Before Graham could answer, there was a light knock on his door. He turned to face it and said, “Enter.”
The door opened and Emma stood on the other side. She looked at him and his heart actually stuttered. She was dressed for the upcoming ball, and the blue color of the gown she wore brought her eyes to life.
“Emma,” he breathed.
She turned her head and seemed to notice Graham for the first time. She actually jumped. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were here, Your Grace.”
Graham sent James a look filled with meaning. “I was actually just leaving, Miss Liston. A pleasure to see you again.”
He executed a small bow and then slipped past her and left them alone. She entered the room at last and slid the door shut behind her.
He flashed to the previous day when they’d been alone in this room. To tasting her, to bringing her pleasure. God, how he wanted to do it again.
But she cleared her throat and said, “James, do you want me to leave?”
Emma watched James’s expression change at her question. When she entered the room, it had been an open one, a heated one. Now a guard came down over him and his voice was hard as he said, “You’ve only just arrived, Emma. Why would I wish for you to leave?”
She shook her head. “Not leave this room. Leave your home. Leave the party. Go back to London with my mother.”
His eyes went wide. “This is the second time you’ve suggested you leave here. Why are you bringing it up again?”
There was a hint of desperation in his tone now that she understood. It made her want to move forward, into his arms. It made her want to touch his face and sooth him. She didn’t.
“James, we agreed to a ruse, but this…this is getting out of hand, isn’t it?”
He folded his arms. “How so?”
She almost threw up her hands in frustration at his reaction. “Well, you aren’t exactly pleased with me, are you?”
He moved forward and she stopped breathing. “Not with you, Emma. With myself.”
She blinked at that unexpected response and stared up into his face. His emotions were so tangled there she couldn’t determine one or another above them all.
“Why?” she whispered.
“Damn it,” he burst out, and turned away from her. He walked to the fire and stared into it. She wanted to say something, to push, but she didn’t. She forced herself to remain still and steady, waiting for him.
Finally, he turned. He stared at her. He looked her up and down and made her feel stripped bare. Naked emotionally as well as physically. Then he made a soft sound in the back of his throat and he was moving on her.
He caught her arms, drew her against him and lowered his mouth to hers. She lifted into him, melting into his heated kiss, surrendering to the power of it and of him. This wasn’t what she’d come here for, but she couldn’t resist it. As dangerous as that admission was, now that the bottle had been uncorked, she could no longer fit her feelings back inside.
He drew back at last and looked down at her, panting. “You werenotsupposed to be irresistible, Emma. I don’t want you to be.”
She shivered as he pulled away from her. He kept his back to her and she had no idea what to do or say.
An answer she did not have to find when the door to the study flew open and her mother burst into the room. Emma’s heart sank at the bright and hopeful expression on her face. One that fell when she saw James far across the room and Emma where she stood.
“Oh, excuse me, Your Grace,” Mrs. Liston said, sending a side glance to Emma. “I heard my daughter was seen entering this room, but I had no idea you were with her.”
James had turned upon her entry and was now staring at her. Emma’s heart sank, for his expression was bland and bored, the same one she’d seen him give to a dozen grasping mamas over the years. Now she was no better than those women who he disregarded with such ease.
“Good evening, madam,” he said.
“Do I need to call a vicar?” her mother said with a chuckle.
Emma lunged forward. “Mama!” she gasped, cheeks burning. She couldn’t bring herself to look at James again. “That isenough.”
“Oh, hush, child, I’m only teasing,” Mrs. Liston said, her gaze still on James. “Though thisisinappropriate, Your Grace. You alone with my daughter with the door shut.”
