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Authors: Mia Marlowe

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BOOK: Touch of a Scoundrel (Touch of Seduction 3)

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Griffin snatched Kingsley up by the lapels and slammed him against the stone wall, holding him so the tips of his shoes barely touched the smooth floor. “You will not speak of her so again or our friendship is at an end.”

“All right, all right. It was intemperate of me to bring it up, but you’re well warned. I can see your attachment to Miss Farnsworth clearly, even though you’ve tried to hide it. No doubt others will, too, if they haven’t already. I’d be no friend to you if I didn’t bring it to your attention.” When Griffin released him, Kingsley brushed imagined dust off his lapels, not meeting his gaze. “Honestly, how you do so well at the gaming tables with such an open face is beyond me.”

“Let me worry about that.”

“Right-o. Back to the statue, then,” Kingsley said. “What makes you think it’s not genuine?”

Griffin hadn’t intended to tell anyone, but Kingsley was his oldest friend, except for Northrop. He ought not to have lost his temper. Kingsley might have been crude, but he was only trying to help. So he found himself explaining how he and Emmaline and Baxter had discovered the way the base of the statue came off and the fact that it was filled with a mysterious substance.

“Did Baxter take all of it to his nephew?” Kingsley’s voice sounded a bit tight, as if he were coming down with a cold. A few days of country air would no doubt fix matters.

“No, only a small sample.”

“May I see the rest of it?”

Griffin noted that Kingsley clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles went dead white. He was probably angry at the way he’d been manhandled and was trying to hide it. A wry smile stretched Griffin’s face. He wasn’t the only one who had telling mannerisms.

“Ted doesn’t want anyone to see the statue until the ‘unveiling’ when he and Dr. Farnsworth present their paper to everyone,” Griffin said. “A word to the wise. Do not invest in an expedition, no matter what you may hear.”

“Hadn’t considered it.” Kingsley unclenched his fists and strode over to the corner where the climbing fig was running riot over the palladium window. “I was thinking about making Dr. Farnsworth an offer for the statue though. It seems an intriguing novelty at the very least.”

“Only if you like hollow, formerly bearded ladies,” Griffin said. “Truly, my friend, I’m trying to spare you.”

“I was never one for caution,” Kingsley said. “You know that. Better to attempt something and fail than never to try at something you want.”

Griffin had been studying the slate pavers underfoot, but his head jerked up at that. He wanted Emmaline, but didn’t want to risk the pain of losing her. His chest constricted.

Would the heavy lump where his heart should be ever dissolve? He’d made such a habit of letting life wash over him, for fear of aiding Fate in an unintended way if he acted, he was almost ready to let the woman he loved get away.

Simply because he was afraid.

Every couple on earth knows there’ll come a time when one of them must stand at the graveside of the other, unless by some mercy they are taken together.

But they don’t know when.

That was his hell. He feared seeing it coming. Feared the pain of unavoidable loss.

“I say, what is this green stuff twining around everything?” Kingsley pointed at the renegade vine.

“It’s a vining fig.”

“I don’t see any produce on it. I’d have the whole lot ripped out myself. I mean, it does seem a waste, doesn’t it? If your orange trees are bearing, why isn’t this?”

Griffin’s mouth turned up in a half smile. He and Emmaline had had an almost identical conversation. He’d explained that a specific type of wasp needed to be introduced to the orangery in order to pollinate the figs. He’d resisted doing it since no one wanted a stinging insect in the fragrant bower.

His life was just like the vine, meandering and pointless. Without the risk of pain, he’d know no joy, no growth. To love was to risk ultimate loss. There was no avoiding it.

But the joy now would be worth the pain later. New resolve solidified in his chest.

Griffin turned and headed for the door.

“Where are you going, Devon?”

“I’m going to risk getting stung.”

C
HAPTER
28

E
mmaline opened the shutters in her new chamber and let in the late afternoon light. She and Monty were housed in different parts of the manor instead of in a suite of adjoining rooms as they had been in town. She was uneasy about being so far from him.

Suppose he woke in the night with a coughing fit? Lady Devonwood had promised to assign a valet who’d sleep in an antechamber adjacent to her father’s room, so she needn’t worry on that score. That wasn’t the real cause of her unhappiness in any case.

All the way to Devonwood Park, she’d caught Teddy eyeing her contemplatively when he thought she wasn’t aware of it, almost as if he were trying to peek into her soul. Emma didn’t care if he realized that she and Monty were trying to trick him. What really worried her was the possibility that Theodore should know she’d fallen hopelessly in love with his brother.

She leaned on the windowsill. Her chamber was high enough in the manor to offer a view of a hill towering above the curtain wall. Spring grass draped over it like a velvet shawl. The country air was tinged with the green breath of growing things and a whiff of wood fires from crofter’s cottages that dotted the estate in all directions. The land around the sprawling collection of buildings rejoiced in the promise of warm summer to come.

In her heart, it was February, cold and hard. She loved Griffin, but it was a terrible love. A selfish love. A hurtful love. If Theodore should ever learn of it, she shuddered at the pain it might cause him.

Monty had shown her an old map in one of the rare books in his shop once. The edges of the continents were grossly distorted in some parts, faded and indistinct in others. A cryptic inscription near the questionable areas warned “Here there be monsters.”

She was what waited for Theodore beyond the edge of the map. He deserved better.

Emmaline swallowed hard. She’d tell him so tonight. After supper, she’d find an excuse to speak with him alone and lay bare her heart. He didn’t need to know she loved his brother. She couldn’t bring herself to even tell Griffin since he’d scrupulously avoided her for days. The ache of that abandonment was like a fresh bruise that refused to heal, but it didn’t matter. That terrible love for him kept growing inside her, filling every space.

Teddy needed to know she could never feel that awful, wonderful emotion for him.

She didn’t turn at the sound of the latch behind her. It was probably the upstairs maid who’d helped her unpack. She must have forgotten something.

“I need no further assistance,” Emma said.

“Then perhaps you can help me.”

She whirled at the sound of Griffin’s voice and the aching bruise inside her throbbed afresh.

“You see,” he said, laying a hand on one of the bedposts and leaning against it, “I’ve discovered something rather remarkable and I’m not sure how to tell you about it.”

There was an unreadable thought sparking behind his eyes, something forbidden and wicked. She decided to erect a barrier of formality between them to keep from launching herself across the room at him.

“A peer of the realm unsure? I find that difficult to believe, milord.”

He crossed the room to stand before her.

“I’ve lost something and I hope you can help me find it.”

Something inside her wilted. He only wanted her to fetch a misplaced item. Had the man no servants? She gave herself a stern imaginary shaking and answered him with an amazingly even tone. “Of course. What’s gone missing?”

“I think you know since you have it.”

All the breath flew out of her lungs in a whoosh and she had to remind herself to inhale. She might be a confidence artist, but she was no thief. Emmaline drew herself up to her full height. “Since I have no idea what you’re talking about, what makes you think I know where it is?”

“Because you’ve tempted or cajoled or swindled me out of it, somehow. You see, it’s my heart, Emma.”

She gulped a breath and her palm went to her chest of its own accord. To keep her own heart from leaping out.

He offered his hand and she stretched out a trembling one to take it. Griffin pulled her close. He cupped her chin and took her lips in a soft, questing kiss.

“I love you,” he whispered against her temple. “My heart is in your keeping. Now I need to know if you intend to own it or if you’ll throw it back.”

She pulled away so she could look up at him. “I’ll keep it.”

She’d be his lover, his mistress, his . . . whatever he wanted her to be. She’d take him however she could have him and worry over the consequences later.

Emmaline grasped his lapels, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him with a desperation born of frustrated hope. His mouth slanted over hers and the late afternoon stubble of his beard scraped her chin. Her skin rioted in pleasure.

Their tongues played a darting game of hide and seek. He groaned into her mouth. The riot descended lower on her body to prick her nipples to taut awareness and send tingles to the already moist spot between her legs.

All impediments to their joining fled from her mind. It was the simplest thing in the world to give herself to this man. She wanted to kiss him for days, to sink into him like a pearl diver and only come up for air when she must. To touch, to tease, to strip off his jacket and work the buttons on his shirt with frantic fingers. She ached to see him in the glorious altogether.

He must have wished the same thing because he was already unfastening the last in a row of buttons that began at her throat and ended at her waist.

Then he jerked away from her and held himself at arm’s length. From the stricken look on his face, their joining wasn’t going to be so simple, after all.

“What is it?” she asked.

“That last button,” he said hoarsely. “It started to send a vision.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Blast and damn, I don’t want my infernal gift to come between us.”

“Will touching
me
send you a vision?” she asked, fearing his answer.

“No. The
Sendings
only come from things, not people.” His eyes darkened as he gazed at her. “When I touch you, I feel . . . wonderful, normal, as if I never had this bloody curse.”

“Well, then,” she said as she toed off her slippers and removed her blouse, exposing her corset and chemise. “It appears I shall have to undress myself.”

Angel woman
. Griffin didn’t trust his voice to speak. In the undressing of a lady, there were pleasures aplenty for a man and he was frustrated at being cheated of them. But when she undid the waist of her skirt and bent to pull the voluminous folds over her head, her chemise neckline sagged and he was treated to a glimpse of the sweet valley between her breasts. He decided a man could enjoy watching a woman disrobe almost as much as doing it himself.

The wire crinoline looked awkward. But her slender arms were graceful, the skin smooth and supple, as she unfastened the hooks and wiggled out of the contraption. She lowered her gaze when she unlaced her corset and removed it. Her nipples showed dark and taut beneath the thin muslin of her chemise. He was riveted by the sight of them.

“You could be getting undressed, too, you know,” she said.

Griffin set a speed record for a gentleman shucking off his clothes without benefit of a valet. He was just tugging off his last stocking when her giggle made him look up.

While he’d glanced away, she’d dispensed with her pantalets, stockings, and chemise. Venus rising from the waves had nothing on his Emma in nothing but her skin. Surprisingly, she made no attempt to hide herself from his gaze, neither her breasts, nor the neat triangle of coppery curls over her sex, but she did cover her mouth with one hand.

“Something funny?” He stood and his cock did, too. Before his experiences with Emmaline, it had been a while since he’d had a woman, but the ones he’d been with had all assured him he was remarkably well endowed. Certainly none had ever laughed at him.

“It’s just that you undressed so fast,” she said slyly. “I hope you don’t intend to be fast about other things.”

“Don’t worry.” He strode to her and they came together in the hot sweetness of skin on skin. “The dressing bell won’t ring for a couple hours. I intend to take my time.”

He lifted her and carried her to the waiting bed. She draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed wet kisses to his neck. Griffin was treated to a glimpse of her pink slit as they passed a long looking-glass, her heart-shaped bum riding high with her knees hooked over his forearm. When they reached the four poster, she leaned down, tossed back the coverlet and let him lower her to the cool linens.

He tumbled onto it after her and even though he’d promised to go slow, he couldn’t help the frenzy of kisses he lavished on her. His mouth was at the sweet hollow of her throat. He tugged on each of her breasts, suckling till she moaned. He ran his tongue over her ribs. He buried his face between her legs, rubbing the damp curls over his cheeks and chin before tonguing her to writhing fury. He lost himself in her soft wet valleys and dark cavern.

He raised himself over her and covered her, wallowing in the glide of skin on skin, the heady fragrance of her arousal, the ragged draw of her breath.

“Why did you stop?” she whimpered.

He kissed her so she could taste herself on his tongue, all musk and salt. She was utterly delicious.

Then he rolled over, taking her with him, so she lay on top of him. “I’m not stopping. We’re simply taking turns.”

She sat up astride his hips, the wet lips of her sex kissing his cock and making him grind his teeth to keep from finishing before they’d truly begun.

“So I should do to you what you did to me?” Her breasts rose and fell with each breath and the late afternoon sun made an auburn nimbus of her hair tumbling over her shoulders. He reached up and squeezed a nipple. She sucked in a shuddering breath.

“You should do whatever you like.” He laced his fingers behind his head, putting himself completely at her mercy. “And nothing you don’t.”

“I won’t know what I like till I try it, will I?” She arched a brow at him. “Guess I’ll have to try it all.”

BOOK: Touch of a Scoundrel (Touch of Seduction 3)

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