Juliana bit her lip. “I must admit that I did not exactly expect you to… Get along with Lord Thompson.”
“I admit that I have judged the gentleman unfairly,” Catherine confided, snapping open her fan. “Most unfairly indeed. And now, I require your assistance in this matter.”
“You want me…” Juliana balked when she realized what was being asked of her. “But Catherine, you are tempting scandal and ruination!”
Her Aunt Caroline was only right to disapprove of this match, for what sort of well-meaning gentleman would invite a well-bred young lady for a rendezvous? Her opinion of Lord Thompson was sinking faster by the moment.
“No one will have to know!” Catherine insisted. “Please, Juliana, it is only for a short while in the dark part of the gardens. I shall not tarry long enough to invite undue attention.”
Juliana knew she should not have followed Catherine outside. She should have dragged her back to the ballroom and deposited her into her Aunt Caroline’s care, no matter how much herfriend pleaded with her.
But Catherine was her only friend in a sea of strangers, and she feared that if she did not aid her in this matter, then she would seek the assistance of someone less trustworthy.
“Lord Thompson had better be appreciative of the lengths you go for him,” she grumbled finally.
“Oh, Juliana, you are the absolute best!” Catherine hugged her happily. “I shall not be gone long, I promise. I will be back before you know it.”
“You had better,” she warned her friend with a final squeeze of her gloved hand. “Now, go before anyone notices your absence!”
Catherine did not need to be told again. She slipped into the shadows with the ease of a fish leaping back into a lake, and Juliana suspected this might not be the first time she and Lord Thompson had met in such a clandestine manner. When next she saw the gentleman in question, she was most certainly going to take him to task on her friend’s behalf!
She sighed, looking up at the night sky as a cool breeze brushed past her heated cheek. Outside, it felt as if she had left the world and all its troubles behind. The crush of bodies, the din of polite laughter and not-so-polite stares—she had almost forgotten how overwhelming everything could be.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the wayward Miss Hawthorne,” a familiar, soft baritone chuckled from behind her. “Pray tell, what mischief are you up to out here on your own?”
It washim. She would know that voice anywhere.
Every instinct within her screamed at her to run.
Instead, with her heart pounding, she whirled around to find arms crossed over a chest broad enough to block out the rest of the building behind him. That same smug smile, which had haunted her every waking moment, now tilted the corner of his lips, his eyes blazing like emeralds in the flickering torchlight.
His smile turned absolutely feral. “We really should stop meeting this way, should we not?”
She lifted her chin and returned his smile with a frosty one of her own.
This time, she was not going to run. This time, she was going to face him, and maybe, just maybe, she would see him for what he truly was and be rid of the maddening spell he had cast on her.
Or so she hoped.
Chapter 7
“Indeed.”
Just one word, and it slammed into his gut with the blazing lust of a hundred suns. One word that should not have meant anything to Cassian. But uttered from those decadent lips, in that sultry voice?
The desire he had suppressed within himself for the past few days roared through his veins.
She lifted her chin, her lips pressed into a thin line. Saints above, she wasgloriousunder the moonlight, and he itched to sink his fingers into her hair, to drag his lips to hers, and see for himself if she tasted just as delectable as she looked.
His hands clenched into fists at his back. “And what are you about on this fine night, Miss Hawthorne? Are you off to accost some poor gentleman on behalf of your brother once more?” he accused her.
“Of course not,” she replied with the flippant air of a spoiled young miss. “One is hardly likely to come upon someone’s bath in the middle of a ball, and,” she glanced shrewishly up at himfrom beneath her lashes. “You arenota gentleman, in any case.”
As much as he hated it, he could not suppress his smile at her thinly veiled hostility. Cassian should not have found it attractive. Even worse, he should not have found it strangely arousing, but it seemed that his cock had other thoughts for that night—none of which included logic, unfortunately.
“So, are you planning to accost me, then?” he asked, stepping closer to her. Close enough to see her nostrils flaring slightly as she looked up at him. Close enough for her scent—tantalizing and warm—to drift into his consciousness, gripping it like a vise.
She tilted her head, a cold smile gracing those lips as she stood staunchly before him, her arms crossed at her chest. “It depends on what you intend to do tonight, Your Grace.”
