“You sound nervous.”
She realized she twisted her gloved hands. On a shaky breath, she lowered her hands to her sides. “I am.”
Beneath the staccato conversation, attraction swirled and eddied. Luring Antonia to hurl herself at him and beg him to show her heaven. She’d long ago recognized something was wrong with her. Safe, good, sensible men never roused her interest. Only dangerous men made her heart beat faster.
Her soul was black with sin.
Sin had never looked so beautiful as it did in the person of Nicholas Challoner, Marquess of Ranelaw. The curling golden hair so striking against his dark skin. The remarkable face that concealed as much as it revealed. The black eyes sparkling with challenge and wickedness. And self-deprecating humor that might just prove his salvation.
He folded his arms across his chest. The curling brim of his hat shadowed his features and he wore a greatcoat that reached his ankles. “You’re early.”
She nodded jerkily. The continuing distance between them fed her disquiet. She’d imagined he’d lash his arms around her and save her from thinking. When he touched her, she could forget she broke every rule of propriety and morality. And common sense.
“So are you.”
A sardonic smile tilted his long mouth. “Blame my eagerness.”
He didn’t sound eager. He sounded watchful, predatory. She’d taken an uncertain step back before she realized it betrayed her turmoil. The smile deepened, developed an unsettling element of seduction.
“I’m not going to eat you,” he murmured. “Or at least not until I get you into bed.”
She blushed. Unlike most unmarried women of her class, she knew exactly what he meant. Another of those shivers, half excitement, half terror, rippled through her. She raised a trembling hand to her chest, where her heart drummed so hard, it was as if it wanted to escape her body.
She felt drunk on a heady brew of desire and uncertainty.
He loomed closer, sliding his hands behind her head. Her skin heated under that fiery touch. “No spectacles today?”
Her body yearned toward him. “You know what I look like.”
He stared at her as if he’d never seen her. “I know you’re beautiful.”
“Nicholas . . .” she whispered, helpless against the possessive light in his eyes. She strained up against his hold, wanting to kiss him more than she wanted to live. “Don’t mock me.”
“You take my breath away.”
“I wish you’d take my breath away,” she said with a hint of pique. He was supposed to be crazy for her. Yet he treated her as though she was spun glass.
The fascinating lines beside his eyes deepened with amusement. “You’ve become very demanding.”
She made an irritated sound and stretched to press her mouth to his. For one giddy moment, she tasted the moist warmth of his breath, the satiny firmness of his lips. His tongue flicked out to touch hers. She sighed and leaned into him. Then, incredibly, he withdrew.
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
With a wry laugh, he tugged her behind a moss-covered mausoleum, cracked and neglected like most of the monuments. She stumbled as he backed her against the cold, damp marble.
“God damn you, Antonia, I’m trying to act the civilized man.”
“Why?” she whispered, curling her hand around one powerful shoulder.
He snatched her hand, bared the pale skin at her wrist, and kissed it. The brush of his mouth made her quiver with need. He spoke in a low, urgent tone. As if someone might overhear. “We’re not safe. I’ve got a carriage waiting. How long can you stay?”
The word stay blazed through her like lightning. Because even if he asked her, she couldn’t stay with him. This was one night snatched from the jaws of time.
Her voice shook. “Cassie’s staying with the Merriweathers so she can attend Lady Northam’s musicale tonight and the Parrys’ Venetian breakfast tomorrow.” Luckily Cassie had become fast friends with Suzannah Merriweather. Mrs. Merriweather had agreed to supervise Cassie’s outings when Antonia claimed illness prevented her from fulfilling her duties.
“The servants?”
“Cassie’s maid went with her. I gave the others the evening off. They’re used to me fending for myself.” She knew she took a crazy risk, that an overzealous maid might still check on her or some emergency with Cassie could require her presence. But even after weighing the dangers, the lure of one final taste of Nicholas’s magic was too strong to resist.