Page 45 of How the Earl Entices

“The authorities will be watching. How will you send a message to him?”

How, indeed? He couldn’t send a message directly to Christopher, she was right about that. Nor would Kit accept it unless he was certain no one had seen it being delivered. Yet it wouldn’t arrive at all without the help of someone the authorities would never suspect, someone removed from his social circle yet close enough to the periphery to make contacting Kit appear wholly innocuous. Someone who knew the risk yet would be willing to help anyway, simply out of love for England, for duty and honor—

Or for the sheer excitement of it.

“Evelyn,” he murmured as the solution struck him.

“Who?”

He stifled a laugh. She would beperfect! “Evelyn Winslow.”

“Who is Mrs. Winslow?”

“MissWinslow.” A young woman with more daring than prudence. One who loved adventure and excitement to the point of distraction. And the very last person whom the authorities would suspect knew anything about his whereabouts.

“Is she someone special to you?”

Right then, Evelyn Winslow might just be—“My salvation.”

“I see.”

He looked up at the odd tone of her voice. He didn’t dare let himself consider the delicious possibility that Grace was jealous. Or how a less scrupulous man might use that to his advantage to fill the long night ahead. “She’s my cousin Robert’s sister-in-law.”

But that admission didn’t relax her. She remained as uneasy as before as she folded her arms over her chest. “Someone you trust, then?”

“I trustyou, Grace.” Although he had every reason not to, given that she was keeping secrets of her own. But when she’d had the opportunity to betray him, she’d kept his confidences. For that, she’d earned his loyalty. “Our situation would be much easier if you’d trust me.”

He turned and sat down on the windowsill, kicking his long legs out in front of him to physically keep her away.Sweet Lucifer, even now all of him ached to be buried between her thighs, to feel her writhe beneath him until she broke with pleasure. If she kept up this tension between them, then God help him.

“But I do trust you.” She purposefully misunderstood his meaning by adding, “I wouldn’t be sleeping in the same room with you if I didn’t.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t be,” he drawled in a wicked murmur, unable to help himself from trailing a shamelessly lascivious gaze over her. “I am a Carlisle, after all.”

Her sensuous lips twisted into a wry smile at that reminder, drawing his eyes to her mouth…to that delectably kissable, wholly eager mouth of hers. And if she kept thatup—

God helpher.

“And who are you?” he asked. Despite her claim to the contrary, she didn’t trust him enough to reveal her true identity.

“I can’t tell you, you know that.”

“Not until you know whether I’ll be able to help you or be set swinging at Newgate, you mean,” he drawled with a touch of resentment. This new turn of conversation was doing wonders to tamp down his lust.

“Not until I’m certain that Ethan cannot be harmed.”

“He won’t be.” Then, just because he was in a self-punishing mood tonight, he added, “As long as you stop putting him in danger yourself.”

Her eyes blazed in the darkness. “I have dedicated my life to keeping him safe. I wouldneverput my son—”

“Then stop taking unnecessary risks. Your acting ability is quite impressive, and I nearly applauded this afternoon in the carriage. But then, with the soldiers—“ He gestured in aggravation toward the inn yard below. “You need to stop doing that because sooner or later you’re going to come up against someone who sees through your act.”

“Like you?”

He ignored that bait. “I don’t want you to be hurt because of me.”

Grace stared at him, as if sensing the raw honesty behind that. “What do you care about me? I’m nothing to you but a means of getting to London.”

She was becoming so much more. Heaven help him when she realized it.