“Begging your pardon, my lord. I…” The girl went pink in the cheeks and promptly lost the power to speak further.
Eliza took the moment to move away from Adam, noting how his fingers tensed as if to hold her back, but she eluded him and went to the window. A tremor went through her hand as she gripped the heavy curtain. The man was too potent. Too tempting.
An opinion she gathered the young GIM shared, for the girl merely stood, gazing at Adam as if he were something of a god to her.
It did not help matters when he gave her a graceful nod of the head, his deep voice mellow with command when he addressed her. “Good morn, Miss Annabelle. I see you have something for us?” He eyed the tray that was presently tilting at an alarming angle.
Cups and crockery rattled as Annabelle righted the tray. “You’ll be wanting your breakfast, then?”
“Breakfast would be most welcome, my dear.” Outwardly, Adam gave no indication of insincerity or impatience. Indeed, he had that rare ability to make every person believe that his attention and interest rested solely on them. Eliza, however, knew better. She did not miss the tight rein he kept on his body. Or when his gaze flicked to hers, communicating in seconds his amusement over being interrupted and how he wanted to get her alone. The knowledge connected them on a level that disturbed her, and yet made her feel somehow as though she were finally precisely where she ought to be.
Eliza took a quick breath and turned her attention back to watching Annabelle.
Annabelle’s flush grew in depth and hue as she set the tray down. “Well, then” – the GIM bumped into the doorway – “I’ll… be going.” The poor girl was a lovely shade of magenta as she fled the room, slamming the door behind her.
The corners of Adam’s eyes crinkled as he went to latch the door. “She’s developed a bit of a tendré for me, I’m afraid.” His wide mouth twitched. “Or for the king of the GIM, rather.”
Eliza swallowed down a snort. “Doesn’t everyone who meets you?” The quip was out before she could think better of it.
The latch clicked shut. Adam glanced at her from over his shoulder, and his mouth quirked. “Everyone but you.”
He strolled across the small space between them, his gaze rapt.
“You never gave me the chance.” Eliza pushed past him, seeing the question forming on his lips and not wanting to answer.
But he followed, close on her heels, the looming wall of his body providing warmth in the cold chill of the dim room. “And if you’d had the chance?”
Eliza stopped. Behind her, Adam stood, his chest not quite touching her shoulder blades, but near enough to feel his heat. Not turning, she stared up at an intricately carved cuckoo clock that hung upon the wall and she pretended that warmth wasn’t blooming over her breasts. “A moot point as that time has come and gone.”
Gently, but with clear purpose, he caught hold of her elbow and turned her to face him. His expression was stern, his brows drawn over eyes of deep gold. God, but he was too much for her. Every time she looked at him directly, she could barely breathe. He was like the sun, blinding her, making her want to both turn away and look upon him endlessly. When he spoke, his voice was deep, almost urgent. “And if you had the chance now?”
The press of his fingers seemed to burn through her sleeve and into her bones. She could lie to him. Drive the wedge between them deeper. He stood, motionless, waiting for her answer. Eliza took a breath, aware of her ribs and breast pushing against her corset. “I am drawn to you.”
His nostrils flared, his lids lowering in a lazy, leonine way that was pure sin. “And I to you.”
A river of heat snaked down her center. He drifted closer, his broad chest nearly touching the tips of her breasts. Eliza fought the urge to put a hand up to stop him. “It’s merely attraction.” Her voice was too faint, too unsteady. “Attraction does not mean that we are…”
“Meant for each other,” he supplied, low and dry.
“Yes, that.” She raised her chin and pinned him with a quelling look. “Attraction is not so precious. It happens all the time.”
Again his gaze roamed her face. It felt like a caress. His wide mouth went soft. He stared at hers for only a moment before meeting her eyes. “Not to me. Not until you.”
The intensity of his statement – the way he looked at her, as if willing her to understand how it could be between them – made her dizzy, unable to breathe. She spun away from him, her skirts swishing. “I cannot believe that.” Idly, she ran a finger over a battered dressing table, leaving a dark trail as dust clung to her skin. “I’m certain you’ve had many women.”
Cold amusement lit his voice. “I was a Templar Knight, dove. I took a vow of celibacy when I was naught but eighteen years, and before that, I was a squire, and before that a paige. Always in training to be Templar.”
Her breath stuttered. And she could not help but look at him. “Surely at some point, you must have felt —”
He shook his head. “Better not to allow yourself to let those feelings in, when there is no chance of releasing them. I channeled it into aggression, used it in battle. I’ve never known the pleasures of a woman. Never allowed sin to rule me.”
“Oh…” Heat, swift and sure, rushed through her limbs. A virgin. He was a virgin. Oh, my silver stars. He’d confessed without shame but the look in his eyes, the hot need that darkened his eyes, told their own story. Seven-hundred-odd years this man had gone without release. He was through with waiting. Should Eliza offer, he’d take her without pause.
She tried again, for she could not fathom this man, so very strong and virile, not leaving a swath of broken hearts in his wake. “But afterwards, when you lived as the king of the GIM?”
His smile turned bitter. “Dear old Mab was quite creative with her curse. She unmanned me while making me irresistible to others.”
The cruelty of it lanced through Eliza’s middle. But she did not want to pity Adam. It seemed an even worse insult. “You once told me that you’d fallen in love with a girl at a May Day fair.” It felt like ages ago, when she’d been his captive, and he’d taunted her with that tale. But she remembered every word he’d spoken to her.
“I lied.” He did not appear sorry for doing so. In truth, there was a slight smile upon his lips. She needed to stop looking at his mouth.
“And I’m supposed to believe you now?” she said with more irritation than she felt.
His head canted as he peered at her. “Confessing one’s virginal state is hardly something a man would do unless it were true.” She merely returned his look. And his wry smile grew. “I was trying to rile you up then. To get you to acknowledge me.”
“And you aren’t now?”
“No. You’re acknowledging me quite well at the moment, dove.”
Her cheeks heated.
A soft, dark chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I was told,” he went on, “that when I found the other half of my soul, I’d feel again. In all ways.” Adam pushed off from the wall he’d been leaning against and took a step closer to her, careful, however, to hold her gaze, as though he did not want to frighten her off. “And I do.”
Her mouth went dry.
“I’ve nothing to lose now, lass. So when I say that my want of you was one of the reasons I knew I’d found you” – slowly he reached out – “you can believe it.”
The warm, rough tips of his fingers grazed her cheek. Eliza jerked back, stumbling on her skirts as she edged away from him.
“Perhaps my attraction toward you is merely Mab’s magic, making you irresistible to all beings.”
“You find me irresistible?” His husky, laughing question had her shooting a glare over her shoulder.
With his smiling mouth and eyes brightened with glee, irresistible was definitely the word for him. Damn all.
“Just so you know,” he said, “I find you quite fetching as well.”
“Isn’t that the point?” She tossed up a hand in irritation. “I cannot know if this attraction is because of M
ab’s curse upon you. And you cannot know if what you feel is out of some strange, misplaced gratitude or if it is simply another one of Mab’s tricks. Nothing feels real.”
His smile faded, but he did not appear offended. No, he was calm and rational as always. “I’ve lost my powers.”
A huff broke from her lips. “What has that got to do with anything?”
“I no longer possess an unnatural ability to attract others. So what you do or do not feel for me has nothing to do with Mab.”
Eliza edged back. “I’ve noted a good number of ladies, and a few gentlemen, gravitating towards you.” She gave a pointed glance towards the door. “Even now.”
He took one small step closer. “I never said I was without natural charm. Perhaps they merely want me for me.”
She harrumphed. “You’ve an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“A man learns a thing or two during seven hundred and twenty-nine years of life.” His eyes flashed with a hint of his former GIM glow. “Or he ought to.”
“Either you are not listening to me or are deliberately misunderstanding.”
“Educate me then, love.”
His easy capitulation annoyed her. She wanted a fight. Perhaps that way, he’d stop looking at her as though she were an especially tasty treat.
“I do not believe in soul mates,” she said. “I do not believe that this attraction we feel has anything to do with fate or anything deeper than a simple surface interest. Mine based on the fact that you come wrapped in a pleasing package, and yours perhaps due to some misplaced gratitude because you suddenly feel something you’ve been denied for hundreds of years.” When he kept on watching her with that self-same, easy smile and heated want, she stomped her foot. “We’ve been at odds since we met.”
“You are correct,” he said. “I’ve fostered an intense dislike of you for the past year and a half.”
That ought not to sting. But it did.
He wasn’t finished, however. “I like you better now.”
Horribly, she liked him better too. Somehow he’d drifted closer without her knowing it. Stopping beside her, he leaned his hips against the windowsill and crossed his arms over his chest. The stance ought to have diminished him. It only made his shoulders appear broader and highlighted the bulge of his biceps beneath his plain coat.
“You should kiss me,” he said.
The breath left her body in a rush of air and a raspy “What?”
His gaze drifted to her lips. “How else are we to know? Kiss me. And find out if your want of me crumbles to dust or grows.”
A gentle throbbing started low in her belly, traveling downward. They stood so close, a handspan apart, close enough that his smoky scent and powerful warmth enveloped her, compelling her to move closer still. She planted her feet, refusing to give in.
His hands grasped the edges of the sill, holding it tight, as though he needed an anchor as well. “You’ll be in control. I’ll not touch you, nor try to stop you from pulling away. I vow it.” He spoke softly, forcing her to strain her ears and edge toward him. “Put your lips to mine, sweet dove. See if you like my taste.”
Her mouth went dry, her lips parting. She wanted. She wanted. It was perverse, this need. He’d chained her, kept her at his side without a care of how she’d felt about the situation. To even consider this…
Her heart beat hard and strong within her chest. Adam’s own chest rose and fell with greater speed. Half-sitting as he was upon the wide windowsill, they were nearly eye to eye.
Trying to buy time, Eliza looked him over with a deliberately bland expression. “Was this entire conversation simply a trick to get me to kiss you?”
He grinned again, the pink tip of his tongue just visible between his even teeth. “Absolutely.”
“I thought you did not want to kiss me.” Eliza scowled at the memory of him outright rejecting her.
“That was before. This is now,” he answered easily. “Now, I want that kiss.” On a deep breath, his lids lowered, his gaze somnolent and hot on her mouth, his voice rough and urgent. “Kiss me, Eliza.”
She was going to. She had no resistance when it came to him. This close, he seemed immense. Not just in size, but in presence. Vitality sparked along his skin, drawing her like a magnet to his firm flesh.
Not daring to meet his gaze, she studied his mouth. It tempted her. So finely shaped, the upper lip just slightly bigger than the bottom, as if it were swollen. Dark stubble of the day’s growth framed that soft mouth of his, and she wanted to feel the different textures of his skin. As if bidden, her fingertips drifted up and grazed along his chin, just beneath his lower lip. Rough, silken.
His breath visibly hitched, and a puff of warmth escaped him and ghosted over her skin. Her hand slid down to his chest to press against the rapid beat of his heart. And then she was closer.
Their lips nearly touched, but he halted. “I’ve not done this before, so you’ll —” His breath caught when, unable to resist, she brushed her lips against his, the contact fleeting but capturing all of her attention. A spark of heat lit through her. She wanted more. “Have to…” He groaned, opening his mouth to let her lap at his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. “Guide me.”
Part of her had kissed him simply to shut him up, call his bluff. And yet… A whimper of want echoed in her mouth as she leaned into him, her lips melding with his. Heat and need suffused her, as she delved farther into the warm depths of his mouth. He tasted divine.
That she knew more than he, that she was teaching him, gave her a heady, erotic, little thrill. Eliza tilted her head, the tips of her fingers cradling his jaw as she enjoyed his mouth. He made a murmur of approval, his slick tongue twining with hers. A quick study. Adam’s breath came in disjointed pants, his lips following hers, seeking and nuzzling.
How very good it felt to kiss this man. Her head swam with pleasure, and she pressed her body into his, until there was no space between them. The hard length of his cock seemed to throb against her lower belly. And Eliza moaned.
At the sound, tremors rent Adam’s body and his mouth surged forward, capturing her lower lip in a suckling kiss. “Let me touch you,” he whispered, tasting her mouth in a series of urgent nibbles. “Let me, Eliza. Release me.”
She wanted that. Her skin seemed to stretch and tighten with the need to feel his hands upon it. But it wouldn’t end there. She’d soon want him inside of her, filling her up. Madness. Her mouth shaped the word even as she kissed him. “No.”
A half laugh, half groan left him. “Evil, wee besom.”
She could not help but smile against his mouth. “Wiley, wicked demon.”
He huffed, and she pulled back a little. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled, the lush curve of his top lip touching hers. Little shivers of pleasure danced along her spine as he spoke. “I told you, dove. I’m no demon.”
“Mmm.” She moved back another step, taking herself away from temptation. But her hand lingered on his cheek. “You are to me. Burning hot and the devil’s own temptation.”
His nostrils flared, the need in his eyes almost pained as he leaned in, his lips parting. She held him back. An illusion, for even with the cursed chains draining his strength, he was far from helpless. In truth, she was in more danger of succumbing to him than ever before. “We’ll be late for the oracle.”
Weak, weak argument. His expression said as much. But Adam glanced down at his bound wrists and then back up at her. “You want me, Eliza May. Deny it all you like, but I’ll be using that knowledge, dove, and you’ll not be evading me for much longer.”
Chapter Twelve
Rain came down with steady determination, as if its sole purpose was to wash London clean. A failed effort. The streets grew thick with sticky muck that covered boots and ruined hems, and coal-leaden rain left grimy tracks along all that it fell upon. It was slow going for Eliza and Adam as they made their way from the GIM tavern down to Fleet Street.
Tension coiled tight upon Eliza’s
shoulders as they wove past equally downtrodden pedestrians. She’d kissed Adam, and kissed him well. His promise still rang clear in her head, and with it, a dark anticipation that tightened her nipples and made her lower belly ache. She tried to ignore it in favor of the practical, such as not being taken by the fae.
“This is foolish,” she muttered.
“It is necessary,” Adam retorted beneath his breath.
“It’s only a matter of time before we’re discovered. People are staring as it is.” She gave a quelling look to a man who gaped at them and then she huddled closer to Adam’s side. She had to; he hadn’t yet the strength to hold himself up, and there was the nuisance of his chains to contend with. The blasted things rattled and clanked with each step he took, and it was Eliza’s job to hold their length tight within the folds of her skirt to keep them as quiet as possible.
The corners of Adam’s mouth twitched. “If anyone asks, we’ll say I’m playing the part of Jacob Marley at the local theatre.”
“A Christmas Carol? In April?” she hissed. Another glance over her shoulder confirmed that people were watching them pass. They might not see the chains hidden beneath Adam’s sweeping great cloak and Eliza’s unfashionably voluminous skirts, but they certainly heard them.
Adam merely shrugged. “Very well. Perhaps you have a penchant for clattering chastity belts?”
Eliza made a noise of disgust. “I rather think that would be your proclivity.”
“What? To wear one?” He appeared so utterly horrified that she snickered.
“I meant asking women to wear them. Wasn’t that just the thing back in your days of jousting, old man?”
He snorted. “Those chastity belts are a myth, you realize? Made up in this century, likely by some bored lord in need of titillation.” He slanted her a sly look that was far too effective at warming her skin. “However, I’m willing to play that game if it pleases you.”
Her cheeks were surely red, and she ducked her head as yet another man walked by and gave them a curious stare. “What would please me,” she ground out through clenched teeth, “is to be off the streets. We’re exposing ourselves to attack.”
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