“Thank you for the ride, Lord Bryant. I won’t keep you.”

He turned toward her, his eyes shadowed in the fading light. “Aren’t you going to invite me in for tea?”

“Surely you have more pressing matters,” Diana replied, rubbing her fingers through her gloves. She eyed his bedraggled cravat. Nothing in the home behind her would tempt Lord Bryant. “Such as reading.”

He smiled. She was becoming almost tired of his smile and the way it sucked in everyone around him. She wished he would be rid of it for a day and allow her to not dwell on whom else he had been smiling at. “I do plenty of reading.”

She cleared her throat and willed her mind to think elsewhere. “I’m certain you do.”

He stepped back and turned his head to one side. “You don’t believe me.”

“I haven’t seen many books dishevel a cravat like that.”

Lord Bryant put his hands on his hips. “I don’t read in my cravat. I would have thought you’d guessed that.”

“How would I have guessed that?”

“You have seen me in my home; I’ve made myself comfortable in your office. Do you really think I would spend an afternoon reading in my cravat?”

Diana turned on her heel and walked to the Richardsons’ door. “I don’t think about what you do with your afternoons. I’m much too busy. But if you were reading without one, I wouldn’t have expected you to mess it up so soon if your valet had just tied it.”

Lord Bryant came up behind her and gently touched her elbow. She paused and took a steadying breath. His touch was worse than his smile. He turned her toward him. “So you think I was busy with much more nefarious pursuits than reading.”

“I just told you, I don’t think about what you have been doing.”

That wicked grin again. “You think I spend my days chasing women and playing cards.”

Of course that was what she thought. Everyone thought such things of him. He never tried to be more noble than his reputation, despite the fact that, at times, she wished he would.

His striking emerald eyes scanned her face. They were the color of the new spring leaves that burst onto the trees lining the drive of Baimbury Hall. How long would it be until she saw those trees again? It was no wonder so many women fell for him with eyes like that. The corner of his lip rose. “If I were to lie about my activities, I promise you I would come up with something more exciting than reading.”

“But you don’t promise not to lie to me.”

“No, I don’t promise that. I only promise that when I lie, they will be good lies.”

Good lies? As if there were such a thing. But when Lord Bryant said it, with that curl of his lip, she wanted to believe him. Spending time with Lord Bryant was corrupting her.

She took in a deep breath and shook her head. “I’ll tell Mrs. Richardson you are coming to tea.”