She hesitated, and he had a fiendish desire for her to disobey him.Just try me.
She snatched the garment. Knotted the strings and glared at him. “Satisfied?”
“Not until you’re safely home.” He pointed to the door. “To the hidden corridor. Now.”
She bent to scoop up her ferret. Exchanging swift goodbyes with her friends, she marched out into the hallway. Approaching the paneled wall, she pressed down on a section of the plaster molding. The panel swung open, revealing a corridor behind the walls.
She entered, swiveling to say smartly, “Don’t forget to close the panel behind you.”
He bit back a retort. Once inside, he shut the panel, cloaking them in dimness. He followed her through the cramped passageway. As he bent his head to avoid hitting the ceiling, a visceral memory struck him: of rock crashing down all around. Of being trapped in suffocating darkness. The old panic sparked, his heart racing, palms going clammy…
“Blood and thunder, this isn’t a stroll through Hyde Park.” Miss Todd’s tart voice jerked him out of the memory. “Stop dawdling and hurry up.”
He didn’t know whether to be relieved or exasperated by the distraction. Either way, the panic receded. He sped up, her scent reaching him through the gloom, the fresh sweetness banishing the lingering, acrid traces of gunpowder and cindered earth. In truth, her feminine fragrance had been teasing him for days, a mysterious alchemy of perfume, soap, and…her.
They headed down steps and continued their way on the lower floor. She halted, and he did the same, his nose inches from the top of her head. Her essence filled his nostrils, clean and vibrant and heady. He couldn’t stop himself from inhaling deeply.
“Why are we stopping?” he murmured.
“Shh.I think I hear someone coming.”
He strained, listening. The sounds were faint at first…footsteps?Thump,thump,thump.Accompanying voices grew louder, taking the shape of words.
“Ooo, you’re so big and ’ard,” a female voice moaned.
“Like my cock, do you? Then take it deep in your cunny!”
Sweat misted on Harry’s forehead as groans escalated along with the thumping, clearly not from boots against the floor…but bodies on a mattress.
Someonewascoming. Just not the way Miss Todd had imagined.
Unbidden urges heated Harry’s blood. He was acutely aware of Miss Todd: her delicious scent and nearness, the escalating cadence of her breath. His body’s reaction was instantaneous. Warmth flooded his loins, and he hardened with shocking swiftness.
Devil take it. Get a grip on it, man.
“This time of day I wasn’t expecting...” She sounded flustered. “We can, um, continue on.”
She rushed ahead, and he followed at her heels.
What, precisely, is the extent of the minx’s sexual experience?Since their first meeting, the question had intrigued him. Here was a woman who played with dirty cards, called a brothel home, and took the sight of an orgy in stride. Unlike Celeste, who’d hidden her true nature beneath the mask of an angel, Tessa Todd flaunted her wickedness.
If you willingly drink her poison, you’d be the biggest fool alive,he thought darkly.
“Dash it, I think it’s myfather.” Miss Todd’s panicked whisper jerked him back to the present. “He’ll murder me if he finds me here.”
Harry heard it too: male voices, footsteps emerging from the dimness just up ahead.
“Where’s the closest exit?” he said tersely. “Ahead or behind?”
“Behind—”
He wasted no time, trading places with her. “Get us there.Now.”
They dashed back the way they’d come. His pulse thudded as the voices behind them seemed to grow nearer and nearer. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the lick of lamplight against the tunnel wall.
Miss Todd came to a halt. She triggered a mechanism in the wall: a soft click, and the panel opened. They jumped out, Harry sealing the exit shut behind them. He waited, muscles bunched, as the steps paused…directly on the other side of the wall.
A man’s brusque tones filtered through the thin barrier. “Have the Roman orgy atrium cleaned up. They left a mess there last night.”
