“Waiting for you.”
Alice blinked. “You are waiting for me. In Lady Islington’s garden? Did you come to play croquet?”
Spreading his arms wide, Edward smirked, “Do I look like I am fond of playing silly little games such as knocking balls around with colored sticks? I am here to look after my brother. That, with both of our parents gone, is my responsibility, and I will not let him be taken advantage of.”
Alice notched her chin up, curiosity lodged firmly in her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Do you love him?” He asked plainly.
Her curious expression turned to defiance. “I do not see how that is any of your business.”
“I just told you it is,” Edward stepped closer. “Now, answer me. Are you in love with him?”
“What are you doing here?” She evaded his question. “I don’t think this is your sort of soirée. Isn’t your ambiance more of the sordid gambling hells, canoodling with unscrupulous sort?”
“You think I am friends with Rutledge?” he asked, brows lowered.
“Why not?” her lips pinched, “Men like you flock together.”
He snorted, “Sweet, there arenomen like me.”
He meant it too; there was a select sect of men who loved to see their lover sporting a reddened backside from a spanking or seeing her dressed in red rope, a silk blindfold, and nothing else.
She stomped past him and down the steps into the garden and headed into the dense maze of bushes—but she did not get too far. His hand clenched around her arm and with her momentum, he spun her back to him like a fish on a line.
“Let me go or I’ll scream,” she warned him.
“I highly doubt you’ll do that,” he grinned devilishly.
She was about to reply when voices drifted over from the hedge beyond them and before she could react, Edward was yanking her around another bend, into a tight corner of leaves and twigs.
The thick foliage obscured them from the rest and just in time. The voices—male and female—grew louder, twigs crushing under boots and slippers.
“What—”
“Shh,” his eyes cut into hers with a dire warning. “Or do you want to risk discovery?
For a moment, her gaze sharpened with annoyance... but she blew out a breath. He wasn’t the one she was angry at. Edward didn’t care, all he minded was praying the giggling party moved on. He could not dare move, for if he did, his life would beunwaveringly altered and as he’d vowed to not marry, he didn’t want that to change any time soon.
Giggling, a lady said, “My lord, you are so—”
“Handsome, rugged, very well-endowed?” a man laughed drunkenly. “I know, little filly, now come on, I need a stable to mount you.”
Alice’s face went red, and Edward couldn’t help feeling entranced; she pinked so prettily.
For someone who walked into a den of sin with her head held high, she is now blushing like a schoolgirl. She really is untouched, isn’t she?
“There is a bench here,” a second man said. “We can use it.”
Her eyes turned into dinner plates and her whisper was strangled. “We?”
Very, very innocent,he deduced.
“It might do for a quick romp…” the first man replied, his words trailing off in contemplation, and Edward ground his teeth to the root.
Not now,he begged.Will the damned three move on or we will be trapped here for longer than we can afford.
“… but this is not what I want for us,” the man said. “Let’s move on.”
