“First, I demand that you tell me why you are pretending to be the Duke of Huntley.”
He muttered a foul curse. “Brianna, do not try my patience any further. Confess why you seek Stefan.”
“Or what?” she demanded. “You will hit me?”
Edmond slowly narrowed his gaze. He was a gentleman who had developed the sort of skills to obtain the information he desired, whether it was from a cutthroat, a corrupt politician or the beautiful wife of a foreign ambassador.
If one method did not work, he was quite adept at changing his tactics.
The fingers gripping her arm eased to run an intimate path upward, lingering on the pulse that raced at the base of her throat. Heat exploded through his body at the feel of her smooth, silky skin. It was just as it promised: heated ivory.
“And mar that beautiful skin?” he demanded, giving in to the impulse that had been raging through him since he had first kissed those lips. With one graceful motion, he had her off her feet and was crossing to the bed. Ignoring her struggles, he tossed her onto the feather mattress and swiftly followed her down to cover her slight frame with his much larger one. “I have a far better means of acquiring what I desire.”
Her eyes were wide, shimmering like the finest emeralds in the firelight, her hair spread over the pillow in a breathtaking cloud of autumn flame.
“Edmond, what are you doing?”
He gave a bemused shake of his head. “When did you become such a beauty, ma souris?”
Scowling in fury, Brianna futilely struggled to wiggle from beneath his large body.
“Damnation, this is not funny.”
Edmond sucked in a sharp breath at the feel of her squirming against his taut muscles. Mon dieu, the minx was driving him mad. How was he supposed to recall that she was currently the enemy when his body was on fire?
Unable to resist temptation, Edmond lowered his head and buried his face in the curve of her neck. He breathed deeply of her lavender scent, shuddering as the tantalizing aroma filled his senses.
This was how a woman was supposed to smell, he realized in startled pleasure. Sweet and feminine, rather than drenched in the cloying perfumes so many ladies preferred.
“Tell me why you are here, Brianna,” he whispered as his lips brushed the hollow beneath her ear.
She gave a soft shriek as her body jerked in reaction to the gentle caress.
“Edmond, halt this at once,” she whispered, her hands clenched in the folds of his cloak.
Closing his eyes to better savor her exquisite taste, Edmond trailed his lips down the line of her jaw.
“Tell me.”
“No.”
He nipped her chin, his hands traveling along the narrow line of her waist and then slowly back up, inching ever nearer the delectable curve of her breasts.
“Brianna, I will not halt until I have the truth.”
The green eyes flashed with fury and a darkening awareness she could not entirely hide.
“I came here to speak with Stefan.”
He stole a brief, possessive kiss, before reluctantly pulling back to regard her with a narrowed gaze.
“Concerning what?”
“Stefan is my guardian. I need him to assert his rights and take me from the home of Mr. Wade.”
“Your stepfather?” Edmond had never met the man who had married Brianna’s mother, Sylvia. He knew little more than that the man was the son of a common butcher who had managed to make a fortune in the West Indies, a social-climbing mushroom who was well beneath the notice of most of the ton. Sylvia had been desperate, he’d supposed, to find the means of paying her gambling debts, and would no doubt have married Beelzebub himself if he’d offered. “Why?”
“That is something I would prefer to discuss with Stefan.”