Page 73 of The Duke and the Darkness

But Devlin did.

“Your attention, please!” He took Peyton’s arm in his right hand, just in case she decided to bolt, and raised his left to beg their patience so he could explain. “You all know my mother and sisters’ impeccable reputations, although I daresay mine is a bit more tarnished.Onlya bit.” A ripple of laughter went up at that, exactly as he’d hoped. He gestured at Lucien. “As for Crewe…well, the less said the better.”

More laughter scattered across the room at Crewe’s expense.Good.But the men working with Horrender certainly wouldn’t be laughing.

“I can assure you that all of us can confirm the truth of what you’ve just heard,” Devlin continued. “Tonight is no joke, and Miss Chandler is no fraud. As old family friends and business associates of Charles and Eleanor Chandler, the Raines family swears to the veracity of her identity. I promise you, she is whom she claims to be, and all of us support her.”

Peyton smiled gratefully at him, and she mouthed,Thank you.

He gave her arm a quick squeeze. “My family and I urged Miss Chandler to reveal herself to those of us here tonight who were friends and business associates of her mother and father.” And various hangers-on who came uninvited on their coattails. He would have said the more, the merrier, but there was nothing at all amusing about what they were doing. “Miss Chandler and I decided it was only right that you all learned the truth at the same time. Although more information will be forthcoming in the following days, I now ask that you give Miss Chandler the peace and quiet she needs to settle into her home and re-enter London society.”

Crewe stepped forward, taking his cue. “Now, on behalf of Dartmoor and myself—and the overgenerous hospitality of the Duke of Malvern, who has no idea what we have done to his townhouse in his absence—please stay and enjoy your evening.”

Crewe signaled to the army of footmen waiting in the wings to ply the room with trays of fresh drinks, then to the musicians to strike up another song. The master of ceremonies nodded and hurried back downstairs to once more take charge of the evening, as if this were any other society party.

Devlin quickly escorted Peyton away before the curious crowd could rush up the stairs to them and overwhelm her.

“Stay behind and be good hostesses,” he told his mother and sisters, knowing they would be the first line of defense. He ordered Crewe, “Keep everyone happy, especially my family.”

“Of course.” When Crewe protectively moved to the duchess’s side, Devlin knew the Raines women would be in good hands.

He led Peyton down the hall, but instead of taking her back into the sitting room, he opened the door of another unused room. The furniture lay covered by ghostly looking sheets, and the only light came from a slant of moonlight shining through the windows whose shutters hadn’t been latched against the night. Cool, quiet, dark…the room would do fine as a place where she could rest a moment and catch her breath. He closed and locked the door.

“What the hell were you thinking, naming Horrender like that?” Devlin bit out, his anger rising.

“That it was time to seize the moment.” She leaned back against the edge of a square-shaped card table, her relief that the announcement was over visibly washing over her. “Isn’t that what you wanted from me—to let go of the past and embrace the present?”

“Donottwist my words,” he half-growled. “We had agreed to reveal your identity, not make public accusations. What you did was reckless.”

“Why?” She lifted her chin in challenge. “Horrender has already tried to kill me twice, and I’d rather not give him time to improve upon his attempts. Best to force him out into the light.” Her eyes blazed with determination. “This is what we wanted—a confrontation. All I did was speed it along.”

“And if he strikes before we’re ready?”

“Then we best be ready because there is no going back now. There’s only going forward.” This time when her eyes gleamed, it wasn’t only determination that lit their depths. He felt that look curl through him, stirring desire all the way down to the tip of his cock. She murmured temptingly, “Embrace the now.”

Embracemenow.The invitation hung on the dark shadows around them, as real as if she’d actually uttered it aloud. It was all the permission he needed.

Devlin closed the distance between them with a single step and captured her mouth beneath his.

Chapter Nineteen

Peyton caught herbreath at the raw hunger she tasted in Devlin’s kiss, coupled with a fierce need that matched her own. They both knew their time together was growing short and that moments alone like this would prove increasingly rare—if they ever came again. She wasn’t foolish enough to let this opportunity pass by untaken and shamelessly arched against him.

Years from now, when she lived alone in France and reflected on this time when her life changed forever, she would have this moment to sustain her, this one moment of perfection before her life irrevocably changed again. This last moment with the man she loved.

The tip of his tongue traced the seam of her lips in silent cajoling for her to open, and with a soft sigh, she did just that, allowing him inside. His tongue took long, seductive licks that explored the recesses of her mouth and then transformed into insistent and steady thrusts. She suddenly felt so weak that she sagged against the table behind her. The sensation of falling away completely overcame her, stopped only by the solidity of his hard shoulders beneath her hands.

As she closed her lips around his tongue and sucked, a groan rose from the back of his throat. The low sound vibrated into hermouth and sent a delicious thrill spiraling through her, one that landed with an aching thud between her legs.

“Touch me,” she ordered softly and raked her fingers through the silky hair at his nape.

He obliged and swept his large hands up the sides of her body. Heat penetrated her dress and underclothes as if they weren’t even there, and goosebumps shivered across her skin in his wake. When he paused to cup her breasts in his hands, her confining stays kept him from giving her the kinds of touches she craved, so she twisted away from him to reach behind her back in an attempt to unbutton her bodice. But her fingers couldn’t reach the little buttons, and a whimper of frustration escaped her.

“Let me,” he insisted hotly as he moved his mouth away from hers, along her jaw to her ear. The tip of his tongue traced the outer curl as his hands made swift work of unbuttoning her dress. She gasped when his tongue plunged inside her ear with the same swirling motion, for one delicious heartbeat not noticing that he’d pulled loose her bodice and untied her stays until they hung loose between her gown and her shift.

His hands slipped under the back of her gown and slid across the thin cotton of her shift to her breasts, as if nothing at all existed between them and her flesh. He strummed his thumbs over her aching nipples, teasing them into hard little nubs, and she arched her back to bring his hands harder against her.

When he gave her nipples a sharp squeeze between his fingers, Peyton nearly burst out of her skin. “Devlin!”