Engaging the Earl Read online

  She brushed a hand down her skirt, his perusal making her self-conscious of her appearance. She wore a simple old day dress, nothing like her usual modish ensembles that set young ladies of the ton rushing to their modistes to copy her latest look. “I like it because it is quiet here.”

  “I thought it paramount for all of the incomparables to appear in Hyde Park to see and be seen.”

  She lifted a shoulder with deliberate insouciance. “Haven’t you heard? I, sir, am the only reigning incomparable this Season.”

  “And have been for many years, from what Tobias tells me.” He regarded her with obvious appreciation. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

  Her insides warmed under his gaze. She turned to follow the dog, castigating herself for allowing this man who had deserted her to have any impact on her at all. “I mustn’t let Vera escape again. We might find her assaulting another unsuspecting admirer of nature.”

  He followed. “Are you alone?” He looked around as they strolled, spotting her maid following at a distance. “Good lord, is that Fanny?”

  “It is indeed.” For some reason, it pleased her that he had remembered her maid. Fanny was part of their shared past.

  “Well, I’ll be.” He squinted to get a better look at the dark-clad woman. “From the disagreeable expression on her face, I gather I’m still not a great favorite of hers.”

  “Fanny sees herself as the guardian of my reputation. And you are the only gentleman who has ever tempted her mistress to misbehave.”

  “Is that so?” Probing eyes fixed on her face. “Your Lord Sinclair doesn’t provoke you to naughtiness?”

  Her cheeks grew hot. No. No one has ever had the power to provoke me but you.

  A shout pierced the air. “I say, you there, is that a dog? Canines are not allowed in Kensington Gardens.”

  She looked back to where three gentlemen of middle age pointed in their direction. “Oh no.”

  “Is that so?” He followed her gaze. “Are dogs not allowed here?”

  She averted her eyes. “It might be so.”

  His brows rose. “Are you breaking the rules?”

  “It’s a silly rule and I just wanted some privacy and quiet for my walk.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  She looked back at the approaching men. “Perhaps if we ignore them—”

  The man was gesturing wildly now toward his servants. “You, go get the constable.” Pointing to another servant, he yelled, “You, capture that canine.”

  Turning to face them, Edward squared his shoulders, his face hardening. “Don’t worry. I won’t let them take your animal.”

  A shiver of consciousness swept through her. On the battlefield, commanding an army, he must have appeared much as he did now: the lean lines of his body tense with anticipation, his emerald eyes dark and stormy, the hollows in his cheeks made more pronounced by his braced jaw and the fierce set of his features.

  She put a staying hand on his forearm, surprised by the hard turn of warm muscle apparent beneath his jacket. “Let us away from here.” She tugged at his jacket. “I cannot be caught here with you and Vera. The gossips would have a field day.”

  An arrogant rise of his brow. “Are you suggesting that we run rather than face them?”

  She nodded with vigor, still pulling at him. “That is exactly what I am suggesting. The rags love to write about me. And you are a new earl, a war hero. If we are discovered, it will be in all of the papers. Mama will have an apoplectic fit.”

  He appeared reluctant at first, his planted feet not budging. “Please, Edward,” she pleaded, yanking on his sleeve more vigorously.

  His stern expression shifted, as though he’d reached a decision. “Vera, come!” Grabbing Kat’s hand, encasing it in his large, firm grasp, they made a run for it.

  The dog yapped, cavorting alongside, clearly enjoying the game. Kat raced with Edward as they ducked into the wood line, her heart pounding and her blood soaring in a way that made her feel like a carefree girl again. When her hat snagged on a branch and swept it off her head, tousling her hair, she wanted to laugh. She had no idea how long they ran, but finally, out of breath, they spun around the trunk of a large tree in the wooded area.

  Peering in the direction they’d just come from, Edward ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. “I think we’ve lost them.”

  Kat bent over, panting, trying to ease a cramp in her side. “Oh my, I can’t remember the last time I’ve run like that.”

  “Are you well?” Concerned tinged his question.

  She dropped to the ground, still trying to catch her breath. “I’m wonderful,” she said between laughing gasps. “That was marvelous! We showed them, didn’t we?”

  He eased down next to her. “We certainly did. Although I doubt they’d drag us down to Old Bailey for bringing a canine to Kensington Gardens.”

  “Certainly not an earl,” she said between heaving breaths.

  His lips curled into an ironic smile. “Finally, a useful privilege to go along with this infernal title.”

  She looked at him and they shared the smile, the impartial coldness in his deep green eyes replaced with a penetrating spark of cognizance. A fine sheen coated his face and neck from their exertions and the tang of perspiration mingled with the bergamot scent of his shaving soap. Having been starved for him for far too long, she breathed him in, relishing the sensation of his masculine warmth in such close proximity.

  He reached out and touched a loosened golden strand at her shoulder, fingering it as though it were something precious. “Like sunshine, just as I remember.”

  Her heart slammed. “I must look a mess.”

  “You are beautiful as always.” He slid both hands up behind her head, caressing her for a moment before drawing his fingers outward through the strands of her hair, shaking it loose of its pins so that it streamed down her shoulders. “I have always loved your hair. When it is loose and flowing like this, you look like a goddess.”

  He cupped her face with his large hands and she brought her own hands up to rest over his, relishing their rough softness. Her heart sped up when he lowered his head toward her. His lips met hers with a tender touch, taking soft nips, as though his body was reacquainting itself with hers again. Her body recognized him at once. She felt edgy and wet all over, and a restless energy throbbed between her thighs.

  She kissed him back, reveling in the softness of his lips. Nothing and no one else existed. The kiss deepened, becoming hot and full of hunger, nothing like the sweet considerate kisses Laurie gave her. Edward’s tongue drove hers lips apart and he lapped inside like a starving man. He plundered deeper, demanding more, his kiss raw and hungry, lacking any restraint or finesse.

  He tasted like tobacco and something much darker and sweeter. Her greedy tongue tangled with his, taking as much as she gave. She’d waited six interminable years for this, for him. Damn him.

  Then he was shifting her onto the soft ground. He came down over her, and the scent of grass and wet leaves and tree bark engulfed them. His lips left hers, trailing down her neck, then back up to suckle the tender lobe of her ear. She moaned at the exquisite sensations, writhing against his hard body as it pressed down on hers, loving the feel of his unrelenting lean form against her woman’s softness.

  “You are exquisite,” he murmured as his hands ran down the sides of her body, his thumbs brushing provocatively over the sides of the sensitive flesh of her breasts. When they reached her hips, he grasped them and pulled her against him. She gasped at the titillating sensation of his aroused flesh grinding against the throbbing wetness between her thighs.

  A band of tension tightened inside of her. Then his lips were back on hers, his tongue tasting and stroking. His hand moved to her breast, cupping and then tweaking at the tip through the thin fabric of her dress until she thought she would scream from the intense sensation. It felt as though the sun’s hottest rays radiated from that place between her legs outward through her entire body—eve
ry part of her was alive and pulsating.

  Somewhere out there, Vera’s bark penetrated her consciousness, followed by the crunching of leaves and approaching footsteps. “My lady!” Fanny’s sharp tone shattered the spell, dragging Kat unwillingly back to the reality of a world where she and Edward no longer belonged to one another.

  He jerked away and rose to his feet in one swift motion. Sitting up, still dazed, she took the hand he offered to pull her to her feet. The maid stood just a short distance away, arms crossed over her chest, shocked disapproval stamped on her face. She glared at Edward before running her disappointed gaze over Kat’s flushed and disheveled state. “We must return, my lady,” she said tightly. “Lord Sinclair will be waiting for you.”

  Edward gently disengaged Kat’s hand from his. She hadn’t realized she’d been grasping onto him so tightly. “It is good to see you again, Fanny.”

  “I wish I could say the same, my lord.” She said the honorific in the same tone one would say an epithet.

  “Fanny!” Kat said, shocked by her maid’s insolence.

  “Come along, Lady Kat.” She jerked her chin in Edward’s direction. “This one here is nothing but trouble to you.” Edward’s face remained expressionless, his skin stretched taut over sharp cheekbones.

  “Hush, Fanny. You don’t know what you are talking about.”

  She bustled over and took a firm hold of Kat’s arm. “Yes, I do, my lady. Now come along. You don’t want Lord Sinclair to come upon you looking as you do now. There’d be no explaining it away.”

  She glanced back at Edward, who’d remained frozen where he stood, his eyes an inscrutable opaque. He gave a brisk nod. “The redoubtable Fanny is correct. It is best that you go with her.”

  “Will you call on me?” she called over her shoulder.

  Watching her go, he did not answer.

  Once they’d walked far enough to lose sight of him, Kat tugged away from Fanny’s grip. “You may return my arm to me now.”

  Letting go, the maid made a tsking sound with her mouth. “I would have thought you would know better than to involve yourself with the likes of him again.”

  “We are not involved. It was just a moment that took us both off guard.”

  Fanny halted and fixed a hard look on her. “After that man left you that last time, I thought you would never recover. It took months before you began to act alive again, but in truth you were never the same.”

  She opened her mouth to dispute Fanny, but then shut it again. She thought she’d hidden her despair so well, but no one understood her better than Fanny, who had known her since girlhood. And her maid had seen through her performance. Kat hadn’t been the same after Edward’s desertion. And she would not survive another of his rejections.

  “Oh, Fanny.” Her lungs ached. “You have the right of it, of course. What do I know of this new Edward?”

  “Nothing, my lady. And men return from war much changed.”

  Edward had certainly changed. Who was he now? Was he the distant stranger who rarely gave her a second glance? Or the laughing, tender lover who’d just kissed her in the woods? More confused than ever, she followed Fanny out of the park and on toward home to receive her betrothed.

  …

  “Bloody hell.” Rand cursed, loud and foul. Six years—six years—had done nothing to temper his attraction to her. If anything, absence had solidified the pull between them. Kissing her soft willing lips had stirred something in him that he thought had died at Talavera. With Elena, the sex was always good, but it hadn’t gone beyond kinship and physical pleasure. Merely being in Kitty’s presence managed to twist something deep inside him. That she still had that kind of power over him shocked and disconcerted him.

  In her plain dress, with her hair almost carelessly tucked under an unadorned straw bonnet, she couldn’t have looked more different than the glamorous peacock who’d commanded Sinclair’s drawing room. And she’d elected to take a solitary walk in the relative seclusion of Kensington Gardens, rather than reign over admiring crowds in Hyde Park during the fashionable hour. Strange behavior for a toast of the town. The lack of artifice did not detract from her appeal; in fact, she’d never looked lovelier. God help him. He was far from cured of Kitty Granville

  Even worse, he’d kissed her after suffering another episode. As though losing himself in her eager warmth would somehow obscure the harrowing truth of the madness that haunted him. He shouldn’t have touched her, especially when he had nothing to offer her, except the very real possibility of a lifetime tied to a bedlamite.

  Something wet slobbered against his hand, interrupting his internal rant. He looked down to find Vera practically smiling up at him, her water-sopped tail swishing back and forth. Kat had forgotten her animal.

  “Come on then, you mangy whelp,” he said, not without affection as the dog frolicked alongside him. “I can’t very well leave you here.”

  Picking up a stick, he threw it into the distance and watched Vera lope after it with a good-natured bark. He should be annoyed to find himself stuck with Kitty’s animal. Instead, he was happy for the company on the walk home.

  As he and Vera neared Grosvenor Square, they encountered Toby Hobart, wearing the brightest blue tailcoat Rand had even seen, with an orange striped waistcoat beneath.

  “How fortuitous,” Toby said, the sun glinting off his upswept coppery hair. “I was just coming from your mausoleum.”

  “Hobart. To what do I owe your colorful presence?”

  “I came to deliver an invitation to a country house party my mother is planning in a fortnight. She’s keen to have the most talked-about peer in attendance.” Vera’s restless whine drew his attention. “Is that Kat’s hound?”

  “As it happens, yes.”

  “What are you doing with her?”

  “Lady Katherine and I met by chance in Kensington Gardens. She recalled a forgotten engagement and rushed away.” He was careful to keep his tone bland. “It was only after she’d gone that I realized she’d left the creature behind.”

  “No doubt it is the garden party Nugent is throwing today that disconcerted her. If I don’t exert myself, I, too, will be late to the affair.”

  “Don’t let me keep you. We wouldn’t want to leave Sinclair and his betrothed to their own devices for too long.”

  Toby chuckled as he took his leave. “I daresay Sin wouldn’t mind. He’s absolutely besotted.” As Rand continued homeward, he wondered if there was any man who wasn’t under Kitty’s spell.

  Beside him, Vera barked and nuzzled into his hand. The sour expression on his valet’s face when Vera trotted into the front hall behind Rand suggested Burgess did not share his affection for the canine. “Your solicitor awaits your pleasure in the parlor, my lord.”

  “Yes, we have an appointment to go over matters related to the earldom.” Rand wasn’t sure which room in this mausoleum was the parlor. Had it been up to him, he’d have contented himself with a much more modest home in town, but a man did not decline a gift from his sovereign. “Send him to the study, will you, Burgess?” He trotted up the stairs and into his bed chamber with both Burgess and Vera following. “And see that our little friend here is bathed.”

  Burgess made a moue of distaste as he regarded the canine, and Rand could have sworn the animal’s eyes narrowed in response. “Surely, you don’t mean to keep it.”

  Pulling off his cravat and shirt, Rand rinsed his face and neck. “Indeed I do. See to her bath, if you please.”

  Burgess placed a towel in the hand Rand held out. “If you had a butler, he could arrange the matter. An earl’s household should maintain a butler.”

  “Why do I need a butler when I already have you?” He dried his face and neck with vigorous strokes. “A shirt, if you please.”

  Burgess already had a shirt at the ready and handed it to him. “Your staff is inadequate to your station.”

  “I should think a butler would challenge your role in this household.”

  “Not at a
ll. As valet, I’m quite safe from challenge.” He eyed Vera as she made herself at home, curling up into a ball on the carpet at the foot of the bed. “That creature has a most unpleasant odor.”

  “Which is why she needs a bath.”

  “I shall have a footman attend to her,” Burgess said with an exaggerated sigh. “I suppose you’d like me to confer with Cook about the evening meal?”

  Rand pulled the door open and stepped through it. “I don’t see who else is going to do it. Unless you’ve gone and hired a housekeeper while I was out.”

  “What you need, my lord, is a countess to oversee your household.”

  An image of Kitty flashed in his mind. He shoved it away. She had no place in this bedlamite world of his. No. Everything was as it should be. Kitty would marry Sinclair, a man who was clearly devoted to her and could offer her a husband of sound mind.

  “Just see about the dog, will you?” he said brusquely before slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter Five

  Kat remained distracted throughout the luncheon, replaying the taste and feel of Edward’s kisses over and over again. The intimacy in the park proved he wasn’t indifferent to her after all. Far from it.

  Frustrated, she shook her head against the emotions swirling through her. The man had devastated her with his abandonment, yet she’d allowed him to kiss her, to touch her. Even worse, everything about this new Edward entranced her—perhaps even more so than the soft, sensitive boy who had left her. The sharp angles and long lines of his body, the almost harsh turn of his nose, all contrived to give him a dangerous edge that enthralled her.

  The guests’ laughter brought her back to the reality of her parents’ intimate garden party. The small, amiable group included Bea, Toby, and their mother. And Laurie, of course. These days, he always seemed to be underfoot.

  Guilt stabbed her at the uncharitable thought. As her betrothed, Laurie should be attentive. While he treated her with the highest regard and gentle kindness, she’d betrayed him by allowing Edward liberties Laurie would never think to attempt.