Page 3 of Her Wicked Longing
The handsome mystery man named James. His brown eyes were warm and bright. Her stomach gave aflutteryflip.
“My apologies again.” James chuckled and hesitated a moment before he released herwaist.
“James? What are you doing?” It was the pretty brunette woman Gillian had seen when she first enteredtheshop.
“Letty.” James greeted her warmly and stepped away from Gillian, but only enough to allow the other woman to come closer tothemboth.
“Hello.” Letty smiled at Gillian. “Don’t tell me my older brother was bothering you? He swore to be on his best behavior today. Not that I believed him for a minute. He’s a bit of a rogue, you see. Trouble follows him about.” Letty’s eyes were the same enchanting brown as her brother’s. Gillian hated to admit she was relieved they were siblingsandnot…
It shouldn’t matter, butitdoes.
“No, he’s fine. I mean, he was behaving…” A fresh wave of heat and embarrassment swept through her. She usually didn’t speak to ladies, notlikethis.
“I seem to be disrupting the day of Miss…” James looked expectantly to Gillian, clearly hoping she would give him her name. It wasn’t proper, this sort of introduction, but at this pointnothingbetween them had beenproper.
“Beaumont. Gillian Beaumont.” The late Earl of Rutherford had been Richard Beaumont, but though she bore her father’s surname, one would not make the connection or guess that she had been born on the wrong side of the blanket. There were plenty of Beaumonts in London who had no relation to the Rutherfordtitle.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Beaumont. I’m Leticia Fordyce, and this is my brother James, LordPembroke.”
Gillian nearly swallowed her tongue.The Earl of Pembroke. She’d heard the whispers of Audrey’s friends over tea, speaking of this man with a wicked smile and gentle brown eyes. He was a mixture of roguish fantasy and perfect gentleman. An enigma the ladies of thetoncouldn’t puzzle out. And yet no one had won his heart. He was just the sort of man she would have longed to dance with at a ball, a man she might have had a chance with if her mother had been married to the Earl of Rutherford and not a mistress. But that life would never be hers, and she had to stop thinking about what mighthavebeen.
Gillian struggled to think. “It’s lovely to meet you both,” she managedfinally.
What would Audrey Sheridan do?Gillian knew exactly what Audrey would do, and it was not what shewoulddo.
“So, my brother is disrupting your day?” Letty grinned, a little impish smile curling her cupid’s bow mouth as she glancedbetweenthem.
James stared down at his boots before he glanced up at Gillian, a sheepish grin drawing her focus to his lips. The man had such kissable-looking lips. She jolted. She rarely allowed herself to think of men like that. Her life had always been focused on work and keeping busy. Surviving in London meant abandoning thoughts of marriage. No man would take a penniless illegitimate woman to wife, at least no one above herstation.
“I believe Lord Pembroke was looking for you, and I stumbled into him,” Gillian replied, trying not to let her nerves show. She wasn’t accustomed to speaking directly with members of thepeerage.
“Ah.” Letty giggled. “We are finished with Madame Ella. Are you as well? I thought we might go to Gunter’s for some ices. Would you care tojoinus?”
Letty’s expression was so full of hope that Gillian’s heart twinged with guilt. She had to say no. She couldn’t go to Gunter’s, not with the earl and his sister. It simply wasn’t done. They had mistaken her for a gentle-born lady likeAudrey.
She struggled for an excuse. “I regret I must go to a bookshop and pick up a fewnovels.”
“Oh…” Letty’s face fell, but James’s brown eyes gleamed as he stared atGillian.
“We are in need of novels too, aren’t we, Letty? We shall accompany you, and once we have satisfied our literary thirst, we can quench our physical thirst at Gunter’s with tea and ices.” The earl declared his plan with such determination that Gillian could not see how she couldrefusehim.
“I suppose that would be fine…” Living a small lie for a few hours couldn’t hurt,couldit?
“Wonderful! Did you bring a coach, Miss Beaumont? We have one and would be delighted to take you home after Gunter’s if you wish to spare your driver the time,” Lettyoffered.
“Oh no, that’s all right. I will have him go to Gunter’s and wait for me,” Gillian said. If they were to drop her off at the Sheridan townhouse on Curzon Street, it would not take him long to figure out who she really was. She couldn’t bring herself to face them should they discover her deception. If she could keep up the pretense for a short while, all wouldbewell.
I should not be doing this…but Audrey doesn’t need me this afternoon, and it will be nice to pretend for a few hours. This might have been my life under different circumstances.It was quite selfish to say yes to this madness, she knew, but she was fascinated by James and liked his sister. Surely one visit to a bookshop and Gunter’s wouldn’t do her any harm.Surely…
Chapter2
James Fordyce was under a spell.It was as though some enchantress had stepped into Madame Ella’s dress shop and cast a glittering web of light over him. The moment he accidentally pulled back the dressing room curtain and saw her, it was as though no other woman had ever existed before or after in his mind. He was an admitted rogue who’d done things that would make his father blush were the man still alive, yet this woman had made him feel like a lad of seventeen, giddy and gawkish as he gazed at her like a moon-eyedcalf.
He’d lost all rational thought when he glimpsed her bare shoulders and back. Pale creamy skin was exposed by the open gown from her neck down to just above a delightfully rounded derrière. He’d had to restrain his baser instincts to grip her hips and pull her backagainsthim.
Once he’d caught sight of those soft gray eyes, he was lost. They were as pale as morning mist covering a field of bluebells. When he gazed deep into her eyes, he had the strangest feeling he was floating somewhere in the clouds, that time seemed to suspend itself and he didn’t need to think or breathe outside this single moment. No one had ever made him feel that way before. Something about this woman filled him with a wild compulsion to strip her of her clothes and possess her right there in the modiste’s shop. How was thispossible?
At the last moment, he dimly recalled that he was a gentleman, and seeing her in such a way could ruin the lovely gentle-bredlady.
