To desire her.
And yet, he had never paid her any more notice than he would a fly winging past his head. Not in all this time. No matter how hard she tried to draw his gaze or earn his approval. He never strayed from his icy mask of impassivity for her. He had scarcely ever spoken more than a handful of words to Rhiannon.
To her shame, she had come here in the hope that she would cross paths with him. That she might woo him from behind the haven of her mask and anonymity. That she could give herself to him before she settled into a predictable, staid life as another man’s wife.
But he had dashed all her hopes with his cutting words.
She would show him that there was nothing at all girlish about her.
She was three-and-twenty, damn him. And he was being high-handed and condescending and…
Oh.
He kissed quite well.
She shouldn’t be surprised. He had likely seduced half the ladies in London by now. But as his lips moved over hers, lightly at first and then with greater, almost ravenous insistence, she quite forgot her reason for kissing him.
Damn him twice.
He had humiliated her, and Rhiannon had intended to filch that blasted key from his pocket. Instead, she was savoring his skilled seducer’s mouth. She was supposed to thwart him at his own game, to best him, to show him she was as unaffected as he was, although that was a dreadful lie.
And yet, her knees were going weak. Because how could she resist the only man she’d ever truly wanted, the Duke ofRichford? Her every breath was of his maddening scent, like a forest tinged with musk and amber. The center of her being became her lips, and then just as suddenly, it changed to the small of her back, where his palm gently pressed, bringing her body into his.
A liquid heat slid through her, settling in her core and dampening her drawers.
This wouldn’t do.
Rhiannon released his necktie, slowly moving her hand between their bodies.
His tongue plundered her mouth and simultaneously wiped all thoughts from her mind. He tasted like wine and sin. No man had ever dared to kiss her like this, carnally, deeply, in a way that made her feel as if he had plumbed the depths of her. The handful of suitors she’d had—before the Earl of Carnis—who had been bold enough to make an overture had given her nothing more than a chaste press of their lips to hers. She had never been consumed as if she were a decadent dish laid before a starving man.
Rhiannon opened for the duke, surrendering. Giving him everything he wanted, everything he would take. She thought she could kiss him like this forever and never grow weary of it.
But then she reminded herself with firm determination that he was only kissing her because she had initiated the contact. He didn’t see her as a woman, and she needed to get that blasted key and restore her pride and sanity both.
His stomach was lean and firm beneath her slowly questing touch. She didn’t dare linger overly long or take her time. Her fingers simply crept into the pocket of his waistcoat and slid against the cool metal of the key.
She almost had it.
Just one small move, and the key would be entirely free…
Richford tore his mouth from hers and moved away with such hasty force that Rhiannon nearly fell onto her rump. She stumbled, blinking, lips tingling with the aftereffects of his kiss, cheeks going hot.
The key was still in his pocket.
Curse him. She had failed at her task.
And to make matters worse, he appeared utterly unmoved by what had just happened between them. His green gaze was cold and unreadable, his bearded jaw hard, his expression smug. Whilst Rhiannon was breathless, face flaming, feeling like the gauche naïf he had accused her of being.
“You see?” he asked softly, his tone pitying. “You are naught but a girl, playing a woman’s games.”
“Let me out of this room,” she commanded through gritted teeth.
“Not a chance.” He raised a golden brow, leaning a hip indolently into a settee at his side while he studied her. “You claim to know what these house parties are about, and yet your ignorance shows.”
“Of course I know what they’re about,” she brazened.
“Oh? Enlighten me.”
