“Lady Karmack is a distant cousin,” Regan corrected. “Very distant. My father’s side of the family, I believe.”
“Well, the details hardly matter since you belong to us,” Dare said before he could stifle the words. His stomach muscles clenched as the fear he saw in Regan’s expression faded and was replaced with a sly, very shrewd look that he never expected from her.
“Do I?” she asked, a small smile teasing her lips. “Will you be my faithful white knight, Dare?”
Dare stiffened at the innocent question. He doubted Frost had told his sister about Dare’s pathetic attempt to play a fair lady’s white knight, and the bitter betrayal that still managed to turn his stomach when he dwelled on it. “I refuse to play the chivalrous knight for any lady.”
“Even me?”
Instead of feigning hurt feelings, Regan had tossed the words at him like a taunt. The question heated his blood faster than the brandy. After the afternoon he had endured with his difficult family, the lady was playing with fire.
“Chivalrous knights care little about being rewarded for their good deeds.” The corner of his mouth quirked at her crestfallen expression. “I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoy claiming my rewards whether or not I deserve them.”
As far as Dare was concerned, he had earned a hefty reward for resisting Frost’s tempting little sister. Two years ago, he had managed to keep his hands off her, had he not? He had kept his distance, even when a part of him had longed for the chase.
Now Regan was sitting on his lap with a mouth that was just begging to be kissed. Covered in soot and grime, she should not tempt him in the slightest.
Unfortunately, his unruly body did not seem to care.
“And what reward do you deserve, Dare?” she whispered.
Lust coiled in his gut. “This…”
Regan’s eyes widened as Dare claimed her mouth. It was not the tender kiss a man gave an innocent such as Regan. His lips glided over hers with the purpose to claim and dominate. Dare expected her mouth to taste of sweet innocence, but instead he tasted brandy and the slight bitterness of the soot. With a murmur of encouragement, he used his teeth to nip her lower lip. Regan parted her lips in surprise. Dare ruthlessly took advantage of the reaction and pulled her closer as he deepened their kiss.
In the distance, he heard the sound of a glass breaking. Dare almost smiled. Regan had dropped her glass of brandy. His body hardened as he felt her tentatively touch his arm. She tilted her face toward his, and tried to mimic his sensual ministrations to her willing mouth. The hesitant touch on his arm quickly became a restless caress. Minutes later, Regan had brazenly slid her hands up Dare’s arms and wrapped them around his neck.
A not-so-discreet cough from across the room was as effective as a bucket of cold water dumped on the couple.
Dare avoided Regan’s startled gaze when he ended the kiss and glanced toward the open doorway. He was not surprised to see an expressionless Frost. Dare did not recognize the older woman standing beside Regan’s brother, but considering his luck of late, he assumed the woman gaping at them was Lady Karmack.
“Frost is going to kill me,” Regan whispered so softly, Dare doubted anyone else had heard her.
Dare kissed Regan on the forehead and gently nudged her off his lap. He had been aroused by their kiss, but the scowl Lady Karmack was giving him should wither the rigid flesh soon enough.
Dare stood and waited for Frost to challenge him. He did not have the heart to tell Regan that if her brother was going to kill anyone this evening, it was likely to be him.
Chapter Two
“I am being banished for a kiss? A kiss?”
Hurt and baffled by her brother’s astonishing announcement, Regan sat on the sofa where fifteen minutes earlier she had shared said toe-curling kiss with Dare. After witnessing Regan’s shameless display, Frost had ordered Vane and Hunter to escort Lady Karmack downstairs to one of the informal parlors below. At Frost’s insistence, Dare had remained in the room, though he did not seem inclined to participate in a family squabble.
“Banished? The word is a tad dramatic for sending you off to a respectable school for young ladies, my dear child. Do you not agree, Dare?” Frost cast an amused glance at his friend.
Her brother had been subtly taunting Dare into defending Regan, as if he was seeking just one more reason to put a bullet into the man. Dare had not taken the bait. He leaned against the wall across from her and silently drank his brandy.
Regan refused to acknowledge Dare with a glance. “Do not be so patronizing,” she said to her brother. “Lady Karmack put this maggoty notion in your head, did she not? You were perfectly content for me to receive my lessons at home—”
“And that has been going so well for us, has it not? You have frightened off seven tutors in the past five years. I suspect that your latest mischief—setting fire to Nox—is not precisely the education our father and mother would have desired for you.”
Regan sprang to her feet, her hands curled into impotent fists at her sides when Frost mentioned their parents. “Why should I care? Our father is dead. I barely remember him. And our mother might as well be since she has not bothered to post a single letter in all the years that she has been gone.”
Frost sighed. He rolled his shoulders as if he were facing an opponent in a prize ring. “Not very sentimental, is she?” he said to Dare. “Beneath all that fire is a cold, ruthless heart. Our mother would be proud.”
Regan gasped at her brother’s callous assessment of her character. “Take it back!” Forgetting about Dare, she charged at her brother and seized the front of his dark brown coat. “I am nothing like her. You have no right to judge me. If anyone does not have a heart, it is you! Over the years, I have watched you dally with the affairs of the heart, and that is not the organ that you exercise with any regularity!”
Dare choked on his brandy. “Christ!” He wheezed as he tried to fill his lungs with air.
Both Frost and Regan ignored him.
“You cheeky little monkey.” Frost shook his head, his turquoise-blue eyes glowing with admiration at her daring. “If you had been born male, I would have recommended you for membership at Nox in a few years. However, neither you nor I can change your sex, my dear sister. You are not meant for this life, and it is past time that I do right by you.”
Regan sagged against Frost as she struggled to keep her stinging tears from falling. “If this is about the kitchen, I will gladly pay for the damages done.”
“Oh, Regan, the kitchen should be the least of your concerns.”
She swiped at a traitorous tear on her grimy cheek. “I knew it. This is about me kissing Dare.”
Frost cupped her cheek and tipped her face until her gaze met his. Regan expected anger, even frustration. It was his pity that shamed her. “You have been around Nox long enough to learn that a kiss has no more importance than scratching an itch. None of the Lords of Vice is worthy of your affections.”
“Even you?” she said.
“Especially me,” Frost countered, dropping his hand. “As your guardian, I have been remiss in my duties toward you, Regan. It is something I intend to rectify with Lady Karmack’s assistance.”
Regan took umbrage at the mention of the meddlesome woman. This was all Lady Karmack’s fault. She had ruined everything. “You cannot make me go with that woman. I will run away before I surrender myself to that tiresome creature.”
Frost tossed his head back and laughed. With his wavy dark hair loose around his lean, handsome face, he looked like a fallen angel. “My darling sister, have a care with your childish threats. You would be astounded by what I can do when I put my mind to it.”
Unimpressed, Regan shoved her brother away from her and stalked toward Dare. The man’s silence annoyed her almost as much as Frost’s casual threats. Her brother was about to banish her from London. She wanted someone to come to her defense.
“And what say you to all of this?” she demanded, slowing at the lack of in
terest she noted on Dare’s face.
“Forgive me, I must side with your brother on this,” Dare said, straightening from his slouched stance. “You are too old to be running about like an unkempt hoyden. Certain things are expected of you, Regan, and the ladies of the ton can be cruel.”
Regan felt each word like a barb to her heart. “And the kiss?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“Idle curiosity. Nothing more.” Dare walked over to the small table and picked up a decanter. He poured more brandy into his empty glass. He did not even glance her way.
Scoundrel.
Turning her back on Dare, she swallowed several times, fighting down the misery and betrayal she was feeling from the two gentlemen in her life she loved the most.
“Very well,” she said, her voice wavering with suppressed emotion. “Banish me from London. Send me to some damn school of bloody refinement. I hope it beggars you, Frost!”
“Tut-tut … do not worry about the family coffers. You will be looked after properly.”
Regan resisted kicking her brother as she passed. “Why be coy about the true reasons you are sending me away? You never wanted me underfoot, and Lady Karmack has provided you with a respectful excuse to abandon me.”
I will not cry … I will not cry … I will not cry …
“You know me so well,” Frost said mockingly. “I will mourn you when you are gone.”
Her eyes dried as outrage and despair consumed her. “And I hope it rots off!”
It did not take much imagination to figure out which “it” Regan was referring to.
“Regan!” Dare called after her, but she was too angry to reply.
She marched out of the room, her head held high. Frost’s laughter kept the indignation in her belly churning as she stepped out into the corridor.
Frost might be able to send her away from the only family that she knew, but she was not going to let anyone turn her into one of those fluttering butterflies the ton idolized.
Never.
* * *
Frost sobered as Regan’s footfalls faded. His sister had been too upset to notice that Frost’s laughter had been for her benefit alone.
There wasn’t a hint of amusement in his friend’s light blue gaze when it finally settled on Dare. “How long do you think it will take for her to forgive me?”
Weeks, months, or maybe years.
Dare tossed back the rest of his brandy. Exhaling loudly, he shook his head and said, “She does not understand the real reason why you are sending her away.”
“And you do?”
“More than she does, I wager.” Dare set down his glass with a decisive clink against the half-empty decanter. Palms forward, he extended his hands from his sides in a manner that could have been interpreted both as an invitation and surrender. “Now that your sister is gone, perhaps we should discuss what happened earlier before the others return.”
“There is nothing to discuss.”
Dare’s forehead furrowed. “Nothing?”
He did not quite believe his good fortune. While Frost possessed some rather flexible scruples, he was protective of his younger sister in his own way. At the very least, Dare expected a bruising punch to the jaw for kissing Regan.
The humor Dare thought doused flared to life in Frost’s gaze. “Did you expect me to challenge you over a kiss? Of all the Lords of Vice, you are the last man I would accuse of wrongdoing when it comes to my sister.”
Now Frost was being outright insulting.
Some of the annoyance Dare had been feeling must have been visible on his face, because Frost chuckled.
“Why are you so certain?” Dare demanded.
“Why? Because I am aware that another lady claims your heart.”
Dare’s gaze narrowed at his friend’s observation. Frost was pushing his luck by bringing up Allegra.
“And while none of your friends would accuse you of taking a vow of chastity over your brother’s wife, we all know that cunning bitch owns you heart and soul.”
Dare wanted to lunge at Frost and pound his denial into his friend’s smug face. Allegra belonged to his older brother. The lady had made her choice, and Dare had come to terms with their marriage. It was not his fault that family obligations kept pushing them together.
Frost was wrong about Allegra’s hold on him.
The fact that he wanted to kiss Regan was proof of that.
Still, it chafed Dare’s pride that his friend could look into his eyes and deduce the unspoken desires that he kept buried so deep, even he had forgotten that they existed.
“Your sister is lovely, Frost, and ripe for seduction,” Dare softly taunted. “Why are you so convinced that I would not take advantage of her innocence?”
“Old habits, my friend,” Frost replied without any hesitation. “My sister is not fair sport. That is why you and I both know that Regan is more to blame for what I witnessed than you are.”
Dare glanced away. Frost was wrong. He had wanted to kiss Regan. He had even enjoyed it. Regan had, too. If Frost and Lady Karmack had not disturbed them, Dare could not swear that he would have been satisfied with just a kiss.
Perhaps it was for the best that Regan was being sent away to school.
During her absence from London, Regan’s affection for him would wane. She would go on to find some other gentleman on whom to practice her feminine wiles. Perhaps she would even marry him.
Dare gritted his teeth in frustration.
His thoughts were going to make him daft. He was already haunted by one lady who could never be his.
Dare unquestionably did not need another.
We take no pleasure in permitted joys,
But what’s forbidden is more keenly sought.
—Ovid, Amores, 2.19.3
Chapter Three
London, April 25, 1822
“Is Lord Chillingsworth pleased that you will be able to join him in London this season?”
Regan blinked, distracted by the innocent question. All she wanted to do was rend the paper in her hand into dozens of illegible pieces and scream. Instead, she carefully folded Frost’s letter and smiled demurely at her friends’ expectant expressions.
“Of course.” Her fingers tapped the paper lightly. “While it has only been four months since I last saw Frost, I have not had the pleasure of visiting London in almost five years.”
And if Frost has his way, another five years will pass before he grants me his consent.
“Our first social season in Town!” Nina sighed.
Miss Tyne was nineteen and possessed an overly optimistic view on life. The daughter of a baron, Nina was expected to make a good match for her family. It was a laudable goal, and the young woman was amenable to her family’s wishes. Regan was confident that Nina would soon have a dozen suitors vying for her affections.
Perhaps some of Nina’s optimism had rubbed off on Regan while they were in school, after all.
“Well, I say it is high time Lord Chillingsworth does his duty by you, and gives you a proper season, Regan. I will have you know that Mama agrees as well.”
She did not have the heart to remind Thea that her mother was the person responsible for Regan’s banishment from London in the first place. Frost would have never thought to send her away to school if it had not been for Lady Karmack’s meddling. He had been too busy pursuing his own amusements to be bothered with giving his sister the education and polish befitting an earl’s daughter.
Lady Karmack, on the other hand, had taken one look at Regan and feared that under the care of her notorious brother, she was destined to become a famous courtesan or, worse, the wife of one of the Lords of Vice. As a distant cousin, the older woman felt it was her Christian duty to remove Regan from her brother’s ghastly influence.
It still hurt that Frost had not fought harder to keep her.
In the beginning, Regan had not appreciated Lady Karmack’s keen interest in her welfare. She had been disrespectful, outrageous, and oftentimes deliberatel
y obtuse when it came to her lessons. The first year away from Frost and the men she considered her family had been the worst, and Regan had not been shy about displaying her anger toward the people who sincerely believed that they were saving her from a life of depravity. It was at Miss Swann’s Academy for Young Ladies that she gradually became friends with Thea and Nina.
Instead of looking down their noses at Regan’s outlandish behavior as many of the other girls had, the two young women had been in awe. No one dared to challenge Miss Swann or speak her mind, yet Regan often did both. The trio had banded together by the end of their first year, and had been nearly inseparable. When Regan had not been sequestered at school, she often spent her summers visiting her friends. If Frost was in residence at the family’s country seat, she joined him. However, their weeks together were usually strained, and, in hindsight, Regan acknowledged that she was often to blame.
In those early years of what she had come to view as her banishment, she had written her brother dozens of letters, begging him to relent and come for her. She missed her old life. She missed Nox and the Lords of Vice. She had often wondered if Dare might kiss her again if she returned to London.
Frost never gave her a chance to satisfy her curiosity.
He always denied her requests. Not one for sentimentality, the only time her brother wrote to her was to tell her that she could not return to London until Miss Swann had transformed the hoyden into a lady. His casual rejections had taken their toll on their relationship, and Regan could not quite forgive Frost for sending her away.
However, she was willing to let bygones be bygones if her brother was willing to be reasonable.
She intended to spend the entire season in London with or without his blessing.
With Lady Karmack on her side this time, Frost was going to find it difficult to dismiss her polite request.
“Will you be remaining at our house or will you join Frost at his town house?” Thea asked.
“My brother undoubtedly will want me to reside with him,” Regan brazenly lied. “However, it might be prudent to remain here until I have had a chance to speak to him.”
After Dark with a Scoundrel Page 2