Tempting Bella (Entangled Scandalous) (30 page)

A noise at the bottom of the terrace stairs, just a few feet from where she stood, cut into her thoughts. The sound of crunching gravel.

Someone was down there.

…

Willa peered down into the shadows where the light of a garden torch illuminated a masculine face etched in hard lines.

He leaned into the flame, giving the unlit cheroot in his mouth a few quick inhales, cajoling it to take. When it sparked and smoked, the man leaned back with a satisfied air, taking a deep inhale.

He was likely a footman staying out of view while taking a break from his duties. Disconcerted, she called out in a chastising tone. “You there, what do you mean by hiding in the shadows listening to private discourse?”

“That was quite a scene,” the shadow drawled. “I look forward with great anticipation to seeing how this charming love story concludes.” Tall and darkly clothed, his carriage was not that of a servant, but someone of breeding would never smoke in front of a lady.

“You are very insolent,” she said heatedly, “to speak to me in such a manner.”

He regarded her with amused curiosity. “A thousand pardons, ma’am.”

She moved down the stairs to get a better look at him. Closer inspection revealed he wore formal evening attire topped with a snowy cravat. Not a servant then. He took a deep drag and exhaled. Lazy circles of silvery smoke melted into nothingness around the glow of the flame, steeping the air with the pungent aroma of burning tobacco.

“Forgive me if I have transgressed.” He stepped away from the torch, the glowing tip of the cheroot danced in the dark as he moved. “However, in my defense, I was here previous to your romantic assignation on the terrace.”

“Romantic assignation? It was no such thing!” Mortified he’d witnessed the appalling scene with Augustus, she prayed he’d have the good manners to vanish as quickly and quietly as he had appeared.

Instead, the scoundrel chuckled. “Once the heart-warming declarations of love and marriage began, I was keen to learn how it would all resolve itself.”

She batted the smoke away in quick, jerky movements. “It was private—”

“Most assignations are,” he interrupted, his eyes dancing. “Are felicitations on your impending betrothal in order? Allow me to be the first to bestow them.”

“You are insufferable.” Embarrassed indignation filled her chest. “A gentlemanlike man would have made his presence known. But you are obviously no gentleman.”

“So some have said.” He drew on his cheroot and exhaled, watching darkness swallow the curling fog of silvery smoke. “But enough about that. Do tell, are you and old Gus stepping into the parson’s mousetrap?”

As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she could make out the unforgiving angles of his face. Sharp-cut lines that would look quite menacing, if not for the roguish glint in his eyes.

“Even if it were so, I surely wouldn’t share information of a personal nature with a stranger,” she snapped, her nerves on end. “I do not know you, sir.”

“Quite right. I’m suitably chastened.” His answering grin flashed white in the darkness. “Do accept my most humble apologies.”

His hand suddenly whipped out to grab her arm. Startled, she jumped back with a cry of alarm. His ungloved fingers tightened around the bare skin of her arm above silk evening gloves, the shock of flesh on flesh sizzled through her.

“What are you doing?” She struggled as he dragged her behind the hedgerow. Jerking his head in the direction of the stairs, he brought a long, tapered finger to the firm curve of his lips, signaling for her to be silent. She followed his gaze to the top of the stairs, where a couple prepared to descend.

She clamped her mouth shut. The last thing she needed was another hint of scandal, which would erupt should she be discovered alone in the garden with a strange man. She shook her head with frustration. Why did she always seem to land herself into these situations?

The glowing tip of the cheroot sailed to the ground, the stranger’s boot heel silently coming down to crush the life out of it. They stood frozen while the couple walked down the stairs chatting, passing Willa and the stranger, who remained hidden by the greenery.

The man’s tall, substantial form stood so near that his body heat lapped at her. He smelled intoxicatingly fresh, like soap, as though he’d just scrubbed himself clean, intermingled with the distinctive scent of tobacco. A heightened sense of her own physicality zipped through Willa; her breathing sounded unnaturally loud; the beat of her heart clanged a clumsy beat; and her skin warmed despite the evening chill. Dazed and disconcerted by her peculiar bodily reaction to him, she shrugged his hand off the moment the couple moved out of earshot.

“Please unhand me, sir,” she said, her tone frosty as she stepped away to regain her bearings.

“Given the follies of your past, as you yourself describe them, I took it upon myself to spare you any further embarrassment.”

Beastly man
. Inside, she churned with humiliation, but on the outside, her face assumed the cool, imperious cloak it wore so well. The one that kept people at bay.

“Surely I deserve words of praise from the lady,” he continued, “rather than her scorn?”

“Alas,” she said tartly, “the words you truly deserve would never pass a lady’s lips.” Perfecting her posture, she turned away. Taking pains to appear unhurried, she sailed back up the stairs while his quiet laughter drifted behind her in the darkness.

Other books by Entangled Scandalous

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When the two are thrown together to investigate a potential poisoning mystery, neither expects the sparks that fly. Simon discovers that Rose is, in fact, a brilliant sleuth and—even better—hides a delectable body beneath her flowing skirts. Suddenly, falling into bed may be the best idea either has heard, but can Simon convince Rose his romancing is forever?

Her Wicked Sins
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On a moonless night, he rides into the winter forest on his beast as black as midnight….

Dashing stranger, Henry Dunham, comes to Salem on a mysterious errand, but is thrown from his horse in the dead of night and rescued by the local Puritan midwife, Lydia Colson.

Haunted by her past, Lydia is running from her own dark secrets, avoiding intrusive questions by pretending her dead husband is simply…away. But when she and Henry are caught in a compromising situation, one punishable by Puritan law, he saves her from scandal by claiming to be her errant spouse…and claiming her bed.

Forced to fake a marriage, Lydia and Henry find their passion overwhelming and their vows a little too real. As their lies become truths, a witch hunt closes in on Lydia, threatening not only their burgeoning love, but her life.