Triana nearly choked on her tea as the earl’s jowls flared in righteous indignation. He rose to his feet, fists clenched, and sputtered, “I ought to call you out for such lies!”
“Just name your seconds,” Gabriel replied darkly. “Although I should warn you that I wouldn’t expect you to come back from any dueling field with breath in your miserable lungs.”
Eastbury’s face had turned such a mottled shade of red, Triana wondered if he
might have an apoplexy. In the end, he turned his back on the duke and addressed her. “I shall call upon you some other time, my dear, when we will not be so crudely disturbed.”
After a stiff bow, he stormed out the door, his canary jacket flying out behind him like a pair of angry wings.
Triana could have sworn she heard Chiltern mutter, “Don’t bet on it,” but in her shock she couldn’t be sure. However, the sound of the front door slamming was enough to shake her out of her stupor.
What just happened?
As the ramifications finally sank in, she jumped to her feet, placed her hands on her hips, and demanded hotly, “Would you mind telling me what that was all about?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” The duke threw the rest of his cheroot into the fire, a sudden look of consternation on his face.
She gave an indelicate snort and waved toward the door. “You were deliberately antagonizing him!”
His brow furrowed. “So what if I was?”
She gave a sharp laugh of disbelief. “Are you trying to completely sabotage my reputation? Don’t you realize what you’ve done? My mother has it in her head that I’m going to marry him! Now, you’ve just made everything so much worse.”
He was silent for a moment. Finally, with those unwavering, silver eyes searching her face, he asked quietly, “Do you want to marry him?”
Triana barely kept from throwing something at his head in frustration. “Of course not, but that isn’t the point! You have no right to come in here and pretend as if you care what happens to me. I believe you made that perfectly clear last night. Now if you would please, just go—”
“You think I don’t care?” He interrupted her tirade with a snarl, swiftly closing the distance between them. Before Triana could protest, he pulled her roughly into his arms and captured her mouth.
She whimpered at the assault. She lifted her hands and put them on his solid chest, intending to push him away, but as his lips gentled and began to… taunt her, tease her,tantalizeher… the warmth beneath her fingertips began to surround her and she slowly found herself relenting. She edged her hands upward and clutched at his jacket. In turn, Gabriel groaned and immediately deepened the embrace. He coaxed her lips to open, and slid his tongue into her mouth, as his hands slid down her backside cupped her bottom, pulling her flush against him.
Triana gasped as she was pressed up against his hard body, and a low hum of arousal answered from deep within. She was vaguely aware of being lowered to the settee, and barely registered the cool air on her legs as her skirts were lifted. She should tell him to stop, should send him away, but she wanted this moment too much. After everything that had happened between them, she still wantedhimtoo much.
He slowly moved his hand past her calf, her knee, her thigh… until finally, he touched the pulsing heart of her desire. At the first flick of his thumb on her core, she was writhing beneath him. But when he inserted a finger into her wet center, she thought she might shatter completely.
He covered her neck with kisses, sucking and tormenting her. Triana gave a soft moan, but through the haze of her pleasure, she heard him whisper, “He can’t have you. You’re mine.”
Soon, the overwhelming crescendo pulsed through her body until it eclipsed all else, and she finally reached the cusp and fell over the edge into sweet oblivion.
His breathing instantly turned heavier. “That’s it. Give me all your pleasure.” Triana was lost to his words, as wave after wave of sensation washed over her.
When the tide began to ebb and the distant sound of a door closing somewhere in the house registered in her brain, reality intruded like a glass of cold water had been thrown on her.
A sob escaped Triana as she covered her mouth with the back of her hand and closed her eyes. It was like she was back in the Westerville’s garden, only this time her humiliation that followed was much, much worse. Not only had she’d played right into his hands like the shameless wanton he’d accused her of being, she’d actuallyenjoyedit.
“Triana…”
She couldn’t bear for him to say anything, so she shook her head and turned her face away. “I think you should leave now.”
She held her breath, for she could tell he hesitated. But, in the end, he conceded to her wishes. It wasn’t until she heard his departure that she opened her eyes and let the tears fall unheeded.
***
Gabriel left the Abernathy townhouse and started walking with no real destination in mind. He shoved a hand through his hair. How had he let this happen? Had he no control over himself at all anymore?
He’d had every intention of talking to Travell this morning about Triana and his concern over her, but the moment he’d seen Eastbury’s carriage out front, he had stridden up the steps with only one purpose in mind. But as usual, he had a hard time keeping his head on straight around her.
After practically shoving his way past the butler, he’d entered the parlor and seen red. While he normally kept a tight rein on his emotions, jealousy being a completely foreign one, that troublesome monster had chosen precisely that moment to rear its ugly head with a vengeance. Then, as if acting the part of a rutting boar hadn’t been bad enough, he’d had to go and bring up that damned whorehouse. Now Eastbury would be wondering how the hell he knew so much about his private life. So, in the end, what had he accomplished, other than making himself appear like a crazed, lust-filled, scoundrel?
