Taken by the Earl (Regency Unlaced 3) (2 page)

Sin decided then and there that
tomorrow
would most definitely find him with an urgent need to leave for Devon.

Fliss could not contain her agitation as she paced the confines of the bedchamber lit only by a single candle. Not that she minded the semidarkness, for it suited her mood of introspection far better than a brighter light would have done.

She had known as soon as she arrived at Eckles Manor this afternoon and found herself the focus of a pair of compelling—and very male—green eyes, that she should not have come here. No matter how urgent she considered her reason for having done so.

As it was, she had claimed a headache from traveling as her excuse for not joining the rest of the guests for dinner and entertainments this evening, instead requesting Mary, her maid, bring up a tray of food to her room. Fliss had no idea what excuse she would use tomorrow in order to avoid the other guests. Her only reason for being here was to seek out and speak with the elusive Earl of Winterbourne.

Her heart thundered at the thought. By doing so, she might also find herself in the company of the earl’s would-be assassin. A disturbing thought, as she had no chance of recognizing him when the only view she had of him a fortnight ago had been the back of his head.

It was all well and good deciding she must find the new Earl of Winterbourne posthaste and inform him of this plot to kill him. It had proved another matter entirely to find the man and actually tell him of the conversation she had overheard.

When she had visited the earl’s town house the day after the Woodrows’ ball, his butler had informed her the gentleman was out to lunch with his cousin and his wife.

When she called again the following day, the same butler had told her the earl was away for several days visiting one of his estates and not expected back until the end of the week. The butler had not offered the name and whereabouts of this estate, and Fliss had not asked. As a young widow, there was only so much she could do in regard to seeking out a single gentleman without drawing attention to herself and risking creating a scandal.

She returned to Winterbourne House at the end of the week, only for the butler to inform her the earl would not be returning to London after all, but intended remaining at his estate before attending a private house party.

Fliss had known exactly which private house party that was.

Frustrated in her endeavors, but at the same time aware of the danger the earl was in, Fliss had been forced to put aside her own plans to retire to her country home for the summer. Instead, she went about procuring an invitation to Maria Eckles’s house party for herself.

Fliss still shuddered as she recalled the surprised speculation in the other woman’s eyes after Fliss had hinted at, and received, a formal invitation to be one of the other woman’s guests. Mrs. Felicity Randall, the young, respectable, and respected widow of Major Stephen Randall, did not attend scandalous house parties.

Except she had.

She
was
.

And, having already been the focus of one gentleman’s interest, she already regretted doing so.

Fliss had not recognized the gentleman who had watched her so intently when she arrived earlier today. A man whose green eyes alone had caused a quiver of… Well, Fliss was not quite sure what the reason was for the frisson of excitement that had run the length of her spine and caused her to quickly turn her head away from that glittering and admiring gaze.

She had been twenty when she and Stephen married, that marriage having been of three years duration before his death. But his commission in Wellington’s army meant they had actually been together for only a matter of months during all that time.

Stephen had been perhaps six or seven inches taller than her own five feet in height, and boyishly handsome in appearance. He had been a pleasant-natured man and an indulgent husband, and they had fared moderately well, both in and out of their marriage bed, for those few months they were together.

Fliss was sure the dark-haired man who had stared at her so boldly earlier would not be in the least pleasant or indulgent. Indeed, the hunger in his gaze as it roamed over her body with such intimate familiarity had given the impression he wished to devour all of her in a single bite.

There was no doubting he was handsome, in a harshly dramatic way: heavy dark brows over those glittering green eyes, razor-sharp cheekbones either side of an aquiline nose, his mouth firm, jaw square and unrelenting.
 

 
He was also exceedingly tall, his shoulders and chest muscular, his abdomen flat beneath his waistcoat, legs long and also muscular, and shown to advantage in tight-fitting pantaloons and highly polished Hessians.

Being so short herself, Fliss felt uncomfortable around men who towered over her. They invariably made her feel small and vulnerable, and she dared not risk being made to feel either of those things in Maria Eckles’s house. Fliss needed to keep her wits about her at all times during this visit, or risk becoming embroiled in some scandalous exploit that might well be the ruin of her.

Damn the Earl of Winterbourne.

Why could he not have stayed in London and so allowed her to deliver her dire warnings? Freeing her to then travel to her own modest country home for several enjoyable months of peaceful contemplation after the rush and bustle of the Season.

She was being unfair, Fliss acknowledged heavily. It was not the earl’s fault that someone wished to kill him. At least, she presumed it was not. She had no way of knowing if the earl had done something horrible to that poor woman, and it was the reason the other woman was so willing to sell her soul—and her body—to that devil who had taken such delight in debasing and humiliating her.

Fliss’s quiver this time was one of distaste at the memory of those long minutes she’d had no choice but to endure listening as that hateful man defiled and reviled the other woman. It was—

Fliss turned sharply toward the door as she heard the handle being turned and the door opening, a large figure filling the open doorway.

The same green-eyed gentleman who had earlier so shamelessly devoured her with his eyes.

Chapter 3

To say Sin was surprised to find a woman waiting for him in his bedchamber would be an understatement. Most especially as it was the same woman whose arrival had so intrigued him this afternoon.

A woman who obviously returned the interest he had shown in her earlier, if she had gone to the trouble of finding out which bedchamber was his and then decided to wait here for him to retire.

As she was no longer wearing her bonnet, he was able to fully appreciate the glossy darkness of the curls secured at her crown and to at last see all her features. He could now clearly see that her eyes were gray, the same deep and stormy gray of a Scottish loch in wintertime, and surrounded by thick, dark lashes. The subdued candlelight also showed her brow as being smooth and creamy. Her tiny nose was slightly turned up at its tip, giving her an impishly endearing quality. High, defined cheekbones above slightly hollowed cheeks, her mouth a perfect bow, pointed chin indicating both pride and determination.

She had changed out of her blue traveling gown and now wore a gown of cream silk and lace, her breasts as voluptuous as he remembered as they spilled enticingly over the low neckline. Elbow-length cream lace gloves covered slender arms and hands.

Her face was every bit as lovely as Sin had hoped it would be, and the swelling surge of his cock let him know it was in complete agreement with that opinion.

He saw her give a start as he stepped farther into the bedchamber and quietly closed the door behind him. “I was hoping I would see you again.”
 

Those huge gray eyes remained fixed on him, much like a deer frozen in the sights of a hunter’s gun. That nervousness and uncertainty raised every one of Sin’s predatory instincts.
 

Her throat moved as she swallowed before answering him. “You were…?”

“Oh yes,” Sin confirmed without hesitation. He may have fobbed off Lady Eckles’s less than subtle overtures earlier, but he had no problem in showing this delicate vision of loveliness that he returned
her
interest. Her boldness in coming to his bedchamber was deserving of some reward, after all. A reward he was only too happy to provide.

“What are you doing?” Fliss prompted warily as the man she now knew to be the Earl of Winterbourne stalked slowly toward her. It was deeply disturbing to learn that the green-eyed gentleman of earlier today and the earl she had come here to find were one and the same person.

For some reason, perhaps because he was a Scot, Fliss had expected Sinclair Montgomery to be red haired, as well as possessing that rumored brash and uncouth manner. The gentleman before her had hair as dark as her own, and despite his excessive height and muscular build, he was elegance personified, a credit to his tailor in his black evening clothes and snowy-white linen. Nor was there even the trace of an accent in the deep timbre of his pleasant-sounding voice.

Having asked her maid to make discreet enquiries as to the whereabouts of the earl’s bedchamber, Fliss belatedly realized she should perhaps also have enquired as to that gentleman’s looks.

I might have known he was the green-eyed gentleman from earlier, if I had done so.

She took a step backward. “My lord—”

“Sin.”

Fliss blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

His smile became wolfish as he seemed to prowl toward her. “Call me Sin,” he invited huskily. “We are, as was obviously your intention, completely private here in my bedchamber.”

Sin?

This man went by the name of
Sin
?

It suited him perfectly, Fliss realized, as he now stood so close to her, she was able to look up and see the predatory and
sinful
glitter in those dark green eyes.

“And you are…?”

“I am—”
Who am I?

She found herself so overwhelmed by this man’s size and close proximity, it was momentarily impossible for her to remember her own name.

“It is of no importance for now.” Winterbourne chuckled. “There will be time to take care of the introductions later. Much, much later.” His voice was gruff as his arms moved about Fliss’s slender waist and he pulled her up against the muscular hardness of his body.

Making Fliss blushingly aware of the long, swollen length of his arousal pressing against her soft abdomen.

Oh dear God…

The dryness of Fliss’s mouth was in complete contradiction to the moist warmth that now flooded and heated between her thighs in response to that blatant arousal. She was also assailed by the heady aroma of Winterbourne’s cologne, lemon and sandalwood and an invasive male musk she was sure belonged exclusively to the man himself.

She felt almost dizzy from the onslaught of the combination of her own arousal and those seductive aromas, her nipples hardening to sensitive berries beneath the increasing tightness of the bodice of her gown.

Fliss moved her gloved hands up between them, intending to push against the earl’s chest and put some distance between the two of them. But the moment her hands came into contact with the warmth of that hard flesh, she instead found her gloved fingers curling against and into all that tensed heat.

“You are very beautiful,” Winterbourne murmured as he lowered his head so that his mouth could explore the side of her throat. “So very desirable.” Those warm lips closed about the lobe of her ear, his teeth gently biting that sensitive flesh. “I wanted you the moment I saw you.”

Sinclair—Sin—wanted me from the moment he first saw me?

Such words were heady indeed to a young woman who had been widowed for over a year, and as good as for the previous three, with Stephen away at war for so much of their married life.

The touch of the earl’s lips became even more arousing, Fliss arched her throat instinctively to allow those lips to kiss a trail of fire down to the delicate hollows at the base of her throat. Pleasure coursed hotly through her body as she felt the rasp of his tongue against her skin.

This was… He was…

He has unfastened the buttons down the back of my gown, and those large hands are now caressing my naked flesh.

Fliss attempted to resist the plethora of sensations that threatened to become overwhelming: heat, desire, pleasure. “My lord—”

“Sin.”

She could not address him by that name. It sounded positively
sinful
. Was unacceptable. Improper.

And allowing him to take these liberties with my naked back is not?

Well, of course it was, but she was not exactly
allowing
Sinclair Montgomery liberties. He was
taking
them. Indeed, he was the sort of forceful gentleman it would be difficult to say no to under any circumstances, let alone such unexpected ones as these.

Then she must try, because she had not come here for this. The earl was in danger, and only she stood between him and certain death. Forewarned would at least allow him to be forearmed. “My lord, you must desist—”

“Why must I?” Sin murmured against the silky skin of her bared shoulder, having slipped the sleeve of her gown partially down her arm to reveal more of the full swell of her breasts.