Page 35 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

Jeremy’s eyes went wide.

Clary leaned closer to him and finished in a mock whisper, “Do not tell the people in the village that I came here because of disgrace. They believe I chose to take over the running of my aunt’s seamstress shop out of some great love of Kent and my family.”

“So you do not have any strong ties to this land?” Jeremy asked.

“Of course I do,” Clary said with a smile. “These people have accepted me and made me one of their own, even though they did not have to. I would not be at all surprised if many of them know the true reason I came here. Just as they know who you and Detective Talboys really are. We have both been lucky to stumble across exactly the right place to be at the right time.”

“I suppose we have,” Jeremy said, though he did not have as much faith in the goodness of the village’s inhabitants, should they reach a point where the truth about him and Derrek ended up flaunted in public. Although he supposed it would not be much better for Clary if she were exposed as an adulteress.

“So you and Talboys are not breaking the bed every night with your activities?” Clary asked him with a wicked grin after several minutes of silence.

“We most certainly are not,” Jeremy hissed in return, keeping his voice low, since they’d reached the wildflower meadow and one of the village lasses had already spotted them and waved. “But I would not be opposed to creating a few splinters, if the time should be precisely right.”

Clary laughed out loud. Jeremy smiled at the free and easy sound. That was how the two of them greeted the other young ladies who had come out to pick flowers at dawn.

They were greeted with open warmth by the other ladies. Jeremy found it delightful, if he was honest. By his reckoning, half of the ladies knew exactly what he was and why he had been included in their number. The other half seemed to think there was some sort of romantic attachment between him and Clary. Jeremy knew better than to correct those who sent them soft smiles and made certain they were sent to the same clump of flowers with their cutting knives. He would not have been the first man to find safety in pretending a closer acquaintance with a female friend than he had.

They finished filling multiple baskets of flowers within an hour, and as they set out for the village with their bounty, the ladies sang May Day songs and fashioned some of the flowers into garlands and circlets for themselves and others.

“You need a crown of flowers yourself, Mr. Wilkes,” one of the younger ones said, presenting him with the circlet she’d just woven. “It would look lovely against your dark hair.”

“Me? Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Jeremy laughed. He might not have been as masculine as some other men, but there was such a thing as taking things too far.

“I insist,” the young woman said, moving closer to him and plunking the circlet on his head. Seeing as his arms were filled with baskets and bundles of flowers, he couldn’t protest or take the thing off.

The others saw his good-humored discomfort and quickly set to work decorating him with more flowers from their mission into the field. By the time they rounded the last bend and walked into town, Jeremy was bedecked from head to toe in a ridiculous variety of wildflowers that had him close to sneezing.

Just as he was about to call an end to the tomfoolery, he found himself face to face with Derrek…who was kitted out in the finery of a Morris dancer, complete with bells tied below his knees.

Jeremy was only partially aware of Clary and the other ladies taking the flowers and baskets from his arms as he stared at Derrek, unable to breathe at his champion’s beauty, despite the slight absurdity of the Morris dancing costume. The bells and ribbons were just enough of a hint of whimsy to stand in contrast to Derrek’s usually gruff and dangerous demeanor. He looked a bit like a proud and dazzling steed dressed up for some sort of pantomime.

But it was the look of pure desire in Derrek’s eyes as he raked his gaze over Jeremy that had Jeremy’s heart beating faster.

“You look a sight,” Derrek said, approaching him slowly and with the sort of swagger he usually reserved for when they were alone at the cottage.

“I could say the same about you,” Jeremy replied, stunned that he had any sort of voice at all. “Are you a dancer now?”

“Your cousin tells me he always has been,” the owner of the Three Bells, Martin, Jeremy believed his name was, said, standing up and moving closer to Derrek so that he could thump him on the back. “Says he used to dance when he was a lad in Wiltshire.”

Derrek blinked and shook himself slightly, like he’d remembered the way he should behave when they were around others. Indeed, the look that he and Martin exchanged was as much a warning as anything else.

Once again, the unsettling feeling that living out in the country was not as safe as Derrek insisted it would be, despite who might have been after him in London, came over Jeremy again. They belonged in London.

“I’ll just leave the two of you to have a word while we go and set up the dance,” Martin said, arching one eyebrow at Derrek before walking away.

Derrek glanced distractedly over his shoulder at his friend before turning back to Jeremy. He smiled, then looked around a second time before gesturing for Jeremy to follow him over to the narrow alley between two buildings.

“Is something the matter?” Jeremy asked as they moved from the light into the cool shadows of the alley. “I know I look ridiculous, but Clary and the others were so insistent that I?—”

That was as far as he got before Derrek grabbed him and pushed him up against one of the alley walls. He then clasped his hands around Jeremy’s face and brought his mouth crashing over his.

Jeremy let out a sound of surprise that quickly turned into a moan of pleasure. He closed his eyes and lost himself in the kiss for a moment, opening himself like a flower and praying that Derrek would devour him whole. He hadn’t been lying to Clary when he said he wanted Derrek, and despite his fears and concerns, resistance was becoming harder by the moment.

As quickly as the kiss started, Derrek pulled back and cleared his throat. That didn’t seem to be enough, so he coughed then cleared his throat again, finally managing to say, “You look lovely.”

“I feel slightly ridiculous,” Jeremy confessed breathlessly. “But it appears as though you appreciate me when I am at my most ridiculous.”

“I appreciate you all the time,” Derrek said, clearing his throat yet again, then adjusting the hem of his jacket. “That is the trouble.”

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