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been drinking?” he demanded.
    “Just an itty-bitty glass of champagne, boss. Not to worry,” she mocked.
    “I do worry,” he said beneath his breath. He studied her face quietly as the music flowed around them. “Wade isn’t the marrying kind, and you are.”
    “What difference does that make?” she asked, shrugging. “You know yourself that men only sleep with the carpenter’s daughter, they don’t marry her….”
    “Eleanor, hush!” he hissed, glancing around to make sure no one had heard her.
    “Why?” she asked. “Are you worried that someone might suspect you of playing around with the hired help?” she whispered conspiratorially. “God forbid!”
    “Eleanor…!”
    “I never knew until then that I had so much in common with the downstairs maid. Isn’t that whom the master of the house usually seduces?” she asked, wide-eyed.
    “Oh, for God’s sake!” he burst out in helpless frustration. “Can’t we have a normal conversation without sex coming into it?”
    “Look who’s talking!” she returned, stopping in themiddle of the dance floor. “And I don’t want to have any normal conversations with you. You’re the only man I know who could probably talk a woman pregnant!”
    He chuckled softly as he gazed at her, his eyes so warm they took the chill of the room off her. “We could try that, I suppose. How about coming with me on a picnic tomorrow?”
    The invitation shocked her, but she kept it from showing. So he was trying to help history repeat itself, was he? Well, he wasn’t manipulating her into any tight corners again.
    She smiled and shook her head. “Thanks, but Wade and I are going sailing tomorrow. He has a sailboat.”
    The hand holding hers contracted. “He’s on the make, you little fool. Can’t you see it? He doesn’t give a damn for you or your feelings. He only wants to get you into bed!”
    “Just like you did?” she probed.
    He glared back at her. “You’re not in his class,” he began.
    Her eyes widened and she smiled coldly. “Thanks a lot for reminding me. I’m not in yours, either, though, am I? Isn’t it beneath you, asking the carpenter’s daughter on picnics?”
    He looked suddenly dangerous, those blue eyes glittering down at her through narrowed lids. Sensing explosions, she pulled out of his arms, regardless of the puzzled glances it brought, and went back to Wade as fast as she could walk. He was waiting, a faint smile on his dark face.
    “Have a problem?” he asked amusedly, glancing past her to a glowering, blazing Keegan Taber.
    “Not anymore, thanks,” she replied. She smiled up at him dazzlingly. “Would you like to dance with me?”
    “Honey chile, I’d love to,” he drawled, and drew her lazily into his arms. “But do you think it’s quite safe?” he added, nodding toward Keegan.
    “Mr. Taber and I just had a minor difference of opinion,” she said sweetly.
    “It looks like he just got punched in the ego to me,” Wade said conversationally. “You really don’t like him, do you?”
    “I like flies better than I like him,” she muttered, glaring at Keegan. “Conceited ape!”
    Keegan must have read her lips, because he turned suddenly and went back to the Irish girl, appropriating her from her current partner with noticeable flair.
    “Just look at him—” Eleanor glowered “—taking women away from other men, making passes at everything in skirts….”
    “He’s quite popular with the ladies,” Wade observed. “I’m surprised you’re able to resist his charm so easily.”
    If only he knew! “I’ve known him for years,” she said shortly. “He’s always around the house these days, talking to my father.”
    “And playing chess?” Wade ventured. He cocked his head and studied her while they danced. “Does he really come to play chess, or to chance his arm with you?”
    “He’d get his arm broken for him if he tried to put it around me,” she returned curtly. “And can we talk about something else?