Benny and Merinda should have been taking Michigan Avenue at a speedier pace. With news that they were integral to an assassination plot, they should have been flurried and flummoxed.
But even as she realized how daft she was in not seeing Ross’s grand plan sooner, in this particular instant Merinda was more focused on her earlier argument with Jem. Benny. Here he was walking beside her, his mind and voice galloping with a thousand different scenarios about the outcome of their association with Ross.
Merinda wasn’t listening. Opting instead to iron out whatever made her heart flutter with his proximity. Merinda Herringford has no time for silly heart flutters. Merinda Herringford is going to almost single-handedly stop a vicious assassination attempt. She didn’t need this Benny-sized distraction. She needed to stand her ground. Stiffen her shoulders and beat him at whatever game they were playing. She wanted to have the upper hand. If she let him, he could overtake her, and she would rather shield herself even if she risked his turning and walking away.
Or she could just kiss him. Her lips tingled at the unwelcome thought.
Merinda Herringford did not make a habit of appearing vulnerable around members of the opposite sex. She was mighty impressed by Benny Citrone, though.
Clearly Benny was mentally thumbing through an index of her own accolades, for he grabbed her arm and pulled her close. “You’re a detective. I’m a tracker. We are so alike. Sniffing out the darkness and… ”
“My sense of smell is not that good,” Merinda huffed, unsure of what she was supposed to say in this situation and lacking a Godey’s Lady’s Book* to help her.
“You use the same abilities.” His mouth was just above hers, his eyes tracing her lips like a pencil. “Just differently. I use the powers of deduction too. Look at the trees, the stars, the imprint of the horse’s hooves on the ground. That, Merinda, is my brand of deduction. You see and observe. I do too, but I am propelled by nature.”
She couldn’t breathe. She tried to fall back on her heels, but he kept her so near and his breath mingled with hers and his eyes were sparkling the most luminous blue. “And that, Benny, is why we can never have a life together. For I am at home in the city.” She waved her hands, indicating the whole of Michigan Avenue.
“A life together?”
Merinda snapped down to earth and tried to recollect the part of her heart that had spilled out of her mouth. Cracker jacks! How did Jem do this? Live like this? Knowing that at any moment the words she kept bottled up might spill out audibly. She’d never speak again. She sputtered, “Who said… what I meant was… you are attracted to me.”
“Pardon me!”
“Do you think that my years of studying the art of deduction have left me immune to male glances?”
“You perturb me,” he said, raking his fingers through his hair. “I fascinate you.”
“Perturb!”
“When I’m near, you lean closer and your eyes spark just a bit. You really do have the most interesting eyes,” said Benny.
“I don’t know whether you’re flattering me or… ”
“Are you attracted to me?”
Merinda coughed. “I do not find you completely repulsive.”
“Nor do I find you repulsive. Indeed, I find you… No. Enough of this. Stop looking at me like that! My handbook says that women are not conditioned for the harsh elements of the Yukon!” Benny said.
“The Yukon!” she spluttered.
Fortunately, before Merinda could become any more flustered and do something completely flabbergasting—like propose—she looked up and realized they had reached the Palmer House.
Merinda chewed her lip. “If you are desperate enough for something, then you believe its resolution into being.”
“That’s not very logical,” Benny joshed.
“I know. But it’s my story, isn’t it? I’m a lady detective who trips into solutions. I have to believe that the conclusion I reach will be the right one because I believe so much in my cause.”
“Which is?”
“That just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t find a way to dig into the mysteries the men in Toronto would ignore.”
“You’d be a great Mountie,” he said proudly. When silence ticked incessantly between them for a few moments, he said, “There’s a lot spinning in that head of yours.”
“I was wondering if I should kiss you,” she blurted. “But that just seemed so commonplace.”
Benny, startled, swallowed. “C-commonplace?”
“You and me.” Merinda motioned between them. “We’re not ordinary. But clearly there is some sort of chemistry here. I think we’d be better suited to arm wrestling.”
“Instead of kissing?”
“Do you want me to kiss you?”
“I… ” Benny’s face took on the color of a ripe tomato.
She leaned in and stood on her tiptoes. Their lips hovered with a phantom closeness for a moment. Everything fizzled and flickered. Their noses nearly touched as the world fell away.
“You have a pretty smile.”
“Yawn,” she said, falling back.