Saving the Scientist (The Restitution League #2)(56)
There was something highly potent in his coupling with Ada. An energy more powerful than mere passion had sunk its claws into him.
He rolled his shoulders back. The thought made him cringe. Getting leg-shackled wasn’t high on his list of life accomplishments.
Not that he’d have to concern himself. At the end of the day, he might have awoken Ada’s passion, but he wouldn’t be the one to keep it stoked.
With her quick mind and her social station, Ada Templeton was as far out of his realm as a dukedom.
Which was as it should be. A woman as kind and sensitive as Ada deserved better than his hollowed out hulk.
It was only a matter of time before she came to the same realization.
“We should go,” he announced.
“Go where?”
“Our house in Pimlico. It’s easily defended. We could all use a hot meal and a good night’s sleep.”
Ada’s gaze moved to the open door. “What about the boy?”
“We’ll take him. Meena’ll find something to keep him busy until we have this business done.” Edison strove to present a brisk, businesslike demeanor.
Ada nodded.
Edison thought he might have seen a flicker of hurt cross her face. Or maybe it had been a hunger pang. He sighed. He could spot a prevaricator a mile off, but the secrets of the female heart were a complete mystery.
“After you,” he said, and ushered her toward the door.
When they exited into the main office, he had the distinct sense that the others were staring.
They were. Every one of them was staring, the new boy included.
Edison rubbed the back of his neck. “What?” he growled. “Shouldn’t we get back to the house and eat?”
“I imagine Mrs. Templeton would like to change first,” Meena pointed out.
Edison glanced back at Ada in her charwoman’s rags. “Right.”
Meena held up Ada’s dark gray dress. “I thought you might want something less… odiferous. The rest of your things are in the carriage.”
Ada smiled. “I’m sure you’d all appreciate it as well.”
Briar laughed. “I couldn’t wait to get out of those gin-soaked things. Cabbage isn’t nearly as bad.”
“I’ll help you change.” Meena gestured for Ada to precede her up the stairs to the apartment above.
Shoulders slumped, Ada followed his cousin without sparing him the slightest glance.
He winced. She had to be tired. Tired and hungry and sick of his bullock-brained self.
The boy was leaning back in his chair, feet on the desk. He crossed his arms behind his head. “You’re not the best spoken of the lot, are ye?”
Crane coughed, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth. Nelly and Briar tried to hide their grins behind their hands.
Edison frowned up at the landing as Meena and Ada glided off down the hallway above.
Of all the times for his charm to desert him.
They were coming down to it. He and his league would catch the villain, and Mrs. Ada Templeton would go on to the fame and fortune she deserved.
He’d been hoping for a few more intimate encounters first.
Extraordinary woman like Ada didn’t grow on trees. If she gave him the least opportunity, he’d take it.
Not that he was doing anything to help his case.
*
Songbirds chirped outside the window of her borrowed bedroom. Their cheerful commotion only aggravated Ada’s dark mood. The sunlight did help, either. It forced its way through a chink in the drapes, shining merrily, suggesting last night’s fog had burned away.
Ada sighed. Stifling gloom better suited her thoughts.
She gripped the open doors of the wardrobe and glared at the pitiful collection of gowns.
The blue satin called to her.
She ached to feel that sensual power again, wanted to flaunt her bare skin, to force Edison to recall the passion, the raw lust, they’d shared just yesterday.
Sensual matters were far out of her sphere of existence, but even with her lack of experience, she knew he’d felt it too.
Why, then, had he been so distant last night? Was that simply the way of men, to slake their thirst and move on?
She couldn’t believe that. Not when every caress, every sigh, every moan remained so fresh in her own mind.
Ada tapped her thumb against the door of the wardrobe. The blue satin mocked her. What if all that passion, all that daring and boldness was generated by a bolt of cloth and some silk undergarments?
And now, like an actress leaving the stage, it was time to shed her alter ego and return to boring old Ada Templeton, too scientifically minded to be a desirable woman.
Ada wrenched her perfectly serviceable, perfectly comfortable, perfectly dull gray dress off of its hanger and held it up to the morning light.
Ugly. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
She tossed it on the bed and eyed the three other gowns hanging in the wardrobe.
Except for the borrowed satin, the rest were even duller than the gray.
Ada glared down at the offending dress. If only they’d all catch fire. Then Cherise’s gown would be the only choice.
But there was an alternative.
Ada rushed over to the chest of drawers next to the wardrobe. The underthings. No reason she couldn’t sport the silk stockings, the whisper-thin chemise and the delicious satin corset.
She unwrapped her dressing gown and stepped into the luxurious underthings. The same way the thick steel case of her battery hid a riotous soup of chemical energy, her outer shell might suggest calm and decorum, but her inner layer would channel the bold, sensual woman she’d played for those few brief hours.