Dalton had left almost immediately after the men arrived in the billiards room. He’d downed a dram of whisky and then barked at the butler, Decamp, for his curricle to be brought around. No one had tried to dissuade him from returning to his home, located less than a mile away from the viscount’s manor.
“Do the women hate each other as much as the men seem to?” Jasper asked as he began to walk around the small sitting room. There wasn’t much to see, but it at least kept him from drifting toward Leo.
“They’re an awful family, aren’t they?” she said with a disbelieving shake of her head. “I’m of a mind to believe it all stems from the viscount himself. I learned he married Emmaline and Francine’s good friend after the death of the first viscountess. The second wife passed away shortly after giving birth to Frederick.”
An older man marrying someone half his age wasn’t unheard of, but that he would select one of his daughters’ friends was, at least to Jasper’s mind, a touch perverse.
Hands in his pockets, Jasper rounded the room again. “Frederick and his father seem to be on good terms, at least. I asked why they were not present at the will reading, but they gave no answer.”
It was a nice way of saying they’d ignored him entirely as they’d chalked the tips of their billiard cues, though they had exchanged a look between themselves. Mr. Corman had cleared his throat nervously and announced that he would retire for the evening, if no one minded. No one had, and he’d slipped out as if in great relief. Jasper had followed him into the corridor, but theman was a professional. He would not budge when pressed for information on why the viscount and Frederick had been absent earlier that afternoon.
“I don’t think I’ve ever so desperately wished to leave a place before,” Leo said as she wrapped her arms around herself.
“You aren’t alone in that.” The knot in his stomach hadn’t relented all day, and he knew it wouldn’t until they’d left not just Cowper Hall, but the estate in its entirety.
Then again, he wasn’t eager to leave Leo at the train station and return to Liverpool. The counterfeiting investigation had been concluded, but there were mundane tasks to see to, and it would still be a few weeks before he was released from his secondment.
She cocked her head, as if thinking of something. “I must admit, though, I haven’t ever had such a pleasurable bath before.” A nostalgic smile touched her lips. “Hot water, straight from a tap. It felt nearly sinful.”
Every muscle in Jasper’s body tensed as a delectable image instantaneously formed in his mind. She hadn’t meant for her comment to be provocative, and if Jasper had been anyone else, it wouldn’t have been. The vision of her lounging in bathwater, her skin wet, her shoulders bared—everythingbared—wasn’t just a result of being too long without the company of a woman. It was due to being too long withouther. Opportunities had arisen in Liverpool; taking advantage of them would have been easy. But the temptation had never been strong enough for him to set aside his thoughts of Leo. Or the promise he’d made to her, even if he had only ever voiced it to himself.
Jasper had every intention of forging ahead and pretending the comment about her luxurious bath had not affected him. But when she emitted a small sigh of contentment at the memory, he broke. A soft groan squeezed from his throat.
Leo peered at him with a questioning look.
“There is no chance your bath was sinful,” he said, sensing the line of impropriety nearing, and yet not caring enough to shut his mouth. “But the picture you’ve just put into my mind certainly is.”
His meaning instantly clear, Leo’s cheeks pinked. She looked away, lips bowing into a grin. “That was most definitely not my intent.”
He quit his pacing and came to stand in front of the chair where she stood. “The fault is all mine. And I’m sure I’ve said too much. I should go.”
Should.
Leo stepped out from behind the chair. “Must you?”
Jasper had not yet moved to leave and now knew he would not. Not yet, at least.
He gravitated toward her, his gaze locking on her mouth. “I probably should.”
There was that word again:should. He’d never realized how ineffective a single word could be.
Jasper reached for her, and then Leo was in his arms, her lips against his. In an instant, all the awkward friction that had held them apart on the carriage ride to the manor vanished. They stood still, Jasper indulging in the feel of her lips against his. Of her hands coming up to rest on his chest. And then, of the gentle nudge of her mouth, as if to tell him,yes.
They dropped into the kiss as easily and naturally as they had the few times before he’d left London. There was no awkwardness as her lips moved against his, then parted so he could taste her. He tucked her closer to his body with the urge to consume her. Every inch of her. The scent of rose oil warming between them brought the wicked vision of her in her bath flaring to life in his mind again. A deep ache fissured through his stomach, and lower still. It was on a mindless, dangerous course, and with Leo quicky becoming soft and pliant under hishands and against his body, the part of his brain dedicated to reason and caution began to mute. The world narrowed to two spaces as Jasper led her toward a small writing desk: the desk itself—he took her hips in his palms and lifted her to sit upon the edge—and the bedroom behind them. His heart pounded at the thought of bringing her into that room.
He pulled back, though only so that he could set his mouth to the curve of her throat. Her skin was hot and sweet, and he nuzzled her with his tongue and teeth with that same need to consume her.
“Jasper.”
He went still, her ragged whisper having reached past his depraved thoughts. Only then did he realize that his hands had gathered fistfuls of her skirt—and that one palm gripped the back of her thigh.
Hell.
He started to release her leg, but her hand came down over his to stop him. He groaned against her throat. “I need to go.”
“I know,” she said, even as her fingers raked up the nape of his neck into his hair. She kept her hand on his, pressing it back against her thigh.
“Leo,” he said, his voice strained. “I’ve taken this too far. I shouldn’t be here.”
