temper was high and in need of release.”
“Are you enamored with me?” she teased, hiding the strength of her anticipation for his answer.
“I expect the promises made to me to be kept.” The warning was clear.
“You made a like promise to me.”
“I kept mine,” he murmured. “Can you say the same?”
Maria leaned back to look up at him. “What sexual feat can I perform in this condition?”
“A touch, a kiss.” He stared down at her with glittering eyes. “A suggestive glance would be too much.”
Maria considered him a moment, carefully taking stock of her reactions to this man. She wasn’t quite certain why he appealed to her so strongly. As much as there was to like about him, there was even more to be wary of. “You kissed a woman.”
“It was worth it to see your reaction.”
A soft laugh escaped her, a sound both wry and derisive. A heartbeat later he joined her, the rumble of his merriment a joy to hear.
“We are an unfortunate pairing,” he said.
“Yes. If we had the option, I would suggest we stay far away from one another.”
Christopher’s hand stroked down her back. “The woman you saw was Angelica. Quinn knows her quite well.”
“Ah.” Maria nodded.
“Quinn occupies the room next to yours. If his position in your household is so important,” he asked gruffly, cupping her chin and forcing her to once again meet his gaze, “why is he not at your side?”
“You should not care about Simon or Eddington. I should not care about Angelica. What we do when we are apart should be of no consequence to any business between us.”
His lips firmed. “I agree that is the way it should be. But that is not the way it is.”
“It was sex between you and me. If we indulge again, it would remain nothing more than sex.”
“Very good sex,” he corrected.
“Did you think so?” She studied what she could see of his features in the darkness.
He smiled and her breath caught. “I knew it before the fact.” His fingers drifted across her lips. “You need to heal so we can resume our bedsport. In the meantime, tell me. What did Welton want of you that forced you to go out in this condition, rather than recuperating as you should be?”
“Why did Sedgewick approach me as if he knew me and assume that you were my escort?”
They stared at each other in silence, neither willing to make an admission. Finally, she sighed and snuggled tighter against him. How she missed the feel of a man in her bed, the comfort of a strong embrace and the warmth imparted by a handsome man’s desire. Somehow the things left unsaid brought her closer to Christopher. There was no denying that they were impossibly alike.
“My brother was an agent,” he said suddenly, his breath blowing warmly into the hair at her crown.
Staring out the window at the starry night, Maria blinked and held her breath, wondering why he would reveal such a thing to her.
“He learned information,” he continued, his voice devoid of emotion, “and shared it with me. You see, he needed funds quite desperately and I acquired them the only way I could.”
“Illegally.” Suddenly, the occasional sightings of goodness she had witnessed in him became explainable. She, too, functioned outside of the law for the welfare of a sibling.
“Yes. When he learned of my activities, he was furious. It did not sit well with him that he benefited at the risk of my neck.”
“Of course not.”
“So he came to London to assist me, which spared me many times. I was always aware of traps before they were sprung.”
“Dastardly,” she whispered, her hand running down his side. “And quite brilliant.”
“We thought so. Until his actions were discovered.”
“Oh.”
“Our cooperation was then extorted using my brother’s safety as leverage. It was messy, and in the end, deadly. Nigel wanted to save me and he did, but it cost us his life.”
“I am sorry.” She pressed a kiss to his chest, her lips clinging to his skin. How well she knew what it was like to lose a sibling. At least she had a chance of recovering Amelia. Christopher’s brother was lost forever. “I trust you were close to one another?”
“I loved him.”
The simple statement rocked her to the core. The words detracted not at all from his seeming invincibility. They were imparted with such strength that the admission could never be construed as a vulnerability. “Is that your grievance against the agency?”
“In part. There is more.”
“You tell me this to gain my sympathy and my assistance?”
“Partly. And partly because if we cannot discuss the present, that leaves us with only our pasts.”
Maria closed her eyes, her equilibrium unbalanced by the laudanum and Christopher, whom she could not understand. “Why discuss anything? Why not leave it with sex and the bare minimum required to achieve your ends?”
She felt the impact of his head falling back into the pillows. The action was rife with frustration.
“I find myself in bed with an invalid, a woman I cannot trust in any fashion. If I sit here in silence, I shall go mad attempting to reason out why I am here and not elsewhere. Since fucking is out of the question, another activity is required to distract me.”
“Is that all I need to do to extract information from you? Deny you my body? Then you will spout secrets to entertain yourself?”
He growled low, and she shivered. Not with fear, but with a tiny flare of desire. The man had no notion of what to do with her or with himself while he was around her. Since she knew exactly how he felt, she sympathized.
“I loved Dayton,” she offered, her tone so low it was scarcely more than a breath.
Christopher’s large frame stilled beneath her.
“He was a good man, and I made every attempt to be good to him in return. I was so young and untried, and he was accomplished and worldly. He made it possible for me to survive. And I repaid him by costing him his life.” Although she tried to hide it, there was an aching note of loss in her words.
“Maria.” His hand slid into her hair and cupped the back of her head. He said no more than that, but he didn’t have to.
She’d shared very little, but Maria felt as if she had revealed her deepest self. It was not a feeling she welcomed. As if he knew her turmoil, Christopher adjusted her so that her face tilted up to his, enabling him to take her mouth.
It started with a soft swipe of his tongue along the curve of her lower lip. Then a press of his lips, so different from Simon’s-thinner, firmer, more demanding. His head tilted and he fit his mouth over hers, stealing her breath, making it his own. Even as she struggled with the change, she understood it. Physical interaction was something they both felt comfortable with.
She opened to him, their movements controlled and leisurely, every touch of their tongues thought out and considered. It was a calculated encounter, one planned and executed with a purpose. This was not foreplay or a prelude. It was the finale.
Then she ruined everything by reaching for his hand and lacing her fingers with his. Their grips tightened, and an edgy sound filled the shared space of their kiss. Whether it was his or hers, she could not tell. Unnerved by the sudden intimacy, she pulled away, turning to hide her face in the space between his shoulder and throat. He breathed harshly in the silence, his chest rising and falling rapidly against hers, which heaved similarly.
Eddington would come tomorrow with the offer to rid her of Welton and thereby give her Amelia. And all she had to promise was Christopher, served up on a silver salver.
She inhaled his scent, her breath still shaky.
“Maria.”
Her name. Spoken hoarsely. He said no more than that, but again, he didn’t have to.
Amelia exited the small manse in her temporary home of Lincolnshire and sucked fresh air deep into her lungs.
