Page 5 of The Rake Desires the Diamond

Her eyes opened. She gasped and sat up.

“You fell asleep while waiting for me,” he said.

She blanched and crossed her arms over her chest. Really, after inviting him to lick every inch of her body, she was going to play coy? It was late, and he may be libidinous, but he did not force himself on women. If she’d changed her mind, so be it. ’Twas her prerogative. However, he wasn’t used to women propositioning him, then feigning shyness.

“I want to make sure you are safely returned to Yardley Manor,” he said. “Let me walk you to the edge of the gardens.”

He could hide behind a tree and watch until she was inside the house. He’d passed by Lord Greyson to reach her. No woman was safe around that shite-sack and his infamous schemes. And he wasn’t just a gossiping blackmailer; apparently, he had no problem with impregnating a woman, then abandoning her to the streets.

He looped an arm around her waist and lifted her onto her feet. Rose-scented perfume? But she’d smelled of vanilla earlier.

Huh! Evan knew women, and this was not the same chit who’d cornered him in the alcove. They looked so similar. Perhaps sisters? Whatever in the devil they were up to, he’d play along. Perchance a trio? Let the games begin. His first move would be quite bold and daring.

He clasped her around the waist and pulled her close.

Chapter three

June 27th, 1818

Kat should have guessed that Beth’s mystery rendezvous was with the well-built man in green. Not only did he have the physique of a Roman warrior and a wicked grin that landed in a woman’s core, but he also smelled of citrus and mint. And currently, he clutched Kat close to his hard, warm body.

What type of rake didn’t know he held the wrong woman? She would push him away and tell him what a reprobate he was as soon as she finished inhaling his alluring, fresh scent.

“So you could not resist me, Luv?” he said, his voice a seductive drawl that made her want to punch him in the patrician nosepropping up his mask.

It also made her want to rest her ear against his lips and listen to him whisper sweet sentiments. However, that was ridiculous wantonness and a product of her recent dream about kissing Alexander.

“Were you dreaming of me, Luv?” he asked.

What the dickens? What a presumptuous, pompous rogue

“Nay, I was dreaming about…” She whimpered and clamped her lips together. How did he know she’d been dreaming of kisses?

His chuckle slapped her in the heart, then tickled its way to her fingertips, which were currently pressed against his muscular chest. She’d intended to push him away but was instead glued to him.

Good heavens. The intoxicating sea air must make one prurient. Unless someone had slipped some type of herbal elixir into her punch. For what else could be making her behave this way? She needed to pull herself together.

“Unhand me,” she demanded.

He peered down at her fingers pressed against him and chuckled. “You first.”

“Bah.”

She reluctantly ripped her hands from him and then stared down at his. Masculine tendons and thick veins protruded from the long fingers cinching her waist. She swallowed.

Instead of letting go, he pulled her closer, squeezing a breathy gasp from her lungs. His lips cupped her ear. “Do you remember the things you whispered in my ear outside the ballroom? For I do. Every last libidinous utterance.”

Kat would strangle her cousin the next time she saw her. She opened her mouth to tell him that he had the wrong woman. But for some inexplicable reason, curiosity got the better of her. “Remind me. What did I say?”

His chuckle was filled with wicked intent. “Do you mean the part where you—” his lip brushed her ear, and his voice deepened “—asked me to suckle at your luscious breasts?”

She gasped as her nipples tingled. Actually tingled! What the blazes?

“Or, are you referencing”—their masks scraped as he nuzzled her nose—“the part where you asked me to drink from between your thighs?”

Did that mean what she thought? The tingles shot from her nipples to her most intimate area, as her cheeks heated at the indecent suggestion.

She needed to end the farce, but then she would have to admit she’d allowed it to get this far. Why hadn’t she just told him the second she’d awoken that she was there to relay a message? Never mind that. If she could rewind the clock, she’d never have come in the first place.