Page 19 of Brazen Rogue
He stilled before reaching for her. His hands slipped about her face, running into her hair as his mouth turned the kiss into much more than the punishment she had intended.
He stood, and she felt her bottom press against the desk before he hoisted her atop it. Papers and quills fell to the floor as he savaged her mouth in a kiss that left her reeling.
Somewhere along the road to punish him, she had awoken a fire in him that burned out of control. Their tongues tangled and pins fell from her hair. His hands cupped her face with such care, and yet there was no modesty, no sensitivity to this kiss.
It was wild, wicked, and utterly captivating.
And it was over as quickly as it had started.
He wrenched from her, his hand coming to his lips as if she had assaulted him somehow, and she supposed in a fashion she had.
"You should leave," he commanded, pointing to the door. "Before anyone sees us."
His words spiked her anger, and she clasped the lapels of his coat, pulling him close, going nose to nose with the marquess. "If you do not want me, if I'm no longer good enough for your aristocratic blood, then you do not get to choose whom I speak to and whom I choose to have in my life. I may be a governess now, but that does not mean that you can treat me with so little respect." She shook her head, glad that he did not refute her claims. "Had you just asked, you would have known that Marcus has a sweetheart, and I never turned his head before you warned him away from me, making a fool of everyone, including yourself."
Reign slipped from the desk and strode to the door, needing to leave before she did anything else stupid, like kiss the shocked, enticing look off his lordship's good-looking face.
Bellamy needed a distraction and a wife, a caring, loving mother for his daughter. Or at least that is what he told himself when he sat with Lady Miller after dinner in the drawing room, determined to listen to her recount her Season with precise, long, drawn-out detail while Lady Chilsten played the piano.
He glanced across the room and narrowed his eyes at Lord Chilsten's amused smirk, who had noticed his attention toward the Earl of Miller's widow.
He inwardly swore. What was he going to do? Whatwashe doing was more to the question.
That damn kiss had near buckled him to his knees to the point he was on the verge of asking her to be his wife. Immediately. As in within the next few hours.
Bloody hell, he was doomed. He did not need another wife who would bring nothing but scandal to his door. Not that she would convey the same kind of scandal as his wife had, but even so, to marry one's servant was not what one ought to do.
His good friend, currently smirking at him, ought to know better than anyone of that fact since he did indeed marry his maid and paid a hefty price for it.
Thankfully after some time, thetonand his now wife had forgiven him, but he was not so sure thetonwould be so kind to him. The late Lady Lupton-Gage had returned to London after the birth of their child and had promptly had multiple affairs with numerous married men. The ladies of thetonhad long memories, and he doubted they would forgive him for not being able to keep his wife in line and out of their husband's beds.
As for Miss Hall, she was impoverished and had no sisters who had married titled men of influence in Town to welcome their brother-in-law back into the fold as Lord Chilsten had.
Miss Hall was a governess, a servant who had fallen on hard times. Society would think she had married him for position and safety. They would be the talk of the town, much like he was when married to Sally.
He shook his head, frowning. No. He could not do that to Alice. She deserved a renewed, unsullied, and uncomplicated Season in Town after a messy childhood.
"Lord Lupton-Gage, have I said something you do not agree with? You're shaking your head," Lady Miller said, concern shadowing her large, brown eyes.
"No, nothing of the kind. I was merely stretching my neck, and I think I may have pulled a muscle," he said, wondering if his excuse sounded as lame as it was.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," she said, fluttering her eyelashes. "But did I see Miss Reign Hall earlier today in the gardens? Did she not debut with the Marchioness of Chilsten some years ago?"
And here it was, the start of the rumors and scandal.
Bellamy fumbled for words before the truth, or at least a very cautious version of it, was said. "Ah, you did," he ventured. "She is accompanying Lady Chilsten but did not wish to attend the house party," he lied, wondering when he believed this version of the truth was any better than telling her ladyship that Reign was a governess to his daughter.
"How scandalous of her not to attend," she hedged. "Are we so disagreeable that she would not come and greet us all?" Lady Miller pursed her lips, watching him keenly. "Is she a simpleton?" her ladyship asked. "Does she no longer know how to go about in society? I know she had been absent for several years, and I suppose she may have lost the ability to converse with others."
Bellamy choked, sipping his whisky at the statement from Lady Miller. He cleared his throat, shaking his head. "She is not a simpleton, that I'm aware."
But after their kiss this afternoon, he feared he might be one. She had left him reeling, and blast the roguish ways he had wanted to continue the kiss. Had wanted to feel every little ounce of her body, rake his hands through her long, brown locks, and kiss her until he could not imagine kissing anyone else ever again.
Not that he did not already think such, much to his demise.
ChapterEleven
Thankfully the following day, Reign was able to avoid Lord Lupton-Gage. She spent the day teaching Lady Alice in the secluded garden before watching her riding lesson before dinner.
