The Duke Identity (Game of Dukes #1)(25)
Unbidden urges heated Harry’s blood. He was acutely aware of Miss Todd: her delicious scent and nearness, the escalating cadence of her breath. His body’s reaction was instantaneous. Warmth flooded his loins, and he hardened with shocking swiftness.
Devil take it. Get a grip on it, man.
“This time of day I wasn’t expecting...” She sounded flustered. “We can, um, continue on.”
She rushed ahead, and he followed at her heels.
What, precisely, is the extent of the minx’s sexual experience? Since their first meeting, the question had intrigued him. Here was a woman who played with dirty cards, called a brothel home, and took the sight of an orgy in stride. Unlike Celeste, who’d hidden her true nature beneath the mask of an angel, Tessa Todd flaunted her wickedness.
If you willingly drink her poison, you’d be the biggest fool alive, he thought darkly.
“Dash it, I think it’s my father.” Miss Todd’s panicked whisper jerked him back to the present. “He’ll murder me if he finds me here.”
Harry heard it too: male voices, footsteps emerging from the dimness just up ahead.
“Where’s the closest exit?” he said tersely. “Ahead or behind?”
“Behind—”
He wasted no time, trading places with her. “Get us there. Now.”
They dashed back the way they’d come. His pulse thudded as the voices behind them seemed to grow nearer and nearer. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the lick of lamplight against the tunnel wall.
Miss Todd came to a halt. She triggered a mechanism in the wall: a soft click, and the panel opened. They jumped out, Harry sealing the exit shut behind them. He waited, muscles bunched, as the steps paused…directly on the other side of the wall.
A man’s brusque tones filtered through the thin barrier. “Have the Roman orgy atrium cleaned up. They left a mess there last night.”
“Yes, Mr. Todd. Do you want to check the rooms on this floor?”
Harry looked at Miss Todd. Her green eyes were stormy with dread, the pupils dilated.
“Ain’t got time.” Todd’s voice bristled with impatience. “That’s your job, ain’t it?”
“Yes, sir. Beg pardon, sir.”
“Let’s get on with it.”
When the steps moved on, Harry released a breath. He did a quick survey of the hallway. Doors lined one side, a stairwell at the far end.
He said in a low voice, “Can you get us out of here?”
Miss Todd nodded shakily. “We’ll have to take the back stairs.”
One of the doors suddenly opened, voices floating out.
“Come again soon, gents,” a woman’s voice purred from within the room.
A chorus of male laughter. “With you, Sally, we always do.”
Two men emerged into the hallway.
Bloody hell. They would be in the men’s line of sight in an instant—nowhere, no time to hide. The best Harry could do was shield Miss Todd’s body with his own, try to keep her out of the newcomers’ view.
Before he could make the move, fingers slid into his hair. His head jerked, his startled gaze colliding with Miss Todd’s. He saw her determined expression the instant before she raised herself on tiptoe, crushing her mouth to his.
* * *
Kissing Bennett was a risky move.
Yet Tessa didn’t want to have to deal with her grandfather’s wrath if she was discovered here, and this stratagem was the best one to keep her identity concealed. The approaching men would pay no mind to an embracing couple. Bennett obviously agreed with her plan because he crowded her up against the wall, his big body shielding her from view, his mouth covering hers.
She’d seen people kissing, but she’d never done it for herself. She wasn’t certain exactly what she was supposed to do beyond smooshing her lips against Bennett’s. The truth was, having him so close was affecting her ability to think. She was acutely aware of his rigid form pressing into her, his strength and heat, and it was…distracting.
She tried to say something, but his mouth suddenly slanted, and the kiss deepened. Her thoughts blurred to awakening sensations. Bennett kissed the way he seemed to do everything: with focus, intensity, and skill. His lips dragged against hers, firm and velvety, stoking a feverish heat beneath her skin.
He tastes of peppermint, came the nonsensical thought.
Her mind fogged with sultry heat. Of their own accord, her lips parted to take in more of him. He shuddered around her, and, an instant later, she felt a hot, thick invasion between her lips.
Zounds…his tongue was in her mouth.
She’d glimpsed others kissing this way, and she’d thought it absurd (and, frankly, unhygienic), but experiencing it for herself changed her perception altogether. Bennett’s kiss was delicious, thrilling, addictive. He licked inside her, and a spark danced along her spine, igniting a flare between her legs. Her hands clenching in his hair, she tipped her head back, a desperate, silent plea for more.
In the next instant, she was crushed against the wall. Sandwiched against wood and Bennett’s harder length. Her unfettered breasts surged against his granite-hard chest as the kiss caught fire. His mouth consumed her, possessed her, laying claim with each bold thrust of his tongue. He’d taken control over the kiss, yet she felt strangely safe. Protected.