Tempting the Rival by Leighann Dobbs

Author:Leighann Dobbs [Dobbs, Leighann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-11-10T22:00:00+00:00

13

T he warmth of the orangery was a welcome change from the frigid air outside. The chill still hadn’t abated, despite the sun teasing in and out from behind the clouds. When Felicia retrieved the second brugmansia specimen from her wagon, she invited Chubs to join them in the hothouse. Once she assured Gideon that her pet wouldn’t wander, he allowed the mastiff’s presence. Drawn to the heat, the mastiff lay sprawled beneath the vent, along the warm brick wall.

As Felicia set the plant on Gideon’s work bench, he tsked under his breath. She gritted her teeth, but didn’t call him on his reaction. Instead, she waited as he devoted the same treatment to this specimen as he had to the first. He didn’t say a word. Once she’d collected all the buds and other plant matter he pruned away, she called Chubs to her and returned to the wagon to distill oil from the plant. Her portable distiller used coal to heat water into steam, so she left Chubs inside the wagon with the heat while she returned to the orangery.

By the time she stepped inside, Gideon had finished with the second plant. He raised his gaze and she paused inside the threshold of the glass door. His green eyes were penetrating, but unreadable. The tension between them grew palpable. Felicia resisted the urge to cock her hip or bat her eyelashes at him. If he truly saw her as an equal she must treat him that way as well.

Gently, she pulled the door shut and returned to Gideon’s side. She hesitated.

“Shall we get to work?” He gestured to his work bench, clear for the moment of any projects. Without gloves to hide them, the muscles in his hands rippled with the movement, drawing her attention to his long fingers.

She forced a smile as she met his gaze once more. “How much of my research on the subject have you read?” She knew, from arguing with him, that he had at least a cursory idea of what she hoped to create from the brugmansia plant. Before she went into detail, she wanted to know how much he recalled of her theory.

Running a hand through his hair, he admitted, “All of it. I refreshed my memory last night.”

He’d kept the journal containing her hypothesis? That had been published years ago!

Trying to hide her surprise behind a smile, she quipped, “Well, that will make this simpler, then. The distilled oils themselves won’t create the exact effect your brother wants.”

A tick started in his jaw. Rolling his neck, he muttered, “At last, something we can agree on.”

She balled her fists, resisting the urge to smack the smug expression off his face. In a cold tone, she added, “I believe if we combine the oils with ingredients that have the properties we need—much the way laudanum with a strong liquor base lowers inhibitions and increases the effect of sedation—we can essentially create a serum that, when ingested, will yield the desired results.”

His expression twisted in distaste.

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