More than an hour later, Ian leaned against the door to his bedchamber and watched with amusement as Hero dashed across the landing to her own bedchamber. Her wadded nightgown clutched against the dressing gown wrapped haphazardly around her. After today, there would be no need for secrecy. He’d have her in his bed openly and without interruptions.
Thankfully, he’d thought to rise in the early hours of the morning and lock his door, prohibiting any potential attacks while she was at his side. If he hadn’t, Dickson would’ve gotten quite an eyeful of something more profound than the grain of oak that morning. Ian grinned again at the memory. Just a matter of minutes before, she’d been in the throes of another orgasm when his valet had rattled the knob. She’d frozen, panting painfully, but he hadn’t allowed her to draw away. He’d continued on, forcing her to completion and capturing her cries of ecstasy with his kiss as she strained against him.
After, gasping at the force of her powerful climax, she roused the strength to slap his arm weakly when he fell on to the mattress next to her. “You’re terrible. What if he heard?”
“I don’t care if he did,” he’d answered, reaching for her. Hero had eluded him though, rushing for her dressing gown and slipping it on hastily to cover the blush that encompassed her entire body. He’d barely had enough time to pull on his trousers before she was at the door. He stopped her there, pinning her against it and kissing her passionately until she surrendered, wilting against him, before he allowed her to go.
Now she reached her bedchamber and opened the door, pausing to look back at him. Ian grinned wolfishly. “You’re still terrible,” she whispered.
Her eyes widened in alarm when he strode purposefully toward her. Her eyes darted left and right as she shook her head and shooed him away. He came anyway, pushing her through the open door as he caught her face between his hands. The force of his voracious kiss drove her farther back until she was pressed up against a bedpost. Her hands encircled his wrists, pulling, but he drew her tightly against him and bent her over his arm until she was once again warm and pliant. “I am a man in love, and for that, all can be forgiven.”
A gasp filled the room, and he turned to find Mandy standing in the dressing room door. The towel she’d been holding fell to the floor. Her wide eyes lingered on Ian’s bare chest before sliding to the side, and Hero moaned painfully in embarrassment.
“My lady! I was wondering where you were.”
“It’s quite all right, Mandy,” Ian assured her with a wink as he went to the door. “Lady Ayr and I are to be married. Today, in fact. Wish us well.”
“My lady!” the maid exclaimed as he left.
“Terrible,” Hero muttered as the door closed behind him and Ian returned to his own room with a soft chuckle.
“Is that it, then? She’s the reason?”
Ian turned at the strident voice to find Daphne at the door to the Round Drawing Room. Looking back to the State Room, he knew she would’ve had a clear view of which room he’d come out of. Still, he was in no mood for an explanation or an argument. He meant to have words with her regarding his suspicions but not yet. Not while he was still savoring his night and morning. “Not now, Daphne.”
He opened his chamber door and entered, swinging the door shut behind him. To his surprise, she caught it and entered behind him then slammed the door.
“What are you thinking, lass? You can’t come in here.” He snatched his dressing gown from a chair and slipped it on before delivering an imperious wave toward the door. “Now go.”
“Bah!” She swept his command away with a similar flick of her hand. “It’s her, isn’t it? She’s the reason you don’t want to marry me.”
There was no acknowledgement of his attraction to or relationship with Hero that Ian was willing to bestow on this invidious woman, so he denied, “You are mistaken in what you saw.”
“It’s her fault. If she weren’t here, you wouldn’t have denied me. I knew the moment I heard she was in Glasgow that she was going to cause me problems.”
Her words caught Ian’s attention and his eyes narrowed on her. “You knew she was in Glasgow?”
Daphne wasn’t paying him equal mind. Her eyes were glued to his bed, the covers rumpled and most hanging over the side. “You fucked her already?”
The fury building in her was palpable, but Ian’s was no less at her crude language. Rage boiled in his blood and not only at the thought of her using that word to describe what had occurred between him and Hero. “Were you responsible for Hero’s accident in Glasgow?” he grated out. His hands fisted, the urge to strangle her barely restrained.
“You fucked her!” Daphne shot back as she went to the bed, yanking the covers away furiously. “Damn her, I knew it. I knew it, that bitch. That whore!”
“Cease!” He grabbed her by the arms and glared down at her as he shook her. “I won’t tolerate you speaking of her that way.”
“Why not?” she spat out. “Because Hero is such a lady? There isn’t a man in Glasgow who hasn’t wanted to fuck her. That’s why I didn’t want her here. She shouldn’t be here taking what’s mine.”
“Is that why you tried to have her killed?” The question emerged softly, with stone cold fury.
“I didn’t try to have her killed,” Daphne denied with a sneer. “Injured. Severely maimed, perhaps. A few scratches to roughen up her pretty face. Didn’t stop her, did it? It took me a couple days to get my brother over here and that’s all it took, isn’t it? She drew you in like a dozen before you. What a bunch of saps you men are.”
She’d admitted to it; Ian could hardly believe it as he stared down into her resentful green eyes. Was there more? Had she taken that envious hatred of Hero a step further? He reined in the urge to shake the answers out of her.
Unaware of his thoughts, Daphne’s gaze became calculating as she continued in a more conciliatory tone. “Fine, so you’ve had her. I don’t mind if you have a fling or two. You can have all you want, but we can still marry. You can even keep her as a mistress on the side, if you like. I can’t imagine you would want to if Hero is as cold as they say. Given the number of mistresses Robert had, she must be. Was she?”
“Do you really believe that I would wed you after what you just told me?” Ian asked in amazement. “You tried to kill the woman-” He cut himself off. “And the rest of it? Eliminating the competition or me? Either option would work out as well?”
Again, Daphne seemed to hear only part of what he was saying. “The woman you what? So it’s like that, is it? You think you love her? She’s good at that, isn’t she? I think Cam’s half in love with her, too. Why? Why her? God, I hate her.”
