Victoria averted her gaze and blushed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to mix business and pleasure,” she lied.

“So being with me would be a pleasure?” he asked. “Because it’s hard to tell. You’re a bit thorny.”

Horny, is more like it. While his frankness was a bit unsettling, the hunger in John’s eyes made her feel things she hadn’t felt since...well, reading For the Duke’s Convenience. “I... I don’t think, I didn’t mean it like that,” she stammered. “We’re supposed to be working on book stuff.” Book stuff? Victoria had lost the expansive vocabulary she was known for. John asked something of her that she hadn’t ever imagined in her bookish life.

As if to press the point, he leaned forward until his mouth was at her ear and whispered. “I assure you, we can do both.” Warm breath tickled her skin and sent a shiver up her neck. “But to be fair, only one would feel like work.”

There was nowhere else for her to move; History was at her back and John was tantalizingly close to her front. Victoria turned her face just slightly to meet his profile. In his sandy brown beard, tiny flecks of silver hid near his temple. For a second, she wondered what it would feel like to reach up and run her finger along that spot. She didn’t know what her next move would be, but she found herself not wanting to escape. “How would uh...the book part work if we’re engaged in...” She searched for the words and came up miserably empty.

John pulled back slightly until they were face to face, just a mere inch or two apart. She was going to pass out if she couldn’t control her own breathing. “A sordid affair?” he asked with a quirk of his lips.

Victoria nodded dumbly.

“I don’t usually engage in sordid affairs,” he whispered. “But I’m painfully curious about a well-organized, extremely professional woman who’s so buttoned-up that she might pass out from suffocation.” So he can hear my labored breathing. “I want to know why she’s in love with a rakish duke. He is a rake, right?”

“Pretty much,” she said with a shaky voice. “He’s reformed by the end of the book though.” He was close enough to kiss, if she wanted, but she wasn’t sure if she should. She wanted to do something, anything to break up the unbearable tension that made her breasts heavy with anticipation and set her skin on fire. “He’d probably try to kiss a woman in a library before asking about a sordid affair though.”

A wide grin spread over John’s face. “Is that a fact?” He nodded thoughtfully before adding. “I probably should have kissed you first, huh?”