The Earl with the Secret Past

by Janice Preston

  ‘Get down!’

  She struggled against his pull and he tugged harder until she overbalanced and landed on top of him, face to face. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her still even as she wriggled, trying to free herself.

  ‘Stop fighting me, Kitty.’

  She raised her head and captured his gaze, her grey eyes wide with shock. ‘That was a gunshot, Adam. Whoever it is needs to know we are here, or we might get hit.’ She struggled to bring her hands between them and began to push against his chest, trying to free herself.

  Adam tightened his grip, clenching his jaw against the pain. Kitty’s eyes widened further.

  ‘You’re hurt! Adam!’ She struggled again to free herself.

  He forced his words between his gritted teeth. ‘Be still, Kitty. Please.’

  His arm burned and stung like the devil, but he was certain the bullet had just grazed him and had not lodged inside. Kitty lay still, breathing fast, her head on his chest, her hair tickling him under his chin.

  At any other time...in different circumstances...

  He swatted the thought aside. This was hardly the time to be lusting after her. Cautiously, he lifted his head and scanned the woods, about twenty yards distant. There was no sign of anyone, no movement, no sound. He frowned. Could it have been poachers? But why would poachers be out in a thunderstorm? Granted, there would be a lack of keepers or other estate workers around, but surely the wildlife would also take shelter at such a time.

  ‘I can’t see anyone. Or any movement,’ he said. ‘Hopefully your shout scared whoever it was away.’

  ‘Robert will be furious about this...he will find who is responsible,’ Kitty said. She had also raised her head and she captured Adam’s gaze again. ‘Where are you hit?’

  ‘It’s a scratch. Nothing more. It stings a bit, but I’ll live.’

  His brain ordered his arms to release Kitty, but the message was ignored. Now he had her in his embrace, he wanted to keep her there. For ever. His gaze moved to her mouth and, as her lips parted to release a faint gasp, he fought the urge to kiss her. He forced his gaze back to hers. Her eyes had darkened and his hand had started its glide up between her shoulder blades to cradle her head—to hold her ready for his kiss—by the time sanity returned. He halted that movement of his hand.

  ‘It was most likely an accident, but we should not take any chances,’ he said. He rolled her off him and instantly breathed easier. ‘I will see if it is safe. Stay there. Do not under any circumstances move, or even raise your head.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘And do not argue!’

  Kitty scowled. ‘You are the one who is injured! You should be the one to lie still while I see if it is safe.’

  His heart melted. She had always been full of courage and spirit. It was one of the things he had loved about her. ‘Kitty...allow me to do this. Please. Allow me to protect you this time.’

  Her scowl smoothed over and she stilled. Then she nodded. Adam rolled on to his side, facing the woods where the shot had come from, then propped himself up on one elbow. Kitty grabbed his hand and he glanced back at her.

  ‘Take care,’ she whispered.

  There was still nothing to be seen and no further shots. Adam sat up. Then stood. Nothing happened. He bent, holding out his hands to Kitty.

  ‘I think he...they...have gone.’

  He’d forgotten his injury in the tension of the moment and, as he pulled Kitty to her feet, his arm shrieked in protest and he could not disguise his wince. Kitty gasped.

  ‘Adam! All that blood. You said it was a scratch.’ Her small fist punched his other arm, punctuating her words.

  ‘Steady, or I’ll end up with both arms out of action.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Kitty stepped closer and, in one swift movement, she tore his bloodied shirt sleeve apart to expose the wound. ‘We need to get you home and clean that up,’ she said. She slipped one arm around his waist. ‘Put your uninjured arm around my shoulders.’

  ‘There’s no need, Kitty. I’m quite capable of walking unaided.’

  ‘Adam...’ She fixed him with a stern look. ‘You have suffered a shock and you have lost blood. Lean on me.’

  It didn’t take them long to reach the house. Kitty led the way to the same side room where they had taken the flowers and pushed Adam down on to a chair.

  ‘Stay there. Take off your shirt while I fetch hot water.’

  She hurried from the room. Adam stood up again to pull his shirt free from his breeches, then stripped it off over his head. It was ruined anyway—beyond repair, even if the bloodstains could be removed—so he dropped it on the flagged floor. Then he sat down again and examined his upper arm. He sucked in a sharp breath as he probed the groove gouged out by the bullet with the fingers of his left hand. His right hand gripped the edge of the chair seat as pain spiked through him.

  ‘Don’t touch it!’

  Adam looked up as Kitty bustled into the room, carrying a bowl of water and with a linen towel draped over one arm. He straightened, his hand dropping away from his wound to grip the opposite edge of his seat, bracing himself for the pain he knew must come. But Kitty halted before she reached him, her eyes widening as her gaze travelled across his chest and his upper arms. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and heat flooded him as his blood quickened. Her eyes dropped lower and that blood surged to his groin. He shut his eyes, willing his body back under control, desperately forcing his thoughts on to the question of who had been shooting out in the woods in a thunderstorm and away from what he would like to do to Kitty...with Kitty...right here. Right now.

  ‘Adam...?’

  He opened his eyes at her soft enquiry. She’d set the bowl on the table and now stood close enough to touch...close enough for her scent to envelop him. Need overcame judgement and he reached for her, sliding one hand around her slender waist as he searched her expression.

  Too soon, you fool. You’ll scare her off.

  But she was the one who acted, stepping even closer and cupping his cheek.

  ‘I can’t bear that you’re hurt,’ she whispered. ‘I need... I just...’ She sucked in a quick breath. ‘You could have been killed.’

  She stroked lightly down the side of his face and along his jaw until her fingers rested on his lips, which parted without volition. He closed his eyes once more, the soft sough of her breaths stirring his blood as her light citrus scent wove through his senses. One finger entered his mouth and he closed his teeth gently on it. The soft moan that escaped her had him hard, and hot, and heavy in an instant. He tightened his hold and pulled her on to his lap and their lips met in a fiery, urgent kiss, all hungry lips and duelling tongues as their quiet moans mingled.

  She cradled his head, her fingers tangling in his hair as she pressed against him, her curves moulding to him, driving him wild. He shifted her, bending her back over his uninjured arm, allowing access to her breasts. His fingers explored her neckline, unbuttoning her bodice and gradually working her gown off one shoulder until he could release one breast from her stays.

  Oh, God! His fingers closed around perfection, her skin satiny as the firm globe filled his hand, her nipple taut against his palm. Adam bent to her breast and drew that nipple into his mouth. Her hands fisted in his hair and she arched as he flicked that hard bud with his tongue, then suckled. Her soft moans drove him wild...he slowly tightened his embrace, raising her as he trailed open-mouthed kisses from her breast to her neck and again to her mouth, savouring the taste of those lush lips, holding her close to him, relishing the softness of her breasts as they pressed against his bare chest.

  Then her hands were between them, palms flat against his chest, pushing him away, and he released her, the madness and urgency fading to be replaced by regret that he had so readily succumbed to temptation so soon after vowing to court Kitty slowly. From the beginning.

 
‘Kitty?’

  The look she cast him was stricken. Guilty. Ashamed. His heart clenched at the thought she was ashamed of her response to him. He began to wrap his arms around her again, until a searing pain reminded him of his injury. He gritted his teeth against making a sound, but Kitty had noticed, for she took hold of his forearms and gently moved them to release her. As soon as he released his hold again, she scrambled from his lap.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Shame flooded Kitty as she adjusted her neckline and made herself respectable. Adam was injured. She was meant to be caring for him but, instead, she had as good as ravished him.

  The fear of what could have happened had that shot hit a more vital spot had overridden any other consideration. No. It had overridden every other consideration. Her only thought...no, not even a thought...her only instinct had been to assure herself that he was safe. Unhurt. And to be close to him, physically.

  That fear still lurked, her heart still pounding as she hurried to the cupboard where she kept strips of clean cloth and grabbed a handful together with the flask of brandy she also kept in there and returned to the table. She soaked one strip in the still warm water and squeezed it out. Only then did she allow herself to look at Adam. His blue eyes—bright and direct—fused with hers and she swallowed at the heat banked in them—heat that confirmed he still found her attractive. But Adam had been attracted to her before, even spoken words of love—which he now claimed he meant—but that hadn’t stopped him breaking her heart.

  That unexpected surge of desire within her...that sudden compulsion to touch Adam, to kiss him...had shaken her to her core. What did this mean for them? Was she really foolish enough to risk her heart again for the sake of physical desire? Better, surely, to continue to protect herself and avoid any further hurt. She had learned the hard way that men could not be trusted. Her father. Adam. Even Edgar—kind, benign Edgar—had hurt her, without meaning to...whittling away her confidence with his gentle comparisons with the perfect Veronica. No. She had no wish to again place her life in the power of any man so she would never marry again. And she mustn’t forget that Adam would need an heir and she could not give him one. So any deeper relationship than friendship could never be permanent.

  ‘That gash needs cleansing,’ she said. ‘It will hurt, I dare say, but there is no other way.’

  He shrugged his broad shoulders, causing the muscles in his chest to ripple in a most fascinating way. Kitty set her jaw and dragged her attention to the wound in his upper arm. She frowned, bending to peer closer.

  ‘There are fibres stuck in there, from your shirt.’

  His hand came up as if to probe the gash again and, without thinking, she grabbed it.

  ‘I said do not touch.’

  Adam’s fingers closed around hers, sending sparks tingling up her arm, and Kitty abruptly straightened, catching her breath, her heart racing as he raised her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it.

  ‘I’ll behave.’ His voice a husky murmur that sent heat washing through her body in waves. ‘Do your worst.’

  Kitty swallowed again, her knees jittery, and she prayed her hand wouldn’t shake. With her left hand on his shoulder, she bent again so she could see what she was doing.

  ‘Wait!’

  Adam stood up, so close the heat emanating from his bare chest did nothing to cool Kitty’s blood, and neither did the close-up view of those crisply curling hairs that spread across his chest like outspread wings, then arrowed in towards the waist of his breeches. She dragged in a breath to calm herself, but only succeeded in flooding her senses with his scent: musky, spicy, manly. She stepped back, almost stumbling in her haste, and his hands shot out to grip her shoulders.

  ‘I am sorry. I startled you.’

  His voice and words were so matter of fact they steadied her and she looked up at him. Their gazes fused again...but he appeared unaware of her visceral reaction. There was no knowing gleam in his eyes, no raised eyebrow, no quirk of those sensual lips to ruffle her anger and help her maintain her guard. He, unlike her, appeared totally unaffected.

  ‘It will be easier if I sit on the table. You will not have to bend and there will be better light from the window on to my arm.’

  ‘Yes. I...yes, of course. That is a good plan.’

  Adam rounded the table and hoisted himself up to sit on it, the muscles in his arms bulging as he raised his body.

  Without volition, Kitty licked her lips. ‘That is an improvement.’

  And it was, as far as cleansing the gash was concerned, but it also put that chest on a level with Kitty’s eyes and mouth. His nipples—and their flat, dusky areolae surrounded by whorls of hair—proved yet another distraction.

  Resolutely, Kitty tore her attention from the expanse of bare male skin and directed it at that gouge caused by the bullet. And the very thought of the bullet quashed any further lustful thoughts. Someone had shot at Adam. Her heart stuttered and her mouth dried. Who could it have been? And why? Her mind tumbling with conjecture, Kitty steadied Adam’s arm with her free hand as she bathed the wound, sluicing water through it to wash it clean of dirt and fibres.

  ‘Do you think it was deliberate?’ she asked as she worked. Adam sucked in a sharp breath. ‘Sorry. I am trying to be gentle.’

  ‘I know you are. And...’

  Kitty paused her ministrations when Adam failed to continue, her gaze flicking to his frowning face. ‘Well? Do you?’

  Adam’s brows rose. ‘Yes. I do. It makes no sense otherwise. No poacher would be out in a thunderstorm—he would know the animals have more sense than to be out and about in such weather. And the same goes for gamekeepers. I dinna wish to alarm ye, but I can think of no explanation other than one of us was the target. And, of the two of us, I would say that I am the more likely, would you not?’

  Kitty bit her lip, considering, pleased that he had answered her honestly.

  ‘Ye have to think about that?’ Adam tipped his head to one side. ‘Why on earth would anyone wish to shoot at you?’

  ‘Oh! No! That is not what I was thinking about. It is... I was thinking how refreshing that you have admitted that to me. Most other gentlemen would try to hide the truth...they believe that ladies ought to be protected from the harsh realities of life, that their sensibilities are too delicate to cope with being told the truth. But you...you answered my question with a direct answer. Thank you.’

  Adam’s eyes narrowed as he studied Kitty and her face heated at his scrutiny. But she held his gaze. She made her mind up there and then. She would keep strong those barriers surrounding her heart, so that he could never hurt her again, but she would be his friend and be honest with him, as long as he treated her as an intelligent being and not as a grown-up child to be sheltered and humoured.

  Adam smiled then and Kitty’s heart leapt even though she silently scolded herself for her foolishness. But he was so handsome. So masculine. He stirred her blood in a way that no one had since...no. She must be honest with herself as well. No one had ever stirred her blood like this, not even Adam when they had known each other fifteen years before. She had been too young, maybe, to fully understand the full depth of the sensual attraction that could exist between a man and a woman. Her marriage to Edgar had never been one of passion and it was only now—at the age of two-and-thirty—that her body was awakening to the full potential of sexual attraction between a man and a woman. Lust and the promise of physical fulfilment. And far from being shocked at herself, as she had been mere moments before, she was now intrigued.

  She turned away, to give herself time to compose her features now that this new understanding of herself—not to mention these new, hitherto unsuspected feelings thrumming through her—had seemingly sprung from nowhere. Was she strong enough...brazen enough?...to explore physical desire without risking her heart? Men managed to keep the two separate—look at Adam just now. Utterly unaffected while sh
e was a jittery mess. Many women, both widowed and unhappily married, indulged in affaires. But...could she? Uncertainty swept through her. Now the idea had occurred to her, however...did she not owe it to herself to at least consider it?

  She took her time, picking up the flask and unscrewing the top before she faced Adam again. He still watched her, his eyes alert. Intent. A faint crease between his brows.

  ‘This will sting,’ she said.

  He took the flask from her hand and raised it to his mouth, taking a swig. ‘For fortification,’ he said. ‘And it is good for shock.’

  She stepped closer, her skirts brushing his leg, his musky scent creating strange sensations within her as it coiled into her depths, awakening all her senses.

  ‘Keep still,’ she whispered and placed one hand on his shoulder as she trickled the spirit on to his wound. He stiffened, but made no sound, and she glanced up at him, capturing his gaze. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and his gaze lowered to her mouth. Then, and only then, a low groan emerged, seemingly wrenched from deep within his chest.

  ‘Kitty...’

  His throaty growl reached deep inside her, grabbing and squeezing. She gasped as heat spiralled through her and an aching need gathered in the feminine folds between her thighs.

  This is desire. This is lust.

  All thought of guarding her heart fled. Excitement thrummed through her as she moved between his legs and pressed close, tilting her face to his, aware of every tiny change in his expression—the flare of his nostrils; the unmistakeable craving in those dark eyes; the slight compression of those sensual lips before they relaxed, parting as he hauled in a ragged breath.

  Long fingers curled behind her head, taking a fistful of hair as he angled her face to his.

  ‘May I kiss you, Kitty?’ A tortured whisper.

  ‘Yes. Please.’

  He lowered his face to hers, until their lips met. Not a kiss of uncontrolled passion—not the frantic onslaught she craved...a kiss like before, a kiss she could lose herself in—but a gentle caress as his lips glided over hers. And she lost herself anyway, her eyes closing as every nerve in her body homed in on the meeting of their mouths. Then his tongue traced the seam of her lips and she opened to him. Adam gave a groan and his tongue swept inside.