Rogue Countess (12 page)

“Ah,” Jude said with a slow sigh, as if he had anticipated that she would make such a suggestion. “But the Blackbourne residence is empty. It would be rather lonely, especially without the delightful companionship of my lovely friend. And to be honest, I don’t much like being alone.”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with me,” Anna insisted with rising panic.

“It has everything to do with you,” Jude countered. “Since you are directly responsible not only for my lack of a female companion, but also for getting me booted from my hotel, I think the least you can do is share your residence.” He shrugged then and his next words took on a distinctly sensual tone. “Now, should something develop between us due to our new level of domestic intimacy, well, all the better.”

Anna’s wide eyes narrowed and a shiver swept across her entire body in response to his insinuation that they might become lovers.

“Now I know you’ve lost your mind,” she whispered fiercely.

“What’s the matter?” Jude asked, his smile predatory. “You don’t intend to cooperate with an annulment. Which means as your husband, what is yours is mine. Including this house, your lovely stables, and—” his eyes flickered over her person in an assessing way that warmed Anna’s blood in a flash of physical awareness, “—your intimate time.”

Anna flew to her feet, nearly knocking the chair down in her haste. She fought the rise of heat in her blood caused by his intimation and focused instead upon her anger.

“Not on your bloody life. You don’t deserve a minute of my time, intimate or otherwise.”

“Hmm,” Jude said. He took another sip of his coffee as if considering other options. “You could always agree to dissolve the marriage and we could go off in our separate directions. We would never have to suffer each other again.”

Anna paused, realizing the neat little trap he had set for her. Her eyes glazed over with cold annoyance as her brain swiftly worked through the many possible scenarios of this new threat. He thought to intimidate her now with his very nearness and the suggestion of sharing sexual intimacies. She needed to play her hand carefully here.

“I don’t think so,” she answered slowly, keeping all evidence of her inner uncertainty over the daring bluff from her voice. “You haven’t earned your freedom from me yet, my lord.”

“Then it looks like you are gaining a housemate, sweetheart. And I promise, we will be spending a lot of time together.” The bright spark in his eyes implied the kind of time he was anticipating. “This shall prove to be rather interesting,” he murmured over his coffee cup.

Anna hated that he was amused by the situation. She didn’t want him amused. She wanted him annoyed and irate. Everything she was.

She stared back at him as his intent blue eyes studied her across the table. His brows lifted as his gaze traveled over her garments. She was dressed in her usual riding costume of buckskin breeches, white shirt and woolen coat, and he couldn’t seem to resist commenting.

“I had no idea that men’s clothing on the right female body could be so strikingly appealing. Do you do it on purpose, I wonder?”

“What on earth are you talking about,” Anna demanded, placing her hands on her hips in a commanding posture. He’d thrown her off with the swift change in topic. “Do I do what on purpose?”

“Dress to entice, tease, drive a man to lustful thoughts,” Jude answered with an open-palmed gesture of his hand that swept the outline of her body from head to toe.

Was it strange that she felt as if his hand had touched her though she remained out of reach?

“You must know that displaying your figure in such a way is sure to cause a fit of desire in any warm-blooded man.”

Anna blinked at his strangely complimentary insult, coming unexpectedly as it did out of their previous conversation. She had received a load of critical comments about her attire over the years, most of them from his mother, but never had she been accused of wearing such an outfit as a means of enticing men. She shifted her stance as she brushed her palms down the front of her tapered coat and tugged on the hem that hugged the fullest part of her hips.

“My usual acquaintances don’t seem to be bothered by it,” she started with a note of stubborn defiance, then stopped as Jude’s gaze followed the path of her hands. A tantalizing rush of female power flew through her. A devilish compulsion urged her to smooth her hands down over her thighs. Jude’s gaze intensified, and Anna’s skin tingled. She couldn’t resist a temptation to prod at the thin shield of his composure.

“Are you bothered by it, Jude?”

She should have known better than to play with a man who had long been known for his multi-national success with women. When his gaze drifted back upward over her body to meet hers, she was struck to her core by the desire in his eyes. Her breath stopped and her stomach flipped in piercing excitement. Her eyes widened in shock at her own intense response to his obvious sexual interest.

Then he smiled. The curve of his firm lips was wide, confident and warmly appreciative. His gaze sparkled with anticipation.

“Doesn’t bother me at all.” His words curled around her like a fine silken ribbon of sensual allure. The tone of his voice was intimate and deep and caressed the delicate triggers of Anna’s awakening desire.

Dammit.

Anna cursed herself for getting caught in his gentle snare and losing the upper hand.

She had a sudden terrifying thought that his earlier warnings about having a more intimate relationship with her may not be an empty threat. She was not confident in her abilities to resist him should he decide he truly wanted her. In fact, she was quite certain that should he make an honest attempt at claiming her, she would likely not offer a single breath of argument. Such a step would be disastrous in so many ways. The thought was sobering and Anna shivered as if a bucket of frigid water had been tossed over her head.

But she refused to back down from Jude’s latest challenge. He would not win so easily. There had to be a way to force some distance between them. She could not risk exposing her heart and her past to his personal scrutiny. Neither would survive if she could not keep the passionate emotions she had for her husband under secure control.

“You wish to stay here with me, Jude, that is fine,” she stated with resolute assurance. “I have no problem with that. In fact, I doubt it will make any difference at all to my regular behavior. On the other hand,” she added with a subtle warning in her voice as her dark eyes narrowed provocatively, “I predict things will not proceed quite as you imagine.”

Jude shrugged with a complete lack of concern as he stood to his full height and stepped around the table. Anna resisted the urge to take a step back as he came to stand directly before her. Facing him down had been one thing while she had stood over him, but the proximity of his solid body gave her a brief flash of concern as an intense physical awareness flooded her senses.

He looked down at her with a confident smirk. “Don’t worry too much about what I can imagine, sweetheart.” He lifted his hand and brushed his thumb across the crest of her cheekbone. “Such thoughts would bring a flush to your cheeks.”

She forced herself to meet his piercing blue eyes, though she worried at her ability to avoid the sensual pull of his gaze.

“You seem to think you can manipulate me into giving you what you want by forcing me to endure your company?” she asked and was pleased her voice sounded strong. “Let me remind you, dear misguided husband, that should any intimacy occur between us, you will lose any chance at all for an annulment.” Anna claimed her satisfaction when his blue eyes darkened. “The only option then will be divorce, and I think we both know such a scandalous action isn’t really an option at all.”

Turning away from him before he could respond, Anna strode from the room and called out to her butler who had opened the door to her latest intruder.

“Hastings. Lord Blackbourne will be staying here for a while. You can set his things up in the cellar. He should be quite comfortable down there with the rest of the vermin.” She headed up the stairs to her room and added briskly over her shoulder, “And please have a bath brought up to my room. I am going out this afternoon.”

Chapter Eleven

“I want to make him suffer,” Anna exclaimed as she paced back and forth in Leif’s cramped little bedroom.

After her bath, she had dressed in a simple but stylish day gown. She’d briefly considered putting on a pair of trousers, but such an action would only be out of spite. She told herself she wasn’t going to allow Jude’s presence in her house to change her usual behavior in even the smallest way. She only wore men’s clothing when riding or working with her horses. So, she dressed in the lovely green gown and waited until all was quiet before leaving her room and calling for her carriage.

Her staff must not have taken her seriously when she had instructed them to make up a room for Jude in the cellar. Shortly after starting her bath, she’d heard the commotion in the hall as his things were brought up to a bedroom a few doors down from hers.

She had managed to leave the house without running into her unwelcome guest and headed straight for Leif’s residence on the other side of St. James Park. Of course, he had still been abed, but his decrepit butler let her in anyway. And once she determined that he did not have a bedmate, she took herself up to his bedroom.

His second bedroom, to be more precise.

Leif’s first bedchamber, where he brought his ladyloves, was an elaborate boudoir scented with exotic perfumes and layered with multi-textured finery, rich mahogany, India silk, lush velvets. Every corner of the room was designed with careful details meant to stimulate the senses and increase the overall sexual experience of his guests. He called it his investment.

Anna had never seen that room.

His other bedroom, the one he used when he spent the night alone, was a small corner room. It was furnished with only the basic essentials. It was to this room that Anna marched purposefully upon her arrival. She swept through the door and strode to the curtains covering the single window and spread them wide to let in the midday sun. When that did not manage to stir even a groan from the bed, she clapped her hands curtly a few times until she saw movement under the heap of covers.

“Oh, good morning,” she chirped. “Time to wake up.”

The pillow covering Leif’s head muffled the worst of his harsh and crude responses to her morning call.

Anna grabbed what she believed to be his foot under the blanket and shook it roughly. “Come on, Leif. I need to talk to you.”

“Fine,” he grumbled as he swept back the covers. “Damn, but you are a persistently annoying creature when you want to be.”

“I know,” Anna answered without remorse. “But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t truly need your help.”

Leif pushed himself to a seated position at the edge of his bed. His back was bowed and he held his head in his hands as if fighting off a headache. He still hadn’t managed to lift his face to the sunlight.

“Go order some coffee, would you. I can’t think straight, and I can’t listen to your prattling until I’ve had at least a pot of the stuff.”

Anna turned toward the door just as Leif stood up. She caught a glimpse of a bare muscled chest and strong arms. The sight made her blush. She had seen him in various states of undress when they had been children running about in the countryside, swimming in the pond. But it had been years since she had seen him without a shirt. Obviously, all the whispered twittering about his perfect physique had not been exaggerated in the female gossip reports given by his many conquests.

She remembered asking him once years ago if it bothered him how women talked about his physical attributes and sexual prowess as if he were a toy to be bragged about. He had answered with a stiff laugh that their favorable talk was what enabled him to keep up the kind of lifestyle he enjoyed.

After about thirty minutes and nearly the entire pot of coffee emptied down his gullet, Leif had managed to pull on a pair of trousers and shove his arms through the sleeves of a shirt. It was more for Anna’s sake than for his own modesty. He certainly had no problem with being naked, but he knew it would make the woman nervous.

He grunted in amusement. More nervous, he amended as he watched her pacing across the short width of his room in an obvious state of agitation.

“So what is so important you’d risk disturbing my beauty sleep,” he teased in a manner familiar to them both. “If a woman is going to barge into my bedroom, I would prefer her to be in a fit of passion, not a fit of temper.”

Anna didn’t even seem to take note of his words and replied harshly, “I want to make him suffer.”

Leif sighed and bit his tongue against the words that rose to his lips. He had no doubt of whom she spoke and would have liked to remind her that he had warned her to keep her distance from the man.

“Undoubtedly, and for many reasons. But what has you all fired up this morning?”

“Afternoon,” Anna corrected.

“Matter of perspective, angel.”

Anna stopped and turned to face him. Her lovely lips were pursed tight with tension and her eyes were dark and wild with barely contained wrath.

“He stole my mare and moved into my house.”

Leif was stunned for a moment, then unable to control himself, he burst out laughing.