Page 20 of Crying Wolfe
He had the most ridiculous notion to squirm beneath her direct gaze. “I should watch my mouth around ladies,” he muttered.
Her shoulder lifted, and she tilted her head in a pose most alluring. “Not on my account. I find it sort of…charming.”
A bark of mirth escaped him. “Now I know you’re lyin’.”
“Well, let us say it’s refreshing,” she amended. “We women are so cossetted, left so far outside the realm of men. I often wonder what they talk about in their smoke-filled rooms while swirling their brandy or port. What forbidden words they say to each other.”
Eli pulled a face. “You…probably don’t want to know. You’d either be bored or disgusted.”
“I’m not easily bored,” she informed him.
“Must be nice. I’ve always got to be doing something or I go mad.”
“You don’t sleep?”
“I sleep fine. I just exhaust myself first.”
She regarded him quizzically. “What do you do to rest, then? To relax?”
He shook his head, trying to remember the meaning of the words. “I’m not sure I’m good at relaxing. An easy day for me is working from sunup and allowing myself to quit at sundown. That’s how money is made in America. Here, too, these days.”
“I’ve—I’ve heard you’ve amassed plenty.” She put her pencil down, a pretty peach blush spreading over her cheeks. “Morley said they call you King Midas.”
“Just Midas,” he snorted. “We got no kings where I’m from.”
“I wonder what that’s like.”
“It’s fine, I guess… I mean, there are always captains of industry. Power is forever up for grabs. And those with the money have the power, so someone’s always waiting in the wings to take it from you. To steal or siphon what you have for their own gain.”
Both her brows and her lips tilted down. “Sounds…exhausting.”
“It can be,” he shrugged.
“Well, perhaps since you’ll be a married man, you can take up a relaxing hobby of some sort.” She turned this way and that, as if looking for an extra idea that might have dropped on the floor. “Perhaps you might attend lectures on geology since you are so intent upon what is found in the earth. Or even astronomy if you find that you fancy it.”
Sounded like a great way to work a nap into his day.
Eli’s mouth twisted as he paused before replying. He was too rich to care what people thought. Too ambitious to mind what they felt. So why did he hesitate to tell her the truth? Because he wanted her approval? Wasn’t much a call for that now. If he put on airs and graces, he’d only disappoint her in the future when she discovered what he really was. “I don’t know if I’d do so well at educational pursuits, seeing as how I have no education to speak of.”
She lifted a hand to her mouth. “You never went to school?”
Scratching at an itch behind his ear, he shifted uncomfortably. “I learned my letters and numbers well enough, but not so much in a schoolroom. When other kids went, I had to work to keep myself fed.”
“Oh. I—I’m so sorry.” Her gaze broke away, and she chewed on the inside of her cheek as if doing so might save her from an uncomfortable conversation.
Or an unwanted marriage?
God, they were as unsuitable as the proverbial fish and bird. He’d spent his life in the dirt and she with her head in the clouds. No, further than that. The stars.
With a giant sigh, he motioned to the telescope. “Show me what’s so amazing up there that you’d risk your life and freedom to watch it.”
Closing one eye, she checked the lens and broke into the most genuine smile he’d ever seen. “This is perfect timing. The Andromedids are so active! I think the shower is peaking just about now.” She lingered over the lens, tendrils of her hair sliding over her shoulder as she bent forward. “Extraordinary. I’ve never seen it like this.”
Straightening, she beckoned to him with several flaps of her hand. “Come. Come. Bend here and use your dominant eye, as it’ll blink less. Careful not to bump it too hard. Here you are. That’s the way.”
As he levered at the waist, he had to bend down much further than she did to press his eye to the scope. Once he’d positioned himself, her hand fluttered like a moth over his shoulder blade. As though she wanted to encourage him but was uncertain where to land.
He found his back ever so slightly arching toward the touch, much like a cat might search for a stroke.
