She paused, pressing her own lips together in thought. Her mask shifted as she did so, and Maia was grateful for the reminder that she was still blissfully anonymous. “Perhaps three. No, four. Hmm. Perhaps…no, four.” She wouldn’t count Mr. Virgil. He didn’t deserve to be counted, and the very thought of him made her feel ill. She looked up at her companion. “Four, my lord knave.”
Their eyes locked, his so dark and shadowed behind those small holes she could hardly fathom they could have such a hold on her. But they did. Her stomach felt as if the bottom dropped out, leaving her warm and nervous in a very pleasant way.
Thanking God and all the angels in heaven for the fact that she was masked and completely anonymous, she whispered boldly, “But perhaps there should be a fifth. To make it a nice number.”
And Maia held her breath.
3
IN WHICH THE KNAVE OF DIAMONDS HAS AN EXCEEDINGLY UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE
Dimitri couldn’t breathe.
The sudden surge of blood, pounding and insistent, filling his vision, stunned him.
The force ofneed,of a long-renounced instinct, suddenly burst free. His fingers trembled, his fangs threatened to shoot forth, bulging inside his swelling gums. He had to lower his eyelids to hide the hungry red glow lest Miss Woodmore see.
Foolish, damned, stupid, mad bastard.
What in Luce’s hell had he been thinking, taking a woman like her away into a dark corner? Especially a woman who riled up his ire as easily as his frustration?
But he had no more thoughts; they scattered like a shattered goblet as her gloved hand rested against the ruby-colored glass pin adorning his neckcloth. Taller somehow, she lifted her face the fraction she needed to, putting herselfthere.Right there. A breath away.
Saliva pooled in his mouth. His skin flushed beneath his mask. It had been so long since he’d wanted to kiss a woman. He tried to fight it away, but the Mark on his back raged and burned hotter, reminding him how he’d unnecessarily denied himself. Her lips beckoned, plump and pink, and he wanted to see if theytasted as sweet and lush as they looked. The searing heat blazed even stronger now that Lucifer felt him wavering, and it radiated down Dimitri’s back and through his limbs.
Embattled by pain, overwhelmed by desire and long-denied need, he couldn’t keep himself from bending to her, covering her lips.
She surrounded him: her spicy, sweet scent, her confident demeanor, her small hands, the pool of her sparkling gown. Her mouth…that entity that alternately exasperated and teased him, with its top lip that was just a bit fuller than the bottom…softened beneath his, fit to his lips and gently brushed across his to one side. Her mouth was warm and lush, and she left a little wake of prickling, a dusting of pleasure on his sensitive mouth…and then she lifted away.
He went back for more, no longer fully master of himself. He found her lips again and took a longer, deeper drink from her taunting mouth. She made a soft, delicious moan that sent a new blaze of desire shuttling through his belly, her lips moving desperately against his. The world was red and hot, and the scent of her floral spice filled Dimitri’s consciousness.
Perhaps it was this—the recognition of the tantalizing scent, its familiarity and corresponding forbiddance—that enabled him to grasp the last wisp of control and drag himself away.God and the Fates, nother.
Not anyone, but most of all,not her.
Fingers tightening into each other, gouging through the gloves into his palms, he stepped back, his heart pounding in his ears, his breathing much too loud. His fangs were out of control and fighting to be free, and he had to turn away, closing his eyes to hide the proof of the demon he was.
His ruthless control regained—albeit tenuously—he cleared his senses of the heat and sweetness he’d tasted, swallowed hard.Tried not to breathe too deeply, for fear scenting her would make it begin all over.
And the crack that had begun to form in his ordered world he snapped viciously together.
Terrified by what she might see in his eyes when he opened them, Dimitri was weak with relief when he saw she had turned slightly away. Looking down, he noticed her hand still somehow settled on his chest. She seemed to be wavering through her own battle for control.
Or, more likely, stability.
Dimitri wasn’t certain whether he ought to curse the champagne punch she’d indulged in, or to be grateful for its intoxicating properties.
“And so that makes five,” he said, relieved that his voice was cool and steady. Emotionless. He barely remembered to keep it low, to a mere murmur, to further obscure his identity.Fate protect me from that at least.“I wonder if, at the next masque, you might attempt to make it an even half-dozen pairs of lips to taste?”
At that, she looked up at him and he nearly went for her again. Her lips were swollen and glistening, half parted with surprise beneath the curve of her mask. He blinked, drew in a breath and focused on the roaring pain blazing over the back of his shoulder. A satisfying reminder he was, despite it all, still in control.
And still in defiance of the devil’s will.
Then in an instant her lips allowed a smile to flicker over them and she surprised him yet again when she replied, “No, my lord knave. I think it might be prudent to stop at five.”
“Indeed?” He had to offer her his arm in order to get her back to the dance, away from the temptation of this secluded alcove, and the mere thought of what had just transpired.
He had some blood whisky in the coach. That would help steady him, dull the awakened need. Later, he could stir up some trouble in the depths of Vauxhall. He’d had a very satisfactory brawl in St. Giles the night after the Lundhames’ ball, where he’d tossed five blackhearts into the river after they’d tried to stick him with a knife and relieve him of his purse. Never say he wasn’t doing his part to clean up the thieves of London.
