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“I knew it,” she said with a watery smile despite the fact that she very much had not been so sure.
He let out a harsh breath, swore an oath, and took her mouth in a bruising kiss, pushing his lips against hers hard enough that her head hit the squabs. She barely had time to let out a gasp before his tongue invaded her mouth, sweeping past her lips with deep, aggressive strokes. She answered in kind with a throaty moan and clumsily wrestled for dominance. She was seconds away from throwing herself on him without abandon, when he wrenched away, wiping his mouth with the side of his sleeve and staring at her in utter bewilderment.
“What are you doing to me?”
She preened with feminine pride at his words, despite her shaking hands and heaving chest. “That was all on you.”
He backed up with narrowed eyes. “I am never doing that ever again, you hear?”
Goodness, she had him in a complete tizzy, didn’t she? Kitty smiled serenely, mentally celebrating this great victory. “Of course, Your Grace.”
“Do not get any silly notions in your head, woman,” he said as he gathered his hat and perched it on his head. He opened the door and all but flew out of the carriage like a whirlwind onto the side street they had discreetly been parked on, slamming the door shut without another word.
Kitty opened the curtain to give him a theatrically saucy wave only to see him already storming down the street at a brisk pace. She smiled to herself, rubbing a hand over her stomach to settle the butterflies. “He’ll be back.”
Within a few minutes, the carriage pulled up to her home, and Kitty all but floated up the front stairs and through the door, barely remembering to give her butler a friendly greeting as she handed him her cloak.
“Pleasant outing, Miss?” Halston asked politely.
“Very much so,” she replied, trying not to sigh dreamily as the memory of the kiss replayed in her mind. Kitty knew next to nothing about seduction, but surely Ashford’s actions today were a good sign she was well on her way to achieving her goal, whatever exactly that goal was. Well, her body certainly seemed to know, if the way she had reacted to Ashford’s embrace was any indication.
How fascinating. She knew nothing beyond the dissembling metaphors of her romance books and the blushing insinuations of Sophie, whom had apparently found some sort of illicit material buried at the bottom of James’s desk. Her friend had refused to elaborate beyond an unhelpfully vague description of the things she had seen, leaving Kitty immensely curious, and everyone knew how dangerous her curiosity was.
“A note was left for you earlier today, Miss. Shortly after you left.”
She coughed with an embarrassed flush as the butler’s voice interrupted her silly imaginings. “Thank you, Halston.” She took the nondescript note and unfolded it, becoming only more confused after scanning the contents. A single sentence, written in bold black ink, was all the paper contained. Tilting her head, she read the mysterious line:
I know the truth.
She turned the paper over in her hands, but found no clue as to its sender. “Who delivered it?”
“Just an urchin, Miss.”
“You paid him, I hope?” She always liked to give errand boys a little extra for their time.
“Of course.”
“But no clue as to who hired him?”
“I’m sorry, no.”
“Well, never mind that, then.” Anything she had to hide was already in just about every scandal sheet in town. With nothing left for any blackmailer to prey on, she could only assume the idiotic blackguard hadn’t bothered to find the correct address of whomever his intended victim was.
“Odd.”
