“You’ll do what?” he challenged at her weak attempt at a threat and lowered his head to bring his eyes level with hers. Drat the man for being so tall! And so…duke-like.
She boldly stuck up her chin as inspiration struck and blurted out, “I’ll tell your mother what really happened to that Chinese vase your father gave her for Christmas!”
For a moment he stared at her blankly, simply unable to fathom her. Then his eyes narrowed, as if he were sizing up an opponent in Parliament instead of the annoying gel from next door, and he drew himself up to his full height…So very tall. Odd, how she’d never noticed that about him before. Or how much more solid that very tall body was than Robert’s, or how his golden hair fell rakishly across his forehead and made her want to brush it away.
It was amazing, the details a woman noticed about a half-dressed man after he’d had his mouth on her.
“Do we have an agreement, then?” she pressed.
A lopsided threat at best—her reputation for a vase that had met its shameful demise years ago during a secret spread that the brothers had thrown while their parents had been away in London. But his mother had loved that vase, and Miranda wasn’t afraid to use it to her advantage.
“Agreed,” he said.
Thank God! She turned toward the door, taking a deep breath to run—
He reached over her head and pressed his hand against the door to keep her from flinging it open. “Wait.”
Wait? Her heart skipped, then thudded so hard in her chest that she winced. The infuriating man was also terribly cruel…Wait?
When she looked over her shoulder at him, she thought she saw his gaze dart up from her breasts. But that was impossible. Sebastian wouldn’t be looking down her dress like that, not now. Now when he knew who she was…would he?
But when he reached back for the jacket he’d tossed over the chair and held it out to her, she rolled her eyes, feeling like an absolute cake. Oh, he’d been looking at her breasts all right…and pondering a good way to hide them.
“Best not to be seen sneaking out of my room, Lady Rose,” he cautioned. “In that dress.”
She slipped on the jacket, and knots tightened low in her belly when she breathed in the scent of him wafting up from the superfine material. She bit back a defeated groan. Of course he would have to smell good.
Then he gestured for her mask, and she handed it over. He lifted it into place and tied it behind her head. When he rested one hand on her shoulder while the other slowly cracked open the door, the heat of his fingers seeped into her skin, all the way down her front to her breasts. Beneath the gauzy costume, her nipples tightened traitorously at the memory of his hands on them.
At that, her stomach plummeted, her humiliation complete. Even her own body was conspiring against her tonight by fraternizing with the enemy.
He peeked past her into the hallway, then lowered his mouth to her ear. “Go down the back stairs to the ground floor. The downstairs hall will be empty and dark by now. Go out through the terrace door in my study, and stay close to the garden wall where the shadows are darkest until you get past the stables. And don’t let anyone see you.” His deep voice tickled across her cheek, and she shivered. “Especially my mother.”
“How do you know so much about sneaking out?” she asked in a whisper, surprised by the detail of his instructions.
He answered with a sultry chuckle that rumbled through her. “Because I’m a Carlisle brother.”
When she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, his hand slapped against her bottom. She jumped.
“Go!”
She stepped into the hall and fled from Chestnut Hill as fast as her feet could take her. Her bare feet. Groaning at her own foolishness, she rolled her eyes because she’d left her slippers behind in his room. And there was no going back for them.
Ever.