Seduced by a Scoundrel - By Barbara Dawson Smith Page 0,93

be over yet.…

The coach slowed to a halt in front of Sarah’s mansion. Sarah whispered a good night to Alicia and accompanied Drake as he carried the slumbering boy inside. When he returned alone a few moments later, the coach started off again. Relaxed and happy, Alicia debated with him the merits of the various acts, trying to agree which was their favorite. Upon reaching home, he stepped out of the coach, then turned to assist her.

His firm grip stirred her pulse. She hoped he shared her longing to continue their evening together. But to her disappointment, he told the coachman to wait.

Escorting her up to the torchlit portico, he bent to kiss her cheek. “Until later,” he said.

Alicia ached for him to kiss her, though they stood only a few yards from the footman stationed by the front door, and in plain view of any pedestrians or carriages along Swansdowne Cresent. She yearned for him to come up to her bed. She wanted to feel his arms around her and his mouth on her bare skin. She wanted him inside her so that she could savor the sweet illusion that they were one heart, one soul.

“Must you go to the club tonight?” she murmured.

Standing in the shadow of a pillar, he gazed at her, his sinfully handsome features revealing nothing of his thoughts. But with a thrill, she knew he desired her. She knew because he held her gloved hand, and the increased pressure of his fingers gave subtle indication of his interest.

With a subtlety of her own, she took a step toward him, so that her breasts touched his dark gray coat. “Please, Drake,” she whispered, curving her lips into a provocative smile. “Stay with me.”

The night breeze stirred his black hair. His eyes glowed through the gloom. Then he released her hand and stepped back. “I’m afraid you must excuse me,” he said. “I’ve duties to attend to.”

Disappointment needled her. Ever since that torrid encounter at his club, they had been playing a sensual dance of power, she alternately tempting and rebuffing him, and he subjecting her to his seductive skills, then drawing back. But perhaps the time had come to force him to view her as more than a physical need or an engaging companion at the circus.

She took a deep breath. “Will you come to Pemberton House tomorrow afternoon? At two o’clock?”

“Why?”

Giving him a deliberately mysterious look from beneath her lashes, she shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you. This is something you’ll have to see for yourself.”

His gaze made a slow sweep from her face down to her low-cut bodice and back up again. For a moment she feared he would refuse her. Then he smiled, his dimples deepening. “I’ll be there.”

With a final caress to her cheek, he strode down the steps and entered the waiting carriage. The coachman touched his whip to the pair of horses and with a clattering of wheels and hooves, the vehicle set off into the darkness.

She was alone.

Shivering, Alicia noticed for the first time the damp chill in the air and an overwhelming weariness in herself. She walked slowly into the house, her footsteps echoing in the vast entrance hall with its tall brown pillars rising against the buff-colored walls. In the quiet, her ears still rang with the sounds of the amphitheater. As she climbed the grand staircase, she let her thoughts center on Drake.

In the weeks since she had given him her innocence, he had taught her many inventive ways to make love. Often he would enter her bed while she was still asleep, and she would feel his touch like an erotic dream come true. Sometimes she would awaken to him already inside her, and with only a few strokes he transported her to ecstasy. Other times, he would torture her with a slow building of pleasure. In turn, she would tantalize him in the afternoons, playing the valet as he dressed until they would end up in bed again or making love in the Roman bath.

But even when he was at his most aggressively charming, she could never be certain he felt any more than an infatuation. He seemed determined to keep their relationship light and amusing.

And she was just as determined to make him love her. That was why she wanted him to see her school. Perhaps then he would realize they had more in common than bodily pleasure.

Several wall sconces lit the upstairs corridor, and her slippers made no