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Ben had posted a man outside. He’d informed her last week. “Why doesn’t it surprise me you know how to pick a lock?”
His eyes widened. “Owning a gambling hell doesn’t immediately make one a criminal. I came by my skills honestly.”
Leo sounded far too conversational for her liking. As if their horrible heated discussion at the opera party hadn’t happened. Not a good sign.
“I learned how to pick locks when my mother and I left Cherry Hill.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “She chose one of the worst parts of London to drag me to. Not that it did any good. Marcus found us eventually. Just as I’ve found you. Though you’ve chosen far more luxurious accommodations. You’ve a lovely home. I was unsurprised to find you hadn’t moved back in with your parents. You, being a merry widow and all.”
“I so detest when you do this.”
“Do what? I’m merely making conversation.”
“Say what you’ve come here to say, Leo.” Having him here, knowing how much he despised her, did nothing for her composure. She searched for her steel and found it non-existent. “He isn’t here, if that’s what you’re hoping.”
“Who?” He cocked his head at her.
“Our son.” She plopped down on the ottoman.
A brief flash of wonder crossed his beautiful features.
He does want Daniel.Really and truly.
“Did you send my son,” he emphasized the words, “away so you could have a night with your lover? Have I interrupted your plans for the evening?”
Georgina pressed her lips together.
“You’ll introduce us, won’t you? I assume your lover to be the man who escorted you to the opera the other night. I’m sure he’s a perfect gentleman, except behind closed doors. Perhaps I can offer him some direction. I know exactly where to touch you.”
A small quiver of heat ran down Georgina’s spine.
“Does he bend you over just so,” Leo made a crude gesture, “and fuck you over the arm of your sofa? Very enjoyable. The way your breasts bounce about when—”
“I want you to leave.” Her fingers pushed into the ottoman. “Now. Before I scream the house down.” She stood and pointed at the door. “And whether I have a lover or not isn’t any of your affair, Leo. It never was.” Georgina reached out, deliberately running her hand over the arm of her sofa, caressing the damask suggestively, goading him. “I do love this sofa. The cushions are excellent.”
Something very much like jealousy flickered in the depths of his eyes. “Answer my question.”
She jerked her chin in dismissal, waving at the parlor door. “Must I ask again? Leave.”
“Going to call your lover to have me thrown out?”
The tension in the air of her lovely little parlor grew thick. The fingers of his beautiful, graceful hands stretched and curled against his thighs. Which drew attention to the bulge between his legs.
“I should.” Georgina hastily looked away, her breath quickening. Leo had no idea what she’d been through. How hard it had been to continue to be outrageous Georgina while Lilian put an ocean between Harold and Daniel.
A sound came from him. Less a rumble and more of a growl. Like something savage trapped beneath his now annoyingly sedate and fashionable waistcoat was about to burst free. Leo stalked toward her, his larger body deliberately forcing Georgina back until her spine connected with the bookcase. Some large tome with an incredibly sharp edge poked into her back. Probably the book she’d bought with Ben. The Audubon illustrations of birds.
A soft ache started low in her belly, pulsing and stretching out across her body as Leo surrounded her. Sandalwood and warm male. The hint of a cheroot he’d probably smoked while waiting to pick her locks and break into her home.
“So, call for him, Georgina. Or anyone else. It won’t matter.” Heat radiated off his larger body, wrapping around her.
“I can’t read your mind, Leo,” she protested, her resolve weakening. “You never—”
“I did in a thousand ways. You weren’t listening.” His mouth swooped down hungrily, closing over hers, hard and uncompromising.Punishing.He took her wrists, pinning them easily above her head with one hand. “But you’ll listen now, Georgina.”
A soft moan left her. She didn’t even bother to struggle. It didn’t seem to matter how much he hated her. Or how wretched she felt for what had happened between them. One touch. One look from Leo and Georgina sparked to life. This was why she’d avoided him so studiously after Daniel’s birth. She whimpered as he pushed his hips hard into hers.
“Obviously your lover,” he hissed the word, “doesn’t do a very good job satisfying you, Georgina.” His breath fanned across her neck, tickling the edge of her ear. “Else you wouldn’t be writhing against me.”
“I’m not writhing.” She should really call for help. Emily, the downstairs maid, would come. Stella was upstairs. Robert, her footman and driver, was in the kitchen.
