“That was incredible,” Edmond murmured.
“I think it was,” she said with a smile. “Do you have many incredible kisses?”
Thinking he would say something flippant, Ester braced herself for it and planned to reply with the appropriate snark.
“I do not,” he said instead with a small frown. “You just might have been my first.”
Oh!That admission warmed her body as if the sun had burst from the sky to cast the night away. He cupped her cheeks with both of his hands and, with a tenderness that startled Ester, pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, then moved his lips to her jaw, to the sensitive flesh of her neck. That pain of longing went through her heart, and she leaned into him with a sigh. They stayed in that embrace for several moments, the night and the wickedness of their embrace surrounding them.
“Do not ever come to the club again, Ester.”
She stiffened. “Edmond—”
“Ever. It is no place for an innocent like you,” he said with steel in his voice. “The debt against your…cousin is forgiven. I do this because we are family. As he cannot stand up for his own actions, I am also barring him from the club.”
Ester nodded hesitantly. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Now go inside, and this madness…we will not repeat it again.”
An ache crowded her throat. “Why not?”
“We do not mix in this manner, Ester.”
“It will be our choice if we do.”
“You belong to a world different than mine. I play and live by rules you would hardly comprehend. Stay away. I will not warn you again.”
Another kiss was pressed to her forehead, and it was as if she felt the regret in that touch. Ester pushed from his lap and hurried away without looking over her shoulder. Once she slipped inside and hurried to her chamber, she buried herself under the coverlets, hugged the pillows to her chest, and fell asleep with a smile.
CHAPTER7
Stay away.
Those had been his words, yet Edmond almost regretted he had ever said them to Ester Fairbanks. Pushing her from his thoughts took far more effort than he had allowed. Almost four nights since that evening in the gardens, the feel of her mouth was still imprinted upon his, the taste of her still an indescribable wonder in his mouth. Nothing replaced that taste, not even eating or drinking several glasses of brandy each night before retiring.
“You seem distracted,” a soft voice murmured, then his sister sidled beside him.
Edmond gripped the edge of the balcony railing, took a silent breath, and pushed that maddening miss from his thoughts. “I am merely thinking.”
“I know what a man lost in thought looks like,” Vi said teasingly, her eyes bright and curious. “I called you no less than three times, and your gaze did not remove from the roulette wheel and Lord Wilcox. I daresay nothing is fascinating there. The house is winning, and you make more money with every spin of the wheel.”
Edmond grunted and shifted his gaze from the gambling floor to his youngest sibling and the most cossetted one of their rowdy family. “Genevieve!”
“My full name,” she said with a throaty chuckle, fisting a hand on her hip and arching a brow. “I gather I am in trouble?”
“What nonsense do you wear?” Edmond growled, staring at the decolletage of her vivid red gown and the shockingly tight fit.
His sister’s eyes sparkled with defiance and gentle humor. “It is a dress, brother.”
“It is a courtesan get-up.”
A pale shoulder that was scandalously bared lifted in an elegant shrug. “It was Miranda who loaned it to me, and sheisthe mistress to an earl. I thought it would be good fun to wear something more…risqué when I sing tonight.”
“No,” he said flatly. “You will change, or you will not sing on that stage.”
She gasped and glared at him, but Edmond only returned her regard with icy indifference.
“I am three and twenty, Edmond! I can make a decision about—”