Rebellious Rakes: Rake Most Likely to Rebel

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She must be mad to seek him out so boldly. Alyssandra wove a path through the guests crowded into Madam LaTour’s Egyptian-themed drawing room, discreetly searching the room for any sign of him. Dancing had started and the sidelines were a crush of people as room was made for the dancers. It was early yet, far too soon to conclude he hadn’t come. Although, such a conclusion was within the scope of possibility. Why should he come? The last time she’d invited him to come with her, he’d ended up with a bruised jaw and publicly brawling. She doubted the handsome, mannerly Viscount Amersham had ever resorted to public brawling. He’d known how to bloody his knuckles, though. So many gentlemen were useless outside the salle d’armes. But he’d known how to use all that muscle in practical application. He could defend a woman. Not that she needed defending. Still, it was nice to know he could. And, more importantly, that he would. A woman would be safe with him in all ways. Perhaps that was why she’d risked the invitation. She would be safe with him, body and honour both.

Alyssandra slipped outside onto the veranda at the first opportunity. The fresh air was welcome after the heat of the drawing room. It was a chance, too, to escape the gossips. Julian might not tell Antoine about the park, but that didn’t ensure the gossip tonight wouldn’t reach Antoine’s ears if someone saw her with the Englishman. It stood to reason that if she was with him, Antoine must condone him as an escort. Anyone who knew them well knew Antoine to be a socially reclusive but protective brother when it came to her welfare.

Alyssandra unfurled her fan, this time a white one painted with pink roses to match the rose of her gown. She would rest here for a moment and go back inside to dance with friends and to wait. And to see. If he would come.

‘I knew I’d find you out here.’ His voice was low and sensual at her ear, his hands at her shoulders ever so briefly. She could smell the vanilla and spice of his soap. All men should smell this good. She closed her eyes for just a moment to take it all in in her mind before he stepped back.

‘How did you know I’d be outside?’ She turned with a smile, her eyes skimming his face for signs of yesterday’s altercation. It was hard to see any damage in the dark. She had seen Julian, though, and it made her cringe. She didn’t like thinking of Haviland being hurt because of her.

‘I would know you anywhere.’ It was a lie, of course. She fooled him enough times in the practice room. In there, he had no idea who was behind the mesh mask. He grinned and she could make out the remnants of his split lip, but just barely.

She reached out her fingertip to it. ‘Ouch!’ Haviland scolded, jerking his head back.

‘Does it hurt?’

‘Only when people touch it.’ He laughed and then turned serious. ‘Am I to understand your brother remains unaware?’

‘Yes. It doesn’t serve Julian’s purposes to bring yesterday to Antoine’s attention.’

Haviland nodded. ‘I figured as much. Still, I don’t like secrecy or the idea that we have to sneak around. It seems deceptive. Perhaps I could call on him and formally ask permission to take you driving in the park or to escort you to these sorts of gatherings.’

Her stomach clenched. This was hardly deceptive. She could only imagine how he would feel about the deception. If he ever found out. Another thought came to her. ‘I think the sooner you can accept the fact that my brother will not meet with you, the sooner we can move forward.’

‘We’re back to that again?’ Haviland’s eyes darkened, his body stiffening. ‘You insult my honour to imply I am using you for an entrée.’ His mouth came down close to her ear, the harshness of his voice roughly erotic. ‘You know damn well I wanted you before I knew your name.’

‘How do I know that hasn’t changed?’

‘You sent me the invitation.’ He growled, his teeth nipping the lobe of her ear, sending a delicious trill down her spine. ‘Now it’s my turn. There’s a carriage parked at the kerb, pulled by two matched greys. If you believe me, get in. The driver knows where to go. He will wait only fifteen minutes.’

Her throat went dry at the implication. One choice and everything would change.

Chapter Eleven (#uda4e34eb-cb5f-5662-9883-a01b2747c530)

Get in the carriage. Don’t get in the carriage. It was somewhat amazing how one simple decision could set in motion a series of significant events. But she’d been making ‘simple’ decisions about Haviland North since she met him: going to Madame Aguillard’s musicale, unfurling her fan, taking a walk in the gardens. All were simple decisions and all had led to this moment of choice. Would she make one more simple decision that would move her forward on this path?

Her feet registered the decision before her mind. She was already moving towards the entrance before she fully realised the import of the decision. What she meant to do was reckless. She’d had a lover before, but not an affaire. She and Etienne had been together two years. They’d meant to marry. They would have, too, if not for Antoine’s accident. An affaire was terminal. There would be an end—such a liaison began with that assumption in mind. It was the end that contained the risk. How would it end? With her heart still intact? With Haviland angry and knowledgeable of the deception that had been perpetrated on him? With Haviland happily naive to the drama around him and moving on to his summer in Switzerland?

Alyssandra came up short at the top of the steps leading down to the kerb, partygoers moving about her as people entered and exited the mansion. The carriage was there, an expensive, shiny black-lacquered vehicle complete with glass windows and lanterns. Two greys pranced in their traces, eager to be off. Seeing tangible proof made the decision real. Twenty more feet and there’d be no turning back.

The decision might be reckless, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t been thought out. Being with Haviland would mean far more to her than it would to him. He would go on to be with other women, she would be one of many to him if she wasn’t already. A man like him must have women begging for his attentions. But she would live on this for ever. The coachman pulled out a watch to check the time, and she felt a surge of urgency. He was getting impatient. Had fifteen minutes passed already? What if she missed the carriage?

Then she would miss it—her one chance to date at experiencing true, unbridled, physical passion. She didn’t hold out much hope there’d be other opportunities. Tonight had been Haviland’s gauntlet thrown down. There would be no more arguing over trust and motives. If she did not take the carriage, he would not ask again. All would be settled between them whether she liked that settlement or not. Haviland North was not a man to be toyed with. Nor was he a man who tolerated having his word challenged.

Alyssandra hurried down the steps. It was time to be reckless. What had caution ever done for her anyway? The coachman nodded at her approach. A footman waiting at the kerb lowered the steps and helped her in. It all seemed so disturbingly normal when she felt as if the phrase ‘I’m off to a clandestine rendezvous’ was scrawled across her forehead.

The interior of the carriage bore out its external luxury with plush grey-velvet seats and matching draperies held back with maroon ties. But the carriage was disappointingly empty. Haviland was not inside. She supposed discretion demanded he be picked up at a separate destination a distance away from the venue, but she was disappointed all the same. Now that she’d decided to take his invitation, she wanted that invitation to begin right now.

She didn’t have to wait long. The carriage pulled over three streets later to pick up Haviland, who managed to look urbane and quite comfortable with these arrangements as if he had assignations all the time. For all she knew, he probably did. He certainly could, anyway.

Haviland took the rear-facing seat across from her and gave the signal to move on, a rap of his walking stick on the carriage ceiling. He reached under the seat and drew out a thick lap robe of luxurious fur. ‘Are you cold?’ He settled the blanket across her knees. The warmth felt good and helped to quiet her nerves. Spring evenings and pending anticipation had their own special brand of chilliness.

‘I thought we would drive for a while and enjoy the evening. Then, I have some place I would like to show you.’ Haviland reached under the seat and pulled out a basket this time. ‘I have champagne and if we drink it now, it should still be cold.’

His dexterity was nothing short of amazing. He managed to pop the cork and pour two glasses without spilling while the carriage moved over the rough cobblestones of the Paris streets. ‘Years of practice.’ He handed her a glass with a wink, and she had the feeling that ‘years of practice’ referred to far more than pouring champagne.

‘Pour champagne for women in carriages often, do you?’ she teased, sipping carefully from her glass.

Haviland laughed and had the good grace to look slightly abashed. ‘I am hoist by my own petard, as the expression goes. Can I just answer “maybe” and leave it at that?’

‘Absolutely. A gentleman with a bit of mystery to him is far more intriguing than an open book.’ She smiled and risked clinking her glass against his—a difficult manoeuvre to accomplish in a moving carriage without spilling. She liked him this way; more relaxed, less intimidating than he was at the salle. It was the way he behaved around the men in the members’ salon. She’d seen him in there on occasion working with others. He was a natural leader even in casual circumstances. It was how he’d been the day he’d come on her errands, as if a mask had been stripped away. When he was with Julian and even with ‘her brother’ he was different. In those lessons, he exuded a formality, an intensity that was as magnetic as his casual charm. She wondered which persona he’d bring to the bedroom.

‘As is mystery in a woman, up to a point.’ His eyes held hers, blue and intense over the rim of his glass. Mon Dieu, those eyes of his could sell a line. ‘I think the mystery lures a man in, but after a while, he wants to know more and that desire for knowledge outweighs the desire for mystery.’ That was the urbane rake in him delivering a practised line for certain—a remark designed to compliment and pursue, to bring a woman into his circle of sophistication.

Even knowing it, she couldn’t stop a thrill of excitement from racing down her back. Still, she would not be an easy conquest. She might have agreed to this assignation and they both might be fully aware of the evening’s intended conclusion, but she didn’t have to be a quivering blancmange just because he was handsome and silver-tongued beyond reason.

Haviland looked out the window. ‘Pont Neuf. Right on schedule. I thought we could take a walk. It’s still just early enough in the evening to be safe out.’

Alyssandra laughed. It was only ten o’clock, early by Parisian standards. ‘The streets aren’t truly dangerous until after midnight. Surely, London streets are no different.’

Haviland jumped down to set the steps. He reached out a hand to help her down. ‘They’re wider though. For such a modern city, Paris has the narrowest of streets. I think a medieval merchant could walk through town and find the city unchanged in many regards.’

‘I think that’s true of most European cities.’ Alyssandra stepped down onto the pavement. ‘You will find Florence much the same.’ She thought she detected the fleetest of grimaces. In the gaslight, it was difficult to be sure. It might have been a trick of shadow and light. ‘You are going on to Italy, are you not?’

He smiled, and she felt sure the grimace had been nothing more than shadows. ‘It is one of my greatest wishes.’ He tucked her hand through his arm and signalled the driver to meet them on the other side of the bridge. They began to stroll, joining other couples taking the evening air. She had not been out like this for years and it was intoxicating; to be out with this man, in this place. The Seine was dark below them, smooth and still, the gaslights lining the stone vestibules of the bridge, casting a kind light on everything around them.

‘I meant it, a few minutes ago, about trading mystery for knowledge.’ His voice was low, weaving privacy about them even in public. ‘Tell me about yourself, Alyssandra. Have you always lived in Paris?’

‘The Leodegrances have a country home in Fontainebleau. We were raised there, but we’ve lived primarily in Paris since I was eighteen.’ No need to mention that living in town allowed them to close up the country house and economise. The beautiful home in Fontainebleau was too big to keep open for just two people. It was enough of a financial commitment to live in the family hôtel.

‘The salle d’armes occupies a great deal of your brother’s time, but what about you? What do you do all day?’

‘It might surprise you, but my days aren’t much different than yours.’ She offered him a coy smile and stepped into one of the vestibules, out of the flow of pedestrian traffic. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she wasn’t above distracting him when questions became more akin to an interrogation.

‘You might be surprised what I spend my days doing.’ His words were husky. His eyes darkened, his gaze falling on her mouth. ‘I think about doing this.’ His mouth took hers in a firm press of a kiss, and then another one. ‘And this,’ he whispered against her mouth. His hands fell to her waist, drawing her against him, his touch low and intimate on her hips where his thumbs imprinted themselves through the thin chiffon of her gown.

In the distance, she could the hear strains of a roving musician’s violin. Haviland heard it, too. ‘Perfect,’ he murmured against her throat. He began to move in a slow circle of a dance, his hands still at her hips, his lips still at her neck, her ear, her lips. She moved, too, her arms lifting about his neck, her body swaying with his. This was like no ballroom waltz or indeed like any dance she’d ever experienced. This was intimate and close. This was bodies pressed together, the hard planes of him against the soft curves of her. This was two people falling into each other. She could drink in the whole of him; she could taste the lingering fruity tang of champagne in his mouth, smell the spice and vanilla of his soap, feel the power of him where their bodies met. Her fingers dug into the depths of his dark hair, her body hungry for every inch of him.

This was precisely what she’d wanted when she’d issued her invitation: to forget who she was for a while and a man who could help her do it. Tonight was for her, not to talk about Antoine, or the salle, not to think ahead to the next day’s lessons. It was just to enjoy, to feel alive again.

The music ebbed as the violinist passed into the street beyond the bridge. Their dance ended. She rested her head against the wool of his jacket, reluctant to step back just yet. Here on the bridge, surrounded by strangers who were too wrapped up in their own lives, their own romances, she was anonymous. She could do as she pleased in a way Antoine Leodegrance’s sister never could.

‘I know a place we can go.’ Haviland’s voice was low at her ear, whispering temptation.

‘Yes.’ Her own response was not more than a whisper of its own. She hoped it wasn’t far. They crossed the remainder of the bridge in silence, hands interlaced, his grip firm and warm, her body awake, every nerve on edge, alert and raw to even the slightest sensations. She needed satisfaction.

In the carriage, they drank the rest of the champagne. The ride was short. The carriage came to a rolling halt and his eyes met hers over the empty glasses, the intensity of his gaze proof he was as primed for this as she, his eyes two intense blue flames, his body taut with wanting. It was flattering in a primal sense to be desired by such a man.