Page 125 of A Gentleman's Wager

“What is it now?”

“I only wanted to do this.” He kissed him. Once, to remind him of their connection.

Then again, to cement it.

The third time…

That was purely to drive Miss Rushdale into an apoplectic froth.

-68-

Bella

Bella rode back mounted before Lucerne. In the entrance hall, she reluctantly left the two men to change out of Charles’s clothing. It had done curious things to her insides watching them kiss again, knotted them up in troubling ways. She shot a backwards glance at them, half expecting to find them entwined again, but they were only speaking, be it in low voices with their heads tilted together.

Dammit, it would not astonish her to find they’d retreated to the sanctuary of Lucerne’s private quarters by the time she returned, but she couldn’t think of a single goodly reason to linger about in muddy male attire.

Her fears seemed to have been realised when she returned to find no sign of the two lords in the hallway or drawing room. It was only as she turned to stamp petulantly back up to her room, that she noticed the gleam of light from within the library. Like a moth drawn to a flame she fluttered in that direction and found Vaughan idling by the mantel, a book in one hand and a glass in the other. If she were at all sensible, then she ought to have avoided him, but when it came to the marquis, all her sense seemed to vanish.

She marched in, making a point of slamming the door behind her. “Where’s Lucerne?”

“How the devil should I know?” he drawled in response, one dark eyebrow arching. “I am not his keeper.”

The dark cascade of his ringlets ebbed against his shoulders, while ebony glints sparkled against his equally dark coat. A surge of nonsensical jealousy hit her square in the chest. She could not even pinpoint the cause, whether it was the fact that Vaughan so easily seemed to secure Lucerne’s attention but refused to surrender to her in the same way, or that she desired Vaughan’s attention be focused on herself, or simply the fact that Lucerne wasn’t present when she wished him to be.

Peevishly, she took up position on the opposite side of the fireplace to him. Her flight across the hillsides had left her chilled and she told herself that she had every right to warm herself. Vaughan did not seem at all concerned by her presence. Irritatingly, he didn’t even react when she turned her back to the blaze and pulled up her skirts to warm her rear. She, on the other hand, could not help reacting to him. In the soft amber glow of the firelight, he appeared both primal and beautiful. Whenever she moved her attention elsewhere, he inevitably drew it back again. He was making a fool of her, and she didn’t care for it a single bit. How many past lovers had he mocked and humiliated? How many had lusted after him still, even when they knew him to be a fiend? And he was a fiend, a demon from Lucifer’s own army.

He’d licked her arsehole.

What sort of man did that?

In many ways it seemed worse—more outrageous, though curiously stirring an act—than when he’d thrust his cock in there.

If Lucerne had not arrived…

She began to pace.

Would he have done it again? Had Lucerne witnessed it? Was he revolted or enticed by such devilry? Perhaps he wondered what sort of game she was playing with him.

“Must you?” Vaughan made a figure of eight motion with one hand, alluding to her back-and-forth motion.

“Yes, in actual fact. It happens that I am agitated, and movement helps.”

Vaughan snapped closed his book. “Perhaps you might like to unburden yourself.”

“To you?” she scoffed. “I cannot see how that would help.” He was the cause of most of her woes. “You would only use whatever I said as a means of inflicting further torment.”

“Yet you chose this room out of the very great many within this building to conduct your cogitating.”

“You are here. Therefore, there was a chance that Lucerne would arrive here.”

“I see. Not because there’s a part of you desperate for me to finish what we began outdoors?”

“I will never desire that… or you.”

He moved so fast he was on her before she really even registered movement. Eyes blazing, red mouth assaulting hers. He sucked hungrily on her tongue, before moving to her throat, where he nipped her skin in a way that would surely mark.

“Such lies you tell yourself. Why is it so hard to admit what you want, Bella? Come now, you may whisper it so that only I can hear.”