Hers.The notion should not fill her with such a fine frenzy. Should not make her heart pound and her body tingle. Yet, it did. It made her dizzy with desire. Every intention she had possessed in coming to Lady Fortune and meeting with him this evening had disappeared. He was all she wanted.
“Then I am yours as well,” she managed past the sudden thickness in her throat.
He kissed her again, and she kissed him back.
When she had been a girl, Mirabel had crawled from a window at Longford Hall, her father’s country seat. She had been hiding from a particularly wretched governess, and the roof had seemed a safer alternative to the woman’s looming threats of punishment. Until she had gotten on the roof, that was. She recalled how dizzied she had become, staring down at that great height. How perilous her perch.
And that was rather the same way she felt as she kissed this man after promising to become his lover. One wrong step could send her tumbling to her doom. It was thrilling and terrifying in equal measure.
“Come with me,” he said against her lips.
He took her hand in his.
And she followed.
Chapter 4
Demon led Mira through the back halls of Lady Fortune to the private rooms. Although they had formerly belonged to Gen, they were his now that she was a married woman, keeping house in Mayfair. Thank Christ he had seen fit to restore her mask before taking her from the chamber in which they had met this evening. Still, if Gen were to discover he was about to tup one of her patrons…
Why, she would plant him a facer of course.
Like their brother Gav the prizefighter, Gen had a cruel fist.
But never mind that just now, because Mira’s fingers were laced with his and she was following him. And he was about to have her where he had been dreaming of her the past few days. In his bed. Against the door. On the floor.
Everywhere he could have her.
As often as possible.
The night was early, and Tiny Tom was on duty. Tiny Tom, so named because he was actually something of a giant, was the man Gen had hired to replace her former right-hand man at Lady Fortune, after the bastard had caused her no end of trouble. Ladies did not get up to nearly as much nonsense as gentlemen did, happily. But that did not mean that either Gen or Demon liked to take chances. Always have a man on duty, and there can be no surprises.
Tonight had been filled with surprises.
But the woman he tugged over the threshold of his private apartments was a different sort of surprise. A good one.
Thebestone.
He closed the door behind them, before taking a moment to drink in the sight of her. That dress like a cloud. That astoundingly lovely hair. Her lips, swollen from his kisses. He still could not believe she was here.
Somehow, they had gone from arguing over Davy and his thieving ways, to kissing, to him bringing her here. And she had come willingly, just as she had kissed him back with an innocent fire which had belied her motherly status. She had kissed him with the inexperience of a maid.
And he found it—and her—utterly intoxicating.
He found the ties of her mask. Gently, he removed it so that he could again study her. The brace of candles which had been lit in anticipation of his return for dinner cast a honeyed glow over her, illuminating the delicacy of her countenance. She was so lovely, he ached. Whilst he had seen many pretty women—and had swived more than his share of them, too—he had never experienced an attraction with greater potency than what he felt for her now.
So strong, his fingers trembled as he traced the smooth skin of her jaw. “You are beautiful, Mira.”
Her face was expressive—she was the sort of woman who wore her emotions on her countenance. The mask had been an impediment, but bereft of it, she was on display, easy for him to read. He wondered what he had missed before, when she had been hidden from him.
She looked uncertain now, her expression hesitant. “I am sure you lavish all your conquests with such flattery. You need not use it on me.”
She thought herself his conquest? Sweet, innocent Mira. It wasshewho had conquered him. But he was more than happy to keep that secret for now. Forever, if his pride had aught to say about it.
Demon kissed her slowly, softly, showing her with his mouth what he was about to say with his words, before breaking away. “It is not flattery when it is truth. Nor should you be so surprised. Surely you have been told how lovely you are before.”
Her lashes fluttered. “Of course I have not.”
Her child’s father ought to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The mere thought of the man—of any other man, for that matter—kissing and touching this woman set his teeth on edge. More so, knowing it was a man who did not appreciate her. But then, she had promised Demon he would be her only lover, so at least the bastard was no longer sharing her bed.
