Page 26 of The Rake is Taken

This won’t end well, her mind taunted. Not when such a grim expression was seizing his features, his eyes darkening to a thoughtful, complicated, hands-off indigo. He uncurled her fingers from his brace and slipped it back in place, then went to a knee to retrieve his necktie from where it lay crumpled on the carpet. Appalling, perhaps, but she, Victoria Lane Hamilton, disregarded daughter of an earl, had been in the process of undressing Finn Alexander, celebrated bounder, in his brother’s library.

Victoria took two steps back and slumped to the sofa they’d shared a mere twenty-four hours prior with their attraction admitted to but not acted upon. A disastrous difference. Finn was set to deny everything—she could see this from the stiff set of his shoulders, the downcast eyes, the way he yanked the tie about his neck, and created the ugliest four-in-hand she’d ever seen with fingers that, thank you very much,Tori darling, shook.

“Fine,” she whispered, dropping her brow to her hand and squeezing. She could play this game. She’d played any number of games with any number of gentlemen. Forlorn but fine in the end, she wanted to tell the Blue Bastard but didn’t dare.

In that fantastic world we stepped into, we were normal.

Did you feel it, Finn? Normal.

Maybe that was what unnerved him, because he looked unnerved crouching there on Julian’s faded Aubusson rug, collecting hair she’d clipped from his head and placing it delicately in his cupped palm.

After all, the poor man had never experienced normal.

“You’re a virgin in this area. Is this the source of your discomfiture?”

His gaze hit her, the ire in his eyes—and just who the devil he was angry with she’d love to know—a surprise. “What?”

She tapped her temple. “For the first time, you can’t steal someone’s thoughts. Did I like it? Was it better than the others? Do I suspect you’re a most extraordinary lover? You’ve bedded half of the women in London, so why the tumult over a simple kiss? Because you can’t read the mind of the accomplice? Join the rest of us who have to make an insecure guess, Mr. Alexander!”

“Don’t believe everything you hear. It’s far less than half.” He gave his neckpiece a solidifying jerk and rose to his feet, dusting at his shoulders, hair flying. She tried to ignore the bulge in his trousers, she really did. Inelegant of her, but it was too impressive to ignore.Hewas too impressive to ignore. “I’ll tell you this much, no simple kiss I’ve ever participated in included the accomplice removing my clothing one tantalizing piece at a time. That’s reserved for the complicated kisses. My bright idea, this whole debacle, true enough, but you ended it close to climbing atop me.” He dropped to the chair, dumped the hair on a stack of letters, and gave her spectacles a dink that had them sliding across the desk and against a ledger. His firm jaw was set like stone. “And if you’ve ever had better, I’ll eat my goddamn hat. I’ve seen a few of them, remember? Those graciously-offered-behind-pillar kisses extended to every loose-lipped fop in town. Truthfully, they looked inhospitable and not much else.”

“You don’t wear hats,” she snapped, insulted by his riposte when his reputation was beyond horrendous. Had she ever had a better kiss? Of course not. Not when she’d never dreamed there couldbea kiss like this one. Inhospitable? True. The others had been boring and brief, no tongue or teeth, for heaven’s sake. No strangled breaths batting her cheek and clenching fingers curling around her hip. No full-body flush that was still warming her to her toes.

She straightened her spine and raised her chin, prepared to fight. Why save all her enthusiasm for her intended when the Grape couldn’t possibly put it to good use? If her technique was lacking, it would be excellent with a little practice. “Is this how charming you are after every romantic encounter? Why, I’m relatively faint with delight.”

He grunted and yanked his hand through his hair, sending the liberated strands into elegant disarray. He made a face that had his dimple swooping in, should she have forgotten about it, denting his cheek like she’d poked her finger against his skin. “Your hair looks like a bird built a nest in it, Tori darling, and I’m terrified to imagine what mine looks like. Did you even finish the trim?” He threw a circling glance around the room. “Never a mirror when you need one.”

Finn Alexander would be bloody gorgeous if he shaved his head, she seethed while struggling to reassemble a coiffure he’d ruined with his eagerness. She’ddarlinghim. He’d almost pulled her atophisbody. She wouldn’t have had to climb anything. Would he like her to point that out?

“We have to face Julian in fifteen minutes,” he said and dropped his head to the back of the chair, “and my hands are shaking. I’m not good at hiding things from my brother. He’ll know the minute he sees me that something happened. Kissing you, the blocking, the League, he won’t like it. I can just hear him, ‘Boy-o, this is a remarkable conflict of interest’.”

“What about the other”—she eyed his lap—“issue?”

He glanced down, frowned, not even trying to act like he didn’t understand her question. “Still apparent. I shall remain seated.”

In for a penny… “You said I could be different here. Free. What’s the harm?”

His head jerked up, color rushing across his cheeks. Unbelievably, for such a skilled libertine, he wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. “No. Oh, no. No way. This kiss was it.Finito. A fleeting lapse. A moment’s insanity. Masculine idiocy.” He half came out of his chair. “We’re doubling down on the friendship bet. You’d be mad to consider anything else. I’m not for you, for any proper lady, in any way but one. A road you and I are not traveling. You know this. Youknowmy story. The rookery, the orphanage. Isn’t that ignominy enough of a detriment?”

She rose, walked to the desk, leaning over it until her face was inches from his. He didn’t move a muscle, but he drew a staggered breath as his arms tensed. Interesting. Finn Alexander was only comfortable when he was in control. “Has anyone ever said no to you, Blue?”

His eyebrow rose, just the one, an excellent recovery. “It’s rare.”

Lowering her lashes, she smiled, then laughed at the fascinating mix that crossed his face. Curiosity, suspicion. “Most of us mere mortals hear it all the time, so we quickly find ways around it. Lots of ways.”

A choking sound ripped from his throat. “Good God, is that a dare? Hell’s teeth, are you one presumptuous piece of baggage.”

She moistened her lips, pleased to see his gaze sharpen, his hands clench where they rested atop the desk. “I’d say it’s more a statement of fact.”

“You can take your statement of fact and jam it—”

This kiss caught him off guard, threw him off balance, which is where she wanted him to be. She missed his mouth trying to reach him, but the spontaneous reaction from earlier raced back in even with her lips pressed to his cheek, tangling them in need and blinding desire. She shifted and popped up on her toes. If he would just move a little to the—

He broke away and circled the desk in three strides, caught her shoulders and walked her back, almost lifting her from her slippers. “You love puzzles, Tori. And as I’m coming to find, so do I.” Then he slanted his head and captured her lips, crowding her into the wall and pressing his long, lean body against hers until she couldn’t tell where hers ended and his began.

The kiss was punishing, filled with two parts retribution and one part rage, finally fully exposing the man beneath the cavalier façade. Overlord of a gaming hell, mind reader, gifted interpreter. Intelligent, furious, passionate, perplexed. Going against his anger, his hand rose to cradle her jaw, a tender, trembling touch that softened the assault. Softened her heart until her weakened knees failed, and she had to grasp his forearms for balance, only his broad chest and the wall holding her up.

“Incorrigible,” he murmured against her lips. “Mischief-maker.”