Page 17 of The Secret of the Dashing Detective
He turned, dismayed at the hope that sprang in his chest at the thought that she might want to see him again.
“No, actually, I am not,” he said. “Your half-brother spends his Saturday afternoons at a particular pub where I am going to meet him after my morning shift here to try to come to know him better. If you need anything, I will have Mr. Green accompany you. He is the next best man for the job.”
“My half-brother?” she asked, her eyes sparking with light that he had come to know meant trouble. “I am so interested in learning more about him.”
“I will be sure to provide your brother all of the information I learn.”
“I would most like to meet this Dr. Lewis.”
Matthew fixed a look upon her. “You most certainly will not be meeting him.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “Who are you, another one of my brothers?”
Matthew kept his gaze on her as he slowly climbed back up the stairs, his steps predatory as he neared. She kept her shoulders square and her stance strong as she waited for him, the air as charged between them as it always seemed to be when they were alone.
He reached out his arm, his index finger coming underneath her chin and he tilted her head up to look at him. Matthew had always been astounded by the wealth that the duke and his family possessed, uncertain of why so few people would need such expanse of land. But for once, he was glad that the house was behind a wall and a gate, for it meant that no passersby could gaze upon them with interest.
“I am many things, Lady Juliana,” he said fiercely. “But one thing I most certainly am not is your brother.”
And with that – and a moment he would later attribute to temporary insanity – he bent his head and took her lips with his.
He expected her to back away, to place her hands upon his chest and push him back, perhaps by slapping him across the face as she had the day he had tried to teach her to defend herself.
Which was why he was completely caught off guard when she reached up and grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him in closer to her.
Her kiss was inexperienced, but her enthusiasm was not as she pressed her lips harder into him, and he couldn’t help himself from tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue. She opened to him, and he slipped his tongue inside, lightly caressing hers with his. She tasted sweet, like tea and cookies, and for a moment he wondered if he could ever get enough of her.
But this one taste would have to be enough.
A voice sounded from within the house and while Juliana didn’t seem to hear it, Matthew gripped her wrists as he eased back from her and slowly pushed her away.
But she didn’t run. She stood and stared at him, as fixated upon him as he was on her.
“That… was…” she began, but he finished the sentence before she could.
“Something that will never happen again.”
CHAPTER7
To Juliana, the kiss had been everything. Surprising, wondrous, passionate, all that she could have ever asked for.
She knew she should have rejected it. Mr. Archibald had timed it well, the moment when they had been alone, but he was a man who worked for their family, a man who she knew she could never seriously consider. Not only that, but anyone could have seen them, standing out here on the doorstep of her family’s London home. No, they couldn’t be seen from the road, but they most certainly could be seen by anyone from within who happened to step outside.
None of that, however, had seemed to matter the moment his lips had descended onto hers. For despite all that her head was telling her, her soul knew that this was everything she had been waiting for, everything she hadn’t realized that she needed from a man. And everything that she knew, deep in her heart, that Lord Hemingway could never be.
And then Mr. Archibald had pushed her away, not wanting anything more to do with it – with her.
A sense of rejection overwhelmed her, washing over her in a wave – one that she whisked away as quickly as it came, allowing anger to take its place.
“You were the one who kissed me,” she said now, drilling a finger into his chest, and his eyes widened in astonishment at her outburst.
“I know,” he said, tilting his head downward as though he was ashamed of himself. “I shouldn’t have.”
“But you did. And I have a suspicion, Mr. Archibald, that you don’t do anything without reason.”
Emotion flashed in his eyes then, emotion that she couldn’t quite name.
“Lady Juliana, I am here to do a job. I allowed myself to become caught up in the moment. It was a mistake. I should never have taken advantage of you like that.”
