Rosemary Rogers - Scandalous Deception

“Have you taken complete leave of your senses? You will be ruined,” he hissed furiously.

Brianna wrapped her arms around her waist, her face pale. “Unless I can convince Stefan to help me, I am already ruined.”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

“First, I demand that you tell me why you are pretending to be the Duke of Huntley.”

He muttered a foul curse. “Brianna, do not try my patience any further. Confess why you seek Stefan.”

“Or what?” she demanded. “You will hit me?”

Edmond slowly narrowed his gaze. He was a gentleman who had developed the sort of skills to obtain the information he desired, whether it was from a cutthroat, a corrupt politician or the beautiful wife of a foreign ambassador.

If one method did not work, he was quite adept at changing his tactics.

The fingers gripping her arm eased to run an intimate path upward, lingering on the pulse that raced at the base of her throat. Heat exploded through his body at the feel of her smooth, silky skin. It was just as it promised: heated ivory.

“And mar that beautiful skin?” he demanded, giving in to the impulse that had been raging through him since he had first kissed those lips. With one graceful motion, he had her off her feet and was crossing to the bed. Ignoring her struggles, he tossed her onto the feather mattress and swiftly followed her down to cover her slight frame with his much larger one. “I have a far better means of acquiring what I desire.”

Her eyes were wide, shimmering like the finest emeralds in the firelight, her hair spread over the pillow in a breathtaking cloud of autumn flame.

“Edmond, what are you doing?”

He gave a bemused shake of his head. “When did you become such a beauty, ma souris? ”

Scowling in fury, Brianna futilely struggled to wiggle from beneath his large body.

“Damnation, this is not funny.”

Edmond sucked in a sharp breath at the feel of her squirming against his taut muscles. Mon dieu , the minx was driving him mad. How was he supposed to recall that she was currently the enemy when his body was on fire?

Unable to resist temptation, Edmond lowered his head and buried his face in the curve of her neck. He breathed deeply of her lavender scent, shuddering as the tantalizing aroma filled his senses.

This was how a woman was supposed to smell, he realized in startled pleasure. Sweet and feminine, rather than drenched in the cloying perfumes so many ladies preferred.

“Tell me why you are here, Brianna,” he whispered as his lips brushed the hollow beneath her ear.

She gave a soft shriek as her body jerked in reaction to the gentle caress.

“Edmond, halt this at once,” she whispered, her hands clenched in the folds of his cloak.

Closing his eyes to better savor her exquisite taste, Edmond trailed his lips down the line of her jaw.

“Tell me.”

“No.”

He nipped her chin, his hands traveling along the narrow line of her waist and then slowly back up, inching ever nearer the delectable curve of her breasts.

“Brianna, I will not halt until I have the truth.”

The green eyes flashed with fury and a darkening awareness she could not entirely hide.

“I came here to speak with Stefan.”

He stole a brief, possessive kiss, before reluctantly pulling back to regard her with a narrowed gaze.

“Concerning what?”

“Stefan is my guardian. I need him to assert his rights and take me from the home of Mr. Wade.”

“Your stepfather?” Edmond had never met the man who had married Brianna’s mother, Sylvia. He knew little more than that the man was the son of a common butcher who had managed to make a fortune in the West Indies, a social-climbing mushroom who was well beneath the notice of most of the ton. Sylvia had been desperate, he’d supposed, to find the means of paying her gambling debts, and would no doubt have married Beelzebub himself if he’d offered. “Why?”

“That is something I would prefer to discuss with Stefan.”

“I did not ask what you prefer, ma souris ,” he growled. “Answer the question.”

“Thomas intends to take me to Norfolk on Friday.”

Edmond made a sound of disgust. How typically foolish. Was there ever a woman born who did not allow herself to be ruled by flights of fancy rather than common sense?

“And you risked utter ruin because you have no wish to leave London society?” He gave a shake of his head.

Without warning her hands lifted to smack against his chest, her face flushed with fury.

“I do not give a bloody hell about London society, you wretched man,” she gritted. “Indeed, if I never had to spend another night in this horrid city I would be delighted.”

“Then why the devil are you so desperate to avoid Norfolk?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, almost as if in pain. “Please, do not do this, Edmond,” she whispered.

Edmond stilled, realizing that there was far more to this than a mere feminine whim.

“Brianna?”

A shudder wracked her body, before her thick lashes at last lifted to reveal haunted green eyes.

“My stepfather intends to take me to his hunting lodge so he…he can…have his way with me.”

“Have his way with you?”

“He intends to rape me,” she hissed. “There, are you satisfied?”

“Christ, Brianna,” he rasped, shocked to the very depths of his being. “What the hell makes you think such a thing?”

“Because he attempted to force his way into my bed three months ago.” Her voice was wooden, but Edmond was not fooled by the lack of emotion. She was so on edge, he knew she was a breath away from shattering.

“I warned him that I would contact Stefan and reveal the treachery if he so much as touched me. I thought the threat would be enough, but two weeks ago he informed me that he had purchased a new hunting lodge in Norfolk and that he intended to take me there. He also made it clear that any servants he hired would be completely loyal to him. So loyal that they would turn a blind eye if Thomas chose to keep me locked in my chambers.”

With a hiss, Edmond surged off the bed, a fury trembling through his body. The rotten, sick bastard.

“Why haven’t you contacted Stefan before now?” he snapped.

Keeping her wary gaze on him, Brianna slipped off the bed and wrapped her arms around her waist; the bodice of her gown disarranged to reveal a far too tempting glimpse of her creamy breasts.

“I sent a letter the moment that I learned of Thomas’s plan to leave London, but Stefan did not respond. After I learned that he had arrived in the city, I had hoped that he had come to assist me.” Her tone was accusing. She clearly held him to blame for Stefan’s absence. “Of course he never came to call, so I sent near a dozen messages to the town house. I even had my maid deliver a letter—only to be turned away by a huge brute of a man who would not so much as allow her across the threshold.”

“I did not hire Boris for his talents in proper London etiquette,” he said dryly.

Her eyes flashed, her beautiful hair tumbled about her shoulders. “Well, because of Boris, I was forced to attend this hideous ball in the hopes of speaking with Stefan. And now you have ruined even that.”

Edmond was not a gentleman who was chastised by others. Not even Alexander Pavlovich would dare offer more than a mild reproof. And yet, this tiny scrap of a woman stood there and boldly dressed him down, as if he were no more than a disobedient child.

Astonishingly, however, it was not resentment, but fascination that flowed through him.

Brianna Quinn had the sort of spirit that was all too rare among well-bred females. For God’s sake, any other woman would have been mindless with fear, or at the very least hysterical, after being threatened with rape by her stepfather. Brianna instead had boldly set upon a course to save herself, even daring to attend the most notorious ball in all of London.