Page 30 of The Duke of Deceit

“Impressive,” Lucien murmured, and Jess felt her cheeks heat, although this time not from pride.

“I’m only illustrating it,” she explained. “Sir Percival Demmings is writing it.”

“Then I’ll be certain to buy a copy when it’s published.”

She couldn’t help noticing the flecks of gold that lit his otherwise dark eyes, so dark one would have been tempted to call them black over brown. Or the way his sensuous smile crinkled lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes. Or how firm his jaw, how strong his cheekbones. The inexplicable urge gripped her to paint his portrait.

Thankfully, Matilda had already begun to interrogate him on the last events of the season and who still remained in London. They knew very few of the same people, yet that didn’t stop Auntie from peppering him with questions about every one of them, what they were doing, and where he’d seen them.

“Auntie,” Jess said gently as she rescued him by taking Matilda by the arm and gesturing toward the settee, not that she wanted to put him at ease but because the sooner she stopped the small talk, the sooner he could come to his reason for being here. Then leave. “We’re being rude. We haven’t asked His Grace if he’d like to sit.”

“Oh! Oh yes, of course.” Matilda sank onto the settee and gestured at the chair on the other side of the low tea table. “Forgive my bad manners, Your Grace. Please sit. We’re both just so glad you’ve honored us with a visit.” She looked pointedly at Jess as she sat beside her. “Aren’t we, Jessamyn?”

She forced a tight smile. “Simply delighted beyond belief.”

Lucien’s eyes gleamed at that wholly obvious lie as he settled into the chair, which immediately looked like a dollhouse’s furnishing compared to his large frame.

“What brings you here, Your Grace?” Matilda asked pleasantly.

“Yes, what brings you here?” Jess demanded, cutting right to the crux of the matter.

Matilda laid a hand on Jess’s knee and patted it. A warning to behave.

“Not that we’re not pleased to have you visit us,” Auntie clarified. “It’s just a bit unexpected to have someone of your rank at our humble house.”

Jess bit her inner cheek at that reminder that they were far below him in rank. She didn’t need reminding that marrying him to Amanda would be an uphill battle. One she now felt oddly unsettled about, although she couldn’t have said exactly why.

“Not so humble at all,” he corrected with a glance around the drawing room. “Very welcoming and comfortable, in fact.” He smiled politely at Matilda who simply beamed at the flattery. “I am here because of what happened last night at the party.” He settled his charming smile directly on Jess. “On the terrace.”

She caught her breath. That scoundrel wouldn’t dare embarrass her like that…would he?

“I found this.” He reached into his jacket’s inner breast pocket and removed a necklace. A rose-shaped pendant decorated with chips of rubies and emeralds dangled from the end of a delicate gold chain. “It had been dropped ontothe terrace. I wanted to return it to Miss St Claire as soon as possible, certain she was missing it and worried about its whereabouts.”

Oh, that cunning rascal! The necklace wasn’t hers, and he bloody well knew it…althoughwhyhe knew it—because he’d had his mouth on her throat and so knew she’d been wearing only simple pearls—wasn’t something she could utter aloud.

“How thoughtful of you,” Jess said instead, her voice overly saccharine. “But that’s not my necklace. Someone else must have lost it.”

Most likely he kept a crate of them beside his bed as gratitude gifts for the women who constantly found themselves between his sheets.

Jealousy pricked her at such a thought and surprised the daylights out of her. She wasn’t jealous of the women he associated with. Certainly not! He meant nothing to her. She was simply irritated that he thought women could be so easily manipulated, and she had not been in enough situations with men to be able to distinguish jealousy from irritation.

Yes! She was confused, that was all. She certainly wasn’tattractedto him.

“Are you certain?” He tempted her to take it by leaning across the tea table and holding it toward her. “It’s beautiful…like you.”

She wanted to strangle him with it! She forced a laugh. “Did you inherit your charm with the dukedom, or did you have to go to university to learn that?”

“Jessamyn!” Matilda scolded beneath her breath.

“Purely self-taught, I assure you,” he answered, his voice colored with amusement.

Matilda fidgeted in her seat. She wanted Jess to apologize, Jess knew. But people in hell wanted ice water, and they weren’t going to get that, either. Lucien would have to wait a long,longtime before she apologized to him.

Apologize…ha! If anything,heowed her the apology.

“It isn’t my necklace, Your Grace,” Jess said. “I wore pearls last night.”And you know it, too!“But my! The good deed you’re doing by attempting to return it. Someone might think you’re changing your ways and that your blackness is fading.”

Auntie elbowed her.