Page 37 of A Relentless Rake

As she returned the poker and faced him, she pulled back her shoulders and rubbed her hands down her robe. That was battle preparation if ever he’d seen it. Then she slowly approached him.

Alec pulled himself up straight. She was behaving oddly, suddenly confident and bold. She’d never been afraid of him, not even in the alleyway when he’d saved her from those toughs, but always before, she’d hesitated to approach him. Now, he couldn’t see a trace of trepidation in her anywhere.

He stood still as a statue when she lifted her hand to touch his mask. Oh, she was behavingvery oddly, yet when she trailed her fingers along the side of his face, he didn’t have the resolve to stop her.

She caressed the black satin. “Why do you wear this?”

“It’s romantic,” he replied sardonically. Then he swallowed. Hard. The heat of her fingertips seeped through the satin and into his skin, and he fought down the tremble that threatened to rise at her touch.

“That’s not it.”

His eyes held hers, and their blue depths shimmered in the firelight. “It’s erotic, then.”

“That’s not it either.” This time, her voice held a throaty edge.

“Because it’s necessary.” That was the God’s truth. “People in masks can do all kinds of things that people can’t otherwise do. They can break laws, learn secrets, and take part in wicked pleasures, and no one will ever know.”

“That’s deceitful.”

He couldn’t deny that. He’d pledged to live his life out in the open, warts and all, refusing to hide beneath a blanket of lies and secrecy the way his father had. Until she’d come along. For the first time, doubts pricked at him, although he couldn’t have said with certainty why. She made it hard to think straight.

Straight?When she brushed her fingers through the hair at his temple, he lost all thought completely.

She arched a brow, seemingly unaware of the effect she had on him, of the tightening of his gut and the tingling at his crotch. “And here I thought it was to hide your identity,my lord.”

Alec froze.Oh damn…

“After all, it wouldn’t do to let London society know that the Earl of St James accosts unmarried misses in dark alleyways.”

Damn, damn, damn!He ground out, “I didn’t accost you. I saved you.” He pushed her hand away and yanked off the mask. His jaw clenched. “How did you figure it out?”

“Lemons.”

“Lemons?” Of all the stuff and nonsense—

“You smell like lemons, my lord. I’d only met you without a mask once before tonight, for a short time outside the Royal Society. Every other time, you’d worn that mask, and it was in the dark. You even disguised your voice. But you couldn’t hide your scent, my lord.”

Alec gritted his teeth. Damn all of hermy lords! And damn his valet. The blasted man squeezed lemon juice into his bath because he said it cut the smell of horse, cigar smoke, and cheap perfume that followed him home. Leave it to Olivia to notice.

“So why don’t we start again, shall we?” She took a step back and folded her arms across her chest in challenge. “That is, now that I know who you are.”

“Disappointed?” he drawled.

She haughtily sniffed. “In which man?”

He bit back the devilish urge to ask her which man she’d wanted more to appear in her bedroom tonight, the masked man or him—

Good God, hewasjealous of himself!

“No,” she admitted with a shake of her head, her posture softening but not yielding. “I’m not disappointed.”

He took more satisfaction from that than he had a right to.

“Not completely.”

His mouth twisted. “Glad to hear.”

“Butwhy? Why did you go to such lengths to hide your identity? Why did you follow me into that alley, then sneak into my room and search my things?” She pulled in a deep breath and repeated the question she’d pressed upon him at the ball—“What do you want with me?”