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The earl walked away, and Alexander stared at him, wondering why in God’s name some men made their lives so damn complicated. The man was besotted with his mistress, who came from a good enough background. There was no scandal attached to the lady’s name, and she had a cousin who recently inherited a baronetcy. And now she was with the earl’s child. Why the hell did he not just marry her?
Alexander strolled across the lawn toward the lake, his thoughts invariably turning to Lady Lucinda Darby. The memory of her smile and the way her cheeks had bloomed red when he spoke of what the lovers said brought a rueful smile to his mouth. It wasn’t only Raymore who’d met someone he thought extraordinary. There was something very appealing about the viscountess, and Alexander frowned, curious as to why he had felt such an immediate attraction to her tonight.
With a scoff, he dismissed her from his thoughts. He wasn’t interested in procuring himself a wife, and women like the viscountess were born and bred to be wives. Alexander would not be surprised if it was announced soon that she would wed for the third time.
Boredom crept over his senses, and he lifted his gaze to the night sky. Perhaps tomorrow, he would leave the house party earlier than intended and return to his estate in Derbyshire. There was not much to keep him in town now that the season was ending, and he missed his younger sister, Hannah, who was only thirteen years of age. Over the last few months, while he sat in Parliament, she had sent him several letters urging him to return home for she missed him. Alexander was aware that for his sister, he was the only father she knew, given that their father had passed on before she was born. He had been too busy with Westminster to return home, and he would delay no further.
Alexander made his way inside and up the stairs to his bedchamber. Once there, he stripped off his clothes and slid naked beneath the sheets. Sleep did not come to him immediately, and a rueful chuckle left him when he realized it was thoughts of the viscountess which kept him awake. Their interlude just now on the swings was one of the most pleasant encounters he’d had in years. He admired her ready wit and the loveliness of her smile. His interest stirred, and exhaling a breath, Alexander closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.
CHAPTERFOUR
Tonight would be the night.
Lucinda stared up at the ceiling in her guest chamber, her fingers dancing lightly over her bare belly. Nerves quivered inside, and she laughed at herself, the sound tinkling in the room. Pushing from the bed, she slipped on her silken peignoir and hurried from the room, the carpet tickling the soles of her bare feet. The hallways were silent, the house dark and still, yet Lucinda walked slowly and with care down the carpeted hall toward the earl’s bedroom. She had known where he slept from the first night of the house party but had dithered each day with reasons she knew were excuses even as she did not fully understand her reticence.
After rushing away from Lord Chisholm, there had been a restless ache within her, where even an hour-long bath had not soothed it. Brushing her waist-length hair had not worked either, or reading a book. Instead, the inexplicable tension had mounted until she knew tonight was indeed the night to experience being with someone again for the first time in over five years. Once at the earl’s doorway, she lifted a hand and gently knocked. No answer came forth, and Lucinda waited for a few beats before twisting the knob. The door opened soundlessly, and she entered the darkened chamber. A fire burned low in the hearth; however, it did not relieve the darkness of the room. She barely discerned where the bed was positioned, but she was guided by the earl’s even breathing.
Lucinda faltered, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. She suspected she was going about the entire matter incorrectly. Should she call out his name and announce her presence or slip into the bed beside him and rouse him with her touch.
Which would surprise or arouse his senses more? After dithering for several seconds, she laughed beneath her breath. She put out her hand and felt blindly for the bed. Her hand contacted a bedpost, and she felt around until she found the firm mattress. Lucinda climbed on the bed and somehow ended up tumbling down on the hardened body that was, without a doubt, naked.
He came awake instantly. She felt his stillness and allowed it to flow over her. Swallowing, she braced her hands against his chest and shifted so that she slid up the bed.
“I suspect you know why I am here,” she said in a hushed whisper, laughter throbbing in her tone, for she felt ridiculous and not at all sensual. “If it is not evident…this is a seduction attempt.”
To her shock, one of his hands touched her hip and coasted over her silk nightgown. He bunched it at the back and tugged, the ripping of the sheer fabric sounding in the room. Lucinda was speechless, and the provocative move sent a bolt of almost confused heat through her body. There was something different…his scent. It aroused her senses alarmingly, sending a bloom of pleasure down to her breasts, belly, and legs. Lucinda hadn’t anticipated her reaction to the earl would be this immediate and visceral.
The cool night air washed over her back, and she gasped when his hand touched the naked flesh of her spine and drew her toward him. His mouth found hers unerringly in the dark and a hot ache coursed through her at the fierce possession of his mouth on hers. She had been kissed before, but never like this. This felt…indescribable, deep, and demanding, and Lucinda helplessly responded. A warning throbbed in the back of her mind, an imperative need to resist, for she had never before felt this helpless in her whole life.
Yet this kiss sucked at her, pulled her down into a place she had never known existed, and drowned her with pleasure. His cock rose hard and thick and sure between them, pushing at her belly. He licked at her lips, nipped the corners of her mouth, demanding that she open to him. She twined her hands around his neck with a moan and sank into his kiss, shocked at the heat exploding through her. Lucinda pulled her lips from his with a ragged gasp. “Raymore, wait, I—”
All along his arm, the muscles had gone tense. “Raymore?”
The soft word was a growl of affront. She froze, her heart exploding inside her chest. This voice did not belong to the Earl of Raymore, nor did the scent belong or the firmness of the touch when the earl had always been so polite and considerate.
Oh God, she had entered the wrong room and slipped into the wrong bed. Worse, she was all but naked, her tattered nightgown the only shield between her body and his. And whoever he was…he was rampantly aroused. She could feel his heartbeat vibrating against her breast. For precious seconds Lucinda could find no words. Slowly, so slowly, she slid her hand from off his shoulder, reached out and found his mouth with trembling fingers. “Who are you?”
“Does it matter?”
It was a gruff demand, roughed with carnal urgency.
At her silence, he whispered, “Raymore is sleeping the fifth door down on the second floor.”
Oh!“Why?”
It was her turn to expound when he made no reply. “Why is he not here, in this room?”
“He claimed the draft in this room affects his rest. We switched bedchambers only yesterday.”
“Oh, I did not know it,” she said, keeping her voice still low and hushed.
“Now you do.”
Yet she did not move, held by the pulsing ache between her thighs and the memory of a kiss unlike any she’d ever had. His palm slid upward, caressing her thighs, her inner skin. “You are not moving, Lady Darby.”
Lucinda almost fainted. “You know who I am.”
“Your scent of sun-ripened peaches reached out to me, and I knew who you were when you climbed into my bed.”
