Page 39 of The Rake is Taken
He might even surprise himself.
He was eagerly reclaiming her lips when an explosion sent them stumbling apart, Finn’s quick reflexes, an arm snaked about her waist, the only thing that kept her from tumbling into the bone-dry fountain.
Chapter 12
In stunned bewilderment, Victoria watched color from Ashcroft’s horribly-timed pyrotechnic display wash across Finn’s cheeks and spark off his enlarged pupils. His hand lay on her breast, no longer cupping but still a firm, mesmerizing hold, and their eyes, at the exact same second, dropped to the marvelous indecency.
As she mentally debated the next steps—to the carriage together or apart—many things occurred at once.
A storm. The Earl of Hester. Finn’s temper. Observations about her gift.
A lone raindrop hit her bottom lip. Finn’s gaze tracked it as he leaned in to kiss it away when the Earl of Hester stumbled through a break in the hedges with a sneering chortle. Without a word, Finn strode directly to Hester and sent his fist into the man’s jaw. The earl went down like a carpet had been yanked from beneath his feet, the savage display unlike anything Victoria had ever seen.
She hopped off the wall and went to stand over Hester. He was breathing, air whistling from his bruised lips. So not dead. “Are you daft?” she whispered and turned to find Finn flexing his fingers with a pained expression. The aroma of Hester’s drink of choice enveloped them, driving out Finn’s enticing scent. Another blasted interruption.
“You don’t want to know what he thought when he saw us.” He blew on his knuckles and bared his even, white teeth. “He’s lucky I didn’t kill him. I should carve him up with the knife in my boot. The rotter has no idea who he’s dealing with.”
“How lethal,” she murmured, wondering why seeing Finn’s uncivilized side sent heat swimming through her body. And then she realized…
“Finn, you were able to read his mind.”
He halted and palmed his brow, his lids fluttering. “Lady Teasdale is looking for Hester. She’s crossing the lawn, daring the rain to ruin her rendezvous with him. Apologies, Tori darling, but I think the fountain is a well-used location.” Giving the earl’s shoulder a nudge with his boot, he flexed his hand again and said, “Can you take care of this? Erase the last five minutes or so? I think it would be best.”
As cool raindrops began to pelt her, she squatted beside Hester, circled his wrist with her fingers, and let the sound of his pulse enter her consciousness. She held on until she heard a click, until she’d stolen enough from his memory to secure their safety. “It’s done. Perhaps even so much as the entire night, poor Lady Teasdale. I can’t control how much. Or how little. We’ll hope it worked.”
Hester rolled to his side with a loud snore. Laughing, Finn grabbed her hand and yanked her along behind him as the sky opened up in a violent deluge. The storm had sent the revelers fleeing into the house, so Finn and Victoria skidded and tripped their way across a thankfully deserted lawn. Around the house, through a side garden, down an alleyway, through a rusted gate. He obviously knew the estate well, likely had kissed someone, a hundred someones, behind Ashcroft’s fountain.
The most amazing experience of her life when it undoubtedly meant little to him.
Foolish to be possessive of a man nearly every woman in London owned a piece of.
A landau was conveniently waiting at the curb, and Finn shoved her into it with a terse directive to return to Julian’s townhome shouted to the coachman who sat shivering on the bench. She went to her hands and knees on the velvet squab, expecting Finn to follow. She glanced over her shoulder, got a good look at his face, and realized he had no intention of doing so. His hair was slicked to his head, his skin glistening in the streetlamp’s glow. Water streamed into a gaze fixed stonily on her in an impassive assessment.
“The kiss broke my gift,” she rushed to say over the rain popping sharply against the carriage’s soft top, fearing he was set to send her off without another word.
He dipped his head, but not soon enough to hide his smile. “Yes, love, it appears it did. Although only for a few moments. I’m not that good. At kissing, I mean.” He tapped his temple. “Silence governs once again.”
Love? Her heartbeat scattered. “If I come to the Blue Moon, will you let me in?” she asked, the last thing she’d expected to leave her lips. She’d never gone further than kisses behind potted palms with anyone else, but with Finn, she wanted to go to the ends of the Earth.
He leaned in, cupped her cheeks, and kissed her. Deeply, tenderly, thoroughly. Finally. “No, I won’t let you in,” he murmured, releasing her and shutting the door. “I’m ruinous to you, and you’re quite simply dynamite in my pocket, deadly to me.”
She wanted to fall into him, become part of him, lose herself completely. Risk everything. In that moment, nothing else mattered. “Wait!” she called as Finn tapped the side of the carriage, and it rocked into motion. “Your sister?”
Finn swallowed, his cheeks taking on the pale gray of the foggy night. “You were right. She’s in London.”
She slammed her fist against the trap, and the vehicle halted. “Tell me,” she implored. “You can talk to me, you know you can.”
A look of naked agony crossed his face. Indecision and relief and torment. “Ashcroft received your information, and his men found her. I’m going tomorrow morning. All this time and I never knew.” He slapped the side of the carriage harder than he needed to and let the coachman know with an ill-mannered directive not to terminate the journey again. No matter what the lady said. “I suppose it’s not too late even if it feels like it. When all is said and done, you truly can’t outrun the past.”
She leaned out the window as the carriage rolled away, bringing more scandal atop her should anyone see the indecorous display. “You’ll take me. So you may meet her without her thoughts tainting it. Promise me, Blue!”
He turned without comment, his tall form disappearing into the mist rising off the cobblestones. That melancholy look had flowed right back into his eyes; her touch hadn’t kept it away for long.
Again, his words rang in her ears.No, I won’t let you in.
Collapsing to the squab with a punitive exhalation, she caught sight of her reflection in the rain-streaked windowpane. Touching her swollen lips, it was all she could do to keep from curling into a ball and crying her eyes out.
She looked wholly compromised.