The Playboy Prince by Nora Roberts Page B

His eyes were glowing as he set her back down. “I adore how you cut me down to size so skillfully.”
    Automatically, Hannah smoothed down her skirt. “I’m sure you’ve mistaken my intent.”
    “The devil I have. That’s what delights me about you.”
    The frustrated look she gave him had nothing to do with the role she was playing. Delighting him had neverbeen part of the plan. She was there to observe, to cement her position and to carry out a plan that was years in the making. Never before had the proper Lady Hannah had to worry about piquing a man’s interest. Even as she calculated how to cancel it out again, he was reaching for her.
    “Your hair’s falling down.” In a casual move he plucked a loose pin that was dangling near her shoulder. “My fault for not putting the top up.”
    “I must look as though I’ve been through a hurricane.” She reached up to put the practical hairstyle back in place. Pins fell out in her hand, loosened by wind and weight. Even as she swore silently, her hair tumbled free, waterfalling past her shoulders to her waist.
    “Mon Dieu.”
Before she could twist her hair back, Bennett had filled both hands with it. Twined around his fingers it was deep, honey blond and soft as silk. He stared, thunderstruck, by the transformation. It waved wild and free around her face, accenting the slash of cheekbones that only looked hard and angular without the framing. Her face no longer seemed thin and bony, but exotic.
“C’est magnifique. C’est la chevelure d’un ange.”
    With her heart pounding, she tried to ignore what she saw in his eyes. It wasn’t innocent delight or casual attraction now. Now there was desire, man for woman, basic, strong and as dangerous as the sea in a storm. She couldn’t move back from him for his hands were buried in her hair. She couldn’t deny the lunge of her own needs as he kept her close.
    It wasn’t supposed to happen. Even now she could tell herself it couldn’t happen. Yet she wanted to be held by him, to be comforted, to be, though the words sounded foolish in her mind, cherished. Desired, needed, loved. All of those things were against the rules, but she found it hard to pull back.
    “Angel hair,” Bennett repeated in a whisper. “Why does a woman bind beauty up and hide it?”
    No, she couldn’t deny what was happening inside her, but she could, as she’d been trained, deny herself. “It’s more practical worn up.” She lifted her hands to scoop it from his and met resistance.
    Yes, he’d been right all along. There was more, much more to her than she allowed to show on the surface. Perhaps it was that which continued to draw him in, make him want, make him need in a way he never hadbefore. If it had been possible, he would have pulled her to him then. It wasn’t the guards that stopped him, but the trace of anxiety he saw in her eyes.
    “If that was true, my most practical Hannah, why haven’t you simply cut it off?”
    How many times had she nearly done so then pulled back at the last minute? Drawing a deep breath she offered the simple truth because truth was often the best cover of all. “Even I have some vanity.”
    “It makes you beautiful.” He dragged his hands through her hair again, hardly able to believe it had been hidden by a handful of pins.
    “Only different.” Her smile hid the tension that was pulling her in two directions.
    “Any man would approve of such a difference.” She was stiff beneath his hands. With reluctance he acknowledged it and released her. “But then, you don’t look for a man’s approval, do you?”
    “I’ve never found it necessary.” With a few expert twists, she had her hair at the base of her neck again. The pins were pushed in until it was secure. She could almost, just almost feel secure herself. “We should be getting back. Eve may need me.”
    With a nod, Bennett began to walk back to the car with her. There would be another time and another place. He found in himself