Chapter Eleven
An illicit tryst was a brilliant idea, a perfectly plausible and simple solution when he was over-complicating things yet again. Seb managed to think all this before all rational thought evaporated in the intense heat of the moment. To Clarissa it would seem as if he played his part well, when in reality plunging his fingers into her hair and tumbling her to lie beneath him had been as necessary as breathing. She felt so good in his arms, utter perfection. She curled both hers around his neck, her body softening in surrender as she sighed into his mouth. That was all it took to send him over the edge. His pent-up lust and yearning exploded as he hungrily kissed her, fired hotter by the passionate, earthy way she kissed him back. Seb didn’t need to fake the carnal groan which vibrated in his throat or the rampant need which instantly surged though his body to settle in his groin. Just the taste of her lips and tongue released them and he was powerless to hold back.
Seb filled his hands with her curves, running his flat palm along the side of her silk-covered ribs, her waist, hips. The burning desire to cup the breasts which were pressing insistently against his chest was overwhelming, so he allowed himself to kiss her neck and collarbone, drowning in the intoxicating smell of her perfume on the bared skin above the low neckline of her gown instead before returning like a starving man to her mouth. Almost as an aside, he became aware of the candlelight from the hallway bathing them in a revealing glow and didn’t care because her hands had snaked between the fabric of his jacket and shirt and her nails were raking over his back. In seconds, what had started as a ruse had become very real to him, mirroring his fevered dreams and he never wanted the miraculous, heady experience to end.
‘I say, Millcroft. Bravo!’
At the sound of Lord Gaines’s voice, Seb reluctantly tore his mouth from hers and the pair of them did an excellent job of appearing mortified. Gem wrestled with the misplaced sleeve of her dress because the laces had somehow come loose during their embrace, her eyes wide and a fat coil of tousled hair trailing from her cheek to below the wonderfully pert breast straining against the top of her gown. A breast which had been squashed against his chest just a few moments ago. He didn’t need to pretend to be a gentleman by trying to shield her, because the primal need to hide her bared skin from the unworthy eyes of those men kicked in before he realised it made being caughtin flagrantemore convincing. ‘You don’t waste any time, do you?’
Lord Regis leered openly at her. ‘Now I know why you crept out of the billiards room, you dog—you had better things to pot!’
The cronies laughed bawdily at their own inappropriate humour and nudged one another, shamefully ignorant of how they might be hurting Gem’s feelings at being spoken about as if she were both deaf, mute and inconsequential. Only their host didn’t join in. Penhurst’s eyes took in the scene with barely disguised interest and finally locked with Seb’s as a slow smile spread up his face.
‘Are we interrupting something?’
Seb forced himself to stare back smugly. ‘I’d say youinterruptedsomething, wouldn’t you?’ It sickened him to smile back. Sickened him to treat Gem with such an outright lack of respect, but that was what these men would expect and he hoped she would understand it was what he had to do. ‘And you continue to be an interruption. Be good fellows and disappear.ClearlyI’m not done.’
Gem stood, playing the part of an affronted woman well—or he hoped she was acting. The last thing he wanted to do was treat her like an object as her idiot Duke or these filthy rogues did. She made a pitiful mewling sound as her hands flapped around her mouth and the still-displaced, sadly wilting sleeve, then picked up her dishevelled skirts and dashed from the room.
‘It appears you are done now, old chap.’ Gaines feigned a sympathetic frown and then shuffled towards the decanter on the desk. He sloshed a generous splash of brandy into the glass, took a huge gulp and belched. ‘I knew she’d be a feisty one... I like a feisty one.’ He placed his hand on the bronze buttocks of Aphrodite and bucked his hips for the entertainment of the others, then winked at Seb. ‘Never mind, Millcroft. The week is young and there will be ample opportunities to get your leg over. Especially as she was obviously desperate for it.’
Seb’s stomach was churning with disgust. His fists wanted to pummel Gaines. ‘What can I say? I’m irresistible to the ladies. Always have been. It’s a curse. But who am I to deny them their pleasure?’
‘Westbridge is my friend.’
Penhurst was testing him, Seb knew it just as surely as he knew the callous viscount was as guilty as sin of everything they suspected. All the scoundrel cared about was himself. Men like that had a warped sense of what the wordfriendshipmeant. Seb made a show of adjusting his clothing and tightening his cravat. Only when his cuffs were in their correct place did he deign to answer. ‘Westbridge is a damn fool. If he’d romanced the girl properly, then she wouldn’t be so welcoming of my advances. Instead he plays her off against the Spencer chit right in front of her pretty nose and is oblivious of her needs. Beautiful women like thatneedto be adored. It’s what they live for. I’d be a fool not to enjoy a bit ofadoringif it’s there presented on a platter. And believe me, it is very much on the platter and I am no fool. I do hope it’s not going to be a problem between us.’ Finally he stood and simply stared as he awaited the viscount’s judgement, showing him he neither cared about his opinion nor was remorseful for ravishing a lady right under his roof.
In the end, Penhurst shrugged, unoffended. ‘I can’t say I blame you. I wouldn’t mind taking the chit for a ride myself.’ He would pay for that comment. ‘Once you’ve done the deed, we’ll expect details, Millcroft. All the explicit details.’ He would pay for that one, too.
‘A gentleman never tells.’ Seb winked conspiratorially. ‘But as you know, I am no gentleman.’ Idly he picked up one of the empty crystal glasses and held it out towards Gaines. ‘Seeing as you’ve royally spoiled my fun for this evening, the very least you could do is share that cognac.’ When some was offered to him, he swirled it in his glass and took a sip, then sighed at the taste. ‘Smuggled?’
‘Of course. How did you know?’
‘Because the best brandy always is. Like women, the forbidden is always sweeter.’ He downed the glass and held it out for more. He needed something to steady his nerves enough to do his duty after the most earth-shattering kiss of his life.
* * *
Nearly two hours later, Seb found his way to Gem’s bedchamber and gently tapped on the door. ‘Are you awake?’ To his surprise, the door opened swiftly and she stood before him dressed in another diaphanous and flimsy robe, that beautiful honey-gold hair draped over one shoulder in a thick plait and her trademark ringlets almost completely gone. She ushered him in with a flick of her hand and then closed it swiftly.
‘Did they believe us?’ She wasn’t offended—he instinctively exhaled as that huge weight lifted off his mind—however, she didn’t appear very happy. She had worry lines between her brows and a tightness about her mouth that he had put there and was desperate to erase.
‘Completely. I’ve been tasked with thoroughly ruining you and reporting back all the tawdry details.’
‘Do gentlemen always discuss those things?’
‘None of them are gentlemen.’ His eyes dropped to her lips and he immediately remembered the taste of them. How he had crushed his own against them as his hands had taken liberties. To avoid them he looked down at the floor and felt the tips of his ears warm. ‘Neither was I. I’m sorry if it offended you... The kiss, I mean... I went too far.’
‘Offended? How could I be offended by something I started? And if you went too far, then so did I. If you want to know the honest truth, it was all rather exciting.’
Hope blossomed in his heart and he risked gazing at her face. ‘Really?’ To think that she had felt it, too, that weird, passionate, overwhelming, intoxicating sense of rightness. That she had enjoyed his kisses...
‘Yes! To know I was helping the government made me feel a bit like a spy, too. Thatfrissonof danger and the knowledge it was for justice was thrilling.’ The flame of forlorn hope cruelly snuffed, he simply nodded and hoped the sound of his grinding teeth was inaudible. ‘But it’s tinged with regret. I feel awful for Penny and dreadful for keeping it from her.’
‘I’m sorry about that—but for now it has to be that way.’
Her shoulders slumped as she sighed, but he saw the resignation on her face. She would maintain her silence. For now. ‘Did you learn anything new after I left you?’
Where to start? He learned he wanted to tear Gaines and Penhurst limb from limb. Learned that a kiss could mean the world and alter it completely. Learned that his feelings for Gem were real and visceral and bordering on the forever kind. Now, thanks to her profound uninterest in the effect of his kisses, he was more convinced than before that his stupid heart was destined to be broken by the ethereal creature stood before him. ‘Not really. Aside from the fact that Lord Gaines belches far too frequently for my liking.’
