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‘Oh, very well!’ How he had found her, she had no idea, but he had and now she must deal with it. ‘My name is Latham, Nell Latham. Of course I lied to you. You were angry, you were blaming me for something I know nothing about. You are powerful, my lord,’ she added bitterly, trying to tighten the knots on the bandage. ‘I am not. I need every advantage I can gain. Oh, sit still for goodness’ sake, or you will make it bleed badly again!’
‘How can I sit still with you digging your fingers in like that?’ He showed, unfortunately, no sign of faintness again. The carriage was rattling over the cobbles at a speed that would make it lethally dangerous to jump out, which seemed the only possible means of escape.
Nell turned back from a speculative study of the door handles and glared at her patient. ‘I am attempting to stop the bleeding,’ she scolded. ‘I have to press hard. Now, I am sure we are almost at Albemarle Street and when we get there I expect your man to drive me straight home again—with none of this nonsense about Bow Street.’ Perhaps a voice of firm reason would work.
‘You shot me.’ The piercing eyes were dark with pain, but they had lost none of their force. ‘Shooting a viscount is not nonsense. You could get hanged for less.’
‘It was self-defence, as well you know,’ she retorted. ‘I am a respectable woman, walking home at night, and a large man pounces on me at my door. What am I supposed to do?’
‘Scream?’ he suggested. ‘Hit me with your reticule? That would seem to be the normal reaction. Few respectable women walk the streets of London armed to the teeth.’
‘They do if they are made the pawn in some stupid game between men who ought to know better,’ she snapped back, anxiety making her forget the wisdom of control for a moment.
Under her hands he went very still. ‘Game? This is no game, Nell.’
‘Miss Latham, if you please, my lord. I have not made you free with my name.’ They were turning into Piccadilly, slowing. Her heart raced as she slid off the seat. ‘I have scissors in my reticule. I’ll see if I can cut a better bandage.’
The door opened smoothly as she twisted the handle. The horses were just picking up their pace again—too late. No, she must get away, must jump now. Nell launched herself forward, but was grabbed from behind and dragged back; she landed part on the seat, part on top of the half-naked viscount. The door slammed shut, the carriage lurched as the driver whipped up the team, and Nell took hold of whatever she could to keep from falling to the floor.
What she had done, she realized a split second too late, was to wind one arm around the viscount’s neck and bury her face against his naked chest. His free arm came round and held her to him, his breath rasping in his throat as she wriggled. She managed to pull herself up so they were face to face, so close she could feel his breath on her mouth, see, in the flashes of light as they passed lamps, that his eyes were intent on her face with a kind of focus that sent answering heat surging through her.
He wanted her. Aroused, she supposed, by the chase, by the violence, by his half-naked state and her quivering body clamped to his, Marcus Carlow quite patently wanted her. And for an insane moment, she wanted him too, wanted that strength and the certainty and the sheer animal physicality that lay hidden beneath the veneer of the civilised gentleman.
Desire must have shown in her eyes, or perhaps in the way her breath caught, and he saw it, recognized it. His mouth, when it took hers, was hot and hard. Not polite, not questioning. He had seen the need in her; it met his and so he acted on it.
For a moment it was what she wanted, what she had dreamt of, powerfully erotic, all-consuming, sweeping her away from reality. He made no allowance for inexperience, his tongue thrusting into her mouth with arrogant demand, his lips sealing over hers, his arm shifting her to lie across his legs so she could feel the shameless jut of his erection against her buttocks.
What broke the spell, she did not know. Some sound, the play of the shadows, a touch? She could not be sure, but the dark memories flooded back and with them the shame and the fear. She was no longer a willing partner in this embrace, this primal sharing of heat and breath and desire. She was afraid, hurting, overwhelmed and helpless. Blindly, Nell struck out, fighting, desperate against the man imprisoning her.
One moment his arms were full of supple, warm, yielding woman, the next a fury was struggling to be free, hands and heels flailing, her gasps of passion replaced by sobbed words. ‘No, no, no…’
Dizzy with loss of blood, with desire and pain, Marcus opened his hands. ‘Nell, don’t. I won’t—Nell, it is all right…’ She recoiled from him, wrenching free the arm that had been around his neck, her clenched fist striking his wounded shoulder like a hammer blow. The pain was exquisite, the world went dark. With what remained of his strength, he pulled her back against his body. ‘Nell…safe.’
‘My lord!’ Wellow’s voice? The butler seemed to be shouting down a well. Had he fallen down one? That would explain why there was all this pain. Marcus decided he had broken his shoulder; that was logical. It explained why he was cold and hurting, but it did not explain why he was sitting on something that rocked, or what the light against his closed eyes was.
Relucta
ntly, Marcus dragged his lids open and prepared to deal with this. Only he was not down a well and he appeared to be in his own carriage outside his own front door, half-naked and with Wellow and three footmen all peering anxiously at him from the pavement. ‘What the hell?’
‘Get him inside,’ said a decisive and irritated female voice from behind him. ‘And send for the doctor. He has been shot; the bullet is not in the wound but he has lost blood. Hurry up, if you please! He will catch his death from cold out here.’
‘Managing female,’ he muttered, amused despite himself. If he could only recall who she was and why—
‘Well, someone has to be,’ she snapped.
Oh yes, Miss something… ‘Nell. You taste of cherries.’
‘You will have to carry him,’ she continued, ignoring this. ‘It will take all of you, he is so big.’
‘Not helpless…can walk.’ Marcus got himself upright by hauling one-handed on the doorframe. Hands reached out as he stumbled down the step to the pavement, then a shoulder was thrust under each arm and the footmen began to walk him towards the door. ‘Damn it, I’m not drunk!’
‘No, my lord.’ That was Richards’ soothing murmur. ‘Of course you’re not. We’ll just get you into the warm, my lord.’
The heat and light of the hall made him shudder, suddenly realizing just how cold he was. Marcus freed himself from his supporters and straightened up. He was damned if he was going to be half carried to his own bed, felled by some chit with a pocket pistol.
It was coming back now. And it had not been some chit, it had been Nell Latham and she might have wounded him, but she had kept her head and stopped the bleeding despite being thrown into a carriage on top of the man who had frightened her so much.
He turned slowly on his heel to find her facing him, chin up, her arms full of bloodied shirt and ruined coat. And then his memory presented himself with the damnably precise image of what had happened next. He’d kissed the woman, ravished her mouth like a wounded barbarian dragging home a prize from the hunt. Her eyes widened as he stared at her, the fear flaring again as though she expected him to seize her, there and then, and force her on the marble floor.
