Taken by the Earl (Regency Unlaced 3) (10 page)

“I am a grown woman and capable of making my own decisions.” Her chin rose. “I choose to remain here.”

Sin’s frustration deepened. “Then on your own head be it.”

“I do not think it is my head that is in danger of being fondled.”

“No, it will be your tits, ass, and quim,” he predicted with deliberate crudeness.
 

 
In truth, Fliss would much rather have retired to her bedchamber than take part in any games. But she would not be told what to do by Sin, nor would she allow him to see how disgusted she felt at the idea of having to touch any of the other guests here. Or having their hands on her if she failed to identify them. Which she surely would. She now knew the names of most of the other guests here, but not all, so how could she be expected to name them simply from touching them?

She rose to her feet. “Much as you have done since my arrival?”

He drew himself up straighter. “I take offense at being accused of groping you—”

“Ah, Lord Waverly.” She turned to smile at the other man as he returned with her glass of water. “Thank you.” She took the glass and drank half the liquid down, the disagreeable conversation with Sin having made her mouth dry. “The earl believes we are about to play blindman’s bluff.”

Waverly’s expression brightened. “Oh, jolly good.” He placed an overly familiar arm about her waist as he looked at the other man. “Should be fun, eh, Winterbourne?”

“Oh, great fun.” The earl’s answer was abrupt.
 

Fliss bristled as she saw the look of disgust in Sin’s face at seeing her pressed so tightly against Waverly’s side. In truth, she could barely stop herself from recoiling at being in such close proximity to Samuel Waverly’s flaccid and half-naked body. It seemed especially unpleasant when the last man to hold her this close, namely Sin himself, had a taut, muscular body that made her ache to touch and caress it.

The earl’s surmise that Fliss would be the one chosen by Maria Eckles to have the blindfold placed over her eyes, pitching her into disorientating darkness, proved a correct one. She was then turned around three times, making her feel more than a little dizzy but also totally losing her bearings and any idea of who had stood where in the room, before being set free, hands raised in front of her as she stumbled about the drawing room.

The first person she touched made it all too easy for her to do so, the reason for that becoming clear when he placed one of her hands against the bulge in his pantaloons. Only ever having been acquainted with two cocks, her husband’s and Sin’s, Fliss had no chance of identifying the man in front of her. There came chants of “Who, who?” as the man proceeded to rub her hand up and down that throbbing member through the material of his pantaloons, his breathing becoming hot and uneven as his arousal deepened.

The cock was possibly only five or six inches long, and not thick around like Sin’s. “Lord Waverly?” Her guess was tentative at best.

“Wrong,” Lord Adam Sterling drawled as his hand dipped down the front of her gown and gave one of her nipples a painful twist. She felt herself being spun round again and set free.

This second spin added to her increasing feelings of dizziness and caused her to stumble again until she regained her balance.

The next person to step into her path was a woman. Fliss was able to guess that much at least, from the floral perfume. A guess that was confirmed when her hand was placed against the woman’s bared breast. Fliss’s efforts to pull away were to no avail, as the other woman’s grip tightened and she rubbed Fliss’s gloved palm against a hard nipple.

Fliss felt sickened at that familiarity. She had never touched any woman’s breasts but her own, and then only to wash herself. This breast was large and pendulous. “Lady Barker…?”
 

“Wrong,” her hostess whispered in her ear as her hand went down Fliss’s bodice to tweak and pinch her other nipple. “But we can finish this later if you would care to come to my bedchamber for another feel?”

Fliss answer was to spin herself away, adding to that lightheadedness as she crashed into a hard object. She lifted her hands to steady herself, breathing a sigh of relief at the familiarity of the chest beneath her palms. Not only those hard and muscular contours, but also the smell of sandalwood and male musk. “Lord Montgomery,” she announced without hesitation, uncaring if by doing so she revealed her intimate knowledge regarding the earl’s body.

“Correct,” Sin bit out beside her ear as the others in the room clapped their approval. “Now leave here before I decide to lift your skirts, pull down your drawers, and paddle your bare ass in front of everyone.”

Sin had tried to intercede before now to save Fliss the embarrassment of having Sterling and then Lady Eckles fondling her breasts. But he had not taken into account Sterling’s or Maria Eckles’s determination. It had been sickening to watch them rubbing Fliss’s hands over their bodies, even more so to see their hands on Fliss. But at least her incorrect guess in regard to Sterling showed that she really had only enjoyed a picnic luncheon with the other man yesterday.
 

She ripped off the blindfold now to stare at him with unfocused gray eyes, her face pale.
 

“Go now,” he urged with force. “And lock your bedchamber door behind you.”

Fliss fled, leaving the room as if the hounds of hell were at her heels.

The dizziness seemed to become worse rather than better, and she was breathing hard by the time she reached her bedchamber, black spots dancing in front of her eyes as she sat heavily on the side of her bed, holding on to one of the four corner posts to stop herself from swaying.

She was no longer merely dizzy but also disorientated. As if she were not inside her own body, and everything was happening to her in a dream. Including her limbs refusing to obey her as she tried to stand to undress before going to bed.

Unable to rise, Fliss instead slid slowly down onto the carpet beside her bed before the darkness overcame her.

Chapter 10

Sin played his part in blindman’s bluff, fondling several pairs of breasts and one rather puny man’s chest before identifying Lady Barker by her shapely ass. He heaved a sigh of relief as he was able to pass the blindfold on to her and then move to the back of the room, to observe, rather than take part.

Which was the reason he noticed when Lord Waverly slipped quietly from the room, still half-undressed from his card game with Fliss, a disquieting smile of anticipation curving the foppish man’s fleshy lips.

Sin decided to follow him. He stayed in the shadow as the other man crossed the spacious entrance hall and went up the wide staircase.
Along the hallway to Fliss’s bedchamber
.

He hesitated in the hallway as the man let himself into the unlocked and darkened bedchamber. Was it possible Fliss was expecting him? That she had invited the other man to join her and so deliberately left the door unlocked for him to enter?

She had spent a great deal of time in Waverly’s company since her arrival here, so perhaps—

No.

Sin had not seen the slightest spark of genuine interest in Fliss’s manner toward the other man. Whatever Waverly was doing letting himself into her bedchamber, Sin did not believe it was by invitation. He would deal later with Fliss’s disobedience regarding having left the door unlocked. For now, he needed to follow the other man and see what he was up to.

“What the devil—”

Sin gave Waverly no opportunity to finish the exclamation. He hauled the other man off Fliss’s inert body, then flung Waverly across the bedchamber. The other man hit the wall and slid down it, eyes opened wide as he blinked his surprise. The moonlight shining in through the windows showed the front of his unfastened pantaloons, completely exposing his rigid cock.

Sin went down on his haunches beside Fliss and took in her disheveled appearance at a glance. Her gown had been pushed up about her waist, her drawers pulled off completely, legs pushed wide apart, fully exposing the dark curls.

Sin pulled her gown down over her nakedness before looking up at her face. Her lids were closed, her breathing soft and even, her limbs completely relaxed.

Fliss failed to lock the door as I instructed, because some time during the evening, Waverly drugged her with the intention of raping her.

“No—” Waverly’s protest went unheeded as Sin crossed the bedchamber, pulled the other man roughly back onto his feet, and pummeled him with his fists.

He gripped Waverly’s rapidly waning cock and gave it a painful twist as he thrust his face up close against the other man’s. “Did you put something in the water you gave her earlier?”

“No—”

“Do not lie to me!”
 

“It was only a little…relaxant,” Waverly defended. “To ensure she enjoyed our time together.”

“It will cause no lasting harm?”

“Not at all— You are like to twist my cock off completely if you do not stop!” The other man grasped Sin’s wrist in an effort to stop that excruciating torture.

 
“If you ever come near Mrs. Randall again, I will kill you. Do you understand?”

“Yes. God, yes.” Waverly’s voice rose an octave as Sin gave his flaccid cock another savage twist.

“You will make your excuses and leave here tomorrow. Better yet,” Sin rasped, “you will pack your things and leave here tonight.”

“Yes, yes. Anything,” the other man blustered. “Just please stop what you are doing.”

Sin released and then thrust the other man from him, turning away in disgust as he saw Waverly pushing his bruised cock back into his pantaloons as he hurried from the room. It was the least Waverly had deserved for his intention of raping Fliss without qualm or conscience.

Sin made sure to rinse his hands in the washbowl in Fliss’s dressing room before returning to bend down to lift her into his arms and place her gently on the bed.

“Sin…?” Her lids seemed heavy from whatever drug Waverly had put in her glass of water.

“Sleep now, Fliss,” he soothed as he pulled the bedclothes over her. “We’ll talk in the morning.” He lifted the chair beside the window and carried it over to place it beside the bed before sitting down. “No one shall harm you tonight,” he assured her firmly.

Fliss had no idea what he was talking about, only that he was here and no longer being distant or angry. She gave a contented sigh as she turned over and fell fast asleep.

“Lord Waverly intended to rape me?” Fliss sat back against the pillows, feeling ill every time she thought of what might have happened to her the night before.

If Sin had not followed Lord Waverly.

If he had not intervened.

“You see now why you must leave here?” Sin continued to pace her bedchamber, still wearing the unfastened shirt and black pantaloons from the previous evening, as she was still dressed in yesterday’s evening gown.

Because the earl had placed her unconscious body in bed and then spent the night sitting in a chair at her bedside, protecting her from any more nighttime intruders.

Fliss gave a firm shake of her head. “I will not leave without you.”

He scowled at her stubbornness. “And I still need to find the man who is trying to kill me.”

“You do not think it could be Lord Waverly? He could have been disguising his voice.”

“He wished to rape you, not kill me. It is the unvarnished truth,” he insisted as Fliss felt the last of the color fade from her cheeks.

She grimaced. “If that is the case, then I think I should prefer that you varnish it in future.”

Sin gave a humorless smile. “I will try.”

As far as Fliss was concerned, he had already done enough. She hated to think what would have happened to her if he had not followed Lord Waverly last night.

Sin had spent much of the previous day with a variety of the other guests, in the pretense of joining in their frivolity and games. No one stood out as showing any malignant feelings toward him, and yet Sin had sensed something in the air, a frisson of disquiet, as if that malignance was there but unseen. There was also no denying Fliss’s claim she had recognized the assassin’s voice that night in the stable.
 

Sin’s conversation with his groom yesterday morning had neither confirmed nor denied that the man’s illness, and Dante’s, had been deliberate. But it had left Sin with serious doubts. William admitted to having drunk a pitcher of beer during the previous evening and also admitted Dante was partial to sharing a sip or two with him.

Sin suspected the two might have imbibed strychnine. The landlords of taverns and inns were known to water down their beer with the foul stuff as a way of making it go further and so increase their profits. Many of the lower classes became so accustomed to small doses of it, they remained immune. And if the occasional drinker happened to grow ill or die from the concoction, then the tavern owners did not consider it to be their fault.

The difference this time was the groom had been supplied with the beer from the main house on the Eckles estate.

Sin’s groom.

His horse.

During his long hours of wakefulness last night, as Fliss slept off the effects of the drug, Sin had realized Waverly had to have got whatever he put in Fliss’s water from somewhere. Or someone. Fliss said the assassin was a man, but what if the woman in the Woodrows’ library that night had been Lady Eckles? The man would carry out the assassination whilst she, as hostess, remained removed from the deed itself.