Page 46 of An Unexpected Earl

“You broke the rules,” she whispered.

“There are no rules for this.” He lowered his head and claimed the kiss.

She caught her breath, tensing for a fleeting moment as his mouth found hers. Insistent yet soft, his lips moved against hers in a cajoling plea to surrender to the pleasure of being in his arms.

Unable to stop herself, she did just that. Her hands slipped over his shoulders to encircle his neck and tug herself closer, pressing into his hard front as she melted against him and opened her mouth to his with a soft whimper of capitulation.

Kissing him was utterly divine. Today in her shop hadn’t been a fluke. Hadn’t been just a trick of her imagination that he kissed as pleasurably as he did. No, it was him and the way he made her feel…feminine and free, special, cherished. As he’d always done. As he was doing now. And God help her, as she knew no other man ever could.

“Pearce,” she whispered achingly and turned her mouth away to recapture her breath. But he didn’t release her, and the sweet torture of being in his arms began to overwhelm her.

The door handle rattled.

Without warning, he grabbed her around the waist and propelled her behind the screen before she could protest. Then he clamped a hand over her mouth to make certain she didn’t when the door opened.

“Be quiet,” he urged into her ear from behind her. “You’ll be ruined if we’re found together.”

Breathing hard, she silently nodded.

Two sets of heavy footsteps trod inside the room, accompanied by men’s voices. Her heart beat so fiercely that the blood rushing through her ears nearly deafened her, and she took several long seconds to realize that one of the men was Arthur Varnham. Sir Charles’s younger brother.

“…saw him coming in here just a few minutes ago,” he announced as he crossed the room.

The man who was with him said something that Amelia couldn’t quite make out.

“Not for nothing. Cognac.”

Another mutter from near the door, this time full of irritation.Please leave. Please just turn around and go… The very last thing she needed was to give anyone in the Varnham family more ammunition with which to destroy hers.

“Not that sludge they’re serving the guests.Realcognac. From the finest French smugglers this side of Ramsgate.” His voice grew closer, and Amelia offered up a prayer that they wouldn’t be found. “Ha! Devonshire is nothing if not predictable.”

She couldn’t have missed the derogatory sneer in his voice at that, or the sound of liquid splashing into two glasses, the scrape of boots on the floor moving toward the fireplace, the clank of metal as one of the men picked up the poker and jabbed at the fire to stir up the coals.

Good Lord, they were settling in for the evening! She and Pearce were trapped behind the screen, with no way to escape.

“Are you all right?” he whispered into her ear, barely louder than a breath.

No!But she nodded anyway, only to reassure him. What was one little lie when they would be found at any moment?

“We’ll be safe here until they leave.” Confident now that she wouldn’t cry out and give them away, he removed his hand from her mouth. “They’ll finish their drinks soon.”

But that assertion did nothing to put her at ease, certainly not when he slipped both arms around her and pulled her against him, her back touching fully along his hard front.

Her heart leapt against her ribs, so hard that she was sure Pearce could feel it. After all, she could certainly feel the pounding of his beating steadily against her own back, just as she felt the hardness of his front against her, the strength of his arms encircling her waist like iron bands. The heat of him soaked into her and turned her insides molten.

She had to put space between them.Now. She wiggled in his arms—

He sucked in a mouthful of air and clamped his arm over her hips, forcing her to stand still against him. “Don’tdo that,” he rasped into her ear.

“Why not?” she mouthed. His warm breath tickling at her earlobe tumbled a shiver through her. Dear heavens, she needed to move away from him before he realized the wanton sensations his nearness stirred inside her.

In answer, he shifted to bring his pelvis against her. She caught her breath. He wasn’t fully aroused, but the hardening bulge pressing into her bottom was unmistakable.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“I’m not. After all, if I’m going to be caught, then…” He followed that whisper with a soft suck to her earlobe that pulled through her, all the way down between her legs.

Oh, this was dangerous. So very,verydangerous! To be pressed against him like this again, after all these years—