Sari Robins by When Seducing a Spy

half. He’d always had a weakness for redheads, ever since he was a lad. Crimson hair and milky white skin that looked smoother than cream had a way of making his body warm in decidedly uncomfortable ways when he was in public. It was one of the reasons he liked Penelope—she was the kind of woman whose influence would be very appropriately limited to the bedroom.
    Bills watched Tess with a decidedly assessing eye. “She’s not the typical well-bred lady, I’ll grant you that.”
    Heath straightened. “There was nothing wrong with her rearing. She was brought up in the manner befitting her station.” Heath had not liked her parents, but he respected the education they’d provided their children. Before the “incident,” his father had been in charge of the children’s instruction, and for all his faults, Heath’s father was a gifted tutor. If only he could respect the lines of propriety drawn for him.
    Bills sipped from the dainty teacup. “That’s not what I meant. It’s simply that she’s not particularly transparent. She’s not as easy to read as the typical English lady. She doesn’t flutter or flirt.”
    “Nay, not Tess.” But she had that mutinous streak that was far more beguiling. When had that happened? As a child she’d avoided confrontation at every cost, easily granting whatever anyone else wanted. Tess had been one of most biddable people he’d ever known.
    “Nor does she have a withering tongue or use all of those wonderful double entendres. She’s one to hold her cards close to her chest. Lovely chest that it is.”
    Scowling, Heath straightened.
    “Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed,” Bills charged. “You can’t seem to pull your eyes from her figure.”
    As he leaned back, Heath’s gaze happily settled on Tess once more. “I’m investigating her, I need to watch her.” Lush curves, milky white skin, and all. She moved as if unaware that she was so enthralling, but he knew that any woman that alluring had to be well practiced in the art of seduction.
    “So was she always so sphinxlike?”
    “No.” Heath shifted, recalling a time when he could read every emotion on Tess’s face. Aside from her expressive mouth, her blue eyes had dipped when she was sad and crinkled at the corners when she was pleased. Often, even without the benefit of seeing her, he could tell by her footsteps if she was happy or upset about something. As a child she’d tended to skip when she was joyful. He could hardly imagine that girl had grown up to be the inscrutable woman standing across the room from him today.
    Her pretty face was closed, unreadable, her blue eyes hooded from view. Even her body gave little hint as to what she was thinking. She was poised, but other than that she was no open book for anyone’s perusal. But oh how he would love to peel open those pages…
    For the investigation, of course.
    “You didn’t really speak of your history overmuch.”
    Tearing his gaze from Tess’s lush rear, Heathcoughed into his fist to clear his suddenly dry throat. “I hardly recognize the girl I knew.” Anxious to shift the topic, he nodded to the newest entrants to the room. “Who are those two?”
    “A countess and a friend. That’s all I know. Lucy told me that they are making application for membership, too. No doubt that’s the countess on the left.”
    “No doubt.”
    Not only were her silken skirts, heavy diamond necklace and earrings indication, but the lady’s bony shoulders were squared back and her hawkish nose lifted high with a decidedly authoritative air. She stood a full head shorter than the storklike Lady Blankett, yet seemed taller for some reason. Her dark curly hair piled atop her head like a beehive might have added to the effect, in great contrast to Lady Blankett’s tight graying blond chignon.
    Heath blinked, as realization dawned. “Lucy? You mean Mrs. Thomas? You’re on a first-name basis?”
    “We need to keep an eye on that one,” Bills commented, his