“My lady, would you like to experience some of what the
Society has to offer?”
Anthony jerked his head around and scowled when he saw Lord
Conyngham bowing to Miss Stuart. He had gotten close without Anthony even
realizing. The rake was well known among tonnish circles, sometimes
skating close to the line but never stepping a toe over it. While he was happy
to take lovers among the most scandalous ladies of the ton, he never,
ever touched a debutante or cause a lady’s ruin. Discretion was his byword.
If he’d known Miss Stuart was a debutante, he would have
never approached her, but Anthony could hardly inform him of the fact, despite
the jealousy now ripping through him. If Miss Stuart attempted to go off with
the cad, instead of staying by Anthony’s side…
Suffice to say, she had better not.
“Thank you, monsieur, but Captain Browne is taking
care of me admirably,” Miss Stuart replied throatily. Behind her mask, Anthony
could see her green eyes dancing with amusement.
“I can see that he is an adequate escort, but when it comes
to actually experience everything the Society has to offer, he seems woefully
behind.” Conyngham’s grin grew when Anthony scowled at him.
“She said she’s fine,” he snapped, his arm muscle
tightening and pulling Miss Stuart closer to him. It did not feel like enough,
not with Conyngham eying her up and down like he was considering a dive into
her exposed cleavage, and Anthony pulled loose his arm so he could wrap it
possessively around her.
“We could always share,” Conyngham suggested devilishly. He
looked meaningfully at Miss Stuart. “Have you ever-“
“Mine.” Anthony growled the word and swung her away from
Conyngham, whose quiet laughter followed them down the hall as he directed her
to the next room.
“Did you just try to claim me?” It was impossible to
tell from Miss Stuart’s tone of voice how she felt about that.
Yes, he had.
No he did not want to talk about it.
“It is the only thing men like him understand,” Anthony
said shortly. Which was doing Conyngham a disservice – he understood and
respected the meaning of the word ‘no’ but he also enjoyed needling his
contemporaries. Anthony cleared his throat. “That is to say…”
He groped for the correct words to negate his slander of
Conyngham’s character while still protecting himself from exposing his own
feelings.
“Oh, I believe I know what you meant to say.” Miss Stuart
smiled serenely, giving Anthony the very uncomfortable feeling that she did
know what he meant to say. Tugging his arm slightly, she pulled him toward one
of the doors coming up. “Let us check in here.”
The room was empty when she opened it, as sometimes
happened at Society events. Not every room was in use all the time. Anthony
sighed, and then startled when she pulled him into the room anyway.
“Wha-?”
The door kicked shut behind them and grabbed his lapels,
pulling him in for a kiss.
Duty warred with desire and the latter won out.
They had already spoken with quite a few members of the
Society and heard the same refrain over and over again. Besides which, there
were three others also investigating. If Miss Stuart wanted an illicit
rendezvous with him…
Wrapping his arms around her, Anthony pulled her solidly
against him, taking over the kiss with fervor. Miss Stuart moaned against his
lips, squirming in his arms as his cock hardened.
Pressing her up against the door, he felt around for the
lock… and found the door was lacking one.
Anthony tore his mouth away from hers to check. His eyes
scanned up and down, searching for what he already knew was not there.
“No lock,” he said, as Miss Stuart turned her head to see what he was looking at. She cursed low under her breath. “Never mind. We will stay up against the door.”
*******
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