An Unexpected Earl (Lords of the Armory #2) - Anna Harrington Page 0,41

been tall and slender with lean muscles that had made him seem so solid then—but nothing as solid and hard as this. She remembered the strength of his young arms when they’d wrapped around her. How would they feel now that he was a man in his prime?

She dropped her hands to her sides, afraid she’d stop pushing him away and instead pull him toward her to find out.

“That’s why you were at the masquerade,” he concluded. “Because you’ve been trying to put a stop to the turnpike?”

“Yes.”

“And you knew your brother planned to approach me that night?”

“No,” she admitted, her voice exasperatingly breathless. “You were a complete surprise.” That was the God’s truth. “I thought I was seeing a ghost.”

“Me too.” He reached up slowly and caressed her cheek. The tender touch rushed liquid heat through her, all the way down to her toes.

“But you are real.” She forced herself to keep from leaning into his touch, into the comfort and warmth she remembered. “So is Freddie’s plan for the turnpike.”

“So is the threat to you,” he warned gently. “The last thing I want is for any harm to come to you.”

If only she could believe that! She wanted to trust in her memories of him, in his assurances now to protect her… But Aaron had made assurances, too, only to destroy her life. She couldn’t open herself to wounding like that again by another man. Especially not Pearce. If he did, it would end her.

“I’ll only be hurt if the trust goes through.” Despite the emotion stinging her eyes, she found enough strength to smile, although shaky. “But with your help, Parliament will never enact it. Freddie can find other appointments to fill, and he can stop selling his influence.” The blackmail would stop. They could go on with their lives—

“What your brother is doing is much worse than that,” Pearce murmured grimly. He rested his hands against the table on both sides of her, surrounding her but not touching. Yet he made her heart race just as fiercely as if he were. “Howard is working with an organization called Scepter.”

She didn’t recognize the name. “My brother’s involved with lots of organizations.”

“Not like this. They’re a criminal group with contacts at all levels of society and in all types of crime, from smuggling to prostitution and everything in between. Including murder.” He paused to let that wash over her. “What contact have you had with them?”

She gaped at him. “You think that because I was at the masquerade and Le Château Noir that I—” She choked off in surprise, then bit out indignantly, “I have nothing to do with any criminal group. I assure you that Freddie doesn’t either.”

“But he does. So does every man he’s helped into an appointment during the past few months. And most likely, so will the men he presents to be trustees for the turnpike. Which is why he wants the trust. Not only because of the money a turnpike will bring in, but because it also gives him three Parliament-approved positions he can fill.” His gaze bore into hers. “Your brother is involved with dangerous men, Amelia. Men whom the Home Office believes murdered nearly a dozen government appointees just so your brother could replace them with their own.”

“No…” Her fingers clamped hard onto the edge of the table to keep herself from slipping to the floor. Oh God! What on earth had Freddie done? “No, you’re wrong,” she breathed out. “We’ve had nothing to do with any murders.”

“No. Just with blackmail.”

Her stomach fell through the floor. “How—” She swallowed hard to clear the strangling knot from her throat. “How do you know that?”

He ignored her question, countering with one of his own. “Who’s being blackmailed, Amelia? Your brother into forcing through the trust, or you into stopping it?”

This time when she shoved at him to push him out of her way, he moved—so quickly she gasped with surprise. He slipped his arms around her waist, lifted her into the air, and set her on the edge of the table, blocking her with his broad body so that she couldn’t leave.

“I need answers.” He slowly lifted a hand to brush his knuckles across her cheek.

She closed her eyes against the sweet torture of his caress.

“And I need you to trust in me, just like you used to.”

A soft sound of frustration rose at the back of her throat. To have an ally in this mess, to have someone to confide in—how perfect