“Veronica,” he said, his voice soft and smooth and seductive.
“Should you be doing that? Here?”
“No,” he said. “I shouldn’t.”
He did not, however, stop. His fingers began to walk up her leg.
No one had ever mentioned something like this might happen. No one had ever warned her she might be ravished in the parlor.
Montgomery was stroking her skin as if learning every inch of her.
She should have begged him to stop. Instead, she shockingly wanted to be naked so no barriers of corset and petticoats and hoops stood between them.
“Oh, pardon, Your Lordship.”
Montgomery froze.
She kept her eyes closed, holding her breath, shocked into immobility. She kept her cheek against Montgomery’s. If she couldn’tseeMrs. Gardiner, then the housekeeper wasn’t there.
“What is it, Mrs. Gardiner?” Montgomery asked, flattening his hand against the apex of her thighs. His fingers danced over her skin, horrifying her.
Was he going to continue to ravish her in full view of Mrs. Gardiner?
He placed his other hand against her back, pressing her against him. Perhaps Mrs. Gardiner wouldn’t see her bodice was gaping, her breasts visible, her nipples wet from Montgomery’s mouth.
“I’ve prepared a hamper for your journey, Lord Fairfax. Is there anything else I can do?”
Go away. Oh, please go away.
She’d never been so embarrassed in her life.
A moment ago, she was willing to be taken on the parlor floor. Now, she wanted to sink into that same floor and disappear.
“Thank you, Mrs. Gardiner. We don’t require anything further.”
She still didn’t move. He brushed aside her hair to whisper in her ear, his voice sounding amused.
“She’s gone,” he said.
“She was never here,” she said. “Never here, Montgomery.”
Brushing aside his hands, she buttoned her bodice herself, noting with some dismay his hand hadn’t moved from beneath her skirt.
His fingers toyed with her garter again, and she grabbed at it outside her skirt.
“Stop that!”
“You’re right,” he said, his eyes glittering, his smile producing the dimples she’d once suspected. “The rest will have to wait, Veronica.”
She couldn’t breathe again, and that pulsing ache was only growing. She wanted to touch him, stroke her palms up his chest, down his arms.
He should be half-undressed as well.
With some regret, she pulled away from him and stood, straightening her skirt with deliberation, her gaze focused on the action of her hands. She wouldnotlook at him.
What had happened?
Was that seduction?
