The Secrets of a Scoundrel by Gaelen Foley Page B

throbbed at the softness of her touch. God, it had been so long, and she was not like any woman he had encountered before. He positively craved her.
    But at just that moment, Nick heard something in the distance. He did not move from his position atop her but lifted his head and turned to stare keenly down the drive.
    “What is it?” she asked, still seeming quite content to lie beneath him.
    “Expecting someone?” he mumbled, narrowing his eyes as he stared toward the drive. “You’ve got visitors.”
    “What?”
    He quirked a brow at her. “Don’t tell me you’ve hired yet another expert to come and beat me up.”
    She shook her head. “I’m not expecting anyone. Off with you before we’re seen.” She slapped at his thigh still straddling her hip.
    Nick got up, immediately bending down to offer her a hand. She clasped his palm; he pulled her to her feet.
    She brushed a leaf out of her hair and dusted the dirt off her dress as she went striding toward the carriage, which was presently pulling up in front of the house.
    Nick gazed after her, privately marveling at the woman. Her walk was a thing of beauty to behold.
    He blew out a quiet exhalation, trying to will his hunger for her into submission.
    Then the carriage door banged open, and a young lad of about fifteen, with a shock of dark red hair, jumped out.
    Nick arched a brow as the baroness stopped in her tracks. “Phillip!” she cried. “What on earth are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in school!”
    “Sorry, Mum, I got suspended.”
    “What? ”
    “Mother—don’t explode—I can explain. It was all just a misunderstanding . . .”
    Nick stared, wide-eyed. Mother?
    “Who’s that?” the boy suddenly demanded, glancing past Lady Burke at Nick. “Oh, perfect. Another one?” he cried.
    “How dare you? ” his mother thundered, but Nick laughed aloud at the lad’s highly impertinent question.
    Hearing him laugh, she sent him a wrathful glower over her shoulder: Nick quickly stifled his humor.
    “Get inside,” she ordered her son. “I want answers, now, young man. Go!”
    The boy glared at Nick as he slouched toward the front door, a mere puppy, but all bristling protectiveness toward his mama.
    Nick stared after him, marveling with a pang of remembrance as the truth hit home.
    The kid was Virgil’s grandson.

 
    Chapter 6
    T he library was the room in their home long since designated for lectures and scoldings. As Gin marched her wayward son thence, her temples throbbed with agitation.
    What’s he done now? she wondered, though, to be sure, Phillip’s getting into trouble was nothing new. He had always been a handful, too smart for his own good and as stubborn as a donkey.
    Taken off guard by his arrival, she had no idea what to do with him, considering that she and Nick were about to leave for London.
    Most of all, she was furious at herself for nearly letting her child find her rolling around on the ground with a strange man. Some example! She felt like a terrible mother, and that only made everything worse. What was she thinking, allowing Nick to take such liberties, anyway?
    She was in severe danger of losing all control of the situation—and before Phillip’s intrusion—just for a moment there, she had barely cared. Damn it, was she so willing to let her pet prisoner take the upper hand? Why?
    Just because he happened to be everything she had ever dreamed of in a man? Fool. She shook her head at herself. God, where might their playful, heavy-breathing sport have led if her son’s carriage had not arrived when it did?
    With a shudder, she vowed to pull back from this dangerous attraction between herself and a man she had just sprung from jail. Thankfully, her son’s unexpected arrival had brought her back rudely to her senses.
    Closing the library door behind her, she took a deep breath and turned to fix her boy with a quelling stare. “Well?”
    “Well, what, Mother?” he retorted, flinging himself down onto one of