His eyes held hers. Then he raised his hand; fingers curved, he brushed the backs, featherlight, down her cheek.
She quelled the resulting shiver before it showed, yet knew he sensed it. His lips, long, thin, set until then in a straight line, eased. His gaze sharpened. “If you want excitement, you can find it here. There’s no need to travel to Richmond.”
His voice had deepened; he seemed much closer, although he hadn’t moved. His strength and heat were palpable things, beating against her. His eyes held hers; she didn’t dare look away. Barely dared to blink.
He leaned closer still, lowered his head. She lost sight of his eyes, fixed her gaze on his lips.
Behind her, she felt the side of the window frame, was grateful for its immovable support.
His head ducked and his lips brushed hers, cruised gently as if testing their resilience, then, not with a swoop but with the confidence of one sure of his welcome, he settled them over hers.
She felt that first kiss all the way to her toes. In response, sweet heat swept up from her soles to her heart. Her breathing locked. She swayed—raised a hand, locked it on the steely arm beside her.
Felt his other hand firm about her jaw, tipping her face up to his.
Alarm bells were ringing in Martin’s head with the wild abandon of banshees. He blocked them out; he knew what he was doing, knew that, in this arena, he wielded absolute control. Instead of retreating, he turned his considerable talents to savoring her luscious lips, then teasing them apart.
Within seconds, he realized that although she’d been kissed, she’d never yielded her mouth to any man. He wanted it. Ruthless but still gentle, he shifted his fingers about her chin, pressed—her lips parted. He surged in—sensed her gasp, felt the sudden tensing of her spine.
Lowering his arm, he locked that hand at her waist, steadying her, fingers pressing to her spine, then soothingly shifting along the slender muscles framing it, distracting her, quieting her. Easing her into the caress.
Until she was kissing him back, luring him in, inexpertly but definitely returning each caress. Growing bolder by the minute.
He angled his head and deepened the kiss.
She tasted sweet. Delicate. Vulnerable.
He wanted more—couldn’t get enough to appease his sudden need.
Every muscle strained to draw her to him, against him. He resisted, reminding himself just what he was doing—demonstrating to her the dangers in her plan to seek excitement. Drawing her to him would be tempting fate.
No matter how desirable that fate might be.
He took her mouth again, glorying in the softness, the subtle beckoning that, innocent though she was, seemed to have come to her instinctively. He let them both sink into the kiss, let the pleasure seep to their bones.
Kept his hand locked at her waist, refused to let it shift up, or down.
Ending the kiss, lifting his head, letting his hand fall from her face, took more effort than he’d expected. It left him slightly dizzy, blinking down into her wide eyes.
“Excitement enough?” He heard the gravelly tone in his voice and wondered to whom the question was addressed.
She blinked dazedly, then awareness flowed into her eyes.
Amanda dropped her gaze to his lips, felt her own tingle. Still felt the thrill of the invasion of his tongue, and all the sensations that had followed. Felt, recognized, her hunger for more. Knew she couldn’t have it—yet.
“For the moment.” She wondered at her tone—a beguiling, still confident purr she couldn’t have bettered if she’d tried.
She glanced up, met his gaze. Saw a frown in the darkened green. Looking away to hide her satisfaction, she slid her hand down his arm to the hand at her waist, eased it away.
He straightened as she stepped out of his shadow. The waltz in the ballroom had just ended; no one else had yet joined them in the gallery.
She started toward the doors. “Incidentally, you were wrong.”
“About what?”
She slowed, glanced back; he’d swung to watch her but hadn’t moved from the window. “I do need to travel to Richmond.” She held his gaze for a moment, then turned and continued to the nearest doors.
“Amanda.”
She halted, then faced him. Across the room, she met his gaze.
Silence stretched.
“When?”
She considered his tone—flat, unforgiving. “We can discuss when tomorrow morning. In the park.”
Turning, she opened the door, then looked back. “Will you send your groom as before?”
He watched her. When her nerves had stretched taut, he nodded. “As before.”
With a graceful nod, she escaped into the ballroom. Within a minute, she felt his gaze on her back. Moving too determinedly for any to waylay her, she left the ballroom, made her way to the stairs and descended without a backward glance. A footman hurried to get her cloak, another rushed to summon a hackney. All the while, she knew Dexter watched her.
Not until the hackney turned into Upper Brook Street did she relax enough to gloat.
In the pre-dawn chill, Martin sat his roan under the tree in the park and watched her ride toward him. The great houses of Mayfair formed a backdrop, emphasizing the fact she was leaving their regimented world for the less structured, more dangerous and exciting world waiting for her beneath the trees.
He watched as she clattered across Park Lane. Felt a familiar quickening in his veins. The roan shifted; he tightened the reins, settled the huge beast.
She’d won their last round comprehensively. He was trapped, yet he doubted she knew it, let alone understood why. He wasn’t sure he understood, not completely. He definitely didn’t understand how he’d come to this pass.
Advised of her purpose, it was impossible to let her swan off and seek excitement with other men, knowing as he did that following such a path would likely lead to her ruin. Impossible because of the type of man he was, because of the absolute, ingrained conviction that, given he had the power to protect her and keep her safe, it was his duty to do so.
All that was clear enough. He’d long been aware of his protective streak and accepted it, accepted himself, as he was. What he didn’t understand was how she had come to invoke his protectiveness, to hold him hostage courtesy of his own convictions, without, apparently, trying.
He scanned her features as she neared, saw nothing beyond cheery good humor and her customary delight on meeting him. She didn’t appear to be considering demanding anything more from him, didn’t appear calculating in any way. She seemed to be revelling in the prospect of their ride.
Bringing the mare alongside, she tilted her head, blue eyes searching his face. Her smile was lightly teasing. “Are you always this grim in the morning, or is there something other than our ride on your mind?”
Narrowing his eyes, he locked them on hers, then brusquely gestured down the park. “I suggest we get on.”
Her smile deepened, but she acquiesced with a nod. They set off at a trot, heading for the tan track.
He watched her as they rode, conscious of a need to simply let his gaze rest on her, uncertain from where such a need sprang. She rode well, hands and posture assured, apparently unconscious of his gaze.
As before, the park was deserted; as before, they sprang their horses the instant they gained the tan. Side by side, they thundered through the morning, the air sharp, biting as they flew through it, drawing color into her cheeks and eyes. When they slowed, the mare danced, eager for more; Amanda steadied her and brought the horse alongside his.
They turned back up the park to where the groom waited under the tree. Martin watched her still, aware to his fingertips of how alive she was, with the dawn just bringing the gold to her hair, deepening the blue of her eyes. Feminine vitality incarnate—he was conscious of the tug, the visceral attraction.
She glanced his way. He met her gaze, brimming with life and a still innocent joy in all life’s pleasures, no matter how small, no matter how unsop
histicated. No matter how private.
He looked ahead. “Richmond. It’ll be fine tonight.” He glanced at her. “Can you steal away again?”
“Tonight?” She worried her lower lip, clearly running down her list of engagements. “My parents are attending the Devonshires’ dinner, but Amelia and I cried off.”
“Amelia?”
“My sister. We often go to our own engagements these days, so tonight, indeed, I can easily be free.”
Martin reined in. “Very well. Tonight. But I have a stipulation.”
She considered him. “What stipulation?”
“That you tell no one where or with whom you’re spending your evening. Furthermore”—he locked his gaze with hers—“I will agree to escort you to your four selected entertainments on condition that you will not, this Season, add to that list, and that you will not at any time tell anyone of those entertainments or of your association with me.”
Amanda didn’t reply immediately, too busy evaluating the proposition, too busy keeping a too-delighted, too-victorious smile from her lips. When she was sure she could manage both, she met his gaze. “Very well. I agree.”
The roan shifted; he steadied the horse. “I’ll meet you at the corner of North Audley and Upper Brook Streets. A black carriage will be waiting.”
“A closed carriage?”
“Most definitely. We’ll switch to my curricle once away from fashionable eyes.”
She smiled, let her gaze dwell on him, then confidingly stated, “Such a relief to be in the hands of one who knows.”
His eyes narrowed; she smiled more brightly and saluted. “Until tonight, then. What time?”
“Nine. Everyone else will be at the dinner table then.”
She allowed her smile to widen, laughed at him with her eyes, then shook the reins and headed for the gates—before she became too flown on success and gave herself away.
“It’s working perfectly! Absolutely perfectly—he can’t help himself.”
“How so?” Amelia climbed onto Amanda’s bed and slumped beside her. It was late afternoon, a time when they often spent an hour alone.
“He’s so like our cousins, just as I suspected. He can’t stop himself from protecting me.”
Amelia frowned. “From what? You’re not doing anything too dangerous, are you?”
“Of course not.” Amanda flopped back on the bed so she didn’t have to meet Amelia’s eyes. Attending the Corsican Consul’s soirée had been the most risky thing she’d ever done; she’d been very much aware of that as she’d chatted to Leopold Korsinsky and prayed Dexter would come to her side. Reggie had refused to escort her there, but she’d had to go. Amelia had explained her disappearance from Lady Cavendish’s drawing room on the grounds of a headache, and, thanks to Dexter, to the accuracy of her perceptions of him, all had gone well. As long as he was in the same room, she would never be in danger. “It’s more a case of creating the potential for danger, at least in his mind. For him, that’s more than enough.”
“So tell me—what exactly are you doing?”
“I can’t tell—he made it a condition that I tell no one what we’re about. Not even that it’s him escorting me, but you already know that.”
Amelia’s frown deepened, but then eased. “Well, after all these years, you should know what you’re doing.” She settled deeper into the bed.
“How’s your plan progressing?” Amanda asked.
“Slowly. I hadn’t realized how many possible husbands exist in the ton once you disregard the matter of them actually wanting a wife.”
“I thought you already had a gentleman in your sights.” Amanda had a suspicion she knew who it was.
Amelia blew out a breath. “I do, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Amanda said nothing; if it was who she suspected, that was an understatement.
“I’ve decided I have to be sure, beyond all doubt, that he’s the one above all others I want, given snaring him is going to take so much effort.” Amelia paused, then added, “And given I might not succeed.”
Amanda glanced at her twin, but could think of nothing to suggest.
Minutes ticked by and they simply lay, content in each others’ company, their minds flitting over their hopes, their plans—all the things they never spoke of except to each other. Amanda was deep in imagining what might come of her jaunt to Richmond when Amelia asked, “Are you really sure it’s safe to encourage Dexter’s protectiveness?”
“Safe?” Amanda blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that if you remember all we’ve heard from Honoria and Patience and the others, then that protectiveness you’re playing with goes hand in hand with possessiveness. And not just common or garden possessiveness, either. At least, not with our cousins.”
Amanda considered. “But that’s what I want, isn’t it?”
Amelia’s voice reached her. “Are you absolutely sure?”
Amanda slipped through the side gate of her parents’ house into a narrow lane. Closing the gate, wrapping her cloak about her, she walked quickly to the end of the lane and peeped out.
A black carriage stood waiting at the corner of North Audley Street.
He was watching for her; the carriage door swung open as she neared.
“Come. Quickly.”
His hand appeared; large, long-fingered, it beckoned imperiously. Hiding a smile, she placed her fingers in his and let him help her in. She sat and he leaned past her, closing the door, then he tapped on the carriage ceiling; the carriage lurched and rumbled off.
Only then did his fingers slide slowly from hers. In the light from a street flare, she saw him looking down at her. She smiled delightedly, then glanced at the passing streets.
Excitement skittered along her veins, flickered over her skin. The sensation owed more to his presence, his nearness in the dark, than to their intended destination. She felt his gaze leave her face, sweep down; she was acutely aware of him, of his heat, his sheer maleness, aware she was confined in the cocoon of the carriage with all that, and the consequent possibilities.
“At least you had the sense to wear a pelisse.”
She glanced at him. “I doubt I would enjoy the drive while shivering with cold.” She was prepared to shiver from another cause, but not cold.
The carriage slowed, then turned in through tall gateposts topped with . . . were they eagles? They’d driven around a large block and down Park Lane. A mansion appeared; the drive wended past it and on.
“My curricle’s waiting.”
The carriage rocked to a stop on the words. Dexter opened his door and alighted, then helped her down.
The yard was heavily shadowed. Dexter led her to a curricle and handed her up to the seat. Two grooms were leading the coach horses away; another held the prancing pair harnessed to the curricle. Taking the reins, Dexter sat beside her. He glanced at her, then reached around and rummaged. “Here.” He dropped a thick, soft wrap on her lap. “It’ll be colder driving.” Looking forward, he nodded to the groom. “Let them go.”
Releasing the horses, the boy dashed for the back of the curricle as Dexter flicked the reins. Amanda grabbed the rail as gravel crunched and the curricle rocketed forward. As they rounded the house, she scanned the massive edifice but it was shrouded in darkness and shadows. They swept on and the gates loomed ahead. Once Dexter took the turn and the wheels were rolling evenly, she released the rail and settled back.
Shaking out the wrap, she found it beyond luxurious—silk with a sumptuous weight. And the colors—deep, rich, even in the weak light. It had long fringes at both ends. She swung it over her shoulders, then tucked it about her. Dexter glanced at her, confirmed she was suitably swathed, then looked to his horses.
His house stood near the south end of Park Lane, the southeast corner of the fashionable area. Safe enough for her to ride openly beside him through the night as he steered the curricle further south and onto the Kings Road.
The horses were fresh, other carriages f
ew and far between. Amanda sat back and enjoyed the cool air, the quiet of the night. They made good time, crossing the river at Putney, then rolling on through villages and hamlets. During the journey, the clouds dispersed, leaving the moon to shine freely. Eventually, they came to the village of Richmond, sleeping beneath a star-spangled, black-velvet sky. Beyond the last house, running from the village to the river, lay the dark expanse of the Deer Park.
She straightened as the first huge tree, bare branches spread wide, drew near. She’d been here often over the years, recognized the area, yet all seemed different in the dark. More evocative, the promise of excitement infinitely more acute. Cool tingles prickled over her skin and she shivered.
Instantly she felt Dexter’s gaze, but made no move to meet it. He was forced to look to his horses as they rolled deeper into the shadowy park.
Silence engulfed them, pervasive and profound, disturbed only by the hoot of an owl, the scurrying of some nocturnal creature and the dull clop of the horses’ hooves. The moonlight was faint, enough to see shapes but not colors. The breeze was faint, too, wafting the scent of trees, grass and leaf mold. The deer were asleep, round lumps beneath the trees. Some were standing, but evinced no interest in the interlopers into their moonlit world.
They were deep in the park, out of sight of all things human, when Dexter drew the horses to a halt. The silence, the eerie quality of the night, intensified and closed about them. He tied off the reins and turned to her. Eyes wide, she drank in the sight of the parkland rolling away from the carriage drive, edged by trees and copses, empty of all save the moonlight.
“Exciting enough?”
The words reached her on a whisper; no cynicism came with them—he seemed as appreciative as she.
She drew in a breath—the air was cooler, sweeter than any she’d ever tasted. “It’s . . . strange.” She glanced at him. “Come—let’s walk a little way.”
His brows rose but he stood, stepped past her and jumped down. He gave her his hands, helped her down the steps, then, enclosing one of her hands in a firm grasp, he surveyed the silvered sward. “Which way?”