Motton was lost in a flood of sensation—the feel of this woman, so soft in his arms, her lovely curves unshielded by stays or layers of clothing; the taste of her sweet mouth under his; the smell of her skin, of lemon—a hint of purity, of innocence—and the musk of heat and need; the sound of her small gasps.
She had been so feisty—so fiery—at first, but now she was yielding and feminine and thoroughly seductive. Fiery, but in an entirely different way. He certainly felt as if he were on fire—his cock was just about ready to burn a hole in his breeches.
He pulled her bottom closer, bringing her more tightly against his poor, straining member, but the pressure only served to stoke the flames higher. His other hand cupped one of her lovely breasts. It was firm, soft, perfect. It fit his palm as if it had been made for it. He ran his lips over her jaw as he rubbed his thumb over her nipple. The lovely woman in his arms gasped.
He chuckled and kissed her just below her ear as he flicked the hard little nub once more. She gasped again.
He almost gasped. Standing was becoming a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately the loveseat was far too small, but there was the desk. She’d thoughtfully cleared it of that obscene statue. At the moment he’d wager his cock was far larger than Pan’s in any event.
She was running her hands down his back, spreading them over his buttocks, pressing him against her.
He cradled her jaw and returned to her mouth. Before he could plunge inside, she slipped her tongue tentatively past his lips and teeth. Ah. Who would have thought this girl would be so delicious, so responsive, so—
So virginal. So respectable. So closely related to two of his friends.
He froze. He’d actually been thinking of lifting Miss Parker-Roth onto the bare desktop, raising her nightdress, and—
Sanity came crashing back like a migraine. He straightened and jerked his hips back.
“What…what are you doing?” The soft little words were hardly more than a whisper. She sounded completely confused.
She looked completely seductive, but it was past time he started thinking with his brain and not his…
Long past.
He tried to push her gently away from him, but she wasn’t moving. She wrapped her arms around his back and held on.
“Miss Parker-Roth—”
“Jane.”
“What?”
“Jane. My name is Jane.”
Had he known her Christian name? No. He’d never paid much attention to her, frankly. She’d been just another attractive item decorating the ton’s ballrooms—like a potted palm or a ficus tree.
Little had he known.
“What’s your name?”
The question hit him in the gut. Surely she knew whom she’d been kissing? And rather more than kissing, actually.
He found he didn’t at all care for the notion that he was just an anonymous male. “Motton.”
She shook her head. “I know that. I want to know your name.”
Ah, his Christian name. No one called him by that except the aunts. It felt rather…intimate to share it with her. “Edmund.”
“Edmund.”
She murmured it as if she were exploring how it felt on her tongue. Damn! He could not think of Jane—of Miss Parker-Roth—and tongues. Her tongue had been so sweet, so shy. He would dearly love to feel it on—
Think with your brain, Motton! He firmly detached the woman and stepped back out of her reach. “Miss Parker-Roth, it cannot have escaped your attention that we are in a dark room without a chaperone and you are in your nightclothes.”
She grinned, the minx! “Yes, I know.”
“I shudder to think what society would say were it to learn of this…” What? Scandal? Disaster? Monumental lapse in judgment? All of the above? “This situation.”
And why wasn’t Miss Parker-Roth having the vapors? Surely a gently bred miss should be in hysterics at the treatment she had just received. Not that she’d been struggling. Oh, no. She’d been a very active, a very willing participant.
She dimpled up at him. She did have a most attractive smile. “Oh, don’t go all poker-faced.”
It wasn’t his face that was pokerish. If he didn’t start thinking about something besides Ja—Miss Parker-Roth’s—tongue and soft bottom and lovely breasts, he was not going to be able to light a candle and reveal his very impolite proportions.
Blast! His proportions just got even more shocking. Miss Parker-Roth had moved so her back was to the hearth. There was sufficient illumination from the fire’s embers to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of her waist and legs and—
He turned away to step closer to the open window. It was suddenly infernally hot in the damn study.
“Society won’t say anything because no one will find out,” she was saying. “As you point out, there are no witnesses, and I’m not going to go blabbing about…” She paused, and he glanced back at her. He’d wager if there were enough light, he’d see her face had turned bright red. His eyes dropped. There was definitely enough light to see…
“I’m not going to blab about…about what we were doing,” she said. “Are you?”
“No, of course not.” He had to stop staring at her br—chest. He jerked his attention back to her face. “I am not a complete idiot.”
“Well, then, there you are.” Jane frowned. She was suddenly feeling very out of sorts. Here she’d just had the most wonderful experience of her life with the man she’d dreamed of for years, and the fellow acted as if he could hardly bear to look at her. He’d turned as prim and proper as…as her stiff-rumped brother John.
John, thankfully, was not in London with them this Season. He’d gone off to Baron Tynweith’s estate. Odd, since the baron’s parties were often disreputable, but John had said something about topiary when he’d left the Priory. Plants were John’s passion—unlike Stephen, his only passion.
What was Lord Motton’s passion?
Mmm. She’d like to taste a little more of his passion. Her dreams had not come close to the reality of it. Unfortunately, the man did not look at all willing to repeat his thrilling performance.
And now that she looked at him—really looked at him—she saw he was dressed most peculiarly. Every article of clothing he wore was black—black shirt, black cravat, black breeches, black stockings—and he had dispensed with a coat and waistcoat. Well, she’d vaguely noted those omissions when she’d been plastered up against him.
It was almost as if he wished to blend into the shadows. Why? More to the point, why was he here at all and how had he gotten in? Mr. Hunt, the butler, was at Mrs. Brindle’s party.
He kept looking down at her chest. Had she spilled chocolate there, too, when she’d had her accident with her wrapper this morning? She looked down.
Oh.
She darted behind one of the wing chairs. Thank God its back was high and she was not terribly tall. Damnation, if Lord Motton was truly a gentleman, he’d offer her his coat…he didn’t have a coat…oh, bother.
He bowed briefly and cleared his throat. “Ahem, well, I must be going. Do pardon my intrusion. And, of course, my apologies for the…” He waved his hand vaguely. “For my behavior.” He looked ready to go out the window.
Well, that answered the question of how he’d gotten in, but he certainly wasn’t leaving before she got some answers.
She leapt back out from behind the chair and grabbed his arm. “Wait! You must tell me why you’re here.”
He frowned at her. “Miss Parker-Roth, please control yourself.”
He sounded far too much like John. She considered uttering one of the very improper words she’d learned from Stephen, but she restrained herself. “I’ll make you tell me.”
He snorted, shook off her grasp, and turned. She latched onto the back of his shirt.
“Will you stop—”
“I have two older brothers, a younger brother, and two younger sisters. I know all about blackmail and coercion.”
He didn’t even bother to reply; he just pul
led her hand off his shirt and kept going. She hurried after him, out through the French window onto the terrace.
“I’ll tell your aunts what happened here tonight.”
That got him to pause. “You wouldn’t. You’d ruin yourself.”
“Not if I tell your aunt Winifred—she’s not such a high stickler. I saw her arrive today with Theo and Edmund. Oh!” Jane covered her mouth with her hand, but her snicker still escaped. “She named the monkey after you, didn’t she?”
Lord Motton sighed. Surely Miss Parker-Roth would not be so bold as to tell Winifred about this evening? If she did…well, Aunt Winifred was awake on every suit. She would immediately see a golden opportunity to push him into parson’s mousetrap. And she would be right—he would be bound to marry Miss Parker-Roth if word of this encounter ever did get out. He couldn’t be alone with a young, unmarried woman in her nightdress without offering for her. And they hadn’t just been standing around discussing the weather.
He waited for anger to surge through him. He’d spent years avoiding marriage traps…but, to be fair, Miss Parker-Roth hadn’t set out to trap him. He’d brought this on himself, not that he’d foreseen the risk when he’d agreed to search Widmore’s study.
And kissing her had been extremely pleasant.
He didn’t feel angry, he felt…he didn’t know how he felt. Miss Parker-Roth was uncommonly attractive in that virginal nightdress with her hair in a long braid down her back. He’d like to spread her hair out over her shoulders and run his hands through it. It was a warm brown with hints of red.
Why had he never noticed her before? She must have been at all those dreadful society events over the years.
The answer was simple. He’d not been in the market for a wife, and John and Stephen’s sister was not a suitable candidate for dalliance.
“I’m waiting, Lord Motton.”
And she was getting chilly. He could see her nipples peaking against her nightgown.
He’d like to make them harden for him…
“Come inside and I’ll tell you as much as I know, which isn’t much.” He took her arm and turned her back to the study.
“I would advise you not to try pulling the wool over my eyes.” She jutted out her lower jaw. She looked quite pugnacious.
He smiled briefly as he seated her in a wing chair and turned away to light the candles. He could easily bamboozle her if he wished—he’d had far more experience with deception than she, no matter how many brothers or sisters she had.
For some reason the thought of lying to Miss Parker-Roth sat like a rock in his belly.
He glanced back at her. She looked so pure, so beautiful sitting there staring at…her eyes were…
Good God! Miss Parker-Roth was studying his arse.
He turned to light some more candles. He could almost feel her gaze on his breeches.
She was going to have something else to study when he turned to face her if he didn’t pull his wandering thoughts back to the subject at hand—which was…what?
Ah, right. Widmore’s supposed sketch.
He lit the last candle and sat down quickly, leaning forward to shield his lap and any suspicious protuberance that might be apparent there. “I’m not trying to pull the wool over your eyes—I really do know next to nothing. The Earl of Ardley cornered me at White’s this afternoon and told me Widmore had been a French spy—”
“Clarence?” Miss Parker-Roth gawped at him. “A spy?”
“I grant you, it does seem unlikely.” He’d had almost the same reaction when Ardley had told him. Widmore had been fat and loud and…colorful. He’d wager the man was constitutionally incapable of moving unobtrusively. If Widmore had been a spy, he’d been a master of concealment. “But sometimes the best spies are those who seem the least likely.”
“Oh.” Miss Parker-Roth narrowed her eyes. “Are you a spy?”
“No, of course not.” It was true. He’d never considered himself a spy, but if he’d ever been one, he wasn’t one any longer.
Her expression did not change.
“Well, I may have done a little skulking about on occasion and a spot of listening here and there.”
“Hmm. I don’t suppose you’d tell me if you are a spy.”
“I don’t suppose I would, but I’m not.”
“You’re here.”
“Merely on an errand for a”—no, he couldn’t call Ardley a friend—“an acquaintance.”
“Why isn’t Lord Ardley doing his own skulking?”
He snorted. “Ardley?” The earl was fatter than Widmore had been.
Miss Parker-Roth laughed. “True, I can no more see Lord Ardley as a spy than I can Clarence Widmore.” She shook her head and echoed his own thoughts. “If Clarence was a spy, why would Lord Ardley care about his activities now? The war is long over and Clarence is dead.”
“Yes, but according to Ardley, Clarence sketched some of his fellow spies. That’s what he wants me to look for. Such a drawing, if it exists, could be very useful in rooting out any traitors still lingering in positions of power.” That was what had finally convinced him to take on this ridiculous mission. He wished to see all traitors brought to justice.
Yet something about Ardley, something in his manner or his voice had made him suspicious. Ardley wanted something, yes, but Motton would wager it wasn’t a drawing of French spies.
Surely the man couldn’t be stupid enough to think he wouldn’t examine anything he found?
He leaned closer to Miss Parker-Roth. “Did you know Widmore well?”
“No. Mama knows his sister, Cleopatra. They are both painters, though Cleopatra paints flowers and fruit, while Mama paints”—Miss Parker-Roth suddenly turned red and cleared her throat—“other things.”
“Ah.” If the painting Stephen had hanging in his rooms was an indication of the bulk of Mrs. Parker-Roth’s work, he understood Jane’s embarrassment. Mrs. Parker-Roth appeared to have a fascination with nudes. “I see.”
His eyes dropped to her nightgown. It was primly buttoned to her chin, but if he loosened that line of buttons…
He would like to see Jane nude, sprawled across his bed—
Damn it, he could not be entertaining salacious thoughts about this particular young woman. Such fantasies were totally inappropriate—and he had a job to accomplish before the servants or Mrs. Parker-Roth discovered him here. Mrs. Parker-Roth might be an artist, but she was also a mother. She would not look favorably on a man having a tête-à-tête with her nightgown-clad daughter.
“Are you familiar with the house, then? Do you have any idea where Widmore would have hidden a drawing?”
Miss Parker-Roth shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. We usually stay at the Pulteney Hotel when we come up for the Season. We’re only here this year because Cleopatra is on her honeymoon and offered us the use of her house.”
“I see.” It had been too much to hope she would hold the answer to this puzzle. He looked at the crowded bookshelves. Zeus, he did not relish going through each one of those tomes. And Widmore could easily have hidden the paper elsewhere. Almost anything—the desk, a chair, a bed—
No. No thinking of beds with Miss Parker-Roth in the room. It would be…entertaining to search her bedchamber—
No bedchambers.
The truth was, anything could conceal something as slim as a sheet of paper.
“Didn’t Lord Ardley have some suggestions as to where Clarence might have hidden the sketch?” Jane asked.
“Unfortunately, no.”
She stood, which put his eyes on level with…gave him an excellent view of…
He shot to his feet.
“It sounds to me as if you are forced to look for the proverbial needle in a haystack,” she was saying. “So I shall help you.”
Help him? He caught a whiff of lemon and woman—which went directly to his groin. Blast. The only way she could help him was to lie down on the carpet and spread her legs.
He needed to haul his mind out of the gutter
.
He’d have her lie on his bed instead—
Bloody hell! His imagination had never been this unruly before. He took what the women of easy virtue offered and left the other females—women like Miss Jane Parker-Roth—alone.
Miss Parker-Roth had pulled a book off the shelf. She opened it, turned it upside down, and shook it.
“What are you doing?”
She looked over her shoulder at him as she pulled out another book. “Helping you. You’ll be here all night if I don’t.” Nothing fell out of this book either. “You’ll probably be here all night even if I do.”
She was standing in front of the fire again. He could clearly see the curve of her breasts, the shadow of her nipples. If he looked lower, he knew he would see—
No, he would not look lower. He wrenched his gaze up to study the mantel. “You are not helping me.”
“Of course I am—don’t be so pigheaded. And why are you looking up there? Do you see something—ack!”
He’d grabbed her arm. He couldn’t stand it any longer. “I said you are not helping me. You are going back upstairs to bed—”
Blast! She whirled to give him a piece of her mind, no doubt, and he stepped forward at the same time. Their bodies collided. Her soft, sweet body—her breasts and hips and belly against his hard…his rock hard, painfully hard—
Her tart, sweet scent enveloped him. She had tasted so good before. Her lips were just inches from his now. What harm could one small kiss do?
He bent his head. Just a small kiss. Just a brushing of lips. No tongues.
Just a small, good-night kiss…
Jane held her breath. He was going to kiss her again. She could tell. He had that intent, almost hot look in his eyes. He was staring at her mouth; her lips felt swollen, sensitive.
She tilted her chin, closed her eyes. Every part of her—even some shockingly embarrassing parts—tingled with anticipation. Waiting…
Would it be as wonderful as the first time?
Would it be better?
Would it—
She felt him move away. Her eyes flew open. His eyes were still hot, but with anger instead of seduction.
“You are going to bed.”
“Huh?” She felt like a four-year-old being sent to her room with no supper for doing…what?
Sally MacKenzie Bundle Page 149
