Page 170 of A Perilous Passion

“It was a terrible shock,” she said. “A few years before his death, I accidentally discovered what he was doing. He was absolutely furious and forbade me from ever mentioning it again. But when he took ill, he told me how he was going to help put his former associates behind bars in return for a full pardon. He said he was doing it for me and Mama.”

“Did Jessop know?”

“Of course not!”

“Wasn’t that a bit deceitful? You were planning to marry the boy.”

That blow hit home. “I thought about it all the time. I just never found the right moment. Our stolen moments together were too brief, too precious. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I was going to tell him in the coach going up to Gretna Green, while he still had time to change his mind.”

“Of course I believe that,” Rafe said, his tone sarcastic.

He was too cruel. Pain sliced through her body like a sword. “I thought this was supposed to be an interrogation, not character assassination. I was going to tell him.”

“As you never even made it that far, I take it he still doesn’t know?”

“No. And I’ll thank you not to say anything.”

He narrowed his eyes. “When you see him again, you must enlighten him.”

Rafe was never going to understand her situation. Or stop lecturing her. She needed to escape him—now.

The rest of her confession tumbled out in a flurry. “The night of his murder, Mama and I had to escape in the middle of the night, taking only what we could carry. I had to leave my pets behind, my friends, even my name. The pardon didn’t come in time, so we had no protection from either the law or my father’s betrayed associates. But I expect you already know that.”

He let out a breath and pulled her closer, lowering his head until his forehead rested against hers. “Thank you for finally telling me the truth,” he said. “But what am I to do with you? You’re quite simply the most deceitful, willful, infuriating person I’ve ever met.”

His fingers gentled on her shoulders, his mouth so close his breath feathered across her chin.

Damn him! “And you are the most arrogant, selfish, odious man it’s ever been my misfortune to meet. I despair of ever making you understand—”

The flick of his tongue across the seam of her lips cut her off mid-sentence.

“Understand what?” he murmured, nudging her face up to his.

What was he doing? Did he intend to kiss her? The prospect of being thrown into a cell retreated.

“Understand what it feels like to be wrenched away from everything you know,” she said, “and be forced to live a lie, in fear of being arrested, or killed.”

“You’re wrong. I do understand. I just needed to hear it from your own lips. You must realize what a difficult position this puts me in. I don’t know if I can trust you. I don’t know if I can trust…this.”

His lips pressed against hers, and her body quivered as his tongue sought entry to her mouth. It didn’t occur to her to resist—he was giving her what she wanted. What she longed for.

But he held command of the situation. Her body was in total thrall to his, and while her mind cried out that he didn’t deserve her, or her trust, the rest of her body was sending a completely different message.

“I thought I wasn’t allowed to kiss you,” she said when he paused for a breath.

“Don’t quibble. In fact, don’t talk at all.”

He kissed her again, robbing her of all words, of all thought. His anger, or perhaps his jealousy over Justin, had given an edge to his appetite. As he plundered her mouth with increasing hunger, she sensed he was poised on a knife edge of control. It would take very little to send him over and make him forget himself.

Which meant she had some power, too.

So, she dived wholeheartedly into the sinful temptation of his kiss. He always unlocked something inside her, something wild and wonderful, a creature of passion, and wanton, glorious freedom. It had never, ever felt like this with Justin—he’d never aroused, or slaked, her desire like this.

Rafe was the only man who could. She and he were two parts of the same being, meeting and responding at the very deepest level. He completed her—or would do, if she let him.

With a groan, he tore himself away and held her at arm’s length. When she reached for him again, he let out an oath and stepped free.

“No. We can’t do this. We mustn’t do this. Not here, not now, not ever. There’s too much at stake, for both of us. If you care for me at all, run home, go straight to your door and don’t stop. I’ll keep watch until you’re inside. Don’t look back; forget I’m here. In fact, forget I exist altogether. Believe me, it’s for the best.”