Rogue Countess (3 page)

Jude’s blood raced hot and wild through his body though he kept his reaction carefully contained. She had given every indication she would welcome an assignation. But Jude wasn’t sure yet how he wished to proceed. Long gone were the days when he pursued every woman who sent him a coy smile. Not that he was celibate, by any means. Simply much more discerning.

“Sinclair, are you up for it?”

Jude turned back to his companions. “Up for what? I don’t intend to end up sleeping in a tavern barn, I assure you,” he said in a dry tone.

Rutherford laughed and clapped him on the back then started to lead their group from the ballroom. “Let’s start with cards, shall we? Then see where we end up.”

Jude walked with his old friends, though he kept his gaze sharp as he took one last sweeping look over the ballroom, involuntarily searching for a striking azure gown encasing a phenomenal female figure.

Just as they reached the wide landing at the top of the staircase the fine hairs on the back of his neck lifted in acute awareness. He looked back over his shoulder just in time to see the lady in blue stepping through an oversized door to the left side of the landing. The fleeting glance she cast in his direction the moment before she disappeared into the shadows solidified his choice.

On straight instinct, Jude changed his course.

His friends might be annoyed that his abandonment left them one man short at the card table, but they would not interfere.

Chapter Three

Reaching the doorway, which had been left slightly ajar, Jude crossed the threshold and passed into a darkened hallway. His pulse raced and he felt a light touch of uncertainty. He chose to ignore it. After only a few steps, he reached another oversized doorway opening into a long, narrow room dimly lit by the eerie glow of medieval wall sconces set about fifty feet apart down the length of the gallery.

Jude stopped to allow his eyes to become accustomed to the near darkness.

The walls were almost covered in varying sizes of ancient tapestries. The largest extended from the cornice of the twenty-foot ceiling all the way down to the marbled floor and spanned the entire space between two sconces. In areas where no tapestries hung, groupings of ancient weapons were arranged as morbid artwork. Suits of armor representing multiple cultures and time periods stood stoic and silent in the shadows as if waiting patiently for their services to be required.

Jude stepped into the room, feeling as if he had entered a secret and dangerous world far removed from what existed beyond the short stretch of hallway behind him. Everything bright and sparkling and full of gaiety outside became heavy and quiet with the somber metals and deep woven colors of a way of life long gone.

He continued farther along the length of the gallery and finally saw her standing still and beautiful with her eyes cast upward and her hands clasped casually behind her slim back.

A heady scent hung suspended in quiet space. It was rich and dark and recalled his senses to some elusive memory from his past. The memory would not completely form and he released it to return his focus to the present moment.

He knew she must be aware of his presence. His shoes had not been silent on the marble floor, yet she did not turn toward him. Not even when he came to stand alongside her. He was close enough to hear the subtle rhythm of her breath, but not so close as to threaten the gossamer shield of propriety.

He was well versed in the delicate and shifting boundaries of a well-executed seduction, and as he stood there, he understood that he had been lured to this woman’s side. He studied her unmoving and confident posture, waiting for her to acknowledge his presence.

Excitement and arousal coursed through him.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Her voice was low and husky as it flowed into the clandestine atmosphere of the darkened gallery.

“Definitely,” Jude countered.

He noted the deep inward curve of her waist and admired the slim length of her spine. His gaze traced the graceful line of her neck and shoulder, rested momentarily on the lush upper rise of her breasts. She had the body of a courtesan. Strong and graceful and fully female in every dramatic dip and curve.

“I was referring to the tapestry,” she answered with a note of amusement. She spoke in a tone just above a whisper, not out of concern that their conversation might be overheard, he suspected, but out of deference to the solemn tone of the room. He couldn’t help but think the smooth and intimate quality of her voice would be perfectly suited to love words uttered in the plush darkness of a private boudoir.

Realizing she expected some comment from him, Jude lifted his chin and followed her gaze to the scene depicted on the long stretch of fabric positioned on the upper expanse of the wall before them. The woven artwork depicted a fierce and bloody battle. Mounted knights fell to their deaths under the blades and spears of what appeared to be an army of angels. The obvious victors in the battle were those clothed in white robes with sunbursts spread out from behind their heads. The angels performed their task with cold and emotionless faces that were in stark contrast to the pained and dying expressions of the fallen knights.

He took an involuntary step closer, drawn in by the odd imagery. “What was their crime?”

“They used their power to subjugate those they were meant to protect. They became selfish and greedy and started to believe as if they were owed things they had never earned.”

Jude turned to look down at her. “A rather harsh punishment.”

She tilted her head and he could see the barest lifting at the corners of her mouth.

“I doubt their victims would have thought so.” She turned slowly in place to face him and tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “You are a foreigner, aren’t you? Or you have been away from England for a long time?”

Her sudden change in subject jolted him for a moment, but not nearly as much as her direct and confident nature. Up close, the intensity of her dark masked gaze struck him once again. His pulse beat a staccato rhythm as he realized the mysterious scent that had enchanted him upon entering the room came from the woman herself.

He replied to her question with one of his own. “Why do you say that?”

“You have a slight accent, very subtle, but noticeable in the way you draw out the end of your words. Also, you do not behave like an Englishman.”

Jude arched one eyebrow. “How so?”

“You were far too bold in the ballroom. Staring at me as you did.” Though her tone was one of admonition, her lovely full lips curled upward as if she could not resist the smile that threatened.

Now Jude smiled. “You were staring first.”

“I was,” she admitted freely with a small tilt of her head, “but a gentleman wouldn’t say so.”

“What if I am not a gentleman?”

“Oh, you must be, or you wouldn’t have been allowed in the door tonight. The guest list at these affairs is always top notch.” She leaned in toward him just a touch and whispered conspiratorially. “The hostess would not suffer to entertain riff-raff.” When she straightened, he saw that her smile had twisted into a gentle sneer and she added pertly, “It’s a wonder I managed to get past the guards.”

Her implication was clear. She did not belong here. In that fact, they were more alike than she probably realized.

“I get the sense you do not object to my forward behavior.” Jude took a step closer to her as he spoke, already knowing what her answer would be.

“Truly, I should have expected such boldness the moment I saw you,” she confessed quietly. Her voice had become breathless. The soft sound stroked his heightened senses. “Only two types of men would arrive at a masquerade without a mask.” When he lifted his brows in subtle question, she tilted her head and looked as if she were considering him carefully. “Either you are a vain sort who is loath to hide his handsome face behind the equalizing properties of a domino, or you choose to face the world with your intentions clear for all to see.”

Jude didn’t try to hide his amusement at her clever deduction. “And which do you believe me to be?”

She laughed then, lightly, and it was a sound that tickled the fine hairs on the back of his neck. Everything about this woman triggered a visceral reaction in him.

“Since I already have a pretty good idea of what you want from me, I would be stupid to assume you are anything other than the latter.”

“In the places I have been, a man cannot afford to be coy,” Jude offered by way of explanation. “He must make his choice and act decisively, or what he desires may become the possession of someone stronger, faster or more determined.”

The woman lifted her chin, lengthening the line of her bare throat. Her voice lowered. “Is that why you followed me?”

Jude looked down at her. Her invitation was clear in the glitter of her dark eyes that captivated him from the shadowed slits of her mask and in the parted curve of her lips. But his instinct told him to tread carefully with this one. He lifted his hand and brushed the back of his knuckles down the length of her throat, from the corner of her jaw down to the gentle ridge of her collarbone. She stiffened slightly at the delicate touch, and one corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile.

She was not as self-possessed as she would have him believe.

“The man you were talking with in the ballroom,” he said in a softened tone as his fingertips traced the shape of her collarbone, “do you know him well?”

“I do,” she answered on a gasp.

His fingers swept lightly over her shoulder to tease the sensitive skin at her nape. Goosebumps rose up on the surface of her delicate flesh. Noting that spot in his memory for future attention, Jude drew his fingers across her back, tracing the upper edge of her gown. At the same time, he took a deliberate step to her side.

“Do you have a husband or protector who would object to our being here alone together?” His breath teased the wispy curls at her nape as he stepped around behind her. He inhaled slowly and the lovely, mysterious, intoxicating scent of her heightened his arousal like a lusty drug.

Anna gasped again as his fingers continued to follow along the top edge of her gown. He stood close enough that she could feel the heat of his body, yet he only touched her with a light brushing of his fingertips. He wore no gloves, another thing a gentleman would never do. She had noticed with the very first stroke of his fingers that they were not soft and smooth, as they should have been. His touch was slightly callused.

She discovered she liked the feel of a man’s roughened hands on her skin.

He moved around behind her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and brushed his fingers across the swollen rise of her breasts where they pushed over the top of her bodice. Her skin tingled with masterfully awakened sensitivity in the wake of his caress. He stalked her with his movements and his gentle touch soothed her at the same time. Her breath caught in her throat and she willed herself to remain in control.

This game wasn’t played through yet. Recalling that he had asked her a question, she sorted through the hazy corners of her mind for the appropriate answer.

“Would it matter if I had a husband?” Her reply was breathless.

“No,” he murmured just before he pressed his warm mouth to the curve where her neck met her shoulder.

Anna had to fist her hands to keep from jumping out of her skin at the sudden sensations wrought on her system. Her nerves hummed and vibrated like the strings of a violin. Her muscles grew heavy and weak as if they had been filled with sand. He pressed another hot kiss to the side of her throat and his palm covered the upper rise of her breast, pressing over the spot where her heart beat fiercely. At the same time, his other hand slid around her waist to pull her back against his chest.

Impressions of sparkling licks of flame erupted throughout her body as she tried to accustom herself to the feel of his mouth on her bare skin and his arm encircling her middle to hold her so intimately against him. His strength was unexpected, as was his unhurried and practiced mode of seduction. She could never have imagined the way her body reacted to the warmth of his hand covering her breast. She tried to remind herself what this elaborate masquerade was all about. But when he trailed a path of kisses across the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck, she had to concentrate to keep her knees from giving way.

There was too much sensation, too much heat, too much fluttering reaction in her belly. She was grateful for the stiff binding corset, for surely he would have felt the wild quivering of her body beneath the steadying band of his arm.

“Relax,” he whispered behind her. “Your heart beats like a trapped bird beneath my hand. Do I frighten you?”

“I do not frighten easily,” Anna replied, though she doubted her words were very convincing.

“Then I excite you?” he pressed in a low voice.

“A lady wouldn’t answer such a query,” she replied. The pertness of her words softened with the long audible sigh as he lowered his mouth to kiss the spot below her ear where her pulse beat most fiercely.

“That’s all right,” Jude murmured, as he slid his hand from her breast up the length of her throat to press under her jaw. His gentle urging eased her head back and to the side. Anna’s eyes drifted closed just as his warm breath chased across her lips. “You already did,” he whispered.