An Unexpected Earl (Lords of the Armory #2) - Anna Harrington Page 0,53

mutter from near the door, this time full of irritation. Please leave. Please just turn around and go… The very last thing she needed was to give anyone in the Varnham family more ammunition with which to destroy hers.

“Not that sludge they’re serving the guests. Real cognac. From the finest French smugglers this side of Ramsgate.” His voice grew closer, and Amelia offered up a prayer that they wouldn’t be found. “Ha! Devonshire is nothing if not predictable.”

She couldn’t have missed the derogatory sneer in his voice at that, or the sound of liquid splashing into two glasses, the scrape of boots on the floor moving toward the fireplace, the clank of metal as one of the men picked up the poker and jabbed at the fire to stir up the coals.

Good Lord, they were settling in for the evening! She and Pearce were trapped behind the screen, with no way to escape.

“Are you all right?” he whispered into her ear, barely louder than a breath.

No! But she nodded anyway, only to reassure him. What was one little lie when they would be found at any moment?

“We’ll be safe here until they leave.” Confident now that she wouldn’t cry out and give them away, he removed his hand from her mouth. “They’ll finish their drinks soon.”

But that assertion did nothing to put her at ease, certainly not when he slipped both arms around her and pulled her against him, her back touching fully along his hard front.

Her heart leapt against her ribs, so hard that she was sure Pearce could feel it. After all, she could certainly feel the pounding of his beating steadily against her own back, just as she felt the hardness of his front against her, the strength of his arms encircling her waist like iron bands. The heat of him soaked into her and turned her insides molten.

She had to put space between them. Now. She wiggled in his arms—

He sucked in a mouthful of air and clamped his arm over her hips, forcing her to stand still against him. “Don’t do that,” he rasped into her ear.

“Why not?” she mouthed. His warm breath tickling at her earlobe tumbled a shiver through her. Dear heavens, she needed to move away from him before he realized the wanton sensations his nearness stirred inside her.

In answer, he shifted to bring his pelvis against her. She caught her breath. He wasn’t fully aroused, but the hardening bulge pressing into her bottom was unmistakable.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“I’m not. After all, if I’m going to be caught, then…” He followed that whisper with a soft suck to her earlobe that pulled through her, all the way down between her legs.

Oh, this was dangerous. So very, very dangerous! To be pressed against him like this again, after all these years—

No. This was nothing like before when she was a girl and he’d sneaked into her bedroom for long talks into the night, for stolen kisses and embraces. His shoulders were broader than before, his arms more muscular and strong. She bit back a groan. Good Lord, his abdomen was just as hard as his chest! Before, he’d been on the cusp of manhood, still a bit lanky and too full of energy to control himself completely when he was with her. But this—

His hands rubbed deliberately over her hips in a slow caress that burned through her like wildfire. This was pure control.

He spread his long fingers wide as he swept them down her thighs and back up to her waist. One scandalously rested against her lower belly, while the other moved slowly upward to place featherlight caresses against the top swells of her breasts above her neckline. So gentle and soft… When he placed a kiss to her temple, the tenderness of it made her shiver.

Less than a dozen feet away, the two men continued to drink and talk, their conversation punctuated by laughter. But Amelia heard none of it. At that moment, her entire world was nothing more than the wonderful circle of Pearce’s arms.

His mouth returned to her ear, and the tip of his tongue circled slowly around its outer curl before plunging inside in a swirling lick that twisted all the tiny muscles in her belly into a roiling knot. Right beneath where his left hand rested. The same hand that now started to move in slow circles against her lower abdomen and created an ache between her legs that pulsed in time to his heartbeat throbbing against