Damn.He had to stop doing that.Focus. Maria was working, for fuck’s sake, and his cousin might yet be hiding in his cellar.
They traversed the corridors and stairs with ease, greeting his staff—guards—with polite nods as they passed. And yet his body still felt…stimulatedby Maria’s nearness.
At last, they descended the final staircase into the servants’ rooms. They passed the housekeeper’s bedroom, butler’s pantry, kitchens and scullery, and finally reached the cellar. A renewed sense of anticipation filled him, his pulse drumming and his breath coming quickly.
“I forgot that you had both a larderanda cellar,” Maria noted.
Jasper nodded absently. “All of the larger homes in Grosvenor Square have both.”
Despite his body’s demands, his focus was entirely on the closed door to the cellar. Francis could be within, and Jasper must have his wits about him.
Lifting his pistol in preparation, Jasper reached for the door’s latch and pressed, swinging it wide. Immediately, the scent of cured meats and fish filled his nose. Heart racing, he scanned the small space. Meats, fish, cheese, milk…No Francis.
He cursed and dropped his arm.
Maria brushed past him and into the room, bending low to peer beneath the bottom shelves, and his gaze narrowed unwaveringly on her arse.Christ, but the woman was endowed with a particularly spectacular bottom. Would that he’d given that part of her more attention during their tryst that morning. Would she be receptive to?—
“There is no sign of someone bedding down in here,” Maria said, cutting through his thoughts. “I daresay if he attempted to hide in a closet or cupboard, he would have been found out by your regular staff. I must have been wrong. Mayhap the new staff membersarepilfering food.”
“Mayhap,” he said thoughtfully. Jasper carefully lowered the hammer on his pistol, feeling rather deflated that they hadn’t found the blackguard. Whether he was willing to admit it or not, he was spoiling for a fight with Francis after their encounter earlier. He wanted this bloody nonsense done with.
The dagger she’d been holding disappeared among the folds of her skirts, and he marvelled at her fearlessness. She knew how dangerous his cousin was, and yet there she stood, prepared to face the man, to spend the night standing guard in Jasper’s home, in the name of justice.
His body moved without conscious thought. Placing the pistol on one of the cellar’s shelves, he stepped into her space, breathing in her scent of ink and parchment.
Maria’s breath hitched, and the little sound tightened his cods.
He wanted to kiss her again, to press her up against the wall behind her and hear her cry out in pleasure as his cock rubbed against her sweet?—
“Kiss me, Jasper,” she breathed.
With a rough groan, he covered her lips with his. She opened on a sigh, her tongue reaching out to flick at his. She gripped the lapels of his coat before her hands found purchase in his hair, her nails gently abrading his scalp and sending gooseflesh over his skin. He pulled her closer, fisting her maid’s costume in his hands as his body came alive with desire.
Christ, but she sparked a fire in him, the likes of which he’d never before felt. These new facets of her character that he was discovering had him scrambling for purchase on the edge of some precipice. He wanted to know more, to feel more, tohavemore of her.
Her sweet breaths came quickly, and she arched against him, tightening her fingers in his hair and creating a delicious sharp tug that went straight to his ballocks. He left her lips to trail kisses along her jaw, but she chased his mouth with a soft mewl of protest, and his eyes threatened to roll backward.
A floorboard creaked nearby, and they sprang apart, huffing for breath.
Jasper turned away, rubbing a hand over his face and discreetly adjusting himself in his trousers.
“No one is there,” Maria breathed. “Seems the house was settling. But the timing was fortuitous, I’m afraid.”
He turned a dry gaze on the woman, took in the sharp, determined set to her jaw and obdurate tightness to her lips, and internally deflated. There would be no more kisses tonight.
“I must see to my duties,” she continued. “You had best get some sleep.”
A frown tugged at the corners of his lips. “Would it not be prudent of me to aid you?”
She eyed him thoughtfully. “Help would be most welcome.”
His chest swelled, and he grinned. “Capital. Where shall we begin?”
An endearing, snorted laugh escaped her. “On the top floor, Duke.”
So, they did. With careful attention to detail, they began with the furthest guest bedchamber, examining every window and servants’ corridor entrance for compromised locks or weakened seams. They peered in all wardrobes and cupboards in the rooms, and found nothing. Then, they moved down to the second floor.
They searched by light of the moon, foregoing candlelight, as it would make them more visible through the windows.
