“She must have given me the wrong key.”
“Here,” he said, using his larger mass to nudge her aside.
“I beg your pardon,” she hissed, even as she accepted she might have to concede his point. He was larger and stronger. Further, he might be right.
She was beginning to give way when his hand covered hers. She startled back, but his fingers only gripped tighter. Her head whipped around, and she met the cool gray of his eyes.
Her heart, already at a quick trot, kicked into a full gallop. In sudden need of a deep breath, she inhaled flowery scents of the garden, but also,him.
Woodsy and warm, he smelled expensive, but not in an overbearing way, not perfumed like so many men of his class. It was a subtle aroma that made her want to draw nearer and nearer—which wouldn’t do. Even so, he was the most delicious-smelling man she’d ever encountered.
He swallowed, and her eye followed the undulation of his throat. When her gaze lifted, what she detected in his eyes froze the breath in her chest.
Knowledge.
Oh.
He felt it, too, then.
Chapter Four
He should releaseher.
Jamie understood that.
But he couldn’t seem to loosen his fingers enough to allow her freedom.
A beat of the heart, then another, her hand and her spectacular blue eyes remained his captives. Her pink tongue gave her full bottom lip a quick lick. His mouth went dry.
What was happening, here, with this woman?
Of a sudden, in the way one ripped off a bandage with a single swift motion, he unclenched his fingers. She yanked back, but her eyes remained locked on his. “Give it a try before the guard wakes,” she said, her voice a rasped whisper.
Jamie nodded and suppressed the unexpected flare of desire that had made his trousers go tight. He felt strangely caught out. As his fingers tightened on the key, he gave it his all, the muscles of his forearm straining with the effort. Just as he became concerned the key might break in the lock, the stubborn tumblers began to shift and, at last, released on a muted click. The woman—Hortense, she’d insisted, even though he sensed a half lie in the name—grabbed the handle and pushed the door open a crack, wide enough for her to slide through. She was like mercury, so liquid and quick was her movement. How easily she could slip through one’s fingers.
Once inside, back pressed to the glass-paned door, it took him a moment to ascertain that they stood behind thick velvet curtains which had been drawn closed, only a few feet of space to either side of them. With two people within its dark confines, this was an intimate space.
Attuned to her, that was how his body felt. Deuced inconvenient was what it was.
She inched forward and used a single finger to part the curtain a sliver before peeking out. “The room is empty.”
She stepped through the opening, and he followed into a drawing room that would have been cast in complete darkness if not for the banked fire in the hearth. It was an elegant room that also managed to have the look of a bachelor’s residence, its colors muted, the woods dark, a lack of flowers and general femininity. It was a space Jamie understood well.
Hortense jutted her chin toward the fireplace. Before it, dozed a small, tan-and-white furry form curled up on a blanket. The kidnapped dog. A little terrier, by the looks of it, who was watching them with one eye open.
Disappointment shot through Jamie. This job looked to be an easy one, which meant they would be finished in a matter of minutes. Then he would return to Asquith Court.
That dread didn’t fill him at the thought.
One careful step after another, Hortense crept toward the little dog. His head popped up and tipped to the side as he silently observed this human advancing upon him.
“Dog,” she whispered.
The terrier’s light brown ears pitched forward. Mayhap this wasn’t going to be so simple.
“Dog,” she tried again.
The animal showed his tiny white teeth and gave a little growl.
