innocent as he suspected. Wentworth couldn’t take advantage. That would make him a right bounder, a rogue with no redeemable gentleman qualities. “I…bloody hell…this is dangerous, we must stop at once and—”
Juliana caught his words with her mouth, swallowing his muffled groan of surprise and delight.
Juliana never imagined a kiss could be this pleasing…this decadent. The earl tasted of heady and something sweetly elusive. The place between her legs ached something fiercely, and the warnings from her mother about cads and rakes clanged a distant alarm in her passion hazed thoughts.
He’s no rake, she thought, kissing him with such fervor, just a gentleman who desires me.
The earl walked with her draped around his waist. She whimpered into the kiss as the movement had her female sex brushing against something hard and throbbing, causing somewhere deep inside her belly to quicken, sending powerful darts of longing through her.
Her back was pressed against the walls for the room, and he did something with his hips, a push, or a swivel. Good heavens! Shocked by the sensation that shot through her belly, she trembled in his embrace.
He broke their kiss, and his lips glistened with wetness, and his face was harsh with restrained desire. His eyes searched her face, and she blushed at her very unrestrained responses.
“We need to get you out of these clothes. You are cold and shivering.”
He stepped back and eased her down. Juliana did not speak but removed her neckcloth, waistcoat, drew the soaked shirt over her head. Beneath all of that was a linen binding that was also wet.
She glanced up. “I’ll not remove this.”
He walked over to the bed and tugged off the small coverlet. “You must. You are still trembling.”
Juliana was, but she didn’t know if it was from her wet garments or the introduction to pleasure. With his back turned to her, he said, “Remove it all and then use this to wrap yourself. I’ll not look.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
“Wentworth,” he said softly. “Please, Juliana, call me Wentworth.”
She smiled, and trusting him, quickly removed the bindings which had made her already small breasts nonexistent. Recalling how buxom his mistress had been, she wondered what the earl with such experience would think of her petite shape. Annoyed, she pushed aside those thoughts and removed her trousers and undergarment.
Juliana took the sheet and wrapped it around her three times before tying the front in the style of a toga.
“You may turn around my…Wentworth.”
He faced her, and she stared at him, terribly aware she was absolutely naked beneath the sheets.
“You are blushing,” he said with a measure of amusement. “I still cannot believe I thought you could be a lad.”
She smiled. “I had a very good disguise.”
He took her clothes and wig to the fire so they might dry.
He waved toward the small table and the two chairs by the small window. “Will you sit with me?”
Juliana made her way over and lowered herself into the surprisingly comfortable chair. The earl sat before her, and when he reached over and took her hands within his, a sigh left her, and her shoulders relaxed.
“I do not know why you are hiding, but if you wish to tell me, I will do all that I can to assist you.”
She cleared her throat. “My brother, Mr. Robert Pryce. He gave me your name as a gentleman I could turn to should I find myself in a difficult position.”
The earl frowned, and she saw no recognition in his eyes.
“You do not recall my brother.”
He smiled sheepishly. “We must have met, more than once, too, for him to have recommended me.”
“But you perhaps looked right through him,” she murmured, thinking of how her brother had spoken of the earl’s brilliance with such admiration. “However, I do not think Robert imagined I might have ever needed help of such magnitude.”
“And where is your brother?”
“He is on his way to London from New York. Based on his last letter, he should be here before Christmas.”
“And what did you want from me?”
She hesitated. “A place to stay away from society until my birthday in six weeks’ time. I visited your townhouse, but it was at a time of upheaval. You were withdrawing to the country, your valet had left to be with his ailing mother, and a replacement was needed. I was also given the impression you would not be distracted from your current mathematical problem to meet with me. My situation was desperate…”
“And your ingenuity rose up inside to save you.”
She smiled. “If you wish