She stared dreamily at those intimate articles twined like soul-bound lovers.
At the entryway, he paused to loosen the buttons on his waistcoat.
Ensnared, she swallowed hard.
He removed the garment and added it to their fast-growing pile of clothing.
August reached for the handle.
Reality reared its head.
My family!Worse, Hartwell and all the McQuoid men. Her heart pounded in her throat. They would kill him.
Meghan made to stop August, just as he opened the panel a fraction.
Wait. Her family wouldn’t bother knocking. They’d have battered the door down.
While he spoke to whomever was outside, Meghan leaned in and tried to make out the words being exchanged.
A pair of servants came in carrying a wood tub between them. Children with steaming buckets of water followed close behind.
August had ordered Meghan a bath. Touched by that gesture, she turned her adoring eyes to August and stopped.
He conversed with the woman clearly in charge of the small operation. Meghan found herself studying the other woman.
What a striking sight they made.
How could August not desire someone of such otherworldly beauty.
“Scarlet…” he purred.
Air scraped painfully in Meghan’s throat. She forced herself to breathe.
The maid—blonde, buxom, blue-eyed, beautiful in every way, offered a sultry laugh at whatever jest August made.
As if she felt Meghan’s jealous stare, Striking Scarlet looked to Meghan’s hiding place.
Meghan dipped back.
The woman’s plump, heart-shaped face grew pinched. She squinted like Uncle Frances did when he had no spectacles to read an ancient text. That scrunched-up face didn’t take a scrap from the servant’s natural beauty. Scarlet caught her glance of Meghan.
Meghan’s lips thinned.
Scarlet smirked.
The servant had seen her.
“You are always so attentive, Captain,” Scarlet purred, fingering the second waistcoat August had yet to remove. “You take care of a woman better than anyone I know.” She ran her tongue over her lips, slow and deliberate, and sinful enough to convey exactly what she meant in terms of her relationship with August.
He chuckled; his husky laugh suited the perfect secret only they two were in on.
Jealousy scissored like venom in Meghan’s veins. The same insupportable resentment that filled her daily at how August loved Linnie when he would never love her.
Coins exchanged hands.
Scarlet sank into a curtsy. Bending forward, she put her big breasts before him.
And as the party took their leave, Meghan scrambled into a prone position. She had just settled her palms on her stomach and eyes on the ceiling when August drew the curtains wide with one hand.
