“Weren’t you?” she replied before wiping her hand over her face. “This is very stressful. I don’t think I want to accompany you to any such meetings in the future.”
“It’s very hard for you to be my secretary and not ever accompany me anywhere,” he said.
She blinked at him. “I don’t think so. I’ve known secretaries who don’t accompany their employers anywhere.”
“You have?”
Ellis pressed her lips together, obviously realizing she’d once again shared something informative. Roman was desperate to ask her how she knew Lady Shefford but didn’t.
Roman watched Ellis’s face bloom pink then red. She appeared quite flustered.
“Ellis, are you all right?” he asked with genuine concern.
“I’m a little agitated, is all. I don’t know what I would have done if Inman had recognized me.”
Did she mean recognized her as a woman, or recognized who she was? Roman suspected she’d been to the library before and had actually met Inman—as a woman.
“Did you know he was going to be so accepting of relinquishing his position?” Roman asked. “Perhaps you were aware of his family?”
“Please stop.” Ellis held up her hand. “You keep pressing me for more, and I don’t want to share any of that with you. You must stop trying to determine who I am.”
Roman moved from his seat to join her on hers. She gasped softly and scooted away from him.
“I’m not actively trying to discover who you are, but I can’t help wanting to know you. I’m incredibly drawn to you—surely you know that. I like you. I like spending time with you. I like learning things about you. In fact, the more time I spend with you, the more I hate not knowing things about you. I want to learn everything.” He paused a moment as her wariness became almost…curiosity. “You have this underlying darkness, and I can’t tell if it’s fear or anger or something else. I would help you if you would let me.”
She turned her head toward him. “I can’t,” she whispered. “Anyway, this won’t be forever.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“My position with you. I’d hoped it would last at least a year, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible, given the way my disguise is going.”
“If you need to stay hidden for a year, I’ll help you find another way,” he said, surprising himself with how strongly he felt about protecting her. “I hate thinking you might be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said, meeting his gaze with a surprising warmth. “Well, perhaps I am a little, but that isn’t to do with why I’m hiding, and everything to do with this situation between us. I should probably leave your employ as soon as possible, because our efforts to avoid temptation seem to be failing rather spectacularly.”
Roman chuckled softly. He lifted his hand and caressed her cheek. The coarseness of her fake beard scratched his fingertip.
“And you see, I would rather you stay so that we can consider surrendering to temptation.” Her nostrils flared, and he sensed her arousal. “I know I shouldn’t want that, but I can’t help myself. If you tell me to stop or to leave you alone, I will.”
“I don’t want you to.” Her voice was a low rasp, and it enflamed Roman’s desire.
He clasped the side of her face as he leaned forward and captured her mouth in a searing kiss. Rapture sang through him as his body thrummed with a desperate, driving need.
She moved toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck as their tongues met in a fierce collision of want. They clutched at one another, their hands moving and seeking. The interior temperature of the coach increased with each kiss. She tugged at his hair as he grazed his teeth along her lip.
Too late, he realized the coach had stopped moving. He pulled away from her just as the coach door opened. She twisted from him and turned her head toward the opposite side of the coach.
He heard her ragged breathing, and it matched his own. Bloody hell.
Roman sprang from the seat and jumped from the coach. He hoped the coachman hadn’t seen that they were sitting together, let alone embracing.
Ellis spent the afternoon working in her chamber, which Roman understood. He did not bother her, but she consumed his thoughts. How was he going to escort her to the Siren’s Call that evening and keep his hands to himself in the coach?
What’s more, did she even want him to?
Chapter 9
Garbed once more in her too-tight evening costume, Ellis made her way downstairs after taking a light repast in her chamber, where she’d been hiding to avoid Keele. Not hiding—she’d been working. Mostly. When she hadn’t been thinking of her employer and his tantalizing kisses.
