Page 56 of How to Start a Scandal

Because he was not the only one to have a worst self.

‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘Yes?’ He repeated her answer with a modicum of uncertainty. ‘You’ll allow me to court you? Even...even with what you know of me?’

She nodded, pushing aside her fear for once. After all, it need not even be considered as yet. It was only courting, not marriage.

‘Violet.’ He cupped her face in his hands.

Their eyes locked and the connection they’d shared before immediately snapped together again. His mouth lowered to hers as she closed her eyes in expectation.

His lips were as soft as she remembered, brushing ever so tenderly before fitting against hers. Kissing him again was like the satisfied sigh at the end of a good book, or like a meal when one was starving—it was everything right exactly when it was needed most.

He tilted her head back at a deeper angle and her mouth parted. His tongue swept against hers and prickles of pleasure bloomed over her skin. She touched the tip of her tongue to his.

It was brazen to do so and perhaps spoke of experience she shouldn’t possess for her to exhibit such audacious behaviour. But she could not hold herself back. Not when she wanted to taste him and his sensual, masculine spiciness. Not when she wanted her hands on his body and his on hers. Not when she had spent the rest of the evening after they met consumed with thoughts of this.

Shared breath panted between them as the stroke of her tongue grew bolder and his more aggressive. As if they were both ravenous for the other.

His hands shifted over her back, sliding lower as their kiss deepened until his palms cupped her bottom and pushed her against that wonderful hardness of his arousal. She gasped in pleasure, her knees so weak with longing they nearly gave out.

He nuzzled her chin with his mouth, then her neck, followed by the sensitive place behind her ear. Delicious chills teased down her skin, thrilling her in the most wonderful ways.

‘Violet,’ he moaned into her ear.

Her nipples tingled where they pressed into her stays. That didn’t stop Seth’s hand from curving a path up her body and brushing the nub with his thumb as he’d done the night before.

She whimpered with delight and ran her hands over him, unable to stop. Unwilling to stop. And hoping he’d do likewise.

Her greedy fingers trailed over his chest and the solid muscle beneath his thin shirt. Their kisses had gone beyond passion to something out of their control.

It wasn’t until a clattering carriage drew to a stop behind Seth’s town house that they pulled apart, gasping for breath, eyes wild with lust. A carriage door clicked open and a woman dressed in a black-silk domino and mask stepped out as Seth drew Violet deeper into the shadows.

He pressed a finger to his lips to show she ought to remain quiet as the woman raced quickly through the garden and in through the rear doorway of Dalton Place. Violet turned sharply to Seth.

He had claimed to be different and yet a woman was joining him at his home in disguise.

‘Who was that?’ she demanded.

He shook his head.

Violet smoothed her dress and took a calming breath to still her thoughts. They still spun after going from being kissed senseless to suspecting Seth had a lover attending him at his town house. ‘You don’t know who she is?’

He held out his hands in a helpless gesture and shrugged.

‘Don’t you dare presume I’ll believe she was your mother.’ Violet stiffened as an excuse silently worked over his lips.

‘She wasn’t my mother.’ A muscle ticked at his jaw and Violet sensed the truth was near. He heaved an aggravated sigh. ‘She was my sister.’

‘Lady Caroline?’ Violet blinked in surprise. The dark-haired beauty had remained unwed despite many suitors. And many offers of marriage, if the rumours were to be believed.

Perhaps she had vices that ran too deep for marriage. Gambling. Drink. A darker, more salacious sin?

‘Did you not recognise the attire?’ Seth asked, incredulous.

Violet shook her head and glanced back towards the door Lady Caroline had slipped through as if doing so might recall the image of her more clearly.

‘It’s the same one you wore the other night when returning home at a late hour,’ Seth prompted.