He paused with his quill suspended above parchment, his hearing alert. A moment later he heard voices, too distant to be distinguished. Expecting Desjardins, he waited for the sound of footsteps approaching. When they did not come, Edward pushed to his feet and walked through the open door into the gallery.
From there, he looked directly down the stairs into the small, marble-lined entry. Thierry stood in the front doorway, speaking at length with whoever stood there. Finally, the servant retreated into the house and closed the door.
Curious as to who else occupied Corinne’s life, Edward rounded the landing and entered the upper parlor. He moved to the window and pushed the curtains aside, affording him a clear view of the street in front of the house.
The man named Quinn was unhitching his horse from the post with casual ease. The cut and quality of the man’s garments spoke of wealth and privilege, as did the beautiful lines of his mount.
How did he know Corinne?
Quinn stilled just before placing his booted foot into the stirrup. He glanced over his shoulder at the house, lifting his gaze until it met with Edward’s. The tension that gripped the man’s large frame was tangible even across the distance between them.
There had been a brief moment when Edward considered backing up and out of view. It was not his place to intrude in Corinne’s life. They were nothing to each other, not even true acquaintances. When she awoke, she might rail at his arrogance in taking charge of her household—and her—while she was helpless to protest.
But a long-buried part of him reared up and exerted a claim on the lovely Corinne, and he was unable to resist it. He
would
have her. It was the only reason for the madness of his actions since meeting her.
Edward’s eyes examined the man who might be a rival, noting every detail. They were as opposite as opposite could be, except for their facial expressions. Quinn looked the way Edward felt—taut, challenged, and malevolent.
Was this the man who had so wounded Corinne? Who had made her fearful and given her that haunted look in her eyes?
His fists clenched at his sides. “I will know who you are,” Edward warned softly.
Quinn touched the brim of his hat, smiled in a near sneer, and mounted his horse. He could not have heard Edward or even seen his lips moving, but the fact that he’d picked up the gauntlet was clear.
Another complication in an already tangled affair.
Edward lowered the curtain and returned to Corinne.
Simon stood in the entryway of his home and pulled off his gloves one fingertip at a time, his movements deliberate and evenly paced. The action was meant to calm him, but it was ineffectual. His breath heaved with his anger, and his neck ached with tension.
Edward James had been visiting Lysette while she was “indisposed.” The man had stood in the window
sans
coat and waistcoat as if he were at home, his posture both defensive and possessive.
Simon had played this game before, coming to a head with a man over a desirable female. It was a diverting activity and Simon rarely had a true stake in the outcome. If he won the lady’s regard, the sex was wild and hot. If he lost it, he conceded with a smile and caught another.
This time, he was incensed. He would like to think it was only his pride that was bruised, but the truth was more disturbing than that. He had been happy those brief, passionate moments in the library. Not merely content or distracted but happy. To know that it had been nothing noteworthy to Lysette was a bitter realization to reach.
And then there was the feeling that he was losing his mind. He had
disliked
Lysette until last night. Now, suddenly, he felt murderous over the thought of her with another man.
Right now.
He growled and bounded up the stairs to his room, determined to change from his riding clothes to something more suitable for a night of bawdy delights. A hard fuck would get her out of his blood. Tomorrow he would be clear headed and ready to deal with her as he must.
“Mr. Quinn, you have a caller.”
Simon paused in the act of removing his cravat. He met his butler’s gaze in the mirror attached to the inside of his armoire door. “Who is it?”
“She would not give me her name, sir.”
Tensing at the news that his caller was female, he asked, “Is she blonde and beautiful?”
The butler’s mouth twitched. “Yes, sir.”
All of Simon’s simmering anger and frustration reheated to boiling. He yanked off the loosened linen and tossed it on the floor. She must have come haring directly after him in order to reach him so soon. Perhaps she realized how James’s show of propriety had ruined her plans for him, whatever they were.
For a moment, he debated sending her away without seeing her just to aggravate her in kind, but the thought of Eddington’s hold over him stayed his tongue. The sooner he knew what she was up to, the sooner he could be rid of her and away from the damnable lot of mischief makers.
“Where is his lordship?” he asked.
“Out for the evening, sir.”
With a long, rapid stride, Simon quit his chambers and descended to the lower floor. He was vaguely aware of his butler scrambling after him, but he paid the man no mind. He would not be needing tea or refreshments. If anything, he needed a stiff drink.
He paused on the threshold of the receiving parlor and found Lysette seated delicately on the edge of his yellow brocade settee. She was dressed in a bold burgundy gown, another color choice he would not have anticipated her to select but one he found potently alluring against her creamy skin. An elaborately decorated hat rested on the carved wooden side table and she twisted the strings of a matching reticule in her lap.
She was the picture of elegance and gentility . . .
. . . until she looked at him with the blue eyes that had lured him across a ballroom and into her arms.
Something akin to lightning raced across his skin. Burning. Tingling. Making him perspire. His heart rate picked up its pace and his chest rose and fell unevenly.
As he entered, her expression of hesitation and wariness was swiftly replaced with heated feminine appreciation. Her gaze lowered to his bared throat and her tongue darted out to caress her lush lower lip.
When her eyes met his again, the raw, carnal hunger he saw in the crystalline depths hardened every muscle in his body, tightening his frame with coiling lust. A quarter of an hour ago he had wanted to strangle her. Now, he wanted nothing more than to lift her skirts and ride her to a screaming climax.
Again and again.
He growled and snapped, “Bah! You are not worth the trouble.”
Pivoting, he left the room.
“Mr. Quinn . . . Wait!”
He turned about again and found her chasing after him. “The name is Simon, curse you, as you well know.”
She drew up short, her breathing as rapid as his. “Please. Allow me to introduce myself. I am—”
“I know bloody well who you are, you addlepated female!”
“Lynette Baillon,” she continued stubbornly, “daughter of the Vicomte de Grenier. I believe you may have known my sister, Lysette Baillon. Perhaps intimately . . . i-if last night was any indication.”
Simon stood frozen, unblinking. “What the devil are you talking about?”
“You do not know me,” she said softly. “Until last night, you and I had never met.”
Chapter 9
T
he woman was either daft as you please, or the answer to a prayer.
Simon’s gaze narrowed and became examining, moving from the top of Lysette’s—
Lynette’s
—golden head down to the hem of her gown. He noted the artfully revealed lacey underskirts, the tightly cinched waist, and the low bodice, which displayed a tempting swell of luscious breasts. It was an ensemble designed to display the feminine charms of the wearer to best advantage. The Lysette he knew did not dress to arouse. If anything, her gowns were remarkably understated.
But beyond this woman’s outward appearance were deeper, more complex signs—there was no torment in her eyes and no brittle tension in her delicate frame.
Lynette. Lysette.
“Twins,” he said, near dizzy with the sudden rush of understanding.
“Yes.”
Out of all the things that should have come to Simon’s mind in that moment, the only one that gained prominence was the realization that he was not insane. He did not dislike and desire the same woman with equal vehemence. He disliked Lysette. He lusted for Lynette.
Simon lunged into motion without warning, catching Lynette’s elbow and dragging her back into the parlor. He kicked the door shut and tugged her about to face him. Before common sense reared its head or she regained her wits enough to protest, he cupped her head in both hands and took her mouth with savage intensity.
She tensed briefly, then melted. Her body leaned into his, her hands circled his wrists. She whimpered and surged into him, her voluminous skirts pushing into the hardened ridge of his cock and urging him into a frenzy of need.
He spun and pinned her to the door, his knees bending and then straightening, stroking the length of her body with his own. She gasped and his tongue stroked deep into her mouth, licking and tasting, drinking her in. As her skin heated with arousal, the scent of some exotic flower intoxicated him and made him drunk with desire. She did not smell like Lysette. She was unique.
She was his.
“A thiasce,”
he breathed, lost in the feel of her.
Lynette released his wrists and reached for his waist, the feel of her small hands through the linen of his shirt inciting a ferocious, gnawing need.
Never in his life had he been so desperate to be inside a woman. And it was going to happen.
Now.
Nothing could stop him.
He fumbled for the key to turn the lock, but his hands shook with such violence that he could not grasp it. With a muttered curse, Simon turned his head away to see what he was doing.
“Were you lovers?” she asked in a husky whisper.
He glanced at her as the lock clicked audibly into place. She was flushed and disheveled and achingly beautiful. Although her features were a mirror of Lysette’s, she looked nothing like her. Lynette was soft and warm in his arms, her scent alluring instead of subdued, her passion hot and powerful.
“No,” he answered, absently thinking that there were a hundred questions to ask, while simultaneously realizing that he didn’t give a damn what the answers were. At least, not at the moment.
“Then why?”
“Why what?” What in hell was she talking about?
He reached between them for the placket of his breeches.
She stilled his movements with her hands. “Why are you so . . .
ardent
?”
Simon laughed and nuzzled his cheek against hers. “Such an elegant way to say I am acting like a rutting beast.”
Lynette flushed, but did not release him.
“I usually have more finesse,” he promised, forcing himself to take a step back. “Unfortunately, I am out of sorts at the moment.”
“Out of sorts? You?” She smiled and his chest tightened. “The man who had a house burning down around him, yet had the presence of mind to rally the guests to douse the blaze?”
“Lust wants quenching like a fire. I rally to that cause with equal gusto.”
“You are wicked, Mr. Quinn.”
Simon debated whether he should seduce her in the parlor or take her up to bed, but a touch of sadness marred the angelic beauty of her features and reined in his lust as logic could not.
Exhaling harshly, he ran his hands through his hair and fought to tamp down his unruly appetite for her touch, her taste, her smell.
Her.
He gestured for her to return to her seat.
“How did you know Lysette?” she asked, sitting with a perfectly straight spine and hands folded delicately in her lap.
A peer’s daughter, she had said. That would explain the similar elegance of deportment Simon had witnessed in her sister.
It did not, however, explain why Lysette was an assassin.
“Our acquaintance is a difficult one to categorize,” he murmured. “But it is not romantic by any definition.”
Lynette blushed, but her gaze did not waver from his. “Last night . . .”
He smiled ruefully. “The first time I have ever felt an inkling of attraction to her. I suspected madness was the culprit, because the change was so drastic I could hardly credit it. I cannot tell you what a relief it is to learn that you are two women and not one.”
“So you are unaware that she passed,” Lynette said gently.
Simon frowned. “Passed what?”
“Passed on.”
“Bloody hell.” He paced, his thoughts returning to the events of the night before. Desjardins. James. Carrying an injured woman in yellow out to the comte’s carriage. The posturing of James in the window had been protective, not possessive. “When? This afternoon?”
Lynette’s frown matched his. “Beg your pardon?”
“When did she die?” he asked slowly, feeling disoriented.
“Two years ago.”
“That is not possible, Lynette. I saw her alive and well just yesterday.”
Lynette’s stomach clenched hard and violently. She reached for the armrest of the settee for support and then Quinn—
Simon
—was crouched before her, studying her face with a worried frown.
“I think there is a great deal that you and I do not understand,” he said, his Irish lilt soothing and gentle. “Perhaps you should tell me about your Lysette, then I shall tell you about mine.”
Inhaling and exhaling in measured rhythm, Lynette attempted to calm her racing pulse. In the space of only moments, she had been barked at, kissed senseless, and now told that her sister was alive and well as recently as yesterday. She knew that was impossible, that there must be some grievous error, but some tiny part of her shouted in vindicated exaltation. The part of her that still felt Lysette as keenly today as it had the last time they had been together.
“Two years ago,” she whispered, “my sister was killed when the carriage she occupied overturned and the lamps set fire to the whole.”
Simon moved to take a seat beside her. “You have only the one sister?”
“Yes. No other siblings.”
“What are the odds that there would be a woman of identical appearance to you who is not a relation?”
“With the name
Lysette
? Impossible.” She turned slightly to face him. “I must see her.”
“I should like to be there when you do.”
Lynette stared at Simon’s breathtaking features and felt calmed by his mere presence. It was astonishing to feel such a connection to a stranger, but she did not doubt it.
Simon would not allow harm to befall her. She was convinced of that.
“This woman cannot be my sister.” Her voice quavered and she cleared her throat. “In addition to the fact that I was there when Lysette was buried, the simple truth is that she and I were very close. There is no chance that two years would pass without a word from her.”
“I do not understand any of this.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I can tell you the Lysette I know is not . . . well.”
“Not well?”
“A bit touched.”
“Oh . . .” Lynette worried her lower lip between her teeth. “How did you become acquainted with her?”
“My life is not one you wish to delve too deeply into, Mademoiselle . . .”
“Baillon.”
His frown deepened. “Lysette goes by the name
Rousseau.
Does that sound familiar to you?”
“Rousseau?” Lynette frowned, trying to recall if she knew anyone by that name and finding that she did not.
“Mademoiselle—”
“Please,” she interjected, “call me Lynette. After last night . . . and now. You almost . . . against the door . . .” Her face heated.
His large hand rose to cup her cheek with something akin to reverence. “You cannot even say it, can you?”
She swallowed hard, riveted by his tenderness and the way the stroking of his thumb over her cheekbone reverberated all over her body.
A half-smile curved his beautiful mouth and made her stomach flutter. His glance moved over her, from the top of her head to her feet. “You mentioned a father, but not a spouse.”
“I am not married.”
“Of course not.” Simon shook his head. “You are innocent. The daughter of a peer.”
The way he said the words, so flatly and resigned, struck her like a blow. She realized he no longer intended to ravish her. She knew she should be relieved, but she was profoundly disappointed. All of her life, she had led the way with men. Teasing, flirting, and steering their conversations in the direction she wished them to go. With Simon Quinn, she was swept away, in control of nothing at all. It was a heady sensation to be so lost in a man, and to know that he was equally lost in her.
“Give me some time,” he said, “to investigate this a little further before you proceed. You have no reason to trust me—”
“But I do!”
“You shouldn’t.” The rueful little smile touched his mouth again, and unable to help it, she lifted her fingers to it. The muscle in his jaw ticked beneath her caress and his blue eyes burned so hot her skin flushed in response.
He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. The feel of his lips sent tingles up her arm and made her shiver. “I have never known innocence, Lynette. I have no notion of what to do with it beyond corrupt it.”
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying that if you do not put as much distance as possible between us and maintain it, I will ruin you.” The deep timbre of his voice added credence to his threat. “You will find yourself in my bed and your life deeply entangled in a web of deceit, lies, and danger. As bright as your future is now, it would be equally dark.”
“Yet Lysette Rousseau occupies this world you speak of?” she queried, lifting her chin.
“Yes, she does.”
“Are you an English spy?” Her gaze moved around the room as it had when she’d arrived. Again, she admired the obvious expense of the design and décor. The palette was one of deep reds balanced by lighter-stained woods. It was both deeply masculine, yet welcoming to all.
“I was,” he said easily. But when she returned her gaze to his, his focus on her was sharp.
“You want to know how I would gain such knowledge.” She smiled. “By no nefarious means, I assure you. One of the women with me last night is a courtesan. A well-connected paramour of hers once said something of that nature to her.”
“How is it that a peer’s daughter would be associating with a courtesan?” Simon’s hand had moved to her shoulder and his thumb absently caressed along her collarbone.
The touch made her want to purr like a kitten and arch in delight. She swallowed and replied, “My mother met her years ago in a modiste’s shop, when my parents used to live in France.”
“Why would the wife of a peer have an appointment at the same time as a courtesan? Usually discretion would prevent such a meeting.”
Lynette wrinkled her nose, thinking.
Without warning, Simon’s hand cupped the nape of her neck and his lips were pressed to the tip of her nose. His new proximity brought the scent of his skin to her nostrils, a stirring mixture of leather and horses, musk and tobacco. Her mind became flooded with memories of that scent . . . last night in the library . . . moments ago against the door . . .
Her body responded by aching and she moaned.
He cursed and pushed to his feet in a hurried but graceful movement. “I cannot think when you are near and I need my blasted wits now more than ever.”
“Simon—”
“Is there any possibility that your mother had a child that you do not know about?”
Lynette lowered the hand she had held out to him. “No. The birth of my sister and I destroyed her womb.”
“Before you, perhaps?”
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
“Absolutely. I will ask her directly, if I must.”
“And your father?”
“The Vicomte de Grenier. His coloring is very dark. My sister and I take after our mother. Some have thought she was a sister to us.”
“De Grenier?” Simon moved to a console against the far wall where various decanters waited. A painting of the countryside hung above it, the blues of a stream and the greens of a forest lending color to the room. “He is unknown to me.”
“My parents quit France before I was born. We have lived in Poland these many years.”
Holding a thick crystal glass in one hand, he faced her, resting his hip against the furniture and one palm flat atop the surface. There were now several feet of space between them, which left her feeling oddly bereft. “When did your family return to Paris?”
“We have not returned.” Her splayed fingers brushed nervously over her skirts. He was watching her like a hawk, focused and predatory. “My mother suggested a holiday in Spain to distract us from our grief. I begged her to stop in Paris, so I could see it.”
“Begged?”
“My mother is not fond of the city.”
“Why?”
“I do not know.” She stood. “When will I be allowed to question you?”
“When I am finished.”