Page 39 of The Confessions of a Lady
Penny exhaled, her chest deflating as she lowered her chin and flicked her gaze from his eyes to his lips. Firm, well-shaped lips she knew tasted of mint and madness.
She forced her focus from his mouth to the brass buttons of his coat, Penny cleared her throat. ‘I… I don’t know how to react to your gift, my lord. Generosity on such a scale is… well, it’s just not done.’
Liam reached up and brushed his fingers over her cheek where the gash stung like the dickens even with the salve. ‘If you only knew the things I wished to do with you. All the things not done between a maid and her marquess that swirl in my mind.’
Penny’s sharp inhalation filled her lungs with wild woods, fresh wind, spice. ‘What kind of things?’ She couldn’t stop the question, even knowing she was playing a dangerous game. But with his scent filling her chest, his amber eyes burning into her very soul, his strong fingers brushing her cheek, his words spiralling in her heated imagination… she cared not for consequences.
Liam’s pupils dilated. He licked his lips and Penny held in the groan of desire he inspired as he leaned closer. ‘Such dark and delicious deeds, sweet Penny. To bury my head between your thighs and taste your sweet nectar on my tongue.’
Oh dear! Is that even a possibility?
Heat rushed to Penny’s cheeks as a roar sounded in her ears. What wickedness he whispered to her. And yet, the very thought caused a rush of wet heat between the very thighs he discussed in such intimate detail.
‘To hear you scream my name as I lick your little bud of pleasure. Did you know there is such magic within you? Such wildness desperate to be set free?’
I most certainly did not.
But, holy hell, she wanted to find out.
‘God, how I want to be the one who shows you, Penny. Who lifts you up beyond these walls to fly free in the cosmos.’
But he couldn’t possibly breach such a distance. And she didn’t want him to free her. The opposite was true. She wantedto cage him. Because he deserved to be shackled. Stripped of his power and prestige. Punished for his crimes.
What crimes? What evidence do I have of his evil outside of a stack of letters I cannot read?
A knock sounded on the door, breaking them apart like a crack in the firmament.
Penny limped quickly to the hearth, fiddling with the coal bucket as Mr Coggins strode in. His sharp gaze flicked from Penny to Liam. ‘Sir, I’m sorry to disturb you from your requested solitude.’ His accusing glare found Penny once more before he refocused on Liam. ‘A gentleman is here wishing to speak with you.’
Would Coggins notice the flush on Liam’s cheeks? The strain tightening the air between the marquess and his maid? He was an astute butler, trained to sense the slightest change in his employer’s mood. Surely, he would suspect the worst.
Penny wished she could break like coal dust and float up the chimney in a cloud of heat and sparks.
‘I’m expecting no callers today, Coggins. Did he leave a card?’ Liam’s voice, a tad rougher than normal, was tight with control. ‘I must say, I’m entirely sick of unwanted visitors.’
‘He hasn’t left at all, sir. I tried to dissuade him from entering, but he insisted.’ Coggins gaze flicked to Penny, apparently feeling this was the appropriate time to chastise her. ‘Miss Smith, I did not assign you to tend the fire here. You are needed in the ballroom. Much must be done to prepare for his lordship’s masque.’
Liam waved his hand as if he were swatting a pesky gnat. ‘I rang for her. I needed someone to tend the flames. Tell me, Coggins. Who the devil is this man?’
‘Perhaps we should dismiss Miss Smith before?—’
‘Damn it, Coggins, who is at my door?’
Coggins straightened his jacket and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing like a nervous jay on a branch. ‘A Mr Williams, sir. He says you know where his daughter is. He’s threatening to involve Scotland Yard, my lord.’
Penny dropped a piece of coal with the tongs and scrambled to retrieve it.
Bloody hell. A missing girl? Could she be one of the many young women fallen prey to the Devil’s Sons and their hideous flesh trade? Is Liam helping to procure these maids under the guise of offering them work in his household? Dear God. Is this the evidence I’ve been searching to find?
Liam’s entire person shifted. The rugged lines of his jaw hardened. His eyes narrowed. Lips – moments before having spoken such erotically tempting things to Penny – hardened into a straight line of repressed rage. His shoulders widened and his hands curled into fists.
‘Miss Smith, you may leave.’ Liam’s rough voice was cold and impenetrable. Penny returned the tongs to their stand, nearly toppling the brass contraption to the floor. ‘Now,’ he nearly shouted.
Here was the monster deserving of punishment. The enemy she pitted herself against. The beast who nearly killed a man in a dirty alley not far from the Steel.
Penny moved as quickly as her ankle permitted. As she passed Coggins, he stopped her with a hand on her sleeve. ‘Mrs Harding needs you to scrub the floor in the ballroom. Make sure it shines, Miss Smith.’ A filthy, arduous task requiring at least three or four servants. She was being punished to tackle it alone. But it mattered not.
Penny nodded and moved into the hallway.
