He reached her desk, placed both hands on it, and leaned down until his face was level with hers. Once again, he raised an eyebrow. Couldn’t those things stay still? “Again, I would have to disagree.”

Diana gathered a few papers and stacked them neatly together. There was nothing else to tidy on her desk, so she faced Lord Bryant again. His eyes were the exact shade of his waistcoat, and they were only inches from her own. “You may have fascinated a few women with these types of activities, but no woman will love you because of them. You will never touch a woman’s heart. Not truly. That simply isn’t how women work.”

Lord Bryant swallowed, then pushed off her desk and stood straight. His eyes closed for a moment as if he were in pain, but when they opened again, she couldn’t see any hurt, only determination. He pushed his sleeves up higher on his arms, then strode back to her desk, once again half leaning on the corner. He spun a delicate gold signet ring on his pinkie finger. It was thinner than most men’s rings. Had it been his wife’s?

“What makes this so interesting is that I’m not actually trying to make you fall in love with me. You know as well as I do that all this pretense stops if either of us truly forms an interest in the other party. That being said, if I had wanted to make a woman fall in love with me, truly—” He pivoted on her desk, his eyes now watching the street through the window. “What should I have done?”

Diana stilled. He wasn’t laughing or being a shameless flirt. He almost seemed in earnest. Lord Bryant in earnest was something for which she was not prepared. She much preferred him jesting and removing clothing. At least then she could sigh and throw her eyes to the ceiling. She blinked hard and slid a small mountain of paperwork to the outside of her desk. “Well.” She cleared her throat. “If said women were anything like me, you could have started by underlining all the expenses related to the current Barton line. Once they are marked, add them all together.”

He turned and eyed the paperwork with a half grimace. “This doesn’t seem like a task for a gentleman.”

“You asked my opinion, and I gave it.”

“I’d much rather trace a kiss or two along the inside of your wrist.”

Diana forcefully kept her wrists facing down. She wouldn’t look at them or give him the satisfaction of letting him see her interest. She had never even considered the inside of her wrist to be a place of seduction, and now suddenly she could think of no other spot on her body. It was as if all her nerves were focused on those two joints. The veins that ran through them felt as though they were on fire. She grabbed her pen and the closest paper she could find on her desk. She needed to get back to work. “And that, Lord Bryant, is exactly why I will never fall in love with you.”