She bedeviled Alec about his manners, provoked him into losing his temper and then reproved him for both his swearing and his lapse of diction, teased him about his disdain for proper attire (neckcloths and coats he preferred to do without much of the time), and generally performed exactly the duties that he had professed to hire her for. Why that should annoy him so much, she said, she simply could not understand. The saucy grin that accompanied her prim words earned her a retaliatory swat on her derrière. Promptly she reproved him for that, too.If truth were told, though, Alec, for all his occasional lapses in the sphere of formal manners, was very much a gentleman. He made no further attempt to lure, cajole or seduce Isabella into his bed, and was, instead, a delightful companion. Rather than being cooled by this forbearance on his part, Isabella’s attraction to him increased by the day. She discovered that she liked her handsome ruffian quite as much as she desired him.Alec kept his part of their bargain, too, sending Isabella back upstairs when, the day after their encounter in the library, she tried to revert to type.
