than waking Giles was prepared to acknowledge. The woman who was now, reassuringly, only eighteen hours away.
He had put her in the old-fashioned Queen’s Room on purpose because he knew its grandiose ridiculousness would amuse her. The green theme also matched her eyes—not that that had a bearing on his choice. Not that he would admit to, at any rate.
“Have you never looked in a mirror, Diana? Because believe me, you are far too beautiful to blend into anything.” Despite being backhanded, his unexpected compliment excited her. He flapped his hand in the vicinity of her body, looking uncomfortable to be talking about it. “One cannot blend in if one is cursed with being temptation incarnate.”
She smiled as if she understood all he had left unsaid and so did he, so caught up in the poignancy of the moment that neither of them noticed they were being watched.
“But if I could ask…” He had no idea why he felt compelled to be honest but couldn’t seem to stop. “If the chaotic mess of my life were miraculously gone and my ruination and scandal didn’t loom on the horizon like the Grim Reaper … if I were in a position to ask anybody to spend eternity with me, it would be you, Diana.”
Vee’s kind eyes suddenly looked older and wiser than her years. “She will argue the toss until she is blue in the face if she cares the slightest bit to make you think that she doesn’t, but if she really cares and she fears her arguments lack enough conviction and might give away the real her, she is silent. That, my dear Giles, is when you know that you have her. Why do you think we all give her such a hard time over you? Because several months ago she ran out of convincing arguments—even for herself. And her silence is deafening.”