Must Love Dukes (19 page)

The seal and paper she needed were likely in the library. Where was the library? And how was she to get there without being seen?

Perhaps she did require Devon’s assistance with this little endeavor. But it was too late for that. She must press forward now—alone. As she moved with slow steps toward the open door, trying not to catch anyone’s attention, she noticed the maids and footmen moved with efficiency and a sense of order she had never witnessed before. She stood watching them for a moment as they walked with military precision. How odd.

Her eyes darted around the room, taking in her surroundings in an attempt to get her bearings. The entire room was the same shade of taupe. It looked as if everything had been painted with porridge. Every lamp, book, and vase sat squarely on its highly polished table. Every pillow in every chair had been placed at the exact center of the back cushion and fluffed to the same degree. And the fringe on the edge of the rug under her feet looked to have been combed into perfect order.

The clatter of metal on marble sounded from the hallway, jolting her attention back to the open door. She scooted to the far corner during the chaos, watching the activity and waiting for her chance to leave the room unseen. “Erdway!” She breathed the name as she saw the man step into her line of sight.

“Watch your step!” Lord Erdway bellowed at a boy no more than ten years of age.

The boy dropped to his hands and knees, attempting to retrieve the food that was now strewn across the hallway. “Sorry, m’lord. It won’t happen again, m’lord.”

Erdway swelled in his well-tailored coat, his round face growing red. “I know it won’t happen again because you no longer work in this home.” He waved to a footman a few paces away. “Get him out of my sight!”

The boy looked up at Erdway with large eyes. “M’lord, please. Mama is sick and…”

“That is none of my concern!” Erdway flicked a crumb off his sleeve as if it were a poisonous spider. “You should have thought of your dear mother before you decided to dump tea biscuits on my boots!”

“Please, m’lord,” the boy groveled.

“Haul this boy out of my home this instant.” Erdway pointed to someone out of Lillian’s sight, yelling, “You! Dust the crumbs from my Hessians before my guests notice my absence.”

There was a chorus of “Yes, m’lord.” She could hear Erdway growling his discontent.

Lillian held her breath, taking a small step to the side—farther from view. Surely there was another way out of this room. If Lord Erdway saw her sneaking about his home while he was in this state of rage, she wasn’t sure she could defend herself against him. Nathaniel and Devon had been right; the man was pure evil. That poor boy. She tiptoed to the far side of the fireplace, and there she saw a door. Turning the knob with a silent twist, she opened the door and slipped through.

She took a breath, trying to steady her nerves. The room was dim with the curtains closed, yet she could see walls of bookshelves through the darkness. The library! She smiled her relief and hurried over to one of the windows.

The tall ivory curtain on the window overlooked a side lawn where only a few guests lingered. Drawing the curtain, she turned back to the library. She needed to complete her task and be gone from here. She shuddered to think what Erdway would do if he found her here or—even worse—if she failed and ended up married to the man. Spying his desk in the center of the room, perfectly centered with a large window on one side and two chairs marching in precision before a fireplace on the other, she moved toward it.

She tugged on the center drawer only to find it locked. Blast! Carefully sliding all the other drawers open, she sorted through neat stacks of ledgers and spare quills. Where was the seal? What of his spare paper?

Flipping open a box sitting on the corner of the desktop, she found only a stack of cheroots within its depths. What she needed must be in the locked drawer. Where would the key be hidden?

Her hands dipped with frantic grasps into the other drawers, feeling for what would be a rather small key. Sliding the drawers closed, she gave the room a quiet huff. Her eyes slid over the polished desk surface topped with a brown leather blotter. Perhaps the key was under the blotter. She picked up a tidy stack of parchments and made to set them aside.

“There you are!” A deep male voice murmured from across the room.

“Ahh!” The breathless noise escaped her throat as sheets of parchment flew into the air. She looked up, dreading the sight of Erdway’s angry form filling the doorway.

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Devon closing the door at his back and walking toward her. “Devon, what are you doing in here?”

“Helping you.” He grinned, his gaze turning to the parchment now covering the floor at her feet.

“I’m getting along just fine, thank you,” she stated, bending to pick up the mess around her.

“Yes, I can see that.” He chuckled as he stooped to help her pick up the papers littering the floor.

“I had everything well in hand until you scared me out of my wits.” She shot him a narrow-eyed glare before quirking the corner of her mouth in a smirk.

Handing her a messy stack of gathered parchment, he mused, “I always thought thieves had nerves of steel and cat-like reflexes. That doesn’t appear entirely accurate in your case.”

“That is because I’m not a thief,” she said. Honestly, how long was he going to believe the worst of her? She jostled the papers in her hands, trying to shift them into some kind of order.

He chuckled as he straightened the papers. “So what do you call what we’re doing now? Borrowing?”

“Acquiring the tools necessary to live my life in peace.” She lifted her chin and whipped her head around, turning her attention back to the desk before her.

“Procurement of resources, then.” He leaned one hip on the side of the desk and crossed his arms, watching her. “That does make theft sound more official, anyway.” He looked around the room for a moment before his eyes returned to her. “It’s quite clean in here. Have you noticed?”

“Stop talking so loudly. Someone will hear you,” she hissed. “I’m fairly certain thieves are rather quiet in nature.” She tapped the edges of the papers on the desk to realign them into a neat stack. Setting them aside, she lifted the leather blotter, seeing only the highly polished surface of the desk beneath. Frowning, she looked down at the small lock on the drawer.

“You would know better than I, Lily.” He leaned farther over the desk to whisper close to her ear, “My little thief.”

She paused, her gaze turning to his. Had he said “my”? Perhaps she’d imagined it. This, however, was not the time to muse over such things. “We need to find the key to this locked drawer.”

“Ah, that I can assist with.” With one quick movement, he reached up and pulled a pearl-tipped pin from her hair.

She felt his hand brush down the top of her spine just before the knot at the back of her neck began to slide steadily down, her hair cascading down her back. How had he found the one crucial pin that held her entire style in place? She huffed, looking at him as he held up the pin between two fingers. “Why did you do that?”

“For the lock,” he explained. “It’s a skill I acquired over the course of a misspent youth. Although I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed the side effects so much as this.” He stepped toward her to slide one hand through her unbound hair, watching as it fell in ripples over her shoulder.

She could feel heat rising in her cheeks as his fingers drifted through her hair. “Devon,” she tried to warn, but even to her ears it sounded more like an invitation.

His eyes held a dark glimmer of desire as he pulled her close, his lips descending on hers with a soft caress. One of his hands twined into her hair while the other slid down her spine. Her body melted into his as he kissed her again.

She heard the tiny ping of her hairpin hitting the floor. They shouldn’t be doing this, not here. Yet the excitement of their dangerous location and the risk of being caught in Devon’s arms pushed her to slip her arms around his shoulders. Her hands wound around the back of his neck as she deepened their kiss.

Before she knew what was happening, he had lifted her from the ground and deposited her on the desktop. She pulled back from the kiss to read his intentions in his eyes—eyes heavy with wanting. Tugging at the lapels of his coat, she brought his lips down to meet hers once more as he stepped closer into the void between her thighs.

His hand slipped to her hip, holding her to him as he guided her head back to the surface of the desk, leaning over her, devouring her mouth with searing kisses.

She held his shoulders as if he anchored her to a world that had been tipped on its side. Their tongues tangled together in a desperate dance for more. His hips pressed into hers. She arched instinctively into his growing arousal with a whimpering plea.

Cool air met her skin as he pulled her skirts up around her waist, only to be replaced by the warmth of his hand on her knee. She opened to him as his fingers moved steadily up the inside of her thigh, tracing lines of need toward the apex of her legs.

He broke their kiss to trail his lips down her neck, tugging the neckline of her dress down with his teeth. His tongue drew circles around the hardened peak of her breast before catching it between his teeth to tug gently. Her hands tightened on his broad shoulders. Placing a soothing kiss on her breast, he moved to kneel on the floor below her feet. “Are you leaving?” she asked in a raspy whisper, feeling disappointed and alone.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He kept one hand on her hip, holding her still with a gentle grasp as the backs of his knuckles grazed the apex of her thighs. Her head fell back to the desk with a thud.

He caressed her damp heat, gently stroking her until she arched her body into his touch. His tongue descended on her. What was he doing to her? She held the edge of the desk to keep from pulling away. Every flick of his tongue was intoxicating yet maddening. He circled and licked until she whimpered “Devon” into the silence.

The tension was building in her and about to drive her over the edge into insanity. He slowly slid one finger into her depths, then added another before finally sucking on the little bud he had been tormenting for the past few minutes. She released the desk to reach down and slide her hands into his dark hair, holding him close. “Don’t stop,” she breathed.

She felt herself careening out of control as he increased the rhythm of his fingers inside her.

His mouth pulled her, willing her until she flew, shaking, into a million pieces and came to rest in his capable hands.

Lillian released her hold on him to collapse on the desktop and catch her breath. Devon stood from his kneeling position between her legs. He looked at her with heat and awe wrapped in desire visible in his stormy eyes.

She wanted to touch him, to taste him, to pleasure him as he had done her. She sat up, watching Devon as he brushed the tousled hair from her face and slipped his arms around her. She slid off the edge of the desk, holding his waist as she gained her footing for a moment. Then she knelt down on the rug and began to fumble with the buttons of his breeches.

She could hear his surprised intake of breath at the direction she was clearly headed. “Lily, you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.” As she released the last button, he sprang free of the confining fabric of his breeches. She blinked, having forgotten his size.

With a slight smile, she ran her fingers lightly over the length of hot, smooth skin. She could hear his answering groan as his fingers delved into her hair. Just as she slipped her fingers around him, she heard voices in the hallway outside the door.

Pulling free of her grasp, Devon refastened his pants and dropped to the floor at her side. There was a soft creak as the library door swung open.

Devon pulled her lower to the floor and into his embrace. He held her there, hidden in silence behind the desk, as footsteps moved across the room. Above the sound of Devon’s rapid heartbeat, the scrape of something sliding from a bookshelf sounded from nearby before the footsteps retreated.

When she heard the door close, Lillian breathed for the first time in over a minute. She turned her head toward Devon, watching as his gaze dipped to her still exposed breasts. A roguish grin covered his face, creasing the corners of his eyes as his head dipped to place a kiss on the top of each mound before tugging her dress back into place with a defeated sigh.

Picking up her forgotten hairpin from the floor, he held it up as he said, “I suppose we should go ahead and be thieves so we can return to the party before anyone notices we’re missing.”

“It may be too late for that. I left quite a while ago. I wasn’t expecting this
theft
to take so much time.” She smiled at him as he pulled her to her feet.

“My apologies,” he offered.

“No apology is needed.” She blushed and looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry I didn’t…that we couldn’t.”

“Lily.” He ran a hand over her shoulder, pulling her into his arms as he continued, “I enjoyed our time together today and I thank you for it. Now, let’s pick this lock, take what we need, and be gone from this place.”

Lillian nodded against the warm comfort of his shoulder. He released her and set to work on the lock. Only a few moments later, the drawer released and Devon handed her hairpin back to her with an easy smile.

Devon stuffed a sheet of Erdway’s vellum into his jacket pocket and picked up the small ring from the drawer. “Got it,” he exclaimed.

“Oh, good! Now, let’s leave.” Lillian refused to celebrate until they were well away from Erdway’s library. She straightened the desk back to its meticulous state, repinned her hair, and followed Devon to the door. “How are we to leave without being seen?”

Devon smiled. “Leave that to me.”

She watched from a crack in the door as he slipped from the room and crossed the hall, picking up a vase from a table. “Is this French?” The question was directed to a passing maid.

“I’m not sure…” the maid was answering as Devon dropped the vase to the floor with a crash.

Devon shot a quick glance to Lillian as he said, “Oh no. I seem to be all thumbs today.”