Nicole Jordan - Ecstasy

“I am sorry for what your mother had to endure,” she said instead.

He shrugged. “I no longer let such things bother me.”

But it had shaped him into the man he was, she was certain. She doubted he would be eager to debate the issue, though. After another moment, Raven turned her head away, feeling weariness overtake her.

Kell, however, only felt his own tension rising as he debated what to do for the remainder of the night. When the carriage arrived at his residence, he assisted Raven to alight and then escorted her up the front steps. A sconce had been lit to welcome them home, and the door was unlocked.

Kell opened it for her, then stepped aside to allow her to enter. But he was reluctant to follow.

“Where are the servants?” he asked, remaining in the doorway.

“I told them not to wait up for me since I would be so late returning.”

Another uncommon trait, Kell thought. Few ladies of his acquaintance would be so considerate of the servants.

She started to remove her cloak but then glanced back at him. “Do you not mean to come in?”

Kell remained exactly where he stood, knowing the wisdom of taking his leave at once. He’d watched Raven during the entire evening as she’d danced and charmed her way through her critical crowd of judges. She was all laughter and wit and vivacious beauty, demonstrating how she’d drawn half the male population of London under her spell during her Season. No wonder his brother had accused her of seduction.

He himself had felt an unreasonable spark of jealousy when he saw her working her wiles on the gentlemen present, even though he’d expected such a performance.

She was a temptress, pulsing with life and sensuality. And she was now his wife.

He had every legal right to stay with her.

The thought sent a searing heat shooting through Kell. He could spend the night enjoying the warm, exquisite body of his wife and no one would gainsay him-except perhaps Raven herself.

“To what purpose?” he asked, probing. “You said you didn’t want or need a lover.”

“No, I…I am not inviting you to share my bed, merely your house. I don’t like to think that I am driving you from your own home.”

Kell held her gaze, unable to look away. “It would be best if I left now. The play at the club may not have ended yet.”

“Perhaps so,” she murmured, her voice low. And yet she moved closer, as if drawn to him.

Kell felt every muscle in his body tighten at her disturbing nearness, his instinct for danger warring with the powerful need to take her in his arms. He knew better than to touch her, and yet…the impulse was unconquerable. Gently grasping her shoulders, he drew her against him.

A lightning stroke of desire surged through him. And from the darkening look in her eyes, he knew the fiery shock had touched her as well.

He tightened his hold-and felt himself swell with an immediate, throbbing erection.

Kell groaned silently, fighting the primal urge that was rampaging through him. He had to take care. Such hunger was dangerous, lethal. This woman could hurt him badly if he wasn’t careful.

Yet he couldn’t move. He gazed down into her crystalline blue eyes, seeing the color in their depths shift like richly hued gemstones. He felt as if he were drowning in her gaze, drowning in her alluring combination of fire and fragility, her vibrancy.

He wanted so badly to kiss her. To crush her mouth with his. Wanted to bury the ache of his arousal in the welcoming sheath that was made to receive him.

Kell inhaled sharply, shaken by the intensity of his desire.

Raven seemed just as spellbound. She reached up to touch his scar, and he felt something shift inside him…tenderness, lust, need. Desperate need.

His head lowered…

“So what have we here, big brother?” a snide voice drawled behind him.

Kell gave a start, while Raven froze. Turning his head, he saw Sean mounting the front steps.

Kell cursed the untimely interruption, a curse that was swiftly followed by a surge of self-censure. He’d been caught embracing Raven when he’d resolved to keep his distance. It irked him to think he was so weak that his powers of resistance would crumble at the first test.

He would have held her away, but she stepped back on her own, into the shelter of the hall, a purely defensive gesture, eyeing Sean with wariness, even alarm.

“How inconsiderate of you, Kell,” Sean sneered as he came to a halt on the upper landing. “You neglected to invite your own brother to your nuptial ball.”

Biting back a retort, Kell regarded his brother over his shoulder. Sean had avoided him this past week, probably because he didn’t want to be pressed into leaving London. He was the worse for drink now, and clearly infuriated.

“The ball,” Kell observed with little patience, “was merely an attempt to curb the scandal you caused. A means to show our unity and support our pretense of a love match.”

“You call the touching scene I just witnessed pretense? Admit it, brother, you’re smitten with her.”

“I was escorting my wife home,” Kell said sharply. “A circumstance that would not have existed if not for you.”

Sean jerked back as if he’d been slapped.

“But in fact,” Kell added grimly, “I was just on my way to the club. Why don’t you accompany me?”

Raven felt a sudden chill as Kell stepped back from her, deliberately distancing himself, a closing out of emotion. His features as hard and remote as ever, he turned to his brother.

“Come.” Without waiting for a protest, he ushered Sean down the steps.

Raven watched them leave, regret coursing through her, along with a fierce surge of relief. She had despised meeting Sean again, and though it was cowardly to admit, she still dreaded dealing with him. She was glad he had gone.

And yet she was profoundly glad he had come as well. Without the interruption, she might have given in to her senses. For a riveting moment as Kell had held her in his arms, she’d almost forgotten that their marriage was a sham. She had wanted him to kiss her, to touch her. To take her, heaven help her.

Fool, she muttered fiercely to herself.

Raven shivered in the freezing night air, realizing how narrowly she had avoided peril. Muttering a curse, she shut the door firmly and turned to go upstairs to seek her bed alone.

As Raven’s friend Brynn had predicted, the ton showed signs of relenting in their harsh judgment of the scandal. The afternoon post brought nearly a dozen invitations for Mrs. Lasseter and her new husband.

Upon seeing the size of the stack, Raven felt her mouth curve in a cynical smile, one admittedly tinged with bitterness. How fickle the ton was, following the whims of their leaders like sheep. And how blind she had been.

She had willfully fooled herself all this time, hungering for acceptance by their imperious confederates, convinced that belonging to their elite ranks meant the world to her. But their specious brand of acceptance was as much a sham as her marriage. A house of cards that had all come tumbling down with one breath.

Her course was set now, though. She was still determined to win herself back into their good graces. And she had no intention of backing down.

Raven was perusing the various invitations in the parlor when Sean Lasseter spoke from the doorway.

“How charming. The perfidious bride playing lady of the manor.”

Alarmed, Raven leapt to her feet, scattering invitations everywhere.

“Beg pardon, madam,” the Lasseter butler exclaimed at Sean’s shoulder, “but Mr. Lasseter insisted upon seeing you.”

“I came to call on my new sister,” Sean drawled, sauntering into the room.

Reflexively Raven’s hand went to her throat, where she could feel her pulse pounding. “What are you doing here?”

“Calling, as I said. I have a key to my brother’s house, of course. And you haven’t the authority to deny me admittance.”

Perhaps she did have no right to order him to leave, but neither did she have any desire to be alone with the man who had used her so harshly.

“Knowles,” Raven managed to say to the butler, “will you please send O’Malley to me?”

“Hiding behind your groom’s skirts again?” Sean said when the servant had gone.

“What do you want, Mr. Lasseter?” Raven demanded, ashamed of the way her voice trembled. Yet the pain and humiliation he’d caused her during her abduction was still a stark memory. She had every reason to harbor a healthy fear of him.

“I told you, I came to pay a courtesy call. I thought it only polite form to welcome you into the family.”

She gazed at him skeptically as Sean settled in a chair, casually crossing one leg over the other. He was impeccably dressed in a bottle green coat that brought out the deep color of his eyes. She would have considered him a strikingly handsome man but for the savage look of dislike he was directing at her.

“Somehow I doubt you consider me welcome,” she returned. “Or that you are even capable of common courtesy.”

“Call it curiosity, then. Tell me, what clever tricks did you employ to dupe Kell into wedding you?”

Gathering her control, Raven attempted to respond calmly. “I did not dupe him. He understood my plight and responded as a gentleman might, by proposing.”

His mouth curled. “Kell is hardly a gentleman.”

“At least he did not abduct me and drug me and ruin me in the eyes of society.”

“But you know nothing of the sins he has committed.” Sean’s look turned almost sly. “He is suspected of murder; were you aware?”