“Why?” She looked around the room. “Is the turret structurally unsound?”
“No. The peril isn’t from crumbling walls. It’s not from rats or bats or even ghosts.” Skimming his fingers along the wall, he circled the turret perimeter, until his fingers just grazed her arm. “It comes from me.”
He was a large man and a strong one. If he truly wanted to hurt her, there would be little Izzy could do about it.
But in her heart, she just didn’t believe he would.
She couldn’t say he wouldn’t hurt a fly. But he’d declined to hurt a weasel, and that seemed to say volumes more.
“Miss Goodnight, I’m a man who has spent a great deal of time in solitude. You’re a defenseless, tempting woman. Do I have to spell it out for you? You’re in D-A-N . . . ger.”
She bit back a laugh. “Your spelling is a bit scary.”
“I could ravish you.”
He said it so solemnly. Now she couldn’t help but laugh.
His brow furrowed. “You think I’m joking.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “I’m not laughing at you. Forgive me. I don’t doubt your skill at ravishing women. I’m sure you’re quite accomplished at . . . at ravishing. Expert, even. I laughed because no one’s ever threatened to ravish me.”
“I won’t believe that. With this hair?” His touch drifted to her neck. “And this softness? You have the voice of a temptress.”
What Izzy had was the beginnings of a cold, and she could have told him so. She could have explained that there was a very logical reason she’d never been in danger of ravishment, and it was because she was plain.
But was she truly plain, here and now? With a blind man, in the dark?
If he was tempted . . .
Didn’t that make her a temptress?
She’d always envied beautiful women. Not solely for the beauty itself but because when attributes were parceled out by whatever deity assigned them, beauty seemed to come tethered to confidence. She craved that more than anything.
He swept a touch up her spine, and his hand brushed aside her plaited hair to settle on her bare neck.
A rush of power went through her, magnificent and intoxicating.
“Who lets a woman like this go untested?” He caressed her nape. “I won’t believe no man’s tried.”
“Oh, you know how it is,” she said lightly. “It must be the stunning degree of my beauty. It puts them off.” Surely, he would catch her joking tone. And if he did take her to be serious . . . Whom could it possibly hurt? “I suppose all the gentlemen are intimidated.”
His thumb rubbed over her lips. “I’m not intimidated.”
Suddenly, she didn’t feel quite so bold.
“Goodness, think of the hour,” she said. “If I’m going to set about improving this place tomorrow, I suppose tonight I ought to return to my—”
A drop of molten wax rolled downward, singeing her hand. Izzy dropped the candle. The flame was extinguished before it even hit the floor.
The turret was instantly plunged into darkness.
Her heartbeat began to race. Oh, drat. And just when she’d been holding her own with him. So much for being a woman in his eyes. So much for being his temptress. He’d laugh at her if he knew how she felt. How could this little girl hold a claim to any castle? She was a ninny who swooned in the rain and shrieked at bats and quivered helplessly in the dark.
Perhaps he wouldn’t notice the quivering part.
His hands went to her shoulders. “You’re shaking.”
Drat, drat, drat.
“I’m fine. I just dropped the candle, that’s all. If you’d just be so good as . . .” She swallowed hard. “As to show me back downstairs.”
“I don’t think so.”
Oh, Lord. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. He was going to leave her here. Alone. In this tiny room, up thirty-four steps, in the miserable, moving blackness. And that would teach her, wouldn’t it?
But he didn’t leave her. Instead, he took her in his arms.
And pulled her close.