“I will kill him,” he whispered.
His words brought her head up. “No,” she said matter-of-factly. “You won’t.” Yet, her heart skipped several beats at the rage etched in the chiseled planes of his face. He would do that for her. No one had ever dared defend her. Her father had shuffled her off from one position to the next, but that had been a mere obligatory responsibility for the by-blow born to his mistress. It hadn’t truly been of any real caring or affection. Would he still defend her when he discovered the origins of her birth? Knowing the man who cared for and defended his kin, she suspected he would. Because that was what honorable men did. She’d just always believed that none of those men existed.
She forced words past a tight throat. “I didn’t seduce him.” The admission came out as a raw whisper. Desperately craving space between them, she backed up. Jane knocked into the alcove wall. She braced her hands on the hard plaster at her back, seeking the strength to stand. “For his insistence that I did, entice him, that is,” she rambled. “I did not. Nor would I ever…” She bit her lower lip. For her mother’s blood in her veins, she still didn’t have any more idea on how to seduce a man than a sister taking her orders. What reason did Gabriel have to believe she didn’t simply go about kissing or enticing her employers? “I expect given our…” Her face heated all the more. “Our exchanges,” His eyebrows dipped. “That you would believe Montclair, but I…” Her words ended on a startled gasp as he closed that slight space she’d placed between them.
“You think I would believe Montclair?” His breath tickled her face, soft, like a gentle caress and with the faint hint of mint, so very different than the earl’s from a short while ago. He cupped her cheek and she stiffened as his touch had the same entrancing effect upon her senses.
What hold did he have upon her?
Chapter 16
When Gabriel had been a boy of seven, he’d realized that in his father’s presence, he’d clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. The reflexive action had been borne of a desire to wallop his sire, but more, a fear that he’d sought to hide from the heartless beast.
As he’d come upon Jane and the Earl of Montclair, a thick haze of red had coursed through him, a sentiment that had felt a good deal like jealousy. She’d clenched and unclenched her hands at her sides. And he’d seen the movement that bespoke her unease and then the terror in her eyes. It marked the rakish Montclair a liar before the man had opened his mouth and uttered his vile charges about her.
Even now, a burning fury coursed through him, a desire to take Montclair apart for having put his hands upon Jane…
He noticed me.
That slight imperceptible pause spoke volumes of Montclair’s notice and called up the legacy of violence he carried in his blood.
He steeled his jaw. “Montclair is a snake.” Had he sung in praise of her beauty, she could have not been more captivating in her appreciation. Her lips parted on a soft moue of surprise and then she darted the tip of her tongue out and trailed a path over the line of her lips. He followed that movement, hating himself for being no different than Montclair and wanting her. Despite what she’d just shared.
She glanced away from him and looked to the tiniest gap in the curtain. “Why are you here?” Her words emerged ravaged and breathless.
Why am I here? Why had he taken a hasty leave of his family and left Chloe alone with Alex and Imogen to follow after Jane—a companion in his employ who was mature enough and capable enough to care for herself? But then, was that entirely true? He’d seen how Montclair had eyed her like the last ice at Gunter’s and he with the intention of laying claim to it. He’d never been one to prevaricate. “I worried after your sudden flight.” He tightened his mouth. “And seeing Montclair, I had good reason to be concerned.”
Jane sucked in a shuddery breath. “Why can you not be the arrogant, domineering lout I’d first believed you to be?”
His lips twitched and some of the tension left his frame. Gabriel cupped her cheek, bracing for her to pull away. She angled her head and leaned into his touch. “Would you have me believe Montclair’s charges for no other reason than the station of his birth?”