The Accidental Courtesan (13 page)

Gavin crossed his arms and waited.

“I saw this beautiful necklace dangling from the earl's pocket and knew I had to have it,” she said in a rush. Then she sucked in a deep breath and slowed her pace. “So I brushed up against him and plucked it from his coat.”

The chit was a terrible liar. “Where?”

“Almack's,” she said firmly, nodding as if satisfied with her tale. Her attention remained squarely off in the distance, as if looking into his eyes would give away her secrets. “He was distracted by the dancers. It was a fairly easy feat to lift it.”

Gavin let out a very long and exasperated sigh through gritted teeth. “His Lordship despises Almack's. He much prefers to spend his free time in London at White's.”

“But I swear it is the truth,” she insisted, her eyes wide and fearful. “It was me. I stole the necklace. I'm a thief.”

The woman was protecting someone. A lover? A friend?

There was only one way to get the truth out of her. She needed a good slap of reality to break through her loyalty to this unnamed confidant. He stood and slowly turned toward the closest streetlamp. Pale light infused his face through a narrow space in the hedge. He hoped it was enough. He did not need a mirror to know it had born the brunt of several well-placed fists to his countenance.

She gasped and scrambled to her feet. She took a step toward him and scanned the damage. “Good God! What happened to your face?”

Gavin touched the tip of his forefinger to his swollen lip and winced. Though there was little pain, his attackers had done their job well. If not for his skill at dealing with criminal types, he might currently be residing at the bottom of the Thames with a knife in his belly.

“A trio of footpads came upon me as I was leaving the shipyard.” He watched her eyes widen with shock. Obviously, she hadn't set the men on him. Thank goodness. “They caught me unaware. My mind was occupied elsewhere.”

“Did they break anything?” She pressed her fingers against his rib cage with a surgeon's precision. “Do you have any bleeding?”

He reached down and caught her hands. As much as he enjoyed her attentions—and he did, very much—she had explanations to make, and he wasn't about to be put off before he had the complete picture. “They were looking for the necklace, Noelle.”

Her mouth parted. Pain flitted through her eyes. Slowly, she eased her hands free of his grip and returned to the bench. She lowered herself onto the surface and rubbed her bare arms with her palms. A shudder shook her.

“Would you like to tell me the name of the real culprit in this caper?” he asked firmly. In order to save himself, and perhaps her, too, he needed her to recognize the gravity of the situation and be completely truthful.

She shook her head. “I cannot.”

Gavin sighed impatiently. Clearly she was as stubborn as she was beautiful. He wanted to grab her and shake her until her teeth rattled. He could have been murdered tonight, and still she kept her secrets.

He went to her anyway and reclaimed his seat beside her. The intimacy of the moment wasn't lost on him. He was in the shadows of a darkened garden with the unchaperoned woman who'd haunted him since their first evening together. It wouldn't take much to have her flat on her back and his mouth pressed between her nicely rounded breasts.

It was nearly impossible to remain focused.

He crossed one leg over the other to hide his growing arousal. He rested his arms on his thighs and spoke.

“I know you don't trust me, Noelle, and you have no reason to. We are strangers still, in spite of our previous, shall we say, close encounters.” He tipped his head to look into her eyes. “But what happened tonight changed everything. Three men tried to remove my head from my neck. This is no longer just about a stolen and returned necklace. Someone wants it badly enough to possibly kill for it.”

“But I promised to keep the secret, and I cannot violate her trust.”

“Her?” Gavin straightened. Noelle blanched.

It all made sense now. Charles's suspicion had been confirmed. There was only one woman foolish enough to steal from Charles and think he wouldn't notice the loss. “It was Bliss.”

Noelle pressed her clasped fists to her mouth. A moment passed before she answered, “She was pressured to take it by another's influence. As soon as she took it, she realized her error. Then she panicked. It truly wasn't her fault.”

The plot grew. Noelle. Bliss. Someone unnamed. Now there were three. If he shook the tree of thieves, who knew how many more would tumble out? “How did you become involved?”

“A, uh, friend has a small school that helps courtesans escape that life and matches them with husbands.” Noelle paused, and her shoulders slumped forward. “Bliss knew of the school and came to ask Eva for help. Unfortunately, Eva is in the country at present. So I offered to assist.” Noelle jumped to her feet and lifted her arms, her eyes beseeching. “I thought I could return the necklace and no one would know. Then I stumbled upon you. Entirely by accident, I assure you. I made the disgraceful offer as a way to distract you. I never intended to become your courtesan.”

 

N
oelle watched his face, knowing he held two lives in his possession. If he wanted to see a double hanging, he had only to call for a magistrate, and she and Bliss would be arrested.

However, it wasn't anger she saw on his battered face. He was frustrated over the situation and how her innocent adventure had almost had fatal consequences. And she felt horrible that he'd suffered for her actions. She wanted to reach out and touch the bruise under his eye.

His handsome face would bear the marks of her bad judgment for days to come.

“I could not let her go to Newgate,” she said helplessly. The one way to right this and save Bliss was to try and make him see her point. “She is an innocent in spite of her profession, and is easily swayed. If not for her maid, Bliss wouldn't have taken the necklace.”

“Her maid?” Quickly, his frustration changed to curiosity. This was an interesting twist. “Who is this woman?”

Noelle shook her head. Bliss knew almost nothing about the woman. She'd come into the courtesan's life, then evaporated just as quickly after the necklace was lifted.

“Bliss said she arrived about three months ago, looking for work. She had letters of recommendation. Though Bliss found her somewhat terse that first week, she did her job well and was kept on. It was during the last month that the woman began to place ideas into Bliss's head. Telling her she was not getting everything she deserved from the earl for her services.”

Noelle's embarrassment flared. It was scandalous to be speaking of the intimacies between a man and his mistress with this stranger. Yet, she had to get the complete story out.

“It was during, ah, a visit with the earl at her town house that Bliss casually mentioned the necklace to the woman. She'd stepped out of her bedroom to call for refreshments and gushed to the maid about the beautiful piece. It was then that the woman urged her to take the item.”

“So she slipped it out of his pocket?”

Noelle nodded. “Almost immediately, she knew she had to return it, but she could find no way to do so without getting caught. She was trapped. It was then she came to me.”

She watched his swollen face and felt the crush of responsibility weigh on her. He'd become entangled in this mad adventure and was paying the price for her impulsive game. She played at bravado, but she wasn't an adventuress, not really. Climbing the trellis to enter the town house and accepting her illegitimate half sister into her life were as far as her adventurous spirit stretched.

She hated that now, even with his bloodied face, she didn't want this adventure to end. Secretly, she had liked the thrill that came from climbing through the earl's town house window and from Gavin's stolen kisses. She liked being the kind of woman a man would pursue with enthusiasm and for whom he would sneak through a garden gate to spend stolen moments in her arms.

Impulsively, she reached out to brush her thumb gently over the tiny cut at the corner of his mouth. His skin was warm under her fingertips. He winced under her touch but didn't pull away. Little butterflies danced in her belly.

“I am sorry,” she whispered regretfully. His handsome features were all but ruined, temporarily, giving him a rakish bent. “No one was supposed to get hurt.”

His eyes softened as his gaze roved over her face. A playful smile lifted the uninjured side of his mouth. “I'm quite sure kisses would make it feel better.”

Noelle clicked her tongue and shook her head. “You are impossible.” Then, feeling both a rush of guilt and a bit of mischief, she carefully pressed her mouth to the bruise beneath his eye. He tasted lightly of salt and dust. She felt him go still. Good! She'd shocked him.

“Better?” she said, pulling back. Perhaps she
was
an adventuress beneath her proper upbringing after all. Her mother would fall into vapors if she knew what her oldest child was doing this evening.

The thought emboldened her to brush a few strands of hair out of his eyes. She was handling fire and knew she could be scorched. Yet, he remained still and let her do with him what she wished. Without his protest, she found she didn't want to stop her exploration.

Gavin's stare was intense. “Somewhat. But they had very hard knuckles.” She bit back a smile at Gavin's thick tone.

“I can see that.” She placed a hand on his knee and leaned to brush her lips across the pair of red knuckle marks on his chin. His breath caught.

This time she did smile. There were so many reasons for this being a terrible idea, but she couldn't think of a one. She liked to kiss him, wanted to kiss him.

Gavin stared at her mouth, his lips slightly parted. There was a shaky quality to his breathing. “Certainly, there are other places on my face needing attention. They pummeled me for a good several minutes.”

Noelle let out a short, clipped laugh. He
was
impossible.

With her hand gripping his knee, she pushed to her feet and came around to face him. She bent toward him and put both hands on his legs. She felt his thigh muscles twitch.

“Here?” she said, and kissed beneath his other eye. “And what about here?” With care, she gingerly dragged her mouth over a mark along his cheekbone. The odor of spice filled her senses.

The man moved not an inch. He seemed frozen in place. Finally, she turned her attention to the small red split on the corner of his excellent mouth. Thankfully, it wasn't bleeding. It would be a shame to ruin such a mouth.

“Last one,” she breathed softly, and made a brief, close-up assessment of the spot. His breath brushed her skin. Very slowly, Noelle pressed her mouth lightly on the injury.

This time, his hands swept up to catch her waist. She didn't pull away. She moved from the cut, across his mouth, pressing more kisses as she went. She felt him draw her down on the hard stone bench until she was half atop his chest and lap, her legs between his. Covered by the darkness, with the heat of him beneath her, Noelle traced her tongue along the seam of his mouth, begging him to kiss her in return.

Gavin groaned and obliged. Noelle turned her head for a better fit and plunged her tongue deep into his warmth. He caught her head and ravaged her mouth with equal vigor.

The kiss was long and passionate. Their breaths and tongues tangled in a sensuous dance. Forgotten were his battered face, the necklace, Bliss, and Newgate. Noelle was swept away by the sensation of his lips beneath hers.

When she finally lifted her head to stare into his smoldering eyes, a mischievous smile tugged at her lips.

“Feel better now?” she whispered.

He let out a clipped laugh and spun her onto her back. He caught her to him and said, “Ask me again in a few minutes.”

Gavin reclaimed her mouth in a searing kiss.

 

T
he fit of her body in his arms left Gavin hungry to rip clothing from her in spite of the discomfort of the position and the scrape of his thinly clad knees against stone. He wanted to share with her his vast knowledge of the female form. But he feared frightening her, just as she was beginning to trust him.

So he matched her kisses with several of his own and hoped his erection wouldn't spear through his breeches like a finely chiseled sword. One look at his hardened cock, and Noelle would flee in virginal terror.

For in all her boldness he sensed an innocence that assured him she was a virgin still. It was a complication he certainly didn't need. It was one thing to bed widows and courtesans with a careless, casual flair. A Lady-innocent was entirely another matter.

He groaned as he lifted his head and peered into her soft face. For a woman possessing a cool, delicate beauty, she had a passionate streak. He couldn't help but envy the man who'd eventually wed and bed her. The lucky bastard would never tire of a wife like Noelle.

As he brushed one last kiss across her delightful mouth, he found the idea of another man enjoying her perfect body and delicate lips unsettling. And having her sprawled casually against him was beyond unsettling—and dangerous, too. He needed to remove her body from beneath him quickly, before he lived to regret his actions.

“I am cured,” he said reluctantly. Cured of the pain in his face, if not the pain much lower in his manly extremities. He had a feeling she could cure that, too.

But he had no time for a wife, and his wife Noelle would be if they were caught. He'd almost fallen into that trap once and would not do so again. His business was his spouse, and she demanded all of his time and energy.