Seducing the Rake (Mad, Bad and Dangerous Heroes) (48 page)

Morland’s face went cold and shuttered.

“Don’t give
me
that look. You were a long time recovering—yes, I know about
that
too. And about that devilish business with that bounder of a brother and his flighty wife. I
had
to know. Because of Chessy, don’t you see?”

They sat that way for a long time, neither speaking. Cameron stared into the crackling fire, while Tony gazed out the window past the shabby, drifting curtains.

Finally he put down his glass. “I believe that leaves us nothing more to argue about, except how we’re going to find that book and get rid of those rascally Triads.”

The two men’s eyes met.

“Are you thinking—”

“—what I’m thinking?”

Cameron smiled coldly. “The other man? The Englishman?”

Morland nodded. “He’s our only clue.”

“I’ll see if I can track him down. Maybe he can tell us something about this book.”

“Not by yourself, you won’t! And I’m not moving a foot away
from
Chessy—not while she’s still in danger.”

“I can manage perfectly without you, my boy. Been in worse scrapes than this by far, I have.” Cameron frowned. “But not while Chessy was involved.”

“I’ll see to it that Wellington is informed and that all the men you need are put at your disposal.”

“Thank you, my boy. And never fear. Somehow I
will
find our mystery man and that cursed book.”

The voice was hushed, sultry, dark as the night. “You came.”

“Of course, my dear. Did you expect me to stay away?”

Louisa Landringham smoothed her perfectly arranged silk peignoir and wet her crimson lips carefully. “I wasn’t certain.” She sounded petulant.

The man before her smiled. “And it goaded you, didn’t it? Not to know.” He crossed his arms before his chest and studied her, cool and mocking.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. What are you looking at?”

He kicked the door shut behind him. “You. For you are lovely, my dear Louisa. Which I think you know full well.”

He sauntered across the room. His body cast a black bar of shadow across the bed where she lay, silk skirts arrayed in a careful froth that displayed her body to perfection.

His eyes darkened.
“Very
lovely.” Without a word his went to his neckcloth.

“No!” Louisa forced her voice to calmness. “That is—let me, won’t you?” In a sinuous slide of lace and satin, she came to her feet.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “If you choose.”

Her eyelids fell, covering the sudden glitter in her eyes. “Oh, I do.” With expert fingers she eased the white linen free, and then the perfectly cut black waistcoat. Her lips curved as she freed the buttons of his shirt and felt the sudden race of his heart.

Slowly she slid her fingers beneath the shirt, slanting him a sultry look.

She was rewarded with a curse and the hard thrust of angry muscle against her hips. She wet her lips again.

Slowly. Carefully.

That did the trick. It always did.

The next second, she was flat against the wall, her peignoir torn clean through as he bared her luscious body to his blazing gaze.

Her carefully rouged nipples gleamed blood red in the firelight. It was a trick she had learned several years before in France, where it had had a most pronounced effect on her admirers.

And tonight just as on those other nights, it had the same effect.

“You really are a little whore at heart, aren’t you?”

The woman in the ripped peignoir merely smiled, her eyes heavy-lidded as she reached low, searching for the warm thrust of his manhood. Oh, she would make him pay for that comment, but not quite yet. Not until she had him at his most vulnerable…

She found him. Her nails curved, gently scoring the heated, pulsing inches.

“I wonder what it would take to surprise you,” he said.

“Beyond anything you could offer, I think.”

“Do you really?” His eyes glinted, hard and chill as ice. He caught up his neckcloth from the bed and circled her wrist before she knew it. She hissed and kicked and tried to bite him, but he merely laughed and lapped the white linen around the bedpost.

“No! Damn it, you’ll be sorry—”

But her eyes were glinting strangely. A wild crimson flush covered her perfect, perfumed skin.

“No?” he repeated mockingly. Slowly he bent and flicked the hard, thrusting point of one breast.

Louisa’s breath caught. She closed her eyes as he tugged off the shredded remains of her expensive French peignoir and then used it to secure her other wrist. “No—”

He smiled, enjoying the sight of her white limbs spread to him. “Still
no?”

“No, damn you!” But she arched as she spoke, and her eyes were full of fire.

“How amusing it will be to discover all your little games, Louisa. But first, I really think you’d better tell me what that groom of yours was doing up at the White Hart.”

She stiffened and began to frame a protest, but by then his fingers were upon her, moving hard and expertly.

“I warned you that you were not to interfere, didn’t I?”

Louisa arched her back and moaned.

“More? Then tell me what you’ve been up to, my dear. And this time I think you’d better make it the truth.”

~ ~ ~

She was panting by the time he’d finished. She was twisting. Begging. She’d given him every detail…

And she didn’t even care.

PART
THREE

South of the Sun

Chessy awoke to the sound of Elspeth’s off-key singing. The girl was sitting, fully dressed, having a tea party with her dolly.

Beside them, in a little wicker basket, a fat brown frog croaked throatily.

“Hush, Napoleon. We don’t want to wake Miss Chessy.”

“Miss Chessy is already awake.”

Elspeth whirled about, her face wreathed in smiles. “Oh, capital! Would you care for some tea?” She held out a tiny porcelain cup with a cracked handle, which Chessy accepted gravely.

She made a great business of sipping the imaginary brew, then pursing her lips. “I always take my tea with three spoonfuls of sugar, if you please.”

Elspeth giggled. “Of course—so stupid of me,” she said grandly, spooning in a quantity of imaginary sugar. “How’s that?”

“Much better,” Chessy studied the girl’s happy face. “Did you sleep well?”

“Oh, ever so well, thank you. And I told Je’emy ‘bout the lovely story he missed. All about dragons and war-dogs and a beastly old king who wanted to—” She stopped, frowning. “What
did
he want to do, Miss Chessy?”

“Oh, all sorts of nasty things. He wanted to cut down all the mince tart trees and plant spinach instead. Just think of that.”

As Elspeth giggled, the duchess came in. “Well, I see that you two are going on famously. But I am famished. Anyone for breakfast?”

“Dolly is quite hungry, aren’t you, Dolly?”

“In that case we’d better let Dolly go first.” The duchess turned to her veiled companion. “Give me your hand on the stairs, won’t you, Elizabeth?”

As she followed a happily chattering Elspeth from the room, Chessy barely noticed the slender figure draped in a black veil who stepped forward and assisted the duchess downstairs.

~ ~ ~

They assembled as the sun rose over green plains crisscrossed by silver canals. Sea birds were everywhere, noisy and vigilant.

Morland motioned the duchess aside while Chessy was engaged in admiring Elspeth’s new frog.

“Remarkable,” the duchess said, shaking her head. “They make me feel a thousand years old.”

“Nonsense.” Morland patted her hand. “You put us all to shame.”

The duchess sniffed. “You’ve too much charm, Tony. I’ve warned you about that before. It will get you into a great deal of trouble one day—if it hasn’t already. Now what is it you want? Not the simple pleasure of an old lady’s company, I’m convinced.”

Morland put a hand across his chest. “Madame, you wound me.”

“Humph. Too much charm, just as I said.” And then, as Morland’s smile began to fade away to grimness, “What is it?”

The earl’s eyes moved to Chessy, who was stroking Elspeth’s newest pet.

“Is there something wrong between you and Chessy?” she asked.” If you have any sense at all, you’ll not let her get away, my boy!”

“I have no intention of letting her escape,” Morland said gravely. “And nothing is wrong—not in that way, at least.” His jaw hardened. “But she is in danger.”

“The man on the rooftop yesterday?”

Morland nodded. “Yes, he was after Chessy. And I am very much afraid that there will be others.”

The duchess frowned. “But this is dreadful! What are you going to do?”

“Do? I’m going to get her to Sevenoaks as fast as possible and then keep her there—forcibly, if necessary—until I am certain that she is finally safe.”

“But will she be safe even at Sevenoaks? It is a vast place, after all.”

“She’ll be safe. I’ll see to that.” Morland’s face was very hard as he handed the duchess up into her carriage, where she was to ride with the children. Chessy and her father were to follow in the earl’s carriage, while he ranged ahead on horseback.

“I don’t expect any trouble
en
route,” he said softly, “but after yesterday, I prefer not to take chances. I’ll keep an eye out. Meanwhile, Cameron is armed. She will be safe with him.” He swung the carriage door shut. “By the way, Your Grace, I checked on your door last night. I overheard.”

The duchess went very still. “You—you heard? About Chessy and—and—”