She paced the sumptuous carpets in more determined strides when the door opened, stopping her. Those last two hopes died a swift death as Mr. Dominic Winter prowled into the room.
And just as it had yesterday, the full effect of his presence made an undeniable surge of awareness hit her. He was dressed to perfection once more, this time in all black, save for the snowy-white swath of his cravat. The knot was simple. The cut of his clothing fine, designed to enhance his masculine physique.
His glittering, brown gaze seemed to sear her as their stares tangled from across the chamber. Her heart thumped faster. Her stomach tightened. He seemed larger than he had the previous evening. More masculine, too.
The smile that pulled at his sensual lips was at once wolfish and pleased. He stopped halfway to her and executed a perfect bow. “And so the angel has returned to rescue the unworthy lord.”
There was no mistaking the mockery dripping from his low baritone.
Adele dipped into a curtsy, ludicrous though it felt to stand on ceremony with this man. Yesterday, he had touched her intimately. In the manner of a lover, rather than a gentleman. A tingle swept through her at the memory. A delighted tingle, because she was a wretched creature.
How could she feel this untenable attraction for a man as vile as he?
She swallowed to chase the unsettling feelings. “I am not an angel, Mr. Winter.”
Warily, she watched him close the distance between them. He rubbed the slashing angle of his jaw as he approached, and she took note of a marking on his hand she had not noticed the day before. It appeared to be an inking of a dagger, nestled between his thumb and forefinger. Adele had never seen anything like it.
“No.” His smile faded, his gaze raking over her body in a stare that seemed to see through all her layers of armor, real and imagined. “I reckon you aren’t, are you, love?”
His flippant familiarity made her flush as he reached her. She was hot from head to toe. “My presence here suggests the opposite.”
“Mmm.” He stopped before her, sucking all the air from her lungs. “I’m curious, angel. What makes you think you are worth my time, my attention?”
Excellent question.Although they could not be further apart in social standing, Adele had no doubt a man as dangerously handsome as Dominic Winter could have his choice of any lady in not just London, but all England.
“Intuition,” she bluffed, finding her courage. “Regardless, I have come here to you, just as you asked.”
He reached out, those long fingers catching her chin and tipping it up in a surprisingly gentle touch. “So I see. But have you come from your lover’s bed this evening?”
Adele wondered if this was an ordinary conversation for a man of his ilk to entertain with the sort of woman he supposed her to be. She rather felt like a fish, plucked from the stream to flop about helplessly on land, gasping for breath. Everything about this moment, this man, was foreign. Frightening.
Potentially lethal.
For herself and for Max.
“Do not think of lying to me, madam,” he said sternly when she hesitated with her response. “I can smell deceit in the air like smoke.”
“I have not,” she managed to say, and it was the truth. For she had no lover. She had only a brother who was beloved yet foolish. A brother she could not bear to see harmed again.
Mr. Winter was silent for what seemed a small eternity until finally, at last, he relented. “I will believe you an honest woman until you prove otherwise. And if you do prove otherwise…”
She shivered at the implication lacing his words. No matter how dazzlingly handsome the man before her was, and regardless of how her body reacted to his nearness and his touch, he was still her enemy. She must not forget.
“I am not lying to you, Mr. Winter.” Her voice was surprisingly calm and unaffected when within, she was anything but.
His eyes searched hers with maddening effect. Her heart was thudding. Part of her wondered, quite foolishly, if he could hear its gallop. Nay, he could not.
Could he?
“Fair enough, angel,” he said at last, a slight smile curving his lips. “You have come here this evening to make certain your protector is safe. I can vouch for his safety, provided you spend the evening with me tonight. However, I will not do the same for his duns. His debts remain. Do you agree?”
Here it was, before her with the finality of a hangman’s noose.
Mr. Winter was promising no further physical harm would come to Max. And in return, all she needed to do was spend one night with him. She could do it. Of course she could, for the brother she loved so dearly.
Adele nodded. “I agree, sir.”
“Dom.” A flash of his teeth appeared as his lips parted on a smile that turned seductive. “No ceremony between us for the next few hours.”
