“Ellis…Mr. Maitland,” she stammered, taking a long step away from him.
He shook his head slowly. “Miss Juliana Shelley,” he said softly. “Just what the hell are you doing?”
Chapter 2
Juliana knew she was gaping at the man before her like a fish, stunned into silence by his being here, by his question spoken like a scolding governess, not a wicked pretender. Not like the man who had crept into her wildest dreams ever since the last time she saw him.
The man she hated herself for dreaming of. He had harmed her family, after all. His actions had led to…
She lifted a hand and let it touch the place where her scar hid under her mask. He flinched when she did so, his gaze breaking from hers at last. At least she could breathe again.
“You have no right to question me,” she said through gritted teeth. The door was behind him, but he wasn’t entirely blocking it. And what she needed to do right now was run. As far and as fast from this man as she could.
She marched forward, hoping she looked more determined than she felt, and started around him toward escape. He didn’t allow it. He caught her arm as she passed him. Not roughly, but gently, and her mind blasted her back weeks before, when he had held her against his chest, whispering words of comfort warm and close to her ear. Even through her pain and shock and fear, she’d noticed he smelled of leather and fresh linen that day. The same scent wafted to her nostrils now. How had she not known it was him immediately?
He dragged her toward him just an inch and stared down into her eyes with that hypnotic blue stare. “Juliana,” he growled.
When he said her name, her entire body twitched. She jerked her arm away and swung without thinking. Her palm hit his cheek with a crack that echoed in the room. He turned his face, his defined jaw setting as he released her.
Everything felt like it slowed to half-time as he looked down at her again. She could have run, but she didn’t. It seemed he didn’t have to touch her to hold her where he wanted, he just had to look at her and she was frozen. With rage, with regret, with desire that she hated herself for more than anything.
“Explain yourself,” he said at last, drawing out each syllable.
She turned away from him because she couldn’t look at that handsome face anymore. As she did so, she lifted her own mask away. It seemed she didn’t need it. He’d seen right through it, piercing the heart of her that she hadn’t wanted to share. Putting himself in the middle of her pain, as well as her longing. He wasn’t wanted in either place.
“I don’t owe you anything,” she said softly as she stared at the fire across the room.
He was silent behind her for what felt like a lifetime. Then he said, “Perhaps not, but you owe yourself. Go home, Juliana.”
“No!” she burst out as she pivoted toward him. She knew her eyes were wide, her face lined with desperation. She saw him recoil from that dark emotion.
He shook his head. “Juliana—”
She stepped closer even though it went against every instinct of self-preservation she had in her body. “You will not take this from me, Mr. Maitland. Not when you have taken everything else.”
He had barely reacted when she hit him, an action she regretted already. But those words hit the mark far harder. His expression crumpled slightly, his lips tightening at the reminder that her destruction had been his doing.
She took the opportunity to move past him. This time he didn’t touch her. He didn’t argue against her. He let her go without so much as a word as she slid the mask back over her face and ran. Away from this place of ill repute. Away from the emotions and desires it stirred in her.
Away from him.
Ellis followed Juliana from the back room at a distance, far enough that she might not be aware of his attention. Close enough that he could intervene if she were bothered. The idea of her going back into that room and finding some other man to take her body was…
Troublingwasn’t the word for it. It was something much darker and uglier.
Only she didn’t stalk a new lover. He watched as she rushed across the room, not even looking at the increased debauchery of the club around her and fled through the doors she had entered what felt like a lifetime ago.
She was gone. And he should have felt relieved, but instead he was bereft. He’d been so close to…well, a heaven he didn’t deserve. He’d touched this woman only a few times. Even when she slapped him, it was far more than a man like him deserved.
He had to remember that.
And hope that he had put her off going to dangerous clubs to find a man for her bed. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to forget the fantasy of being that man.
Then he turned and went across the room. There was a guard at the bottom of a long set of stairs.
“Is he in?” Ellis asked the liveried servant who was staring straight ahead like he was part of the King’s guard.
“He don’t take visitors,” the young man replied.
