Chapter 10

How is it possible to crave a man's kiss more than food and drink and the very air I breathe?

~The Duchess of A

S eated on her blue, Venetian style bed; her back against the painted headboard, Raina stared out as rain battered the crystal windows. Earlier in the week, the skies had opened up in a deluge that would not quit.

The whole while, she stared absently out the window.

All future tests could likely be called off. The question she'd set out with, hadn't necessarily been answered at any public venues, but right here, in the kitchens of her family's house.

She was…wicked.

She'd allowed Severin Cadogan, the fearless, all-powerful, Earl of Killburn to do the most shameful things to her. What was worse? She'd loved every single moment and thought only of Severin and that night.

She'd also actively and successfully avoided him. The rain, certainly helped . Though, arrogant and clever as he was, he'd absolutely suspect the extensive amount of time Raina spent in her rooms had more to do with him.

"Oh, you are probably loving this, you great dunderhead," she muttered.

It was improbable. Her attraction to Severin Cadogan defied logic. He clearly didn't like her. He delighted in tormenting her. He didn't smile.

But in being in his arms carried with it a feeling of rightness and also, absolute wrong.

"…Did you like that, Princess…?"

No, she'd loved it.

Raina closed her eyes to silence the voice— his voice —persisted.

"…you've discovered you want a real man's hand on you… My hand…"

The place between Raina's legs quivered. She pressed her thighs together to ease the growing ache there.

"…My very lengthy list of malefactors includes women whom I've given great pleasure to, in exchange for information I want…"

That last avowal managed to do what all previous remembrances had not—it cooled her ardor.

It'd served as a reminder—then and now—nothing he'd done with her had been special. While she'd believed he'd shown her heaven, Severin's feet remained planted firmly on Earth.

Raina hugged her arms close.

She didn't want to endure a wretched marriage like the late duke and duchess. She didn't want a husband who could separate himself from his emotions.

She'd read her mother's journals enough times. The late duchess began as a respectable lady who'd lost her heart, pride, and then all happiness.

Now, if there'd ever been a man who epitomized, divorced from emotions , it would be Severin Cadogan—former spy turned hired mercenary and who—

"Oh, dear."

Raina let loose a squeal and looked to the happy, spritely, source of that interruption.

"Millie!" she greeted her youngest sister.

The girl, with fay footing to rival any fairy, sprinted across the room and launched herself onto the bed. That sudden disturbance sent the feather tick mattress bouncing. Millie laid on her stomach so that she and Raina faced one another and then kicked her legs up behind her.

"It is horrendous what Gregory has done to you, assigning that horrid man to you."

That horrid man who did the most wonderful things to me…

"Imprisonment is driving you mad, Raina."

"Imprisonment?"

Millie nodded. "That is what the servants are calling it."

"Yes, well, it certainly feels that way," she said under her breath.

Just then, thunder rumbled, the same time a flash of lightning lit up the sky.

Millie scurried closer.

Automatically, Raina grabbed the nearby throw and. Lying next to her sister, Raina pulled the blanket over them. Then, sliding an arm under the girl, she drew her close. While the storm raged, they two remained that way.

For as long as Raina could recall, her young sister feared storms. Whenever Mother Earth whipped up a tempest, Millie took sanctuary with Raina.

Stroking the top of Millie's curls, Raina held her young sister, until the storm let up, and then stopped altogether.

"Where did you go?"

Pulled from her musings, Raina glanced down. "Hmm?"

"The last time you snuck off," Millie clarified. "It must have been wonderfully scandalous if he locked you in your rooms for days."

She frowned. "He didn't lock me in."

Millie's eyes rounded. "You locked yourself in?" She whistled. "It must have been a very bad place."

Raina troubled at her lower lip. How excited her young sister had become. Perhaps they truly all did possess their family's corrupted blood.

Millie tugged the bottom of Raina's plait to get her attention.

She touched the back of her head. " Ouch ."

"Well?" Millie persisted. "Surely you don't believe I'll tell Gregory ?" Hurt laced her sister's voice.

"No, Millie! Never ."

She and her sister only had each other.

Raina lowered her voice. "I went to Braggert and Maynard's Fight Society. It is a…"

"Boxing Arena," her sister finished on an awed whisper.

Raina frowned. "You know about—?"

" Of course , I do," Millie said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for small girls to know about such violent establishments. "What was it like, Raina?"

Raina searched for a way to explain such a spectacle.

Then, the thrill of last night came rushing back. "It was appallingly violent and loud and dangerous and compelling. The fighters, they were like gladiators of old and bare from the waist up…"

And it is why you were the only woman present, an all-knowing voice in her head jeered. Unlike the other young ladies who've just Come Out, you aren't proper, respectable, or good.

Millie, free-spirited as Raina had always been, remained innocent and na?ve to their family's dark history.

For now.

Raina intended to keep it that way for as long as she could.

" Yes ?" Millie urged. "Do go on."

She registered her young, impressionable sister hanging on the story like it was a dangling thread of licorice.

Raina cleared her throat. "And it was something no proper lady should ever bear witness to."

A whispery soft sigh escaped Millie's lips—a dreamy little expression of wonderment that would have better suited a younger sister learning about her big sister's first ball. "I wish I could have joined you."

Warning bells went off; the loud, chiming, clanging ones that indicated that Raina needed to watch Millie closely. The same, bold, independent Goodheart streak, existed in her, too.

Millie shook Raina's arm. "What is next?"

" Next ?"

Millie looked at her incredulously. "You must have other exciting places to visit?"

She did. But those were certainly not ones she could ever or would ever speak to her innocent sister about.

She ruffled the top of Millie's wild curls. "That is all, poppet." Given Severin's furious response and dogged determination, it would be the last time she could freely sneak off.

The younger girl swatted her hand away. "That is all ?"

For as horrified as Millie was, Raina may as well have committed treason against the Crown.

"Surely not—" An understanding well beyond her innocent years, lit Millie's eyes and she growled. " Your gaoler ."

My gaoler . It turns out he'd become just that, after all.

"I won't be able to slip off again." Raina managed a smile for her sister's benefit. "Mr. Cadogan is not a man who'll be fooled twice."

"The bloody Sard," Millie muttered.

A sharp bark of laughter exploded from Raina's lips. " Millie ."

"Well, he is," her sister scoffed. "We are permitted to speak , however, we please. Just as you can go wherever you want."

"You know we do not have those freedoms," Raina gently reminded.

The younger girl didn't have a mother, and much of her influence came from their older, rakish brother. Raina had to at least try to be a proper influence.

Millie pulled a face. "It is not fair."

"No, it isn't." Where women were concerned, life usually wasn't.

A maudlin silence fell between them.

Even though her sister wasn't wrong in thinking women should enjoy the same freedoms as Gregory, the fact remained their movements were monitored and restricted.

"Psst, Millie?"

Her glum sister looked up.

"We aren't allowed to do the same things as the gentlemen." Raina lowered her voice to a whisper. "In private, however? When we're with our friends, women enjoy our own freedoms."

Millie's spine grew three inches. "Then as your friend, I am here to help you evade Mr. Sour-Face."

Another short laugh burst from Raina and prevented her from repeating that very apt moniker for Severin.

She sighed. "I fear I cannot evade him, poppet. He has a number of men stationed at various points inside and outside the household."

"Seven."

Raina stared confusedly at the younger girl.

"One at the entrance to the kitchens. One in the foyer. One at the hallway that leads to the main suites. One that leads away from the master suites." With each location mentioned, Millie shot a finger up. "One at the stables. One outside the front gates. One at the servant's entrance."

"You know all that?" Raina let all her awe and admiration shine through.

Millie snorted. "Do you truly believe any man is a match for me?"

"Forgive me." Raina bowed her head. "I have greatly underestimated you."

"Better."

They shared a smile.

"What of Mr. Cadogan?" Raina strove to make her question as casual as possible. "Where precisely is he stationed?"

"Oh, he's the floater." Millie hopped up and did an impression of a ghost flitting about the room.

"He's like a phantom who moves from one spot to the next."

A shiver traveled along Raina's spine. A phantom. There couldn't be a more apt description of the powerful, emotionally deadened bodyguard.

But ghosts weren't capable of physical touch and doing all the wondrous things Severin Cadogan did to her body that night in the kitchens.

Millie jumped in front of Raina, startling her.

" We , in contrast," she dropped her hands on the edge of the mattress, "are far stealthier and more dangerous than any phantom ."

Millie gave her eyebrows a little wiggle.

If only Raina possessed the same confidence as a young girl.

"There is no evading him, Millie," she said, regretfully.

"Bah, we've already done so once," her sister scoffed. " Plus , you have our big-headed brother, wrapped about your finger. Plus , when have you ever allowed any man to bully you?"

Raina frowned.

Never .

Until enigmatic Mr. Severin Cadogan had come along.

Her scowl deepened. Here she sat, hiding away in her chambers because of one overbearing gentleman.

Do you fear Severin or your body's response to him , a voice in her head prodded.

Raina steeled her jaw.

Either way, she'd not stay here any longer, letting him think he'd gotten the better of her.

"Do you know, Millie, I believe I will be going out, after all." Whether Severin liked it or not.

Millie sprung to her feet and jumped wildly about Raina's mattress. "Huzzah!"

Quietly laughing, Raina touched a finger to her lips.

Not. Severin would not like any further displays of defiance. She smiled. That would make it all the more enjoyable.

There was but one problem. "How do you propose I slip past Mr. Cadogan's minions? They're stationed all over the corridors."

"You won't slip past them, silly."

Raina stilled.

As one, they looked to the closet with its secret panel that led through the interior corridors.

Millie grunted. "Now, let us sneak you out."

Nearly an hour later, with the assistance of her impish sister, Raina exited through the basements, and slipped along the grounds until she reached the nearest neighbor's properties.

Then, Raina was on her way.

Heart thundering, Cadogan bolted upright in bed.

"Fuck," he muttered.

How the hell long had he been asleep?

Cadogan scrubbed a hand over his eyes and fumbled around the nightstand looking for his watch fob.

Squinting, he consulted the time. An hour and sixteen minutes. After she'd snuck off to the Fight Society, in the event she got it into her fool head to try and run off again, he'd put more men on her.

He trusted his men, but he trusted himself more.

Who he didn't trust, was Lady Raina Goodheart.

She'd been…too quiet.

Is it that she's quiet or is it the fact you wounded her with the crude, hate-filled words you hurled after pleasuring her?

The latter. It was definitely the latter. And that truth, didn't make him feel better.

Cursing roundly and blackly, Cadogan got out of bed and went through his morning ablutions.

What was it about Lady Raina Goodheart that mesmerized him? Yes, she was beautiful and clever, but he'd had any number of beautiful, clever women in his life. And duplicitous. They'd been that, too.

Closing his eyes, he dunked his head into the full wash basin that'd been set out. Cadogan held his breath, waiting as long as he could, until the water fully wakened him.

With a gasp, he straightened.

Maybe that was the difference, he thought, as he toweled off.

Raina was more innocent than he'd believed a person could be. Oh, she'd been wild in his arms, but that was the expected response, and her release, always the outcome. He'd mastered the weaponry of desire.

Not a single one of his past lovers wore the glitter of awe in their jaded eyes that Raina had that night in the kitchens.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he muttered, tossing his towel aside.

Cadogan went to fetch his boots.

Sex.

That's all that accounted for this mindless fascination with the Impertinent Incomparable.

Before now, he'd never had a taste of someone like her, and now that he'd sampled Lady Raina Goodheart, he'd not be content until he ate his fill.

Fully bathed, shaved, and dressed, Cadogan headed off to check in with his staff, when a tingling at his nape froze him in his tracks.

Frowning, he strode over to the window and, gripping the sill, Cadogan did a quick check finding each of the men he'd hired in the spots he'd stationed them.

Everyone from this vantage was in position.

He kept scanning the rain-covered cobblestones.

Then, from the corner of his right eye, he detected a flash of movement—the same moment one of his men did.

A spritely figure flew from the shadows and bolted as if Satan himself were after her.

The others in Cadogan's employ immediately set in pursuit of the lady.

"Bloody hell," he gritted out.

God, she was a level of trouble he'd never anticipated.

With a curse, Cadogan made to go after the damned chit but abruptly stopped.

There was something too outrageous, too obvious about that small figure.

Sure enough, while his men continued in pursuit of someone who was most certainly not the troublesome wench Cadogan had been tasked with looking after, a slender figure slipped through the front gates of the neighboring properties.

She stole a furtive glance about before stealing out and heading for a hired hack some yards ahead.

Cadogan took off running.

The minute he arrived outside, Raina nearly reached a hackney.

Cadogan increased the length and speed of his strides.

"By God, I'll stop the damned thing with my bare hands if I have to," he gritted out, from between clenched teeth.

Except…

Bypassing the hackney altogether, she crossed to the opposite side of the street and continued heading north.

What the hell?

As annoyed as he was intrigued, Cadogan followed close enough to ensure the lady didn't come to any harm, but with enough distance to not alert her of his presence—at least, not until he discovered the reason behind her latest rebellion.

She moved with a sprightliness better suited to the mincing steps of a quadrille.

Cadogan gritted his teeth. Did the chit want to get herself raped in some alleyway and left with a slit throat for her efforts?

Where in blazes are you going, princess?

A short while later he followed close as she headed with determined steps for…

Lucifer's Lair.

He drew his eyebrows together.

This is where she was headed, alone, in the early morning hours?

At that, she'd had the help of someone he'd wager his black soul to Satan was, in fact, her younger sister—the closest person she had to a friend.

Cadogan dealt in the business of shady souls and cutthroat men and women working against the Crown, driven by money, power, and influence. He'd discovered people of every station capable of any level of evil and cruelty to get what they wanted.

What he'd not expected, however, was the dogged determination and stealth of a virgin intent on sinning.

Raina didn't learn.

Or she hadn't.

After this latest transgression, however, she'd know better than to make the mistakes she had, again.

Oh, she'd learn.

In a single, quick move, Cadogan was upon his naughty charge. Instantly, he had Raina's slender frame stuck between his body and the solid brick wall.

Anticipating her scream before she could even breathe that plea for help into existence, he clamped a hand over her mouth.

In a bid to free herself, Raina whimpered and moaned and bucked against him.

The lush globes of her buttocks thumped against his cock, and he went as hard as a schoolboy with his first whore.

Cadogan gritted his teeth; and for the first time, he found his fury with this woman to be greater than even his desire.

Is this what she needed? To be scared bloody straight.

His breath came as ragged and fast as her own inhalations and exhalations.

Were he another man, a decent one, respectable and good, he'd have been horrified at being aroused by her struggles. He'd ceased to be a gentleman—if he'd ever even been one to begin with—and now, only a primal hunter, who subsisted on lust, and bloodlust raged within him.

Cadogan lowered his lips close to the shell of her ear.

"We're going to need to work on your fighting skills," he said, his voice sharp and hoarse. "That is, unless you're trying to get a man hard."

Even with his vulgar jeering, the sound of his voice had a calming effect on the lady. She instantly ceased her struggles and went soft and supple in his arms.

"Sefferin," she mouthed into the palm he still had over her lips.

Slowly, he removed his hand from her mouth, keeping it close enough lest he need to silence her once more.

He needn't have bothered.

The moment she wheeled around, she stretched up on tiptoes and gracefully looped her slender arms about his neck. "Severin," she breathed.

Never before had a single person looked upon him with the relief and joy this woman did now.

Cadogan grunted. He attempted to disentangle her arms from his person, but she remained as tenacious and clingy as stubborn ivy. "I told your brother," he whispered sharply against her ear, "I am not your goddamned nursemaid."

Her eyes twinkled. "I should hope a nursemaid wouldn't bring a babe to Lucifer's Lair ."

Cadogan remained unamused. Granted, he'd never had grounds for laughter—and that absence of light extended far back, long before his work, to his bastard of a father.

The lady wrinkled her nose in that ridiculously adorable way of hers. "Do you ever laugh, Severin?"

Severin. There it was again. His bloody Christian name. The bold, little imp used it to get a rise out of him.

Proving tenacious, Raina brushed her palms over the lapels of his black, wool coat. "I asked if you ever laughed."

"No," he said flatly. Nor did he smile. "I don't have any reason to."

The lady moved a saddened gaze across his face. "How sad," she said softly, a woman speaking to herself, who didn't realize she'd spoken aloud.

Discomfited as he was furious by her pitying utterance, he grunted. "What are you doing here?"

"I think that should be obvious, Severin."

"It isn't," he said flatly.

She folded her hands as if in prayer. "I'm visiting Lucifer's Lair ."

The nun-like way she carried herself against the backdrop of her intentions nearly pulled a laugh out of him.

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I can't very well visit Forbidden Pleasures ."

Cadogan searched for some indication she was making a jest but found none.

He didn't know what he wanted more: to bend her across his knee and spank her for the latest trouble she'd set out in search of, or get her home…where he'd very much like the opportunity to do the same thing, there.

Home.

Home was the priority.

"Your brother would not be pleased were he to discover you've been to Craven's, Raina."

The lady wavered. "Yes, well, it is a good thing he shall not find out."

"He won't."

The obvious tension she carried in her shoulders eased some.

"That is, he won't as long as you accompany me home. Now ."

Severin reached for her wrist.

Raina backed away. "I'm not leaving."

"One of us is correct, Raina, and the other, is you."

"I'm going inside, with or without you."

"How adorable you are," he jibed. "You thinking you have any control over me or what I decide."

She wrinkled her nose in a guileless way that should disgust Cadogan, but instead captivated.

Jaded by death and murder and all the dealings he'd had over the course of his career, Cadogan discovered a strange and unexpected appeal in this innocent woman and her absolute lack of artifice.

He made another attempt for her hand.

"I expect my brother will be most displeased to learn I've escaped your watch. Nor is this the first time. Given that, I trust whatever payment your expecting will go unpaid."

Fury sent his nostrils into a full flare. "My God, you insolent wench." She'd come between him and the only thing he sought in life.

The lady gave an impudent toss of her head. "If an insolent wench is a woman who knows what she wants, and won't be ordered about, then yes , I'm an insolent wench."

He heard Craven's men when they were still nothing more than a distant shadow, seven or so yards away.

Fucking hell. This was the last bloody thing he needed.

Cadogan buried his mouth against Raina's, covering her lips in a hard, punishing kiss, and as her innocent body melted against him, he became briefly lost in the taste and feel of her.

A pistol cocked and jolted Cadogan from the lustful hold this maddening woman had over him.

"What have we h—?"

The rest of that icily mocking query came to a sudden stop.

"If it is not, Severin Cadogan," the Duke of Craven drawled, sounding more than faintly amused at discovering just who it was who'd been intending to enter his clubs.

"Craven."

The ruthless proprietor lingered his gaze on Raina's hidden form.

She slid closer to Cadogan.

"You invited me to sample your clubs," Cadogan said bluntly, recalling the duke's attention. "I'm here."

After he'd saved Craven's wife, the duke offered Cadogan an open—and generous—invitation to frequent as often as he wanted and to fuck as many of Craven's Cyprians, whenever he wished.

Suspicion flickered in Craven's eyes. "You've also brought company," the duke remarked. He gave Raina a longer look. "Though I confess, I expected you'd enjoy the services of my Cyprians, instead of bringing your own."

"As you may remember when you presented me with an invitation," he said coolly, "I have specific requirements about the women I fuck."

"I recall." With a tight smile, the duke made a grand gesture with his arm. "Then, please, do not let me keep you any longer from your pleasures."

Craven glanced to the flinty-eyed, towering fellow who watched Cadogan with a deserved amount of suspicion.

A moment later, with Raina at his side, Cadogan followed the guard inside Lucifer's Lair .