His touch scorched her skin.
To her eternal embarrassment, she moaned.
She felt him grin against her mouth.
Even unseen, his smile made her chest ache.
Oof!She would punish him for making her feel so—
Crash!
The sound of a door slamming shut sent Allie jerking back in surprise.
Turning, she met the eyes of an enraged Kendall. He stood rigidly in front of the closed door—still vibrating on its hinges—gray hair tumbled across his brow, nostrils flaring in suppressed fury.
“What . . . thehell. . . are you doing?!” he asked, his tone glacial enough to freeze the Thames in July.
A sensible person would waver before such rage.
Allie, of course, had stopped wavering long ago.
8
Ethan feared his heart would give out.
First . . . that kiss . . .
And now, Kendall looking about two seconds away from tearing him limb from limb.
Had he likened the duke to a stallion? Presently, the man more closely resembled a lion eager for his blood.
As for himself, Ethan was rightly aneejitto end alleejits.
He had known he should leave. Instead, he had eagerly followed Lady Allegra down this primrose path to sure destruction.
Ethan shifted his weight to stand, but Lady Allegra clutched his hand, pressing it into the sofa, silently pleading with him to stay seated beside her.
He dared a look at her face. And then blinked.
The thoughtful woman he had been speaking with just moments before had vanished.
In her place sat the woman he had last seen in that dim hallway at Lord Aberdeen’s—closed, haughty, insouciant. A brilliantly plumed parrot in a gilded cage, intent on its own destruction.
“I asked a question,” Kendall snapped. “I do not like to repeat myself, Lady Allegra. What are you doing?”
Yes, what was she about? Did she think to goad Kendall into setting her free?
Ethan had no desire to become a puppet in Lady Allegra’s war with her twin.
Or rather . . .moreof a puppet.
“What am I doing?” Lady Allegra huffed as if the answer to Kendall’s question were absurdly apparent. “Why, breaking commandments, obviously.”
“Pardon?” Kendall’s two eyebrows drew down into one.
“By my estimate, I’ve smashed through at least four in the last hour. Chastity, clearly.” Lady Allegra paused to turn and drag the thumb of her free hand over Ethan’s lips, trailing fire in its wake. “But I also coveted Mr. Penn-Leith’s poetic skills and experienced a tremendous amount of hate for my father. Oh! And I stole Mr. Penn-Leith’s watch.”
Despite the tension in the room, Ethan nearly laughed when Lady Allegra reached around and lifted his pocket watch from beside her skirt. She handed it back to him.
