“You make me sound like a child,” she said with a frown. “I’m hardly that at one and twenty.”
“I am well aware of your age,” he said acerbically. A child would have been far less trouble.
She glanced around, then beckoned him over to the open door of her bedchamber. “Come inside,” she murmured. “It’s important that I speak to you.”
“I am not in the right frame of mind to enter your chamber, Lady Diana.”
“It’s more dangerous to argue the point out here, surely.”
“That wasn’t the sort of danger I referred to,” he said, giving up and following her inside.
He leaned against the door, keeping some distance between them. “Well? Do you intend to explain your reasons for wandering about the gardens alone at night?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Lord Ballantine. I thought you might like to know what I’ve discovered. But if not, don’t let me keep you.” In her nightclothes, she folded her arms across her bosom, drawing his attention to her unfettered breasts beneath the shawl.
He stepped forward, so close, she had to raise her head to look up at him. “All right. We’d best get this over with quickly. You are a fetching woman and behind you is a rumpled bed I find most inviting.”
She flushed but held her ground.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Please continue. I am all ears.”
“Lord Montgomery must have come from the meeting near the monument. The others were still there. I heard their voices, but again, not what was said.”
“That’s all you have to tell me?”
She huffed. “Don’t you see? Lord Montgomery is part of it. And there are at least two other men involved!”
While he wasn’t prepared to admit it, which would only encourage her, he had already discovered that for himself. Having gotten closer to their meeting place, he’d heard the three men, but they’d stood in the shadows. He’d slipped away as the meeting had broken up and the Englishman had left. It was aggravating not to hear more, but he had witnessed the rustled exchange of at least one document. Unsure who the third man was, or who now had the document in their keeping, he would have to be patient, which was not his forte, and resourceful to discover where in the house the man had stowed it. Once he left Holland House, it would be too late.
Standing before Lady Diana, he gazed down into her widened, blue eyes. She thirsted for information. It was in the way she held herself, and how her tongue darted out to touch the beguiling indent in her full top lip.
Dammit!
Damian cupped her face in his hands and, as his deep breath inhaled the warm smell of a fragrant woman, he lowered his mouth to hers, finding her luscious lips soft.
After an initial squeak of protest, Lady Diana’s arms coiled around his neck. Silencing the warning of his rational mind, he deepened the kiss, delving in to touch her tongue, eager to learn the taste of her mouth. She murmured against his lips, and her fingers threaded through the hair at his nape.
Damian slid his hands down over the curve of her waist to her hips and pulled her soft, sweetly scented body closer. As his hardening erection pressed against her lower body, her eyes flew open. But she did not draw away. What was this? Did she invite him into her bed? While he deliberated the madness of such an act against his growing passion, he heard men’s laughter on the stairs.
Abruptly aware of the demands of his body, Damian snapped himself back under control. He stepped away to a safe distance. “That could be your father coming to see how you are.”
She flew to the wardrobe and flung open the door. “In here, quickly.”
He was too large and too old to hide in cupboards. Keeping the door slightly ajar, he watched Diana climb into bed. She pulled the covers up to her neck and snuffed out the candle.
In the dark, breathing in dust and her familiar, stirring scent, he waited. The men’s voices passed by this chamber and continued on, and then there was silence. With relief, he pushed open the wardrobe door in need of less stifling air and a hearty desire to escape calamity. There was a scratch at the tinderbox, then a candle flame burst into life. His ardor momentarily dampened, he gazed warily at Lady Diana, who looked far too inviting beneath the covers.
He eyed her vulnerable mouth, flushed pink from his kiss. “I shall remove myself from temptation, my lady,” he said as he strode to the door. “I enjoyed the kiss.” A good deal more than he should have.
She clutched the bedclothes, her eyes accusing him. “But I have been of use to you, Ballantine. You must admit it.”
He had missed the opportunity to see who’d come into the house. Lady Diana had prevented that. “No, you were not. You forced me to reveal my presence to Montgomery. I didn’t trust him with you.”
Her expression softened for a moment, then she threw back the covers and purposefully climbed from the bed. Her nightgown rode up, revealing her delicate knee, and a delightful glimpse of pearl-colored slim thigh.
Damian rubbed his hand over his eyes.Dear Lord, give me strength!Fighting the urge to take her to bed and settle himself between those delightful thighs, he averted his gaze, a hand firmly on the door latch. “Good evening, Lady Diana.”
“Wait. I have a plan,” she began earnestly, coming toward him.
