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“AS IF MY OPINION OF Benjamin Marlowe could have been any lower.” Vera’s lips twisted with disdain. “He’s the lowest form of life.”
“Huzzah!” Frederick said. “I’ve finally been bumped out of my prime position on your list of men to hate.”
“Don’t be too certain, Frederick Woolridge.” Vera rounded on him. “There’s plenty of room for you still. What makes you any different? You go through women like you go through good gin.”
“The difference, Vera my love,” Frederick said, smiling, but with no trace of his usual cheer, “is that I am footloose and fancy-free and therefore, am entitled to sample my share of the fairer sex. As you should well know, Miss Pot.”
“Don’t you paint me with your depraved brush, Mr. Kettle.” The two squared off yet again. “I’m not the one cutting a swath through every available man on the island.”
“Here, now. I haven’t been out with every available woman.”
Vera picked up on the implied insult, and her claws came out. “I’ll amend my statement to only include the ones dimwitted enough to fall for your overblown charms. Why can’t you be more like Des? Des is a gentleman. Look at how he handled the situation with Rosemary.”
“What situation with Rosemary?” Max was the one who voiced the question, and Vera, her eyes still locked on Frederick’s face, answered without thinking.
“When Des steals a kiss from a woman, and she’s not certain how she feels, does he press the advance? No, he does what a gentleman does and gives her time to think about her feelings and lets her make up her mind in her own time.”
Unaware of the rising tension in other parts of the room, Frederick stepped closer to Vera, so close his breath mingled with hers. “Trust me, Vera dear, if I decided to press my advance, you’d know how you felt about it without me having to give you time to think.”
Vera shivered under the heat of Frederick’s gaze and after, couldn’t say what might have happened next between them, but before anything could, the sound of Max’s voice cut the moment short.
“You stole a kiss from Rosemary?”
The whole thing might have ended there, but Desmond’s eyes fired up hot. “I did, and I plan to do it again if she’ll have me.”
Always quicksilver, Vera’s mood went from incensed to intrigued, and she grinned up at Frederick. “I think I’ve put the fox among the hens.”
If a fight broke out, Vera would put her money on Max as cold fury always trumped angry heat, but Rosemary wouldn’t thank her for putting the match to the fuse on this powder keg. That fact was driven home by the daggered look Rosemary sent Vera’s way.
“You’ve put your foot in it good and proper now,” Frederick whispered, but he made no move to step between the other two men. Nor did either of them follow the rules of polite society and withdraw for the sake of privacy.
“Stealing implies a lack of permission.” Max fisted his hands at his sides and locked eyes with Rosemary. “Did he coerce you in any way?”
Rosemary shot another annoyed look in Vera’s direction. “It was an innocent kiss, Max.”
“By Jove, Rosemary,” Desmond exclaimed, “when a man kisses a woman like you, he never means it to be innocent. You make me sound like a yapping puppy jumping at your skirts, and what business does Max have in all of this? Are you tied up with him?”
Thoroughly on the spot now, Rosemary looked to Vera for guidance. Juggling men was her area of expertise, but Max answered the question first.
“Not in that way, but we are friends, and I take Rosemary’s happiness quite seriously. What are your intentions towards her?”
Vera let out a sound that could have been taken for one of her precious little sneezes, but Rosemary recognized it as a snort. “Don’t answer that question, Desmond.” She turned to face Max. “Because it’s impertinent. Who I kiss or don’t kiss is nobody’s business but my own.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Vera noted the door to the suite opening and saw Charlotte peer around the edge and fix her gaze on Anna’s door. She’d probably forgotten something when she’d been in earlier. Frowning, the maid seemed to be struggling with her dilemma, one Vera watched play out over her face. Biting her bottom lip, Charlotte sidled into the room, though what she did after, Vera couldn’t say because she turned her attention back to see how Rosemary would handle the two men in her life.
“I’d like to know, too.” Now Frederick jumped in. “Look, mate, you’re my friend, but Rosemary is my sister. If all you want is a flutter, and she’s game, then I’ll stay out of the way. But don’t think I won’t have a go at you if you play around with her affections.”
“That’s it. Enough, Frederick!” Face flaming, Rosemary whirled on her brother. “All of this uproar over a single kiss. Get out. The lot of you. Just go away and let me have a moment to collect my thoughts. Go to the bar, get snockered, take a swim, I don’t care what you do, just leave me alone.”
When Vera made to hang back, Rosemary pointed towards the door. “You, too. Go! Give me an hour’s peace from the lot of you.”
The hour’s peace never materialized. First to the door, Desmond gave Rosemary a long look before turning the knob, and when the door swung wide, the sounds of a commotion in the corridor pushed all thoughts of the last few minutes away.
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