Smitten by Books

I’m working on this right now…

“Because, my lord, I most heartily dislike you.” Meghan tried her best to carry her grievance with him above the fractiousness of their ongoing discussion. But it wasn’t easy. The man had an ego the size of England itself.

Rhys’s eyebrow—the right one—rose slowly. It was an amazing thing to see. She wondered if that was something one had to practice to perfect to the degree he obviously had?

“Heartily you say?” His tone openly mocked her—she hated that—and his accompanying smile was dangerous in its lethality. “Should I take that to mean you don’t like me at all, or simply more than usual on this fine evening?”

“At. All.” Meghan spoke from between gritted teeth. And not by choice. He was and would always be the most infuriating of men.

His smile remained intact while his eyebrow returned to its original resting place. “I most heartily doubt that.”

He sounded entirely too self-satisfied in all his gloating smugness, which had Meghan seething.

Beyond the pale infuriating.

“Doubt it all you want. It is the truth.” It was amazing she could speak, such was the extent of her vexation.

His gaze narrowed ever so slightly and his voice dropped to just above a whisper. “Truth? I’d give you a dash of the truth but I very much doubt you could handle it.”

He was goading her; fishing for things and hoping she would bite.  She was clever, but she needn’t have been to clearly see that. But she also loathed to back down from a challenge. Especially one filled with such blatant, masculine, meant-to-provoke bravado. More likely than not, he hoped she’d meet his challenge, swords drawn, but but assumed she would not as to deny him the satisfaction.

“Your truth or mine?” she asked with a defiant lift of her own eyebrow.

“There is no mine and yours when it comes to the truth. And the truth between us is very simple. You do not heartily dislike me. You don’t even dislike me. In fact, your problem has always been that you like me very much. And undoubtedly far more than you will ever acknowledge.”