Page 33 of Prescription for Sin

“Why the charade? Why pretend to be a—” She couldn’t even say the word anymore.

“I was sent to investigate reports of an unlicenced physician performing surgeries.” He met her eyes steadily.

The betrayal left her feeling as if the air has been knocked from her lungs. All those intimate moments, sessions discovering their desires, had they been merely a means to gather evidence against her?

“Get out.” Her voice was ice.

“Emma, please. Let me explain—”

“Explain what? How you used me? Gained my trust while plotting my ruin?” She advanced on him, fury lending her strength. “Or perhaps you’d like to explain how you justified our intimate moments as part of your investigation?”

“Nothing about my feelings for you was false.” He stood, reaching for her, but she stepped back. He tousled his hair roughly with one hand. “Yes, I came here with a purpose, but what I found—who I found—changed everything.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that? From a man who couldn’t even tell me his real name?”

“You already know my real name, Everett.” His voice softened. “Moreland.”

Emma gawked at him. “Moreland? The President of the Royal College, Moreland?”

“My father.”

Emma walked in a circle, one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead. Everett watched her in silence, looking sufficiently wretched. She was not about to forgive him considering the severity of his deception.

Everett spoke during her seventh circle. “I’ve been fighting my feelings for you since you saved me that first night. I was torn between my mission and this passion you’ve stirred inside me.”

“Your feelings?” She laughed bitterly. “Was that what our lessons were about? Love? Or were you gathering evidence against my moral character to add to your report?”

“No.” He strode over to her and stood mere inches away. Despite her anger, her body betrayed her with a shiver of awareness. “Those lessons were about this.” His hand came up to cup her face with exquisite gentleness. “About the way you make me forget everything except how desperately I want you.”

Emma's anger still burned beneath her skin like fever as she faced him, each heartbeat a war between betrayal and desire. The candlelight caught the planes of his face, highlighting the anguish there that matched her own. How dare he look at her like that, as if he were the one wounded?

"One more lesson," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. His thumb traced her lower lip with such exquisite gentleness that her breath caught despite herself. "Let me show you the difference between lies and truth. Between duty and desire."

"You think you can seduce your way out of this betrayal?" But even as the bitter words left her mouth, her body swayed toward him like a compass finding true north.

"No." His eyes held hers with an intensity that made her chest ache. "I think I can show you that some truths live in spaces words can't reach. That what we share transcends any lie I've told.

She should push him away. Should remember every careful deception, every moment he'd watched her while gathering evidence against her. Yet when his fingers traced the line of her neck, her memory betrayed her. Her body remembered how perfectly they'd moved together in surgery, the seamless way they'd anticipated each other's needs. How natural it had felt to trust him with a patient's life, even as he'd planned to destroy hers.

"One lesson," she whispered, hating the tremor in her voice, hating herself more for yielding. "Then you leave."

His smile held such sadness it made her throat tight. "As you wish." His hands slid into her hair with devastating familiarity, loosening pins until golden strands tumbled free. Each brush of his fingers against her scalp sent shivers down her spine. "Though I warn you, this lesson might change everything."

"Everything has already changed," she said softly, the words tasting of ash and longing.

His eyes darkened at her tone. "Has it?" One hand cupped her face while the other traced patterns on her nape that made her shiver. "Or have we simply stripped away pretence to find what was always true beneath?"

Emma's response died in her throat as his lips found that sensitive spot beneath her ear. Her hands fisted in his shirt, torn between pushing him away and pulling him closer.

Chapter eleven

Light Touch

Everett's heart thundered against his ribs as he faced Emma in the candlelit room, drinking in the sight of her. Even angry, she was magnificent. All contained fire and rigid control that made his fingers itch to unravel her. The fact that she hadn't immediately thrown him out gave him desperate hope, though he knew he deserved her fury.

He reached for her hand and held her gaze, willing her to see the truth that had nearly destroyed him. His throat tightened as he spoke, his voice thick with emotion. "Emma… Allow me to show you that some truths can only be spoken through touch. That what we share is real."

Emotion flickered across her face like candlelight, hurt darkening to desire, anger softening into resignation. When he traced the line of her neck, her pulse leaped beneath his touch, betraying what her silence wouldn't. His own heartbeat stumbled at this evidence that her body still answered his, even as her mind rejected his explanations. The simple touch sent fire through his veins, but he forced his movements to remain slow, deliberate, giving her time to withdraw if she wished.