Page 62 of An Inconvenient Duke

“The hell you will.”

She dropped her foot to the floor and faced him. The hardness of his expression stunned her.

“I will not let you put yourself into danger again.”

“I won’t be.” The stone-cold look on his face must have terrified new recruits in the field. Butnother. She smiled to reassure him. “I won’t do anything more than talk.”

“Like how you talked to her tonight?” He raked his hands through his hair, although she suspected that he did it to keep himself from shaking her. “For God’s sake, Danielle! Someone tried to kill you.” When she began to argue, he cut her off. “They’ve made the connection between you, Elise, and the women at the brothels.”

Her blood turned cold.

“Anyone who was there tonight, who had a part in Elise’s death, might have realized you were digging for answers. Perhaps the same men who broke into Charlton Place. Surely they saw the same panic on Lady Hartsham’s face that you saw.” His expression turned grim as he stroked his knuckles across her cheek. “Or they saw yours when you looked at me.”

For once, there was no comfort in his touch. “But why? I don’t know anything for certain.”

“They won’t wait to take the chance that you will.” Worry and grief warred on his brow as he stared a hard warning into her eyes. “They’ll silence you the same way they silenced Elise.”

She swallowed, hard. The sickening sensation returned to the pit of her stomach.

He took her shoulders in his hands. “I care about you, Danielle.” He hesitated, as if he were going to add something more, but then changed his mind with a faint shake of his head. “I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt.”

His soft concern spun through her on a churning wave of confusion and joy. Marcus cared about her, and more than simply because they’d been intimate tonight. A man like him knew how to separate his emotions from such intimacies, even if she found doing so to be simply impossible.

He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “Promise me that you won’t go anywhere near Hartsham.”

She shook her head against his shoulder. “Only if you make me the same promise.”

“I promise that we’ll go after Hartsham together.”

He punctuated that dodge with a kiss that grew in heat and intention until she sagged against him. She should have demanded more, made him pledge his word on his honor as an officer and gentleman—

But at that moment, when she had no idea where fate and the future would take them, she was happy simply to be in his arms. More than happy. Arousal began to quiver faintly inside her, and she couldn’t resist placing a kiss to his neck. Then another against his bare shoulder. The hard muscle flexed deliciously beneath her lips. Then lower…

His hand drifted up her back and unfastened the tiny buttons. One by one as she continued to feather kisses across his chest, the buttons slipped free until her bodice hung loose over her bosom.

She slid her mouth away from his and eyed him teasingly with suspicion. “What are you doing?”

Nudging the strap of her chemise out of the way, he placed openmouthed kisses along her bared shoulder. “Right now, kissing you.”

She shivered at the heated promise in his husky voice, that he planned on doing a lot more than just that. “So you watched me dress this entire time—helped me with the laces and buttons, in fact—only to undress me again.” Her breath hitched when his hand slid beneath her bodice to cover her breast. “Why?”

He lifted his head from her neck and stared down at her as if she were a bedlamite. “If you’re going to answer your own question, there’s no point in asking it.”

She bit back a happy laugh as his fingers at her neckline tugged down her corset and chemise, once again stretching out the neckline.

“But to answer you, I’m checking your stockings. A man needs to keep a close eye on his investments.” He placed a kiss to the top of her breast and murmured rakishly against her flesh, “Averyclose eye.”

“But my stockings aren’t—” She gasped as he slipped his hand inside her corset. “There.”

“Oh?” He caressed her nipple, rubbing it until it drew up taut and aching beneath his fingers and stirred the same aching between her legs. “Then perhaps you should show me where to find them.”

She murmured wantonly, “Lower…”

With a devilish grin against her breast, he complied and lowered his hand down her front to caress her between the legs. “Here?”

She closed her eyes and gave over to his touch with a soft moan. “Close enough.”

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