Page 38 of The Viscount's Seduction
“Perhaps the wagon could drop me off at my lodgings.”
“Would that be wise? If my father has watchers there, all they need do is follow that wagon.”
He was right.
“Would you call a hackney for me?”
“Would I put you in a hackney in the middle of the night—for that is when they’re leaving—and send you out by yourself?”
“Would you escort me then?”
“And blithely bring you home after you’ve spent a day and a night in my company?”
Those strong fingers had found hers and were rubbing circles over the back of her hand, sending warm bursts of sensation up her arms, down her back, and into her loins.
An uneasy certainty crept over her.
Perhaps the claret had been drugged. She must be firm. She lifted his hand off hers.
“Lady Jane will understand, I think, when I explain to her.”
“Will she? Perhaps the Cheswicks won’t, when they find out, and she’s dependent upon them, isn’t she?”
“Oh, surely they won’t learn of this.”
“You were to attend a rout tonight, were you not? She told me she sent excuses and stayed at home, but you know how thetonwill talk. Perhaps someone will learn that the river police almost arrested a pretty earl’s daughter named Sirena.”
A sickening feeling flushed all the warmth out of her and brought with it a chill. Her hand went to her roiling stomach. “You mean to seduce me. You mean to pressure me into being your mistress, to replace Lady Arbrough.”
He frowned. “Is that what you think of me, Lady Sirena? That I would save you from street thugs, only to abuse you myself?”
Her heart quaked and her body stirred with conflicting desires. She wanted to leave, she wanted to feel his touch again, she wanted him to kiss her, and she wanted to be back safe with Lady Jane and Barton.
And she wanted very much to smack him.
“Whatever am I to think after the kissing the other night?”
“Last night.”
Oh.Her heart thundered. It had been that recent.
His tension altered, his eyes going darker. “Perhaps you might think that I’m an honorable man.”
“You’re Shaldon’s son.”
“Yes, yes, you have said that before, but I’m not Shaldon, running about Ireland and the Continent spying. I’m the heir. I was trained to run a vast agricultural empire and manage a fortune in investments. I’m quite boring really.”
His hand rested on her knee and the very air around him vibrated, sending a thrill through her that was anything but boring.
“We also breed horses. Very fine ones. Some of the best in all England.”
He paused and the air crackled.
“As you know,” he said.
His gaze held hers, as dark as the night when she’d caught him peering through the slats of Pooka’s stall.
“Horses,” she said stupidly.
