Deceived (12 page)

He groaned at the images in his mind, coupled with the frantic thumping strokes of his hand.

But Josie touching him wouldn’t be enough. He wanted to be inside of her. Some way. Any way. Would she let him press his tip past her lips? Would she swirl her tongue around him like the most experienced bawd? Would she take him all the way to her throat and suck until he could hardly see straight?

He stroked harder at the image, but it still wasn’t enough. Because in truth, he didn’t want to play games with Josie. He didn’t want to tease her and be teased. He wanted to claim her. He wanted to open her legs wide and slide inside her heat, feel her ripple with pleasure around him as she finally understood that book she had described earlier. He wanted to feel her wet heat squeeze him, take him, until he couldn’t stand it anymore and he spent.

As that thought exploded in his mind, his body also found release. Hot seed spurted from him and he groaned out Josie’s name as he sagged across his bed.

When the world had stopped spinning and he flopped onto his back across the coverlet, he shook his head. When he had first approached Josie, he had been opposed to it. He didn’t want to face her hate. Then he had wanted to know what she knew about Claire.

But now everything had changed. He wanted her. And he was drowning in it. He could only hope he wouldn’t lose everything before this was all over.

“Where did you go yesterday?” Gabriel asked as he entered the study where Evan had been hiding.

Evan let out a long sigh before he turned to face his brother. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you left the house in the late morning and went straight to your chamber upon your return in the evening. You even skipped breakfast with Mother and me.” Gabriel shrugged. “I merely wondered.”

Evan gritted his teeth. He had been avoiding his family on purpose but had very much hoped they wouldn’t notice his absence quite so keenly since he had very little answer for it. What was he to say? That he spent the day with Josie and had spent the night indulging in erotic fantasies about her?

“I-I was out.”

Gabriel had begun moving across the room, but at Evan’s tone, he stopped and turned to face him. “Out.”

“Yes, that’s what I said. Out.” Evan folded his arms. “Why? Is that not allowed anymore?”

“And who were you
out
with?”

“I’m the older brother,” Evan said, hoping to distract Gabriel. “Aren’t I the one who is supposed to interrogate?”

“Not when I have nothing to hide and you do.” Gabriel leaned forward. Evan’s heart sank. His brother’s knack for reading people was about to cause him problems, he could see that. “What is wrong with you?”

Evan sighed again. “I was out with Josie.”

“Oh.” Gabriel leaned back, surprise clear on his face. “I see. You didn’t tell me that was your plan.”

“It wasn’t,” Evan ground out.

“Something happened,” Gabriel breathed, rushing to Evan. “What is it? Were you able to extract any information about Claire from her?”

A jolt of guilt hit Evan and he turned away from his brother. Yes, that was what he was supposed to be doing with Josie, finding out about Claire. But he hadn’t been doing a very good job at it. Not at all. And now he felt guilt both for trying and for failing.

One way or another, he was betraying someone.

“Look, I came upon Josie about to do a few visits in the shire and I accompanied her,” he explained.

“And? Because I know there is an
and
here,” Gabriel pushed, this time a bit more gently.

Evan shut his eyes. “There is more to her than I allowed myself to imagine, Gabriel. And when I told you before that I might not be able to see the line between flirtation and something more serious, I was right. Things…progressed between us yesterday.”

Gabriel looked at him through narrowed eyes for a moment, but then his meaning seemed to come clear. “Oh. I see. So you…kissed her?”

Evan cleared his throat. “Yes. Several days ago, though. Yesterday I…I went a bit further.”

Gabriel staggered back at the admission, his eyes wide and his mouth dropped open. “You seduced Jocelyn Westfall?”

Evan glared at him as he rushed to shut the parlor door. “Say it a bit louder, I’m not sure Mother heard in the garden,” he snapped. “God, Gabriel. No! I did not seduce her. Not…not fully, at any rate.”

“But you went beyond kissing.” Gabriel blinked. “With Josie.”

“You keep saying it as if it is insane, but you have seen the girl. She is Venus, she is temptation embodied, she is gorgeous…somehow.” Evan clenched his fists. “No one should say otherwise.”

“I will admit Josie has greatly improved with age,” Gabriel said slowly. “Though she is not exactly my type. But what does this mean?”

“I don’t know. She seems to have no expectations or even much desire for a future,” Evan murmured, surprised that disappointment clouded his thoughts on that subject.

Gabriel nodded. “Excellent.”

“How is it excellent?”

“No, romantic entanglement is always excellent,” his brother said with a wave of his hand. “Especially since the reason you pressed her in the first place was Claire. If you wrap her around your finger with seduction, it seems to me that you will be all the closer to either uncovering what she knows through her confession, or through investigation through her things.”

Evan stared at Gabriel. “Do you think I feel good about taking advantage of an innocent? Do you think I’m rubbing my hands together in some Machiavellian plan to use her weakness against her?”

“You said yourself she has no assumption that this…this connection between you will lead to a future and certainly you could not want that.” Gabriel shrugged. “Why not obtain whatever you can from this opportunity?”

“Do you hear yourself talking?” Evan asked, drawing back from Gabriel in surprise. “You are so obsessed with finding Claire that you are willing to surrender your morals, your values, everything you are?” He shook his head. “Actually, you are willing to sacrifice mine, I suppose?”

Gabriel’s jaw set and his dark eyes sparked with emotion. “Claire is our sister—do you not care more about her than some chit who has hated you for over a decade?”

“I care!” Evan burst out in frustration. “Fuck, we
all
care, Gabriel!”

“You say you care, but no one is willing to sacrifice!” Gabriel paced away. “Audrey, Jude, Edward and Mary all went back to London to celebrate their marriages while our sister rots. You’re dancing around Josie Westfall like she matters. And all the while Claire suffers.”

Evan stared at his brother. He could see the searing pain slashed across Gabriel’s face. He could well-imagine it was only intensified by Gabriel’s natural tendency to analyze and deduce. He was so tied up in knots by the disappearance of his twin that he was out of control. Almost as lost as Claire was herself.

Evan moved forward and pressed a hand to Gabriel’s shoulder. “Listen to me, please,” he said softly, hoping to reach his brother through his pain.

Gabriel hesitated a moment, and then nodded. “I’m listening.”

“Everyone in our family cares about Claire, Gabriel. Every single one of us would put our lives on the line to bring her home safely if the opportunity arose.” Gabriel’s face softened a fraction, but Evan continued, “But it is up to Claire to give us the opportunity. It has been made very clear by her actions that she left of her own volition. And even when she realized that Jonathon Aston wasn’t who she believed, she has stayed with him also of her own choice. Gabriel, she doesn’t
want
to come home.”

Gabriel’s gaze clouded and he jerked to escape Evan’s grasp. “Shut up,” he growled.

“I know that is difficult for you. She’s your twin, you have a bond unlike any other in the family. But you must accept that it is true.”

To his surprise, Gabriel lunged toward him and caught Evan’s lapels in both fists and shook him so hard his teeth rattled.

“Shut up!” Gabriel shouted in his face.

For a moment they stood that way, frozen for different reasons. Then Gabriel released him, staggering backward before he fled the room. Evan stared at the open door where his brother had gone, shaken by Gabriel’s anger. His drive. It was so intense, so singular of purpose that Evan feared Gabriel might lose control because of it.

“We can’t lose another,” he murmured.

But what could he do to save Gabriel? Would more information about Claire actually help him? Make his brother come to accept the truth and get out of this loop where saving her was his only drive?

And could Evan’s developing relationship with Josie actually do that? Just as Gabriel desired?

“God,” Evan muttered as he left the parlor and strode up the hallway. He needed air, he needed space, he needed—

He stopped as he entered the foyer. There, standing next to Vernon, was exactly what he needed more than anything else. Josie.

She was wearing a cream and pink striped gown that fitted her curves perfectly and brought out the brightness of her green eyes. She was utterly beautiful and in that moment, he wanted nothing else but her.

Her gaze slipped to him and whatever she was saying to the servant stopped as she gaped, her expression telling him she was as moved by him as he was by her. All this inhibitions about her, all his hesitations didn’t matter then.

“Miss Westfall,” he said as he entered the foyer. “What a surprise.”

“G-good morning, my lord,” she said, casting a quick glance at Vernon. “I’m sorry to call without sending word first.”

Evan waved off the apology and smiled at Vernon. “I can take care of Miss Westfall, Vernon. Please feel free to return to your duties.”

The butler gave a quick bow and then scuttled away, leaving the two of them alone in the foyer. Evan stared at her lips. God, how he wanted to claim them. Right here, right now.

Instead, he shook his head. “You are right this is a surprise,” he said, desperate to remain appropriate, at least for the moment.

She nodded, though she seemed no less distracted than he was. “Yes,” she said, then she shook her head as if clearing her mind. “Yes. I-I came to call on your mother, you see.”

He arched a brow at how her voice cracked, at how her hands trembled at her sides. “My mother?” he asked. She gave a jerky nod and he smiled. “You are the worst liar,” he whispered as he held out a hand. “Come on, Josie.”

She stared at the outstretched offering, and he could all but see her wheels turning in her mind. She was a lady and what he offered her was so not ladylike. But she wanted it. Wanted
him
, and he saw that she was not able to resist even before her trembling fingers intertwined with his.

“Evan?” she whispered, looking up at him in confusion and desire tangled together.

He smiled. “It’s all right, Josie. I promise you, I will make everything all right.”

Then he guided her out of the house and hoped he could keep that promise.

Evan hadn’t said so much as a word to Josie as they walked down the long path away from the main house. For her part, she could hardly breathe, let alone speak as he guided her away from safety and toward the unknown. A metaphor if she had ever experienced one. And yet, she didn’t feel unsafe with him. She felt…right.

Which likely made her an idiot of the highest order, but it didn’t matter. She wanted this. Wanted him. The moment he touched her, she knew she wouldn’t resist in the slightest.

“Where are we going?” she asked, thinking of the way Evan had pleasured her by the lakeside the previous day. Her body still tingled with the memories.

He smiled and motioned toward a little cottage at the bottom of the hill. “There.”

She drew back. “The caretaker cottage?”

He nodded. “Jude Samson lives there when he accompanies my brother to this estate, but I doubt he would argue with my borrowing it while he is away on his wedding trip with Audrey.” He stopped and opened the door. “Not that I would ask his permission in this moment.”

He allowed her through and she entered the little cottage. It was snug and cozy, even romantic with its rustic furniture and the small space. Through an open door she saw a room with a big bed, and she shivered.