Page 63 of How the Earl Entices

“You want me as much as I want you.” He strummed his thumb over her bottom lip, and she closed her eyes against the sweet torture of that touch. “I felt your desire for me.” He leaned in, brushing his mouth along her cheek to her ear. “For God’s sake, Itastedit.”

She choked back a sob. He had no idea how his whispers affected her, how the mix of arousal and anguish warred within her.

When she could no longer stop a tear from sliding down her cheek, she pulled away, turned her back to him, and reached down for the towel. Her hands shook as she wrapped it around herself.

He took her shoulders from behind, his mouth lowering close to her ear, so close that his warm breath tickled across her cheek. “You want this, too.”

“More than you know.” She ached to let him make love to her—but it wouldn’t be withher. It would be with the woman she was pretending to be.

She couldn’t have borne it.

The harsh edge to his voice cut like a blade of ice—“You still don’t trust me.”

“Idotrust you.” She trusted him with her life. But she couldn’t yet trust him with her son’s future. Until she did, she couldn’t give herself—hertrueself—to him.

His hands dropped away. “Apparently, not enough.”

Chapter 19

Ross glanced out the window of the carriage as Piccadilly passed by in the darkness. “Almost there.”

Grace gave a tight nod. Whether because she was becoming more nervous the closer they drew to the ambassador’s townhouse or because she was still upset over their earlier argument, he couldn’t have said. Not that it mattered. He knew the rules between them now. He wouldn’t attempt to touch her again.

He grimaced into the darkness. If tonight didn’t go as planned, he wouldn’t have the chance to.

“If we’re caught,” she said softly, “Ellsworth will be arrested for helping us.”

Us.His damnable heart skipped, even though he knew it was nothing more than a slip of her tongue. He’d like to believe that she thought they were still in this together, but he knew better.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” he muttered. The Ellsworth town coach that they traveled in was unmistakable, with its gold coat of arms emblazed on the doors, but they’d had no choice. RosswasEllsworth to everyone in attendance tonight, and they couldn’t very well arrive in a hired hackney or on foot. “Don’t worry about Mercer. He knows what he’s doing.”

Ellsworth was already in their mess up to his noose-clad neck if they were caught, but Ross had made certain that he couldn’t be implicated. Amid the commotion and confusion that would surely happen, there would be enough wiggle room for the marquess to claim that he had attended the masquerade himself, that it was him and not Ross who had handed over his invitation, with his paramour wearing a similar gold brocade gown to the one draped over Grace.

What a magnificent gown it was, too. He didn’t have to look at her to see it—the vision of her in it had already imprinted itself upon his mind.

When she’d stepped from her room and grudgingly asked for his help in fastening the last of the tiny hooks on the bodice, he’d been so struck by the sight of her that he’d been speechless. He let her believe his silence was lingering pique over their earlier encounter. No. It was because of the way the brocade shimmered like gold foil over her hips, how the sculpted bodice pushed up her breasts against the low-cut neckline and displayed their top swells. The gold color accentuated the highlights in her toffee-colored hair, piled in a riot of barely controlled curls on top her head. Midway through fastening her up, when she commented that the dress was so tight that she’d not had room beneath for a chemise, he nearly said to hell with the masquerade and scooped her into his arms to ravish her. Her true identity be damned.

Frustration flared hotly. For Christ’s sake, he could still taste the tangy-sweet cream of her on his tongue, still feel her hot passion and pulsating pleasure when she broke. Having experienced that, he couldn’t regret claiming that taste of her. Or wanting to feast on her until he was fully satiated, until the unbearable craving for her was satisfied.

But she refused to let herself share in that pleasure.

He bit back an aggravated laugh. How ironic that the most beautiful creature he’d ever known, one of the most inherently passionate and enthralling, had erected a wall of ice between them. And how fitting that his mystery woman now wore a mask that hid her completely from the world, except for her sensuous mouth, making her even more delectably enigmatic.

Fate was surely laughing at him.

When the carriage stopped in front of the townhouse, he sucked in a mouthful of air and checked his own mask. Time to focus.

Ross stepped to the ground, then turned back to offer his hand to Grace. She hesitated.

“I’ll tell the coachman to take you back if you’ve changed your mind.” He hoped she would ask for exactly that. He didn’t want her here. Despite all that had happened between them—and all that hadn’t—he still wanted to protect her. “You don’t have to do this.”

She squared her shoulders. “Yes, I do.”

Then she took his hand and descended gracefully to the footpath.

As he led her toward the front door, he leaned over to bring his mouth close to her ear, his hand on her elbow pulling back to slow their approach. “If you’re going to do this,” he said, resigning himself to her involvement, “then you’ve got to do it for all you’re worth, understand? Play the part as if you were born to it.”

Water could have frozen on the smile she sent him. “Iwasborn to it.”