Rupert handed his hat and cane to the butler before striding into the small, intimate parlour in which the two ladies had chosen to sit and converse. ‘Your servant, ma’am.’ He bent solicitously over the hand the Duchess of Woollerton extended to him. ‘And Pandora,’ he added deliberately as he turned to look down the length of his nose at her.
Pandora gave herself a mental shake as she saw the unmistakable mockery in Rupert’s amused yet challenging grey eyes. If he thought to disconcert her—even though he obviously had—then she had no intention of adding to his air of triumph by continuing to be so discombobulated! ‘Rupert,’ she greeted him coolly. ‘What brings you here on such a beautiful spring afternoon?’ She was perfectly capable of issuing challenges of her own, if that was how it was to be between them.
‘Why, you do, of course, my dear Pandora,’ he drawled. ‘My apologies if that seems … less than polite to you, your Grace.’ He turned to smile charmingly at Genevieve.
‘No offence taken, I assure you, Stratton,’ she said drily. ‘Would you care to join us for tea?’
‘Not today, if you do not mind. I had thought to take Pandora for a carriage ride before the hour grows too late.’
Pandora’s back stiffened. ‘I have my own carriage outside—’
‘I took the liberty of speaking with your groom before coming in and assured him that he could leave as you would be travelling home in my carriage with me.’
She drew in a sharp, indignant breath. ‘You had absolutely no right—’
‘I have every right.’
‘Would it be better if I left the two of you alone so that you might settle this matter in private?’ Genevieve suggested as she obviously saw the mutinous expression on Pandora’s hot, flushed face.
‘No!’
‘Yes.’
Pandora glared across at him for his contradictory statement, becoming even more incensed by that look of hurt innocence he had affected in his expression. Hah! She didn’t believe this particular gentleman possessed even an ounce of innocence! ‘We really cannot ask Genevieve to leave her own parlour.’
‘I’m more than happy to do so, Pandora,’ that lady assured her.
Pandora sent her friend a reproving frown. ‘Perhaps it would be best for all concerned if his Grace and I were to leave you to the comfort of your own parlour and finish this … discussion in his carriage back to my home, since he has chosen to dismiss my own?’ A carriage which they would be sharing alone, Pandora having decided earlier not to bring Henley, as she was only visiting Genevieve.
‘An excellent idea,’ ‘his Grace’ said without apology for his actions, despite her obvious accusation. ‘It has been a pleasure, your Grace,’ he said to Genevieve.
‘Indeed it has,’ she returned lightly.
‘You may be assured I shall see Pandora safely returned to her own residence.’ He smiled that charming smile—a smile which she could, at that moment, quite cheerfully have slapped off his handsome face! Which, considering she had never before been a person who felt driven to violence, showed just how frustrating and annoying she found his unmitigated arrogance.
‘Oh, do stop glowering, Pandora!’ Rupert shot her an impatient glance minutes later as they once again sat opposite each other in the comfort of his carriage. ‘But as you’re already cross with me, I may as well also tell you that in your absence this afternoon I’ve had the locks changed at Highbury House.’ He took the opportunity of Pandora’s brief, incredulous silence to admire how much the colour of the gown and pretty bonnet she was wearing today both suited her so well and were an exact match in colour for those fine violet-coloured eyes—
Violet-coloured eyes, which were currently shooting sparks of flame in his direction! ‘You-have-had-the-locks-changed-on-my-home?’ she snapped.
He gave a haughty nod. ‘Whoever entered your home last night did not break in—’
‘You have no way of knowing that!’
‘I know that no windows were broken, no locks smashed, which would seem to imply—’ ‘Whatever you wish it to imply!’ she interrupted, clenching her fists in sheer frustration. ‘You truly are arrogance personified! The single most—’ The rest of her obviously intended diatribe was cut off as Rupert, already tired and irritated from the hours he’d spent chasing this woman around today, swiftly removed the distance that separated them by taking her firmly in his arms and placing his mouth against the alluring softness of hers.
Pandora was so shocked by the suddenness of having him kiss her that, for several stunned moments, she could do no more than remain acquiescent in his arms as those chiselled lips moved confidently over hers. Pleasurably. Seductively.
Sensations which she surely could not allow to continue, but at the same time knew she had no strength to stop!
It seemed almost as if the hours in between Rupert kissing her finger better in that frankly erotic and sensual way, and his kissing her masterfully on the lips now, had never been. As if the passion that now flared so suddenly between them was inevitable. Irresistible.
Pandora tilted her head slightly to better appreciate the feel of that mouth against her own as Rupert now sipped and tasted her lips at his leisure. Her arms moved up slowly until her gloved fingers were able to grasp the broadness of his muscled shoulders beneath his superfine, her breasts—sensitive with that now-familiar tingling—crushed against the hardness of his chest as his arms tightened about her waist and drew her even closer, the very air about them seeming charged with sexual tension.
Pandora gasped slightly as she felt one of Rupert’s hands cup beneath the swell of her breast, that gasp becoming a groan as he ran the soft pad of his thumb lightly against the swollen and sensitive tip, and causing the pleasure to course hotly through her veins and the swollen folds between her thighs to dampen.
She forgot everything but that pleasure as Rupert now took advantage of her parted lips to run the smoothness of his tongue over them, before entering her mouth. His marauding tongue sought out every sensitive dip and heated hollow, claiming her, possessing her, all the while his hand continued to caress her breast. His fingers felt deliciously cool against her heated flesh as they now touched the bare swell of flesh above her gown, before he pushed that soft material aside and cupped the fullness of her bared breast in his hand, gently squeezing, kneading, before his long fingers laid claim to the pouting tip.
Pandora had never known such pleasure as that which completely engulfed her as Rupert continued that sensual assault upon the sensitive tip of her bared breast, those skilful fingers alternately pinching and then stroking the engorged nipple at the same time as his tongue plunged rhythmically into the heated cavern of her mouth. To her wicked delight, that secret place between her thighs began pulsing with the same hot demanding rhythm.
What would have happened next Pandora had no idea, but the discreet clearing of a throat outside the coach brought her back to at least some of her senses before the words spoken by Rupert’s groom penetrated the fog that now seemed to have engulfed her brain. ‘We are arrived at the Duchess’s home, your Grace.’
Pandora pulled away and looked up at Rupert with wide, stricken eyes, quickly noting the silver glitter of his own eyes as he looked back at her, and the slight flush to his cheeks, the curve of his lips seeming fuller, more sensual than ever.
She shook her head in an effort to clear her befuddled and fogged brain, trying to remember why she had known that allowing this to happen would be a bad idea. A very bad idea.
Ah. Yes, she had it now. ‘The answer is no, Stratton!’ she snapped crisply even as she pulled completely