An Unexpected Pleasure (The Mad Morelands #4)(38)

“Sorry,” Theo said. “I did not mean to startle you. I was in the library, and I heard a noise in here.”

“I—that’s all right. I—I just didn’t expect to see anyone.” Her fingers curled tightly around the key, hiding it in her palm. If he had not seen her take the thing from the drawer, perhaps she could get out of this without being fired from her job—or worse. The room seemed suddenly very dark and far away from everyone else.

“I am sure not,” Theo replied sardonically. “Since you are in my father’s study.”

“I—I was looking for a book to read,” Megan explained. “I could not sleep.”

Theo came into the room, walking around the desk to stand in front of her. He glanced at the bookshelves filled with tomes that lined one wall of the study.

“I think you would have better luck looking in the library,” he commented mildly. “Unless, of course, you are desirous of reading about Ionic columns or Mycenaean art or the layout of the Temple of Hephaestus.”

Megan realized that her excuse was foolish, but it had been the first thing that had sprung into her head. She would simply have to brazen her way out.

“I was looking for something to put me to sleep,” she pointed out with some asperity. She gestured with her empty hand toward the book that lay open on the desk beside her. “I thought this one looked as if it would do the trick.”

As Theo glanced toward the open tome, she slipped the key into the pocket of her skirt.

“It certainly looks it,” Theo agreed easily, adding, “Though I, of course, would find it difficult, as I’m no longer proficient in Greek.”

Megan hid her dismay as she took another look at the book and saw that its pages were covered with indecipherable Greek letters.

“Yes,” she agreed with a casual air. “I decided it would require too much effort to enable me to sleep. Although a text on Hellenic art and architecture might be just the thing.”

“No doubt you are right.”

Megan was certain now that a smile was tugging at the corners of his lips. They were exceedingly well-shaped lips, she thought, and she remembered what they had felt like brushing against her hand.

Firmly she pulled her mind away from such errant thoughts. She could not understand why he should be amused. One would think that he would be angry at catching one of the family’s employees in such a compromising position. The notion that he was laughing at her raised her ire.

“I’m sorry. I fail to see what is amusing,” she told him in her frostiest tone, raising an eyebrow for emphasis.

“I am generally amused at life, I’m afraid,” Theo commented. “I have been told many times that my outlook is not sufficiently serious.”

He took a step closer to her. He was only a foot away from her now, far too close for comfort, and Megan had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

“I—I had better get back to my room,” she said.

“You know,” Theo said, just as if she had not spoken, “there are those who would regard your presence in the duke’s study at this time of night as somewhat suspicious.”

“Suspicious?” Megan asked, drawing herself up and giving him her haughtiest look. “Suspicious in what way, I might ask?”

“Indeed you might.” His lips curved upward as he gazed down into Megan’s face. He put his hands on her arms and slid them up, sending tingles shooting through her. “There are a number of nefarious activities in which you could be engaged. If, of course, you were not such an honest person.”

“Are you impugning my character, sir?” Megan snapped back, indignation coming to her rescue. “Tell me, what ‘nefarious’ thing do you think I am doing, standing here in a room full of books and scholarly papers? Do you suspect that I am going to steal your father’s correspondence? Or perhaps abscond with his research?” She gestured toward the duke’s desk, piled with papers and books.

“I don’t know,” he responded, his eyes lighting in a way that set her heart tripping in its beat. “I think, perhaps, you are guilty of ensnaring me.”

Theo reached up and grazed his forefinger along the line of her jaw. Heat flowered low in her abdomen, unfurling and stretching out. Her breath was suddenly unsteady, and Megan could not look away from his face. She knew she ought to protest, ought to step back and break the contact. But something kept her rooted to the spot.

His other hand came up, cupping her face. Megan looked at him, knowing that he was about to kiss her, but still she could not move away. Indeed, deep down inside her, she knew that she did not want to move away.

He bent and kissed her, his lips grazing hers gently, almost teasingly…once, then twice, then settling into a long, deep kiss. Megan shuddered as yearning and excitement exploded within her.

She had never felt anything quite like this before. Her senses were bombarded with the taste and scent and feel of this man. She felt achingly soft and yielding inside, and something so hot and sweet that it made her want to moan was pulsing between her legs. Almost without volition, her arms went around Theo’s neck, and she clung to him tightly as desire thundered through her. His arm curled around her back, holding her to him like a band of iron as his mouth plundered hers.

Megan was enveloped by his heat. She could scarcely breathe. But she made no move to break away. She wanted nothing but to feel more of the passions raging through her.