Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners)(9)

“I do not even have my maid with me!”

He eyed her mockingly. “I do not believe maids or valets are required when a couple decide to go away together.”

She gave another snort. “You do not believe, or you know?”

Dante’s gaze sharpened. “Let us get one thing clear from the onset, Bella. Insulting me will only succeed in annoying me even more than I am already at your intention to disappear from London without my knowledge. Not a wise thing for you to do, in the circumstances.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am offering words of advice.”

“Which, coming from the arrogant Duke of Huntley, sounds distinctly like a threat.”

“Take it in whatever way you wish.” He settled more comfortably in his seat. “I suggest, as we will be traveling for a further two hours, you try to get some rest.”

Bella glared her frustration as Dante folded his arms across that wide chest before closing his eyes and giving every indication of taking his own advice by falling asleep.

It was infuriating. He was infuriating.

Dante’s behavior in spiriting her off into the night was also worrying.

Not that she thought for a moment Dante intended harming her in any way. Indeed, he was a gentleman who had no need to resort to physical domination when a verbal one succeeded so well.

This situation simply made no sense to her. Dante made no sense to her. And yet he seemed to have gone to an awful lot of trouble to remove her from London. Including writing a letter, supposedly from her, implying the two of them were involved in an affair.

What possible reason could he have for such behavior?

Whatever it was, she acknowledged with a glare across the carriage at his sleeping form, he obviously had no intention of satisfying her curiosity quite yet.



“Time to wake up, Bella.” Dante gently shook her shoulder.

Despite what Bella might have thought to the contrary earlier, Dante had not been asleep but had merely closed his eyes to put an end to a conversation that was going round and round in the same never-ending circle.

Within minutes of his doing so, he knew by the even tenor of Bella’s breathing that she had fallen asleep, giving him opportunity to study her without censure or interruption.

Her cloak was wrapped about her securely in the cool of the night, but she had removed her bonnet, revealing slightly disheveled and glossy black curls. Her face appeared ethereally pale in the lamplight, and her closed lids meant he could no longer see those deep brown eyes. Neither detracted from the beauty of her smooth complexion, high cheekbones, pert nose, and full and slightly parted lips.

Dante’s cock had surged to attention merely from looking at her.

He had continued to observe her, and suffer that increasingly painful and hard throb of his erection, until they arrived the predicted two hours later at the inn Dante frequented whenever he traveled this way. Realizing he needed to rouse Bella from her slumber, Dante signaled his groom to wait before opening the carriage door.

The blank look in Bella’s eyes when she opened her lids and saw Dante sitting beside her was proof she was slightly disorientated, by both his presence and her surroundings.

That emotion was quickly dispelled the moment she obviously recalled where she was and whom she was with. She sat up straighter as she also realized the carriage was no longer moving. “Have we arrived?”

“At the inn, yes.” Dante nodded. “A bedchamber, a decanter of brandy, hot water for washing, and a light supper have already been prepared and are waiting for us inside.” He had sent word ahead earlier this evening as to when the innkeeper might expect their arrival.

Deep brown eyes widened. “A single bedchamber?”

“But it does have the benefit of a large bed,” he drawled.

Bella did not care if the bedchamber possessed the hugest bed in creation, she was not sharing it with Dante St. Just. It was preposterous for him to have assumed she would. Preposterous and typical of his bloody arrogance. “I really must protest—”

“Then could you do so once we have reached our bedchamber?” the duke answered in a bored voice. “It has been a long day, and I am in need of a glass or two of the landlord’s excellent brandy before I have to listen to any more of your chastisements.”

Her mouth thinned. “If you had not decided to kidnap me, you would not need to listen to me at all!”

“True,” he drawled. “But it is a price I am willing to pay for the prospect of the two of us spending a night in bed together.”

Bella breathed out noisily. “I think you have taken this ridiculous charade quite far enough. It is now time that you told me exactly why you have removed me from London against my will. The real reason,” she added pointedly.

Huntley’s expression became guarded as he looked at her between hooded lids. “You doubt my desire for you?”

She eyed him scathingly. “With good reason.”

“On the contrary.” He took one of her gloved hands in his and placed it against the front of his pantaloons.

Bella gave a shocked gasp, and her cheeks blazed with warmth as she felt the long length of Dante’s hot and erect cock straining beneath the material. “That is— I do not—”

“But I do,” Huntley derided. “Obviously.”

She snatched her hand away as she realized she had allowed her palm to linger against the hot, pulsing length of his cock. “Why did you do that?”