Unfortunately, that left only one path open to them. Lifting his gloved hand to touch her face again and gently tear her hands away, the assassin fixed her in place with his penetrating stare once more. For the space of a wild and dizzying heartbeat she was convinced he intended to kiss her, but though he drew closer his mouth came to rest on top of her tousled curls instead. Standing so near to him, the mingled scent of cologne and tobacco enveloped her and sent her unwanted arousal spiralling ever higher, its promise of further intimacy one that was near impossible to resist.
Showing no outward sign he was aware of her reaction to his proximity, he let his arm snake around her waist to hold her nearer still as he spoke. “Your faux grief does not fool me, but discerning the truth can wait. I do not think it would serve either of us well to stay here, Esther, so it is high time for us to depart. You are to walk at my side as if nothing is amiss. It is no more than a ten minute journey to my lodgings, and I promise that once we reach them I shall give you everything you desire. However, should we linger here much longer we are in danger. You may have forgotten, but there is a cadaver no more than six feet away from us.”
To her eternal shame, Esther
had
forgotten. Now she remembered, though, the importance of not leaving Fleetwood’s house burst into renewed prominence in the forefront of her mind. “I cannot go, not yet! There may be papers -”
He took a step back and firmly shook his head. “You do not strike me as a fool, Esther. Do you really imagine that your gentleman would have left this secret you seek lying around? Whatever it was, I do not doubt it is the reason I was sent here tonight. And of course, one cannot forget that these days, corpses have an irritating habit of refusing to stay dead.”
“I do not think Samuel took the vaccine -”
“And would you gamble our lives on that fact?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I...no.”
“Then I will hear no more delaying tactics from your rosebud lips, my lady. It is time to depart,” he said firmly. “Did you bring a travelling cloak?”
Esther finally saw her chance. “In the hall. Would you mind -?”
“Ah, I think not!” Smiling, he shook his head. “We shall retrieve it together, Esther, for I do not doubt that if I turned my back on you, you would be out through that window before I could blink. That would not do, for you have seen far too much for me to allow you to leave my side.”
She had feared it would be so. Resigned to the inevitable fact she would have to accompany him for now, she led the way to the hall where he instantly bent down to retrieve her cloak from the floor where it had fallen, straightening up again before she could even contemplate hitting him over the head with any of the implements to hand. His eyes darkening, he moved across to stand in front of her.
“May I, Esther?”
The power of speech abruptly deserted Esther when his ungloved thumb brushed against the flash of bare skin her torn sleeve left exposed. Her skin was on fire beneath his touch, stealing away any possible compulsion to defy him. Instead, she forced a scowl onto her face and pretended not to react to his renewed proximity as he draped the cloak around her shoulders then deftly fastened it, allowing his hand to linger against her cleavage for far too long.
“There,” he said finally, failing to hold back a low groan as he reached for the door. “I hoped you would see sense, Esther. Shall we?”
She had no choice but to go with him.
The assassin allowed his hand to rest in the small of his captive’s back beneath her cloak, feeling no qualms about stealing that small intimacy without her permission. Esther glared up at him through lowered lashes, but despite the fire in her eyes she jerked her head and allowed him to lead her from the house.
With a tiny flick of his wrist, Seth allowed the first inch of his knife to protrude from beneath the flesh and press gently into the tantalising curve of her spine, a warning he did not need to speak. What little colour remained in her face drained away as they stepped out onto the streets, allowing the amber glow of the gaslights to bathe them as they walked down the street as if they were no more or less than two lovers out for an evening stroll. No one was around to see them leave Fleetwood’s house, and he began to breathe more freely with every corner they turned away from the scene of his latest commission.
Despite the profession that had chosen him, he liked himself perfectly well. He possessed an ease that younger men often lacked in, unaccustomed with the person they had grown to be, but now he was nearly forty he was convinced he knew every facet of his character. Nothing surprised him about himself – nothing until tonight.
Seth lived a life of solitude. He had no choice, not when his profession required him to follow the next job wherever in the world it took him. Anything but that was a distraction he could not afford. Yet here he was with a woman at his side, a memento from the scene of his crime he should never have even thought of taking. Somehow, though, the thought of taking her in every possible way consumed him over the course of their conversation until it became an obsession he could not shake. He wanted her, this mysterious woman, and he was determined to do whatever it took to keep her at his side until this strange hunger was sated.
“I have taken rooms in a small bedsit not far from here,” he said under his breath, smiling as an elderly couple passed them by with a knowing smile in return. No doubt he and Esther presented a captivating sight as they walked along the Oxford streets, far more pleasant to gaze upon than the horrors the country had been subjected to of late. “It is not much, but it has sufficed whilst I carried out my work, and it has everything we will need tonight.”
He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and laid his ungloved hand on top of hers, not trusting her to obey and cherishing the feel of her soft skin beneath his. She let little slip, but he was certain she was a lady of some description, and an unwed one judging by the lack of a gold band adorning her ring finger; though those two terms were a contradiction when it seemed she was the lover of a man who was little more than a junior minister in the government. Another mystery for him to solve, no doubt.
Seth exhaled. He had forgotten just how pleasurable company could be, particularly the company of a woman as lovely as this one; and she
was
lovely, even though her passive resistance to him was plain in the way she carried herself. There was a fire burning in her blue eyes he was eagerly anticipating putting to a better use, and her flaxen hair still hung in tousled curls around her face, reminding him of just how sweet she felt pinned beneath him. His cock stirred at the merest memory of it, and with a low groan he quickened their pace. Not only did he want to have her locked securely away behind his door, but everyone knew the danger of spending too long on the streets once night had fallen.
By the time he unlocked the door to his rooms and guided Esther inside, he could think of nothing but her. He had taken a man’s life tonight, but even though his employer would soon hear of his success and settle his bill, tonight all Seth wanted was the dead man’s enigmatic mistress for his own.
He cast a quick glance around the parlour room to ensure all was undisturbed. Everything was as he left it, and he nodded slowly as he shrugged off his greatcoat and tossed it onto the solitary armchair before reaching for Esther’s cloak.
“So, you have an intriguing heritage. French and Irish, my lady!” Seth said as he unfastened the clasp, breathing in deeply to allow the floral scent of her perfume to wind around him before he threw it carelessly towards his coat. “Tell me, which parent was which?”
He revelled in the widening of Esther’s eyes. “How can you
possibly
know that?” she said, shaking her head in quiet disbelief as he took advantage of her distraction to edge closer. “I do not imagine you gave Mr. Fleetwood time in which to share those particular details with you before your knife lodged in his heart.”
Seth smiled despite himself. This woman was utterly intriguing; far too much so where their safety was concerned. He had never known anyone like her, able to speak of the death of her lover with such dispassion in spite of the fire he saw burning in her eyes. There was some manner of deceit going on, that much he knew for sure; he did not doubt the tears she displayed earlier were artfully crafted in an attempt to draw him in.
They worked, but perhaps not in the manner she intended. Now he fully intended to strip away every layer of concealment, both metaphorically and in real terms. Before the night was through he would see her unclad, of that he was determined.
The merest thought of revealing Esther to his hungry eyes made his cock twitch. Making no effort to disguise the lust he felt for her, he steadily backed her up towards the wall as he answered her question. “How do I know? Because it is all too easy for one outsider to recognise another. Like you, my heritage is mixed. I am a bastard of an English prince, born to his Italian mistress and raised in Modena far away from where I could cause any trouble for him. I came to my motherland when I was twenty, but I suspect from your lack of an accent you came to England at an earlier age than I.”
Her breath quickened when she stumbled over her skirts and his hand shot out to steady her. “I was ten when I left Paris with my mother,” she said, a faint flush spreading across her face that made him think longingly of all the ways he could make it deepen. “My father was from Dublin, but he died before I was out of the cradle. And what about you, sir? You seem to know so much about me, yet I do not even know your name!”
He smiled again, fascinated by her determination to engage him despite her evident fear. “Ah, my lady, you and I both know the danger of too much knowledge. You already know the crime I committed tonight, so I am afraid there is no possible way I shall be giving you the name to go with that crime.”
“I expected nothing less.”
Seth deliberately lifted one brow as he removed the glove from his left hand, flexing his fingers out suggestively and reaching both hands out to close around her shoulders as she hit the wall behind her. “I am delighted to see how well you are coming to know me, Esther. So, now we have exchanged those customary pleasantries, shall we get down to business?”
She instantly began to struggle against him, but strength was one of the many tools of his trade. Though curvaceous, her muscles were nowhere near as defined as his, and it took next to no effort to hold her in place as he smilingly shook his head.
“Now now, sweetheart!” he said softly. “You must have realised by now that had silencing you been my sole concern, I would simply have slit your throat back at the townhouse.”
Esther let loose a stream of hissed curses he had never heard from a lady’s lips before, throwing at him the very best of gutter English and French combined. None of them had the desired effect, though, and instead he waited patiently for her breath to run out, taking advantage of her distraction to steal a gaze down at her breasts. Each time she bucked against him they threatened to spill from their confines, and simply watching them was enough to have his cock painfully hard, straining against his breeches when their eyes locked again.
“Bastard!” she spat, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the harder she fought, the more aroused he became. “You may claim to be the son of a prince, sir, but I have known beggars with more respect for a woman than you have!”
“Likely so, Esther. You and I both know I could – and
would
- force you to my bed to avail myself of everything you have to offer. I have had fifteen years experience with my blade, and I know precisely how to wield it so my subject will not expire until I am ready for them to do so.”
She fell silent in the face of his cool words and whetted her lips, the scent of her fear tangible in the air despite the spirited fight she put up against him. Seth’s smile widened. This diversion was fast becoming a scintillating one. Allowing her no quarter, he fisted one hand through her hair and let the other come to rest on the bare skin her torn blouse left exposed. To his searing delight she shuddered wildly, betraying her body’s reaction to his touch even if outwardly she still tried to deny it.
“Ah! There we are,” he said, gently stroking her skin and steadily seeking further, reaching across to trace the line of her collarbone. When he pulled back she drew a treacherously shallow breath, but then his fist closed around the corset over her blouse, and before she could even try to remonstrate with him he ripped it open. As it fell to the floor, she arched into him and the silk clung to her breasts with impunity, a torture that threatened to drive him wild should they stay hidden from him much longer.
“Esther, the temptation to slice open the silk hugging your sweet breasts is overwhelming me!” he said, dazed with the force of this explosive lust that drove all good sense aside. “I want nothing more than to replace that desperately fortunate material with my hand, and the more I think of it the stronger that temptation becomes. Tell me, my lady, are you accustomed to a bedmate who devotes himself to your pleasure?”
The flush of Esther’s skin deepened yet further, and to his elation her nipples visibly tautened through her blouse. It had been far too long since a woman had caught his attention like this one had, and there was no possible way he could resist the urge to coax her into his arms. Fierce lust consumed him, and he was determined to make her fall slave to the same sensation.
Fixing her in place with his penetrating stare alone, he took hold of her shoulders again and then let his hands drift down, skimming the curve of her full, high breasts before he firmly groped each one, relishing the feel of them under his hands as she threw back her head and gave a startled cry of delight. Emboldened by it, Seth captured her taut nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, rolling them gently and then tracing out a path around them that even through her blouse and chemise had a visible effect on her. Her eyes darkened and widened, and he felt her tremble against him as he lowered his head towards hers.
“You did not answer me, sweetheart,” he said hoarsely, still relentlessly toying with each nipple in turn to wrench a low torrent of moans from the lips he longed to kiss. “I want to know if your previous lovers bothered themselves to bring you the same pleasure in bed that you undoubtedly gave to them!”
Esther tried and failed to duck under his arm and escape his intimate touch as she answered him. “You speak in the plural; are you so very certain Fleetwood was not my first lover?”
“Oh, I am! My lady, a woman as sensual and lovely as you is a sore temptation to any red-blooded man, and I do not doubt you are aware of that. Fleetwood cannot possibly have been the first man whom you manipulated to your advantage, but if I have my way he will be the last. You will not manipulate this man, for I fully intend to bend you to my will instead.”
She whitened anew. “You said you would not force me -”
“But that was before I brought you back here and realised how impossible you were to resist.” Seth squeezed her breasts again before reaching up for the top button of her blouse. “Aye, I think I shall have this one off you and then take you to my bed, Esther, no matter how fervently you protest! I am a dangerous man, and I always get what I want. Tonight I want
you
. If I have to force the issue, then so be it -”
She slowly raised her head and stared into the distance. “No.”
His eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”
“No. You won’t do that.”
Though quietly spoken, Esther’s words were laced with an utter conviction that wiped Seth’s smile away like chalk from slate. Badly unnerved and disarmed by the sensation he had abruptly lost the upper hand, he was too slow to stop her from finally breaking away from him.
No one possessed the ability to rattle his composure – no one until her. Sorely frustrated, he cursed under his breath and swung to face her again, his hand closing around her wrist before she could take more than two steps across the room. “You have seen me take a life already tonight, woman. What makes you so certain I will not use my knife to force you to bed?”
Seth had not thought she could infuriate him further. He was wrong.
With a mocking smile, Esther tossed her curls out of her face. “If you were going to you would have done it already, sir. You are not a man to waste time with idle delays, after all.”
He mercilessly dragged her hand towards his cock, waiting for her stifled cry that failed to mask the same longing that consumed him before his top lip curled and he spoke again. “Very well,” he ground out. “You are right, Esther. You can feel now how much I want you, and there is something you should know.”
Like a moth drawn to the flame she came closer, her head rolling to the side as a thrill of anticipation seared his veins. It was all he could do not to slam her up against the wall and brand the tantalising flash of porcelain skin in the curve of her throat with his mouth, but his mind was made up in the first moment he saw her. He wanted her to admit she wanted this as much as he did, to surrender everything she was into his arms. Stealing all he sought would forever mar the triumph.