A Daughter's Destiny (29 page)

With a laugh, she gave him a coquettish smile. “You dare much, sir, to believe you may hold a princess so intimately.”

“This is not as intimately as I wish to hold you, honey.”

“'Tis not as intimately as I wish to be held.” She put her hand on his head and brought his mouth back to hers.

A craving gnawed at him. Had she guessed how completely his thoughts had been of her for the past day? At the realization, Evan drew out of her arms. When she regarded him with hurt and astonishment, he brushed her cheek with eager fingers.

“Honey, I did not expect to find you here.” He laughed. “Or for you to be so forgiving of the fact that I walked out on you at Lady Jacington's assembly.”

“It has given me some time to think.” She ran her finger along his nose, a playful motion that sent a splinter of need cutting through him. “I have had so little time to think since you burst into my life, Evan.” Her lips curved up in a seductive smile. “What I thought of when I had a chance to think was of this.” Those enchanting lips brushed his.

With a moan, he deepened the kiss until she softened in his arms. Every fiber urged him to lean her back on his bed and savor her. His groan was heartfelt as he took her arms and lowered them from his shoulders. First.…

“Honey, I am glad you are here. That way, what I have to tell you does not have to wait until the morning.”

“Evan, we can talk later.”

“We must talk now.” His laugh was self-deprecatory. “I cannot believe I said that when I want you so, honey, but you need to understand where I have been.” He drew her down to sit on the chaise longue by where the candle offered such a small pool of light. “Do you know why I left the assembly last night?”

“Because your father—”

“No, honey. That was a serendipitous excuse. I had an appointment to meet someone at the assembly.”

“Mr. Devereux?”

He smiled. “It is not easy to hoax you. I wanted to speak with him and another friend whom you have not met. Then I had arranged to speak with another person who was not in attendance.”

“Which is why you had to leave?”

“Yes.” He gazed into her dark eyes, yearning to put aside what he had to tell her so he could watch them close as he tilted her lips under his. Curving his hand along her cheek, he whispered, “I learned that Lagrille is in London.”

Brienne pulled back, horror strangling her. “Where?”

“That is the question I have not yet gotten an answer to.” His mouth twisted into a frown. “But I learned enough to know you need to get out of London.”

“To the Teatro Caparelli?”

“No, he followed you there.” He hesitated, then said, “It may be time to cross the Channel.”

“Go to France?” She shook her head. “No.”

“If you want to claim your father's château—”

“Forget the château.”

“Forget it? What about your promise to your mother?”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Maman may have lost rational thought by the time she asked me to go. At the time, I was so distressed I did not think clearly either. You and Grand-mère have persuaded me of that.
Mon Dieu
, Maman warned me to watch out for a door. That makes no sense at all.” She ran her hand across his chest, her fingers pausing over the rapid beat of his heart. “Also I will not risk your life for Château Tonnere du Grêlon.”

“I do not think I am worth giving up a château and a title for.”

“Mayhap not.” She smiled when he chuckled. “But I refuse to risk the life of the man I love.”

Evan pulled her back and stared at her. “Love? Have
you
lost your mind?”

“Mayhap, but I know I have lost my heart to you.”

Standing, he pulled off his collar and tossed it onto another chair. He frowned when he heard footsteps beyond the door, but ignored them when a door opened on the other side of the hall. He looked back at Brienne, a most pleasing prospect, but one he must ignore as he said, “Honey, I have warned you about believing in fairy tales.”

“This is not a fairy tale. My love for you is real.”

He clasped her face between his hands. “I know, as mine is for you.”

“If that is so—”

“Hush, honey. Let me say what I must. You have seen the danger surrounding my work. I do not want you to be its victim again.”

Shaking off his hands, she rose. “I would not want to be accused of standing in the way of your larceny and skulduggery. Foolish me! I thought you might consider my love more important.”

“It is more important.”

“Then—”

“No, honey. Let me finish.”

As her chin rose in defiance, Brienne said, “You are finished. If you will excuse me, I will return to my room. Good night.”

He pulled her back to him. “If you think I am going to let you leave, you are crazier than I thought.”

“Then, I am crazier than you thought. I love you, don't I? What could be more insane than that?”

“Nothing,” he said sadly, “except me loving you.”

“But one day you will go and I shall never see you again, won't you?”

“Can it be any other way? For me, it would be wonderful to have a place to go where I always would find a warm welcome and loving arms. For you, that is wrong. You need someone you can depend on to be with you every night of your life.”

“Maman waited foolishly for love.”

“You have too much joy within you to waste your life pining for a man who has ruined his life and now could ruin yours.”

When Brienne stepped away, she wished she could be angry. How could she when Evan was being brutally honest as she had longed him to be?

She held out her hand to him. “If our time together must be short, Evan, I do not want to use it arguing with you. I want your love for as long as I can have it.”

“My love is yours forever, honey.” He put his hand in hers. His eyes sparked with a mixture of grief and fury. “I cannot make you many vows, but this one I mean sincerely. When I must leave you, my heart shall stay behind.”

Evan led her to the bed. When he sat her on it, he gazed down at her. His arms encircled her waist and tugged her against him.

As her fingers messed his hair, she whispered, “You are going to be my undoing, Evan Somerset.”

He reached for the ribbons closing her nightdress. “That is exactly what I had in mind, and I shall be undoing you right now.” When she laughed, he captured her lips with his fevered yearning. “Help me,” he breathed against her lips.

“Help you?”

“Help me turn my bed once more into paradise with your love.” Leaning her back on the pillows, he placed a flurry of kisses across her face.

She held her arms out to him. “Love me tonight.”
And every day for as long as I live
.

“You need not ask,” he whispered as he ran his fingers along her. The silk caught fire between his skin and hers. “I cannot think of anything I would rather do.”

He sat beside her and pulled off his boots. As he began to loosen his shirt, her fingers brushed his aside. He smiled as she slid his sleeves down his arms. A powerful shock rushed through her as his chest pressed against her bare skin above the nightdress.

With a moan, he pushed her back into the mattress. She lovingly massaged the muscles along his back and smiled when his mouth swept along her neck, leaving blazing embers.

She gasped as his hands moved along her breast. As his mouth returned to hers, she tangled her fingers in his hair. An eager sigh escaped her lips when his fingers twisted through the ribbons on her bodice, drawing them apart.

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, he slid the material aside. Lowering his head, he tasted the tip of one breast. The explosion of sensation stripped her of all but the naked power of his mouth on her skin. He drew her up onto her knees, the bed rustling like a whispered song. When he lifted the opened gown over her head, he smiled and let his hands slip along her.

“You must have been sure I would come back to you,” he murmured. “Or do you sleep every night with nothing beneath your nightdress?”

“I had hoped you would come back.” She pressed his hand between her breasts. “It was empty here, but I knew my heart was with you.”

He leaned her back into the nest of pillows and pulled her into his arms. Tilting her face up, he kissed her until her body slanted into his. She slid her arms along his bare back as his mouth moved along her neck and then lower when he placed enticing nibbles along her breasts. She cried out in ecstasy. His tongue etched a path along her, and she quivered with the need that ached through her.

The flame inside her burst into an inferno as she unbuttoned his breeches and pushed them aside. Urging him onto his back, she leaned over him and began to explore him as he had her. The flavors of his skin were more delicious than her best sauce. Gazing into his face which revealed his rapture, she reveled that she could bring such joy to him.

His mouth took hers as he pushed her back into the pillows. She clutched him like a castaway clinging to a raft on a frenzied sea. Her fingers brought his mouth to hers, blistering her with the fire of his passion. Slowly her eyes opened. She met the intensity of his blue eyes. She could not escape his gaze as he moved over her.

Her arms enfolded him to her as he brought them together. His mouth covered hers to sample her heated breath. His slow, gentle movements matched the caress of his tongue on hers. When she trembled, all gentleness vanished. A frenzy roiled through her. Even his breath, husky in her ear, and her hands pressed against his back urging him closer disappeared. She was only the motion, with him, part of him. The tremors intensified until an internal explosion erupted outward in exultation. This was perfection. A perfection she never wanted to lose.

Opening his eyes, Evan sighed when he saw the first light of dawn edging past the sides of the drapes. The night was gone, and now the troubles of the day could no longer be ignored.

Did Brienne guess how much he had not told her last night? Several contacts had informed him that Lagrille was in London. Nobody could tell him where, but he guessed from their comments that Lagrille had garnered a place for himself among the Polite World. Lagrille could not be living with the
émigrés
, for Evan had already checked with that close-knit community.

Lagrille! Who was this man? Why he wanted Brienne was obvious. That blasted château!

He smiled as he gazed down at her face resting on his chest. This was why he wanted Brienne, to share these moments when she relinquished her stern self-control to delight in passion. All he wanted was to lie next to her and touch her. If he could spend the rest of his life concentrating on loving her, he would be in heaven.

With a sigh, he knew it was impossible. Even as he held her while she slept, other thoughts invaded his mind, dimming his contentment.

“What is it?” she asked as she opened her eyes. “Evan, you sound so sad.”

“Sad? When I hold you?” He smiled and kissed her lightly. “Never, honey.”

“But something is bothering you. What else did you discover?”

Evan almost laughed. Somehow, Brienne was learning to discern his thoughts as no one else ever had. When she brushed the worried creases from his forehead with loving fingers, he kissed her wrist and heard the intake of her eager breath.

“Only enough,” he said, “to know I have much more to discover before I can keep you safe in London.” He stood and pulled on his breeches. “I know of only one place you might be safe.”

“Where?”

“Where I should have taken you as soon as we came ashore from Marksen's ship. To Sommerton Hall.”

Brienne sat up and stared at him. “Your family's manor house?”

He could not keep his finger from caressing the downy warmth between her breasts. When she pulled the blanket up to her chin and glowered at him, he reached for her nightdress and dropped it on her lap. “It is north and west of York. Lagrille will not be able to reach it without being seen.”

“And where will you go?”

“To do what I must to make sure Lagrille does not try to reach Sommerton Hall.”

“No, I will not go there and leave you here to deal with him alone.”

As if she had not spoken, Evan continued, “I shall send your grandmother to you as soon as I know she will not be followed.” He frowned and shook his head as he pulled on his shirt. “By Jove, this would be so much easier if you had not attended Lady Jacington's soirée where so many people saw you and Madame LeClerc together.”

Brienne leaped from the bed and grasped his arm. “Let Lagrille have the château if that is what he wants. I refuse to let you die for it.”

With a sad smile, he shook his head. “That will not work. He cannot claim it without you.”

“Evan, listen to me. I—”

A knock was set on the door. When she gasped, Evan patted her hand before going to open it.

He frowned. What was Hitchcock doing at his door? The butler usually avoided him. When Hitchcock looked past him as if he were invisible, his frown deepened.

“Miss LeClerc, this was found in your grandmother's room.”

“Grand-mère's room?” She pulled on a rose-pink wrapper that Evan had not noticed last night. Coming to the door, she asked in a puzzled tone, “What did you find there?”

“This.” He placed a small, folded sheet of paper in her hand.

Brienne opened it and cried, “Oh, no!”

“What is it?” Evan asked.

She raised her eyes, and he nearly recoiled from her horror. He understood it when she whispered, “Lagrille has abducted Grand-mère.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Grand-mère has been abducted.” Brienne could not halt herself from repeating the words. Mayhap if she said them enough, the whole of this would go away and never have happened.

Evan took the note from her numb fingers. As he scanned the short missive, she knew what he was reading. The few words, written in French, were imprinted upon her eyes, so that each time she blinked they burned brightly against the darkness.