Chapter Fifteen

Use every weapon in your arsenal to capture a man’s eye—a flattering dress, color in your cheeks, your figure while you walk.

As Lily left the Granby townhouse, still thinking of the advice she’d cobbled together for Miss Granby, she hummed under her breath. The cool afternoon air enlivened her. She smiled, awash with triumph.

“How did it go?”

Adam’s voice in her ear made her gasp. His hand settled on the small of her back, possessive and anchoring at once. Thoughts of flirting still circling her head, Lily slowed and emphasized the sway of her walk. His hand brushing her back was hypnotic.

She turned her face up to his, smiling. “You mean to tell me you didn’t infiltrate the household to learn of the outcome yourself?”

His gaze dropped to her mouth. He licked his bottom lip before teasing, “I was a fly on the wall. Couldn’t you tell?”

“There were a great many flies in that room, I imagine. It was a veritable jungle, with all the houseplants.”

As they paused on the street corner to let a carriage pass, Adam leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Are you going to make me guess our fate?”

“Only if you feel you’ve done enough research.”

His fingers grazed her back as he removed his hand, turning to face her fully. He pursed his lips, a mock studious expression on his face. “I am a lifelong scholar of the school of Lily Darling.”

Somehow, the way he said her married name made it sound far more intimate than when others addressed her.

When he lightly traced the corner of her mouth, her lips opened on a gasp. His eyes twinkled with dark mischief. “The evidence is here.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “And here.” He lifted his hand to graze his fingers over her temple. “And here.”

His voice had dropped to a whisper. Lily shivered, overwhelmed by the sensation from what she hadn’t heretofore considered an erotic spot. She licked her lips as he leaned closer, his breath teasing the shell of her ear.

“I think you were brilliant.”

“I think you’re biased,” she answered, breathless.

He raised an eyebrow as he retreated to a respectable distance. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“You aren’t. I won her over. She promised to remember us to her father.”

He winked. “That’s the woman I married.”

Lily hadn’t felt married in years. However, since their day in the study when she’d promised to count him as a partner in this matter, something between them had changed. Small glances. Hours spent lying awake, wondering if he would knock on the adjoining door. He hadn’t touched her, even teasingly, until now.

Use every weapon in your arsenal.

She took his arm and led him not in the direction of home, but toward Hyde Park. He took the change in stride, following her lead without protest. Perhaps he craved a few more moments alone with her before they had to contend with the chaperones her sisters had become. The moment the hedgerows loomed around him, she backed him into the shadow. Her hand lingered on his arm, tracing his sleeve as he had her face.

She’d never seen a man look so intense. “Lily, what…”

“Hush.” She rose on tiptoe, balancing herself against the hard wall of his chest as she brushed her mouth over his. “I’m seducing you.”

He shut his eyes with a strangled groan. “We’re in public. You’ll scandalize Mayfair.”

She tasted the soft curve of his lower lip. “What will they do to us? We’re already married.”

His breath shuddered against her lips. His dark eyelashes softened his face, making him look more vulnerable than she’d ever seen him before. He was always the man at the center of everyone’s attention, the confident man with the easy smile. He enticed others to lower their guards; he rarely showed what hid beneath his mask. With her, he’d often been open, but never vulnerable.

When she clutched his shoulders and pressed her mouth more firmly to his, she found him pliant. His docility lasted a fraction of a second before his natural dominance won out and he kissed her as though his life depended upon it. He pinned her against his body with his arm around her waist and languidly tasted her. The thrust of his tongue left her weak-kneed, a growing ache between her legs. She needed this. It had been too long.

He kissed her as though relearning her. But this slow, torturous melding of their mouths was far from the seduction she had in mind. Lily wanted to drive him mindless with pleasure. Pressing her hips against him, she slid her fingers into his hair and took charge of the kiss, turning it urgent. He matched her, his roving hands splaying across her back and moving down, over the dip of her waist to…

He released her and broke the kiss, gasping for air. “We can’t do this.”

She dropped down onto her heels, mortification flaming her cheeks. He was right. They were in Hyde Park, where anyone might happen upon them. “I forgot myself. You always did tend to have that effect.” She licked her lips, still tasting him. “Tonight—”

“No.” He made a choked sound and stepped around her without looking her in the eye. “I meant we can’t do this at all.”

Lily felt as though the overcast sky had opened up upon her. “Because of our agreement? Adam, I thought I made it clear that I was seducing you. This is my choice.”

“It isn’t my choice.”

As Lily gasped for the breath to answer, he strode stiffly away, leaving her to find her own way home. He didn’t look back.

She curled her fists against the torrent of conflicting emotions. That rotter.

…

Adam lingered as he slid the shawl off of Lily’s shoulders. Her breath quickened, a counterpoint to her stiffening shoulders. She hadn’t spoken to him since he’d left her in Hyde Park more than a week ago. If his name hadn’t been etched into the invitation to tonight’s dinner party, she would have attended without him.

She needed him.

Or, perhaps more accurately, he needed her.

Her passionate kiss, the feel of her body against his, drove him mad. Day after day, he struggled with what would become of him once this endeavor reached its inevitable conclusion. At best, he would have to leave London again to avoid Chatterley’s blackmail. And Lily… She’d already made it clear that she wouldn’t consider leaving the city.

Chatterley held Adam’s life in his hands and had already proven that he cared so little about Lily that he would use her however he saw fit. Tonight, they took one step closer to accomplishing Chatterley’s goal, and Adam had yet to wiggle out from under his thumb.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to find any skeletons in the man’s cupboard darker than this planned heist. If he could have, Adam would have turned the clock back four years and never bamboozled the Chatterleys out of their money. Not out of regret for the act—a man who used others as the senior Mr. Chatterley had, as if it were his due, had no business profiting from their labor. But it would have saved him and Lily a world of pain.

Or would it have? Chatterley had never approved of Adam’s pursuit of Lily. Perhaps he would have made trouble for them either way.

In this case, Adam’s predicament was of his own making. But even if it caused her to push him away, putting a stop to their interlude had been the right thing to do. When he inevitably had to leave her, she would thank him. Or, at the very least, not curse his name as loudly. Stopping their kiss had been the most difficult thing he’d ever done.

And yet, what had it earned him? He might as well have been a fixture on the wall, for all the attention she paid him. She gave a saucier smile to the footman.

“Thank you, Geoffrey,” she said as the man whisked away her shawl and Adam’s hat.

“You’re most welcome, Mrs. Darling. And this would be?”

“My husband. Mr. Darling.”

Nodding, the man turned away to stash their garments and lead them down the corridor. Lily lowered her voice, but not enough to shield it from prying ears.

“If you can call him my husband when he refuses to warm my bed.”

Adam gritted his teeth to keep from groaning. “You’re angry with me.”

She rounded on him, eyes snapping. “What gave you that impression?”

“It certainly wasn’t the passion in your kiss.”

Her cheeks flushed hot and she turned away again, refusing to meet his gaze. His triumph was sour as he led her down the corridor by the arm. She didn’t look at him. What thoughts did she hide behind that placid expression?

He pulled her to a stop, letting the footman step out of earshot. When they were alone, he leaned closer and whispered into her ear, “I liked our kiss very much.”

Her lips parted, her exhale teasing his cheek. Her eyes were dark, unfathomable. Her chest swelled with a breath as she visibly donned her armor, shutting him out.

“Tell me again why we aren’t finishing it tonight?”

The footman, who had turned back to collect them, paused on his periphery with a raised eyebrow. No doubt the buffoon thought she was talking about him taking her to bed again. It would have been a far more congenial topic, if a tad uncouth to be discussing in another man’s house.

“We’re here to enjoy ourselves,” he reminded her, emphasizing his words. “You wished to see Granby’s collection.”

In other words, they had to complete their research. Tonight was about one thing only—ensuring that the armband that Chatterley had described and drawn for them was in fact in Lord Granby’s possession. They weren’t prepared to take it. Once they confirmed its existence, they could take the next step of their plan.

He offered his arm to her again. “Shall we, darling?”

Lily slipped her hand onto his arm without looking at him. He took a steadying breath, preparing himself for an agonizing evening.

…

Despite the fact that she derived her rank from his, as husband and wife, Lily and Adam were placed apart at the dinner table. To Lily, the arrangement was ideal. However, the longer Adam smiled and charmed the women on either side of him, the more her mood soured.

How dare he join her this evening, pretending they were a happily married couple when mere days ago he had walked away from her yet again? Ever since he had barged back into her life, he had made it clear with heated looks and teasing touches that he still desired her. Yet when she had offered him the relief they both wanted, he had pushed her away.

After the way he’d hurt her, she should have walked away from him. Had all that flirtation been for no more than to enter into her good graces? If so, to what end? Perhaps his attraction to her had been as pretend as the persona he showed the rest of the world.

It didn’t matter. Unless she intended to go through the scandal of a divorce or the headache of an annulment, their marriage was for life. He could find her the most revolting woman in the world and he had no choice but to keep her company. As did she. Particularly because their ruse demanded it.

As dinner concluded, the hostess stood with a winsome smile. “Ladies, let’s leave the men to their cigars and port. Come with me and we’ll retire to the drawing room for a sip of sherry.”

What if Lord Granby paraded his collection while Lily was away? This wasn’t the first time tonight that she’d been overlooked in favor of her husband. She had been placed higher up the table, yet Adam seemed to be the person upon whom everyone’s attention and goodwill was bestowed.

How had she thought she could do this on her own?

Miss Granby appeared to be faring no better. After following Lily’s advice to the letter, she had worn a dress that emphasized her bosom and spent the evening curling her hair around her finger and batting her eyelashes at a stoic young man whom Lord Granby had introduced as Mr. Peabody, his assistant. The gentleman in question had not appeared to notice her blatant efforts, but everyone else at the table had.

Lily did not look forward to being trapped in a room with her and a table full of tittering gossips. Particularly not if they intended to simper and inform Lily of how lucky she was to have caught a man like Adam. The notion turned her stomach.

Nevertheless, she had to stand. She did so stiffly and followed the hostess. The moment she reached the corridor, she made her excuses and found a different sitting room. The hearth was cold, the summer air drifting in from open windows. The whisper of a breeze carried the gentle fragrance of the garden. Lily crossed to the window, leaning her hands against it and breathing in the summer air as she strived for equanimity.

“You aren’t playing the part.”

Adam. She rounded on him. “And you’re playing it too damned well.”

He hesitated in the threshold of the room, sneaking a glance down the corridor before he joined her. A candle on the mantel lit the expanse in a cheery orange glow, but the light didn’t lift her spirits. With him so close, she balled her fists, stifling the urge to pound them against his chest, to make him see reason. To punish him for rejecting her the moment she realized she still craved him in her life.

He approached cautiously. “Lily, stop this nonsense.”

“No. You should have to answer for your crimes.”

He caught her arm before she knew she intended to raise it. Holding it aloft between them, he forced her fingers open and placed her palm on his heart. The strong beat beneath the cloth of his jacket and waistcoat steadied her.

It shouldn’t. She shouldn’t rely on him for anything.

“I’m paying,” he said softly. “Your hatred, your enmity is my penance. But if you let your anger control you tonight, you’ll butcher this. You only have to last a little while longer.”

She cocked an eyebrow, shielding her fragile heart behind sarcasm. “I only have to pretend to be your lawfully wedded wife for a while longer?”

Expressions flickered across his face, the emotions too quick and fleeting to name. He pulled her closer against him, rough. The feel of his hips against hers, her breasts against his chest, stole her breath. And when he kissed her, she went weak in the knees.

This was not a man who thought her revolting. This was a man determined to prove something to her. But what that something was, she couldn’t tell, not with her head spinning.

When she started to melt against him, she fought free. She stumbled back, pressing her hand to her tingling mouth. Other places tingled, other places craving his hands and lips and tongue. She swallowed hard, trying to gather herself. “You don’t have the right to kiss me.”

He groaned, looking heavenward as if for guidance. “Lily, I don’t know what you want from me…”

They both silenced as footsteps neared. He stepped forward, shielding her from view with his body.

“Mr. Darling?”

He turned at Lord Granby’s voice. Defiant, Lily stepped around him, determined to be seen for once this evening. To her consternation, he barely appeared to notice her in Adam’s shadow.

“I just sent for a footman to bring my collection to the dining room for everyone to see.”

The dining room? Lily’s stomach curdled. “What of the women?”

The old lord flapped his hand. “Oh, they would have no interest in these old trifles.”

Was he barring her from the room as well? “I think you underestimate your guests, my lord. Your daughter, for one, would certainly find this interesting.”

Lord Granby chuffed. “Matilda can examine them any time she pleases. They’re hardly novelties for her. I assure you, she would rather entertain herself with the rest of the guests.”

Did he know his daughter so little? Lily had spent no more than an afternoon with her and felt better acquainted.

“But you might find this of interest, Mrs. Darling. Would you care to join us?”

The lone woman in a room full of men? Lily raised her chin. “It would be my pleasure.”

When she stepped past Adam, he dropped his hand to the small of her back, staking a claim on her that she felt to the soles of her feet. Pressing her lips together, she attempted to ignore the warmth blooming from his touch. She didn’t understand him. She shouldn’t want him, but the simple touch of his palm unraveled her in ways she dared not communicate.

In the corridor, Lord Granby hailed the same liveried footman who had opened the door. “Geoffrey, good! Did you bring everything?”

The footman obediently opened the lid of the case he was holding to display the contents inside, each reverently tucked between pillows of dark velvet. In the right-hand corner nestled a golden armband etched with sigils and dotted with jewels, including an enormous scarab beetle in lapis lazuli in the center. Lord Granby still possessed the artifact, after all.

“Brilliant,” Lord Granby said as the footman snapped the lid closed. “Let’s not keep the guests waiting. Shall we?”