Page 11 of After the Spy Seduces

A lightning bolt of realization slammed through her. Christopher Carlisle had been kissing her. Worse, she’d wanted him to do exactly that.

Good Lord. She’d gone mad!

She shoved at his shoulder to push him away, horrified at herself. “What are you doing?”

Not letting her out of his arms, he glanced toward the house as a second warning shout went up. “Apparently, waiting to be shot.”

“It’s Higgins, our steward.” She dug her fingers into his shoulder and caught her breath at the way the hard muscle flexed invitingly beneath her fingertips. Heavens, but she couldn’t stop herself from squeezing his shoulder again. “He couldn’t hit the side of a barn.”

“Convenient,” he muttered, “because he doesn’t have to if I’m standing in front of it.”

When he tried to pull her back into the shadows with him, safely out of Higgins’s sight, panic spilled through her. To be alone with him in the darkness, to risk that he’d kiss her again, that she’d crave another embrace after that, the way she’d so shamelessly craved this first one—

Lord help her!“You have to go.” Hiding her ruefulness at being so weak as to kiss him, she grabbed his shoulders and turned him toward his horse. “Now.”

Higgins called out again, this time much closer.

She shoved him as hard as she could, but the man was a mountain of solid muscle and barely moved an inch. Oh, the frustrating devil!

He grinned lazily at her over his shoulder. “Worried about me, are you, angel?”

She scowled, more so because her belly fluttered at the flirtatious endearment than at his audacity. Then she shoved him again with all her strength, forcing him to take a step forward. “Will you go already?”

His grin faded. “All right.” He turned to face her and walked backwards into the shadows, his eyes never leaving hers. “But we’re not finished with this.”

Oh yes. Theyverymuch were.

In one fluid movement, he mounted his horse and pulled the large gelding in a tight circle as he found his seat in the saddle. He leaned forward, and the gray horse leapt to canter off, disappearing into the fog like a ghost.

Diana held her breath and listened as the hoof beats faded into the night and silence descended.

Then she let out a long, trembling sigh. Had tonight really happened? The tavern, the Frenchman, Christopher Carlisle…kisses. Her head swam with it all, in a foggy confusion as dream-like as the white-shrouded night around her.

Higgins’s approaching footsteps crunched loudly behind her on the gravel.

There would be time later to sort through it all. Now, she had to deal with more immediate matters.

Squaring her shoulders, she turned and plastered a bright smile on her face. “Mr. Higgins!”

“Lassie?” Surprise filled the older man’s voice, and he rested his hunting gun across the crook of his arm. “I thought I heard horses. What on earth are you doing out here at this hour?”

Kissing London’s biggest scapegrace.“I came out to check on the new foal.”Because he’d saved me, apparently after I attempted to commit treason. “I wanted to make certain that she was nursing properly.”Because my brother has been kidnapped, and I’m the only one who can free him. “And that the stall had enough straw to keep her warm.”Because Carlisle is right, that I am so very much in over my head that I don’t even know how to begin to swim back to shore…

“Is everythin’ all right?”

She nodded with resolve. “It will be.”

“You an’ those horses,” the older man chuckled as he came forward. “Still fascinated with ’em, even after all these years.”

“I suppose I am.” A twinge of guilt at lying to her closest confidante among the staff pricked at the backs of her knees. But what was this one little lie compared to the grand ones she was keeping? “You know how much I love to ride.”

“Aye.” His eyes sparkled even in the darkness. “Your thinkin’ of trainin’ the yearling colt yourself, aren’t you?”

“We’ll win the Derby at Epsom.” She winked. “Just wait and see.”

He laughed and reached out to chuck her affectionately on the chin.

He’d done that since the first day they met, when she’d been only eight and the general and Mama had just purchased Idlewild. They’d hired Angus Higgins to run the little estate for them, and a better steward couldn’t have been found. Higgins had understood how difficult it was to be a soldier’s child and a general’s most of all, so he did everything he could to make the farm a happy home for both her and Garret whenever they visited.