She looked up to gauge the audience reaction, and John hastily shifted his gaze from the spot where her bodice met her flesh.
Cheeks warm, she rose.
Lady Mary clapped the earl on the back. “This just might prove to be a superior form of entertainment. I can’t wait to see how it plays out.” She adjusted her cap and strode for the door. She waggled her fingers in farewell and disappeared.
John circled Netta, his spirals growing ever tighter. Ever closer.
“Shouldn’t you accompany your guest to the door?” Netta turned with him, keeping him in sight. She knew better than to turn her back on a predator. “Or do I now have to teach the instructor about manners?”
“Auntie May is family.” His shoulder brushed her own, and a shiver tickled her spine. “We don’t stand on formality with each other.”
“So your friend’s aunt is family but your own grandmother is taboo.” His citrus and pepper scent filled her senses. Her endless turning made her head go light. She inhaled deeply, letting the essence of him sink deep into her lungs. “How interesting.”
He stopped, his chest inches from hers. Lifting a strand of her hair from her shoulder, he slid his fingers down the lock. “Always looking for an angle, aren’t you? Trying to find the profit in every utterance.”
She lifted one shoulder. “It would be foolish not to in my position. And I’m nobody’s fool.”
“Is that so?”
She raised her chin. “You look at me and see a simple thief. But I’m clever. You’d best remember it.” It was as much of a warning as she could give him. Her deception was beginning to curdle in her stomach like day-old milk. He most likely didn’t deserve her trickery. But her future was too tenuous to trust to the earl’s discretion. He could use the knowledge of her birth against her interests.
He could put her in danger even while believing he was doing the right thing.
He twirled his finger, wrapping her hair about it, and tugged. “You greatly misunderstand what I see when I look upon you. Perhaps it’s time we changed that.”
He was close, so close if she rocked up on her toes they could kiss. His gaze was unblinking, and she couldn’t look away. His breath caressed her cheek. The cool silk of his cravat soothed the heated skin above her bodice. “How do we change it?” she whispered.
His smile was slow to unfurl, but when it reached its full extent, her core clenched. And for the first time, Netta recognized how dangerous this man was. If even his smile could cloud her mind, what could he do to her when he used his whole body.
He leaned closer, nudged her temple with his nose and inhaled deeply. “How would you like to play a game?”
Chapter Ten
Christ, he’d never smelled anything so good as the woman before him. He’d chosen the soaps from Paris for their subtle bergamot odor. But mixed with the hint of licorice that wafted off Netta whenever she moved, her scent was intoxicating. And if she smelled like a treat, he couldn’t wait to taste her.
And taste her he would. He’d been playing the good earl for too long. No assignments from Liverpool with their promise of legally-sanctioned mischief to enliven his days. Getting his brother out of trouble. Again. Truly, he deserved some reward for his trials.
And Netta was one enticing reward.
Her alluring gaze narrowed, a small divot puckering the skin between her brows. He had never seen the equal to her eyes. The same striking violet color as his favorite waistcoat at the edges of her irises, darkening as they went inward to make her pupils look as deep as the midnight sky.
She was saucy one moment, a hard-nosed negotiator the next. Always watchful. He spared a fleeting thought to what in her past could have made her so wary. But such dull thoughts weren’t to be borne at a moment like this. Not when he could lean forward the barest inch and brush his chest over her puckered nipples. Not when she flicked her tongue over her bottom lip in a teasing invitation.
“I’ve been known to enjoy a game or two,” she said slowly. “What did you have in mind?”
He circled behind her, enjoying the tension in her shoulders. He liked putting this woman’s barricades up. Would make it that much more satisfying to knock them down. She seemed so sure-footed, and he wanted nothing more than to knock her off balance. She would be most diverting to toy with, but the knot of tension in his chest told him he did have some standards. “Netta, have you ever lain with a man?”
She pressed a hand to her bosom and looked over her shoulder. “What a shocking suggestion,” she said, enunciating each vowel and consonant. “What kind of woman do you take me for?”
She was the kind of woman he wanted to take, period. But he had to know. He wouldn’t be the man to lead an innocent astray. There was a tease in her voice which made him believe she was anything but innocent, but he’d read this woman wrong before.
He prowled in front of her and trailed the knuckle of his finger down her neck. Down until it rested in the hollow between her full breasts. His cock thickened. Fuck, he wanted those dugs. To suck them, bite them, slide his Thomas between their silky depths.
But not if she was untouched. Virgins were a pain in the arse he swore he’d never bother with again.
“You don’t strike me as an innocent miss, but you’ve been known to overplay your hand.” Her skin was so damn soft. He wanted more of it exposed to his fingers, his tongue. “If ever there was a time to be truthful, this is it. Do you wish to go on with our business arrangement as before and forget this conversation? Or do you want to play?”
His heart beat faster. It was silly to be so on edge over a woman’s response. If she turned him down, there were other women to distract himself with. Other games.
