Page 35 of How the Earl Entices

“Well, he’s not in here with me!” she shouted back, once more seizing upon anger as a way to fight against opening the door. “The only man I’m concerned with is my worthless husband who’s spending the night downstairs in his cups.” She couldn’t stop the smile playing at her lips as she looked down at him and added, “And most likely between the thighs of whatever pox-ridden wench will have him. Woe to her for her pains. Believe me,Iknow!”

That stunned the men into silence.

Ross studied her closely. Sweet Lucifer, she was good at deception.Too good. What on earth had she been through to make spinning pretense like this second nature?

“That damnable nodcock hasn’t been in any jail, although if you feel so inclined, do me a favor and take him away,” she ordered with all the imperial haughtiness of a gentleman’s wife in a long-suffering marriage. “And leave me to my sleep! The coach leaves in a few hours, and if my eyes are puffy because of this—oh, the magistrates will certainly hear of how you’ve treated a lady! Forcing yourselves into her room in the middle of the night!” She paused, then added in a calculating voice, “You men report to the Justice of the Peace in Chilworth, do you not?”

At her subtle threat, muffled conversation rose in hushed tones behind the door. Then one of the men called out, “Apologies, ma’am.”

They moved on, heavy footsteps pounding up the backstairs and across the slanted ceiling of the tiny room.

She let out a heavy sigh, and the tension drained out of her. A relieved smile pulled at her lips, and she moved her hand down to the middle of his bare chest to give him a gentle pat.

“Quite a performance.” He didn’t know whether to admire her talents or be terrified.

She laughed softly. “It worked, didn’t it?”

When she moved to slide away, he slipped his hand behind her neck and tugged her down across his chest.

She tensed with a sharp inhalation as she landed on top of him. Both of them were suddenly aware of the way she was straddling him in the narrow bed, how her full breasts pressed against his chest through the thin cotton of her gown and her thighs hugged his hips. He could see the fierce pounding of her pulse in the hollow at the base of her neck as he placed his mouth close to her ear.

“That was an unnecessary risk,” he murmured, slipping his hand up to shove his fingers into her silky hair. Despite the pinch in his side from his sore ribs, his discomfort already heightened by the way she straddled him, the siren song of her was simply too tempting to resist.

She closed her eyes against the brush of his hand through her curls and whispered, “There was nothing to lose…everything to be gained.”

When he massaged his thumb in hard, slow circles against the base of her skull, she shivered. He drank in deeply the spicy-sweet jasmine scent of her, reveling in her softness and warmth as she still sat perched over him.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” The harshness of his chastisement was lost as he brushed his mouth over her cheek.

“Had to protect you.” She lifted her chin, just enough to keep his lips frustratingly away from hers, yet her fingers curled into the hard muscle of his chest. She wanted him to kiss her; he could tell from her quickening breaths and racing pulse. But the damnable woman was too stubborn to let herself claim the pleasures he eagerly wanted to give. “You’re no good to me in gaol.”

He grinned at that blatant lie and slid his hands over her, from her shoulders down to the small of her back. Her thighs clenched against his hips and jolted a throbbing pain both into his ribs and down the length of his hardening cock.

He smiled at her obstinacy. So determined to deny herself, even as her body ached for his. And he certainly wanted her. If she simply writhed her hips against him, she’d discover for herself exactly how much.

Unable to resist, he rose up to kiss her.

But she shifted away and sat up, keeping her mouth just out of his reach. So he took what little taste of her he could with an open-mouth kiss to her throat, eliciting a soft whimper of longing from her. He smiled against her neck. That kiss almost had her surrendering in his arms. How many more could she withstand before she surrendered?

“You make it damnably difficult for a man to properly thank you,” he drawled, frustration audible in his voice. His hands on her hips slid lower—

Cold water splashed over him.

He let out a curse of surprise as she poured the water from the basin pitcher over his head, instantly cooling his ardor and ending all thoughts of thanking her further.

He narrowed his eyes. The damned woman still sat perched on top of him, holding the pitcher between them like a trophy. Or a weapon.

She gave him a wide, saccharine smile. “You’re welcome.”

Then she slid off him and returned the pitcher to the washbasin beside the bed.

“I think we should dress and see what kind of transportation we can hire this morning, don’t you?” she asked casually as she reached for her clothes, as if dousing a man in her bed was a common occurrence. For this hellion, it might very well have been. “It’s still a long way to London.”

Flicking the water off his face and chest, he blew out a hard sigh and bit back a second, far less complimentary curse.Damnable woman. With a hand pressing against his ribcage—which wasn’t the only part of his body that now irritated him—he stood and turned toward her to fling a cutting reply.

At that moment, the first bright rays of sunlight fell through the tiny window high in the wall. Bright enough to stream through the thin cotton of her night rail and silhouette the curves beneath. Every tantalizing inch of her was revealed, from the dusky rose of her nipples to the soft patch of feminine curls between her thighs.

Dear God, she was beautiful. And that, along with her sharp mind and the challenge she posed every time they sparred—