Book 3 > A Whisper of Scandal
Prologue
The Duchess of Primwitty’s home, London, England
In the midst of a most thrilling adventure
The Year of Our Lord 1818
Lady Audrey Cringlewood refused to fall victim to the same fate her mother had. This was precisely why when the Marquess of Davenport crooked his long finger at her, she squared her shoulders and followed the notorious rake into the Duchess of Primwitty’s guest bedchamber. He moved with such easy grace, she found it hard to look away from him, so when he stopped suddenly, she was unable to do the same. She bumped into his broad back, and her face and neck immediately heated. “I’m terribly sorry.”
Lord Davenport turned. A slow smile tugged at the corners of his firm sensual lips, then spread into a wicked grin. “You never need apologize for colliding with me,” he said, stepping closer and reaching around her. The door behind her shut with a soft swish, followed immediately by the click of the turning lock.
Her stomach fluttered as all her senses leaped to life. Before she could decide what she should do, Lord Davenport trailed his fingers from behind her back, across the curve of her hips and up her bare arms. Gooseflesh rose and spread across her skin. The marquess curled his fingers around her shoulders and gently pressed her against the door. Her breath hitched in her throat as her back made contact with the wood and his hooded green gaze locked on her.
Her pulse jumped and under the heat of his assessing stare, she squirmed only to meet with an immovable object. Make that two. She blinked and glanced to the left and right. He had caged her in with his arms. Powerful ones, judging by the way his navy kerseymere waistcoat strained over the swell of muscles underneath. “Is there a reason you have trapped me?”
His eyes darkened to a deep lush green that bespoke of a man who never did anything without a reason. “Would you like there to be?” A teasing note tinged his deep voice.
Audrey swallowed hard, her throat suddenly very dry. If she were sensible, she would slip out of his hold and demand he court her properly. But she suspected making demands on Lord Davenport would get her nowhere. She had to make the man realize he wanted to court her, and think the idea had been all his own. “Yes,” she whispered.
A satisfied light came into his eyes. He leaned close, his golden whiskers shining in the candlelit room and his scent, a heady combination of damp earth and rain, filled her nose. She sighed with pleasure. This was the closest he had come to her in the weeks since they had met and been flirting.
His gaze softened and he raised his hand to her cheekbone to slide one finger along the edge of her jawbone. “Before this goes any further, to be absolutely clear, I do not seduce innocents.”
Audrey tensed at the pronouncement. So he thought her experienced? That made sense given he had first met her when she was trying to help his cousin, Lady Whitney Rutherford, infiltrate the secret hellfire club, The Sainted Order. Audrey was not a fool. She had considered that his playful banter and looks of the past several weeks might simply be foreplay to his trying to seduce her, but they had been alone several times and he had not made one improper overture toward her.
What to do now? If she confessed her innocence, he would undoubtedly walk away from her without a backward glance. If she chose her words carefully, though, she would not be lying and would hopefully receive the kiss she was sure would change her life. The moment his lips left hers, she would be forthright about her position.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and pursed her lips. “It’s good to know you are a man of such high honor.”
A chuckle rumbled from his chest. He cupped her chin, his strong fingers making her feel safe as they cradled her face. His dark thick lashes veiled his eyes for a moment before they swept up to reveal his intense shimmering gaze. “You surprise me.”
“Do I?” Her heart skipped a precarious beat. Since she had run away from her father’s home and only narrowly escaped being dragged back there by deceiving him, Audrey had begun to surprise herself with the lengths she would go to in order to avoid being forced to marry for anything other than love.
The devilish grin on Lord Davenport’s lips twisted into a humorous smirk. “You do.” He shifted slightly, the heat of his body enveloping her and his massive shoulders blocking out the bedchamber behind him. “Surprise me again.”
“I beg your pardon?” The breathless question made her wince, but at least she had managed to get coherent words out.
“Tell me exactly what you want from me.”
What she wanted was to know if the attraction between them was as real as she thought. The kind of desire that would lend itself to a marriage of love and not one of inconvenient convenience. She never wanted to find herself in the same position her mother had, preferring to end her life with a lethal dose of laudanum rather than live with her cold husband another day. She was not lying to Lord Davenport in the strictest sense, given what she was about to say was true. “I want you to kiss me.”
Light reflected from the overhead candelabra. It glimmered over his fair skin and the elegant ridge of his perfectly sloped cheekbones. She studied him, not believing she had admitted her heart’s desire to this man. Scandalous as it may be, she would do it again. Everything about him lured her in—including the small white three-inch scar that ran down the length of his right cheekbone. Maybe one day she would learn how he had received it. With shaking fingers, she reached up and touched the jagged line. He barely twitched in response, but his jaw flexed.
“Well, Lord Davenport—”
“Ah-ah,” he interrupted, a glint of humor flashing across his face. “If you tell a man you want him to kiss you, you should address him by his Christian name. I insist you call me Trent.”
A devilish streak rose up in her. “Maybe I should call you Sin, as your cousin does.”
“I’m tempted to let you, but alas, you have to have saved my life in order to call me that.”
Audrey blinked in surprise. “And your cousin saved your life?”
“Yes, when I was younger.”
“How?”
His lips twitched with amusement, but his gaze had grown guarded. “I do not divulge the secrets of my past.”
She opened her mouth to question him more but then thought better of it. From all she could tell, he was a very private man, and if things went as she hoped, she would learn all his secrets eventually. Fighting her curious urge, she said, “Are you going to kiss me or not? I do not believe it will take your cousin long to figure out we have both disappeared from the courtyard, and since I met you, she has become more like a pesky chaperone than a companion in adventure.”
Teasing laughter filled his eyes. “I’d say she was never a willing comrade in your escapades, given you blackmailed her into accepting your help with her absurd schemes.” He smirked at her. “Let us not forget your demand that she assist you in duping your father.”
Guilt pricked Audrey and made her shift from foot to foot. She had not wanted to blackmail Whitney, but when Father had come to retrieve her from Whitney’s home, and Whitney had been only too eager to send her with him, desperation had made Audrey resort to drastic measures. To save herself she had threatened to use the secret she had learned about Whitney. She never would have actually told anyone, but Whitney had not known that.
Fresh shame made her stomach roll. With a sigh she said, “I daresay that was not my finest moment, but the fear of having to go back to my father’s home robbed me of my normal, logical thinking.” And her morals. She gulped. “I needed a quick plan to attain more time away from Father.”
Trent narrowed his eyes. “Why must women be so deceptive?”
Audrey dug her nails into her palms. She hardly wanted to get into a quarrel with him. She wanted him to kiss her, but she could not let him stand here so pompous and superior and speak such fustian nonsense. “Women have much fewer options than you men. Sometimes, we are forced into deception to protect ourselves.”
His brow furrowed. “Come now. Do you not think that is a lie you tell yourself to justify what you are doing?”
“I most certainly do not!” she snapped. “Women are expected to bend to the will of our fathers, whether they love us or not. Whether they give a fig whether we are happy or not, just as long as they can get us out of the house and no longer be responsible for us.”
The line of his mouth tightened a fraction and the tic from moments before returned at the side of his jaw. She glanced toward her slippers. Heavens! Why had she admitted such a personal thing? She rubbed at the sudden ache in her temples. She had gone and ruined everything, once again, with her too verbal opinions. Perhaps her father was right about her after all. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I seem to say all manner of unsuitable things around you. Perhaps we ought to return to the courtyard now.”
Cupping her chin, he turned her face up to meet his. Her heart turned over at the gentle, contemplative look in his eyes. He released her, only to slide one hand to the back of her neck. The other came around her waist and pulled her firmly against the unforgiving hard plane of his abdomen and chest. Anticipation for what was to come filled her to an almost excruciating point. She held her breath as he leaned close. “You do not say the wrong things,” he whispered in her ear. “You surprised me yet again with your refreshing honesty.”
Overwhelming guilt blanketed her. Blast everything! She could not stand here a minute longer and allow him to believe her utterly truthful when in reality she was holding back the entire truth. With a resolute sigh, she opened her mouth to ruin her hopes and dreams.
He pressed a finger to her lips. “If you think I’m going to let you leave this room without obtaining the first of many kisses to come, you are mistaken.”
She tried to throttle the dizzying current racing through her and focus on what she needed to say, but when his hot breath caressed her neck, it was all she could do to stifle her cry of pleasure. He brushed his lips against her ear, once, twice—dear heaven, she was going to explode from longing. She ran her hands up his coat, marveling at the corded muscles contained just below the surface of the fine material.
Whatever small thread of sense she had left fled the moment his lips descended on hers. The gentle press of his lips against hers sent spirals of pleasure through her body. She sought something to hold on to, to try to keep herself grounded in reality, but when her hands touched his thick hair and he growled, she abandoned herself to his kiss. And my, did he know how to kiss.
His lips whispered against hers, then covered her mouth with an urgency that filled her veins and made her match his hunger. She rose on her tiptoes to press her mouth firmer against his. He broke away to trail hot fiery kisses down her neck to the pulsing hollow of her throat. She threw her head back and clung to his neck as he kissed his way across her collarbone, then lower, lower.
All she could think was that she never wanted this kiss to end. Her toes curled. Her heart thumped and her happiness swirled in her belly. When he pulled her gown down to reveal her right shoulder and pressed his warm lips to her skin, her eager response to his touch shocked her. She tried to order her thoughts, but his tongue flicked over her shoulder and her mind reeled once more.
She moaned, but when his warm finger slipped inside the top of her gown to caress dangerously near her breast, she gasped and jerked away. Dear havens, this was what she deserved for not admitting her innocence.
He kissed her neck and whispered, “The door is locked.”
With a pounding heart, she pressed her palm against his chest until he gazed at her. “What’s wrong? Are you worried that we will be discovered?” He grinned, making him look every inch the rake. “I was not planning on taking you here and now, my dear. This is a prelude of what is to come.”
Audrey cringed, her mother’s words ringing in her head. A million tears will not change a lady’s life, but a well-thought-out plan can alter her future. Clearly, she had failed to consider thoroughly all consequences of her plan. She cleared her throat. “Please do not be mad.”
His grin vanished, replaced by a frown. “Experience has taught me that when a woman says that it’s because they know they have done something they should not have.”
The knots inside her stomach grew tighter. The only thing to do now was to be truthful and hope her kiss had affected him as much as his kiss had her. “I might have misled you just a bit about how experienced I am.”
He shifted away from her and gazed at her without blinking. “Exactly how experienced are you?”
Heat singed her cheeks. “I’ve been kissed several times.”
His eyes blazed with sudden anger. “What game are you playing? I told you I do not seduce innocents.”
She flinched at the harsh tone of his words. A terrible tenseness swept through her as she struggled to find the right words to say. “I had”—she cleared her throat—“what I mean to say is I suspected there might be something special between us, and the only way I knew to discern for certain was to get you to kiss me.”
“What?” Astonishment colored the one word, though his face betrayed not a hint of what he was feeling.
Tense silence enveloped the room, broken only when she inhaled a shaky breath. The desire to flee was strong, but she refused to bend to embarrassment. Never with any other gentleman had she experienced anywhere close to the thrill as she did when simply bantering with Trent. And their kiss… Well, his kiss had filled her heart with hope that she had found the man for her. She squared her shoulders and notched her chin up. “I was hoping your kiss would astound me.”
His right eyebrow arched high. “For what purpose? Obviously a dalliance was never your intention, yet I overheard you tell my cousin you had no intentions whatsoever of ever marrying. I assumed you wanted—”
Audrey quickly shook her head before he said anything too embarrassing, her mind racing back to the conversation with Whitney. What had she said? Heavens! She had told Whitney she never wanted to marry—for anything but love. Trent must have quit eavesdropping before she had carefully made clear her position to his cousin. This certainly explained a great deal. “I believe there has been a terrible misunderstanding.”
“I’m inclined to agree. I would have never brought you in here had I realized your lack of experience. You may not want to marry, but I am not the man you can seduce into taking your innocence so you can thwart your father, or whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.”
Shame swept over her. “I am not trying to thwart my father!” At least not in the way Trent now thought.
His lips pressed together in a hard line. “What exactly are you trying to do? This time, please do be honest.”
Audrey twisted her hands together. She had done this to herself by lying. He deserved the utter truth, no matter how embarrassing. The knots in her stomach screamed for release. “I was rather hoping you might want to court me.”
His slips parted, and a bit of the anger in his eyes dulled. “Though I applaud and appreciate your honesty now, it was rather scheming of you to mislead me. I cannot court you. I do not wish to marry.”
“I see,” she choked out, glancing down at the floor and wishing fervently that Whitney would bang on the door right now and save her from her utter embarrassment. Nothing would save her from her misery.
“Ah, Audrey.”
Trent’s silken voice washed over her while he took her hand. She whipped her head up. Was that confusion on his face? Before she could decide, the look was gone. He pressed her hand to his lips. “I am sorry.”
How horribly humiliating. She had wanted his affection and eventually his love, and instead she had his pity. She shrugged. “I’m perfectly fine. We should return to the others.” She tugged her hand away and went to turn toward the door, but Trent caught her arm.
“Can we still be friends?”
His suggestion startled her and left her unable to immediately reply. Her aunt and uncle had been friends before they married. And her mother had believed men and women could be friends. Audrey frowned. She had always thought it rather preposterous that most people considered it impossible, yet she had never suspected Trent might think so as well. This was not exactly what she had hoped for, but maybe—“I suppose,” she forced out, her voice wobbling even though she tried to make it steady.
“Good.”
What sounded like regret filled his voice. Her heart skipped a beat. Heavens, no doubt she was hearing what she wished. “We should leave,” she said, determined not to make a further fool of herself.
“Yes,” he agreed but did not release her arm.
She glanced pointedly at his hand. When she looked up, her stomach flipped at the intensity of his stare. “Trent?”
He refocused on her. “Do you not think some ideas people hold to be antiquated?”
This had to be about being friends! Her jaw parted. She clamped it shut and prayed he would say more.
He increased his hold on her arm with gentle pressure before speaking. “We’ll show them all men and women can be friends.”
He released her arm and she swiveled quickly toward the door to hide her grin. He may have vowed he wanted only to be friends, but the hunger in his eyes told another story. As friends for now, she would continue to see him socially. Now all she had to do was be so irresistible that he would not be able to help falling in love with her and forgetting his ridiculous objection to getting married.
