Midnight Temptations With a Forbidden Lord (6 page)

The spark of mischief in his eyes told her that he was clearly up to something. What the something was, she couldn’t guess. But it was a look she often wore when she’d decided upon a specific goal. And wasn’t that the crux of her unsettlement right there? He was using a tactic she had perfected when she wanted something from someone. She didn’t like the tables turned in this instance. She wanted complete control in the game she was to play with the marquess.

Thank goodness she’d decided to just explain what she wanted from him. Which was more than necessary considering that what they were doing now felt oddly like courting … No, that was too innocent a word for the tension building between them. She knew very well that she was in the midst of her very first seduction. So who was the seducer? She or the marquess?

“What’s that, deary?” Lord Chester practically shouted; his one catlike hazel eye focused on her.

She hadn’t even been the one to say anything, but she answered him regardless, a bit too loudly. “I’ve never had a better mint sauce on lamb.”

The whole table heard her for they looked in her direction. There were a few sympathetic glances offered her way. Charlotte gave a weak smile and ducked her head. Dinner couldn’t end fast enough. They were already on the third course. How many more were to be served?

“You don’t like steamed clams, eh? Good that we’re a bit far from the coast to make it a regularity with the meal.”

Charlotte barely held back her laughter. Tears burned the back of her eyes as she turned away from Lord Chester with a smile on her face. She didn’t have the heart to correct him.

“So true, my lord.” She cut into her lamb.

When she glanced across the table, the marquess’s gaze snared hers. He returned her smile, but there was an intense desire burning so close to the surface that it had her breath catching in her lungs and her fork stilling halfway to her mouth.

She realized right then that she needn’t worry about finding the marquess after dinner. He would be the one to seek her company, judging by the way he was staring at her. She licked a bit of mint sauce from her lips, then dabbed at her mouth with her napkin.

The marquess’s gaze seemed darker and so much more dangerous than before, as if he were a great tiger stalking closer to his prey. Only she didn’t feel hunted, she felt empowered by that all-consuming gaze because she had a leg up in the game she had devised.

She put her fork down, quite sated with food, and leaned back against her chair. She ran her fingers over the pearls about her neck and pretended not to notice the marquess’s gaze fixed upon her.

*   *   *

She was a she-devil, and she had no inkling that she was playing with fire. Tristan liked this new side to the Ponsley chit. Had he ever met a debutante so sure of herself? He’d certainly never been acquainted with anyone quite like Lady Charlotte. She was bold and daring, willing to toss her hand in and let the odds fall to her favor because she was so self-confident. Those were some of Jez’s traits, and part of the reason they got on so famously. Only, he wasn’t as intrigued by Jez as he was by Lady Charlotte …

“Miss Camden,” he said, helping his companion slide out of her chair as dinner concluded. “It’s been a great pleasure chatting with you over dinner.” He leaned in close. “Do leash that braggart on the other side of you. He gets away with far too much as it is.”

Miss Camden gave him a measuring look and quirked her brow. “I can’t say for sure if our conversation has been enlightening or frightening.”

“A little of both, I daresay.” With a parting wink, he turned in search of his quarry, knowing the men would not stay at the table but adjourn to the study after finger desserts were served in the parlor with the ladies.

Lady Charlotte found him before he made it three steps from the dinner parlor. The friend she was always with was in tow; he was positive she was the daughter of the gossip, Lady Hargrove. She was pretty, he supposed, with her cherub-round face and loose blonde curls that highlighted the porcelain tone of her skin. Her eyes were blue and bright, her brows and lashes an unfortunate shade of white on her fair skin.

“Allow me to introduce you both,” Lady Charlotte said.

His attention was immediately riveted to Lady Charlotte’s wry smile as she turned her focus on her friend.

“Ariel, this is the Marquess of Castleigh, not that you hadn’t figured it out.” She turned to him, her smile still devilish. “Lord Castleigh, this is my dearest friend, Miss Ariel Evans.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” he said with a bow to both ladies. “Did you find dinner as satisfying as I did?” The question was directed to Lady Charlotte but he looked at Ariel, including her in their conversation.

“It wasn’t quite fulfilling and left me hungry for more.”

The spark of trouble in Lady Charlotte’s eyes unsettled him. What kind of
more
did she refer to?

“Can I interest you in a game of chess?” Charlotte suggested.

“Why don’t I accompany you?” Lady Ariel said far too innocently.

He wasn’t given a choice in the matter as Lady Ariel practically ushered them away from the parlor and toward the doors to another room far removed from everyone else’s company. The room was rather private and would allow them to talk freely.

The Carletons’ house was grander than any other in the row of houses this side of Mayfair. Perhaps because it was a corner house much like Hayden’s at the opposite end of the street. The parlor they’d been in earlier was the first room off the foyer. The marble floors they traversed met a rich oak hardwood floor that led a path to the other rooms on the main floor. He was intimate with the layout since he’d been here many times as a child.

There were five rooms on the main level. The parlor and dining room, the library and study, and an intimate sitting room that couldn’t house more than half a dozen people. That was where Lady Carleton took her tea in the morning since the windows faced both the street and the back garden. And that seemed to be where Lady Charlotte was leading their small party. He followed without comment.

Lady Charlotte was the first to enter the sitting room; she made herself comfortable on a damask chair. Tristan motioned inside the room, allowing Ariel to precede him. The young lady busied herself with the bookshelf recessed into the wall, browsing over the spines with her forefinger. Tristan shut the door behind them and found himself a seat across from Lady Charlotte.

One of the young ladies must have been in here already, because sure enough, there was a chessboard set up and ready to go. She really did intend a game of chess. He nearly laughed.

“You surprise me, Lady Charlotte.”

She reached forward for one of the white pawns and moved it up two spaces on the board. “Your play, my lord.”

“Are you referring to the chess game or something else entirely?” he asked.

“You haven’t figured out my purpose?” She nibbled on her bottom lip, the action belying her certainty of the situation they now found themselves in. “I thought you better practiced in such games.”

Tristan scooted forward on the seat and leaned closer to her so that he’d not have to shout across the table and have her friend hearing every word of their conversation. “The only question I have is what do you gain by attracting my attention and favor?”

He moved a pawn forward, baring his king.

“We come back to women being mysterious creatures, Lord Castleigh. We must have some secrets to intrigue the other sex.” Lady Charlotte tapped her finger against her dampened lip in thought and focused on the board. When her eyes met his again, she said, “How would we get on in the world without our feminine wiles?”

When she reached in to move her next piece, he took hold of her wrist, trapping her hand above the board. He felt her pulse at the tips of his fingers; her skin was soft, delicate … tempting. “You can burn yourself playing with fire.”

She sat on the edge of her seat and stared back at him, daring him to say or do more. God, he wanted to do something she wouldn’t expect, like kiss those full lips and press her back into the chair as he took possession of her mouth. Anything to make her speechless even for a moment because she was far too brazen for a debutante; for the first time in his life, he couldn’t quite figure out this particular woman’s purpose.

And worse, he wanted to figure her out.

“But I’m the one wielding all the matches so you needn’t be worried about the flames just yet,” she said.

Narrowing his eyes, he released her reluctantly. Lady Charlotte might be young, but she was no fool.

After they had both had a few turns, she moved her rook behind her pawn.

“Let us speak plainly, Lady Charlotte.”

“By all means, though I was under the impression that we were already doing so.” She motioned toward their game, indicating he should make his next move.

“I’m not a man easily taken advantage of. Nor will I be fooled into marriage…”

He moved his bishop to block his king.

“It’s not marriage I’m after.”

“What makes you think I’m willing to play along with someone so untried? You can’t possibly understand the consequences in this amusement you’ve devised.”

“Then I should give you a proposition you simply cannot refuse.”

She played another move, giving him time to line up his queen in a position of power. “What makes you think you can offer me something that will trump sound judgment?”

Which was a lie, she could tempt him to hell and back, he was sure, but the chit was too smart for her own good and played a game of intrigue better than any experienced widow he’d had the pleasure of knowing.

There was the matter concerning Mr. Warren that he fully intended to sort out with her help, but showing all his cards in their first real conversation wouldn’t do. He was enjoying it far too much. It was better to have an intelligent lady with whom to spend your time than one who knew only how to flatter her opponent to death.

He liked a freethinking woman and wondered what she’d be like in ten years’ time, even five years from now. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d be able to twist her meanings and words enough to have him second-guessing her more than he did now.

“Perhaps I have nothing you want just yet. But you have followed me away from the party to share a moment of privacy with me, even though we are occupied over a game of chess and not indulging in more delectable pursuits.” She leaned in closer; the soft scent of lilacs tickled his nose and drew him like a bee to nectar. “I’m sure you haven’t failed to notice that the only thing standing in the way of my complete ruin is my friend’s presence.”

She looked in the direction of said friend. Tristan turned his head, spying Lady Ariel with an open book in her lap and a glint in her sharp gaze that was equally as dangerous as Lady Charlotte’s. Had he ever met two women who were better matched?

“Life is not a game of chance, my lady.” He took her knight with his queen.

She covered a bored yawn with her gloved hand. “It most certainly is. I have no intention of living blandly through the motions of life. I will enjoy everything it has to offer to the fullest.”

“By courting danger, you risk the freedom to experience everything life has to offer. Most women wait till they’re married for this type of … extracurricular activity.”

“And I’m not most women, my lord.”

Her bishop took his pawn, and he saw then how the board was lined up in her favor and smiled. When was the last time he’d lost a game of chess? Never, he was sure.

“Indeed, you are not.” He claimed her knight knowing it would not be enough to save the game. “Check.”

“It wouldn’t do to compare me with your past conquests, either.” She moved her queen. “Check—”

Tristan’s gaze swung to the door. Miss Camden came in with a furious look on her face, her hands on her hips as her gaze scanned the room.

Tristan’s eyes narrowed on seeing Leo come in directly behind the chaperone. Well, wasn’t that interesting. Did Lady Charlotte know her cousin would come looking for her so soon after their escape from the main parlor? He didn’t think so since Lady Ariel watched over them with an eagle’s eye.

With the conversation enlightening but hardly leading to the answers he’d hoped to uncover—he frowned down at the board—their game had ended far too quickly. It was time for them to return to the rest of the company.

Miss Camden looked her cousin over with a critical eye and carefully studied the folds in her dress to make sure everything was in order. He could not contain his bitter smile. Miss Camden might think she knew men like him, but she would be wrong in her assessment. There was no arguing over his reputation, which was well deserved considering his past, but he saw now that she would judge him no differently than the rest of society had. It was a shame that so many people were shortsighted, but he supposed their misconceptions revolved around his children.

“Lord Castleigh,” Miss Camden said. “You can’t simply abscond with my cousin as the mood takes you. Had you asked for her company, I would have been willing to escort you both from the parlor to a more private setting.”

Tristan made eye contact with Leo for a moment before his friend’s gaze landed on the chaperone again. He only half listened to what the ladies said as he tried to figure out his friend’s involvement with the chaperone. Was Leo giving him an escape route? That was the plan they’d discussed briefly at the duchess’s ball, wasn’t it? Divide and conquer two of the ladies present?