She smiled suddenly, her lips trembling. “I haven’t thanked you for your invitation tonight.”
He shrugged. “It’s part of our bargain.”
“Nevertheless, I am grateful for your kindness.”
“Don’t be a fool,” he said curtly. “The very last thing I am is kind.”
She stiffened and turned her face away from him.
Damn it, he’d spoken too rashly. He wanted to see her eyes, hear her telling him her worries again.
Lazarus cleared his throat, his voice gruff. “I did not mean to speak so harshly.”
A corner of her mouth curved a little, though she did not deign to show him her full face. “Are you apologizing to me, Lord Caire?”
“And if I were?” he asked softly. “Would you accept my obeisance?”
She lowered her eyelashes. “I have no need to have you at my feet.”
“Don’t you?” he asked lightly. “Then perhaps it is my needs that would find me there.”
He watched as a blush slowly stole up her neck.
“Or perhaps,” he whispered, “you might care to kneel before me?”
She drew in a quick breath as if insulted and looked at him, her eyes wide. It was to be expected—his suggestion was crass and ungentlemanly. She should be insulted. But it wasn’t insult that quickened her breath, made her sweet breasts press against her bodice with each inhale. It was something far more primitive.
Lazarus dropped his eyes as he felt the heat rise in his own body. He’d hunted like this before, sighted and circled prey before diving and catching in his talons, but this… this was far more intense than any other hunt.
“You shouldn’t… shouldn’t talk to me that way,” she said, her voice trembling—but not with anger.
He stared at her from under his brows. “Why not? It amuses me to discuss these things with you. Does it not you?”
She swallowed. He could see the movement of her throat clearly in the lantern’s light. “Don’t.”
“I think you do like it. I think you have the same image in your mind as I do. Shall I tell you what I see?”
She had her hand at her throat, but she was mute, staring at him, her eyes glazed.
He let his gaze drop deliberately to the upper slopes of her exposed breasts. “I see you in that dress, madam, kneeling before me, your skirts spread in a shining pool of crimson. I see myself standing before you. You look up at me, your golden eyes half closed as they are now, your lips reddened and wet from your tongue—or perhaps mine.”
“No,” she moaned, her voice so low he only knew her words from the movement of her lips.
“I see myself taking your hand and placing it on the fall of my breeches.” His cock was hard, throbbing with his own words and her reaction to them. “I see your slim, cool fingers carefully undoing each button as I stroke your bound hair. I see—”
The carriage jerked to a halt.
Lazarus inhaled softly and parted the curtains to glance out. Lady Beckinhall’s town house blazed with light.
He let the curtain fall and looked across the carriage at Mrs. Dews. Her eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed, and he’d wager his life that she was wet beneath those shimmering crimson skirts.
A corner of his mouth quirked up, but it wasn’t humor he felt. “We’re here. Shall we descend?” He watched as she became aware, as white teeth bit that plump, lower lip. His voice lowered to gravelly depths. “Or shall I tell the coachman to drive on?”
Chapter Six
King Lockedheart bellowed for his guards to bring him the miscreant who had the temerity to laugh at him. Within seconds, Meg was dragged before him, bedraggled and sooty.
“What is your name?” roared King Lockedheart.
“Meg, if it please Your Majesty.”
He glowered at her. “And what did you find so amusing in my speech?”
The guards and the courtiers, drawn by the commotion, all expected the small maid to throw herself at his feet and plead for her life.
But Meg rubbed the end of her sooty nose and decided since she was already damned, she might as well speak the truth. “Only that you think you are beloved by your people, Your Majesty.”…
—from King Lockedheart
He was temptation personified.
Temperance stared at Lord Caire, feeling the rapid beat of her heart, the ache between her thighs. She’d avoided men for the last nine years precisely because of her sinful desires. Yet here, now, she found herself seated across from a man far more seductive than any other she’d ever met. He knew