Page 44 of To Catch an Earl

He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “Can I just take this opportunity to say what a pleasure it’s been having you as an opponent? Truly.”

The way he said “pleasure,” slightly drawn out, with his perfect lips pressing together and his tongue rolling around his mouth, sent a shiver of heat through her.

Ugh.She was a twit. A brainless twit with sawdust for brains.

“For weeks you’ve led, and I’ve followed. But now you’ve had a rather delightful comeuppance. No more running, Emmy Danvers. You’ve been caught.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him, ankles crossed. “This is where you profess your innocence.”

The cynicism in his tone made her flinch. Gone was the passionate lover from the ambassador’s conservatory. Here was the hard lawman, the Runner who’d cornered his prey and was about to go in for the kill.

“Aren’t you going to beg me to release you?” he taunted mildly.

Emmy almost snorted. As if that would do any good. There was no softness in him, no forgiveness. Nothing she could say would change his mind.

He rested his elbow on the arm of the chair and stroked his lips thoughtfully. A wicked gleam entered his eyes. “It might be interesting to see how far you’ll go.” His pleasant tone held a vibrating undercurrent of anger. “Some females, when faced with the death penalty, plead their bellies.”

Emmy frowned in confusion.

“Women who are pregnant at the time they’re sentenced have their punishment delayed until after the baby is born,” he explained. “In theory, the sentence is then supposed to be carried out, but in practice, there’s so much sympathy for the newborn child that the mother is often pardoned.”

His gaze flicked down her body, and Emmy sucked in a breath as she grasped his implication. Her skin heated with anger and embarrassment. “I wouldn’t sleep with a man just to save my neck!”

He seemed amused by her outrage. “No? You won’t offer me your body in exchange for your release?”

Heat rose at the thought of them together in that way. If he’d been desperate and dishonorable, easily swayed fromhis goal, she might have stood a chance with a tactic like that, but Harland was irritatingly upright. Getting him horizontal and trying to persuade him to free her would have no effect whatsoever. He was immune.

Emmy sent him her haughtiest glare. “If you think for one moment, Lord Melton, that I would stoop to such a level, then you are gravely mistaken. And besides,” she added for good measure, “even if Iwerethe sort of woman who would do that, I know perfectly well that nothing could sway you.”

His low laugh made her stomach coil even tighter. “Are you sure? Why not try it anyway? What have you got to lose?”

What did she have to lose, indeed? Only her virginity. Only her pride, her honor, her personal integrity. Everything she had left.

“You never know,” he said softly, and his voice was a wicked serpent tightening its coils around her heart. “Maybe I’ll buckle under the onslaught of your ardor.” His gaze bored into hers. “Convince me, Emmy.”

“No!”

He raised his brows. “Why not? It worked last night, did it not? I congratulate you. If that was feigned passion, it was extremely convincing. You certainly had my body persuaded, if not my mind.”

Her eyes widened at his unexpected admission. He smiled.

“Let’s try something new, shall we? I call it ‘honesty.’ It’s where you say things that are true. I’ll start, if you like. I’m hard as a rock for you right now.”

Her mouth dropped open.

He casually lowered his hand to his lap and readjusted the bulge that had appeared in the front of his breeches. It reached almost to his waistband. He made no effort to hide it; he simply looked down and laughed.

Emmy couldn’t drag her eyes away. A terrifying wave of desire sizzled through her. He wasn’t lying. He wanted her. And she wanted him too. Not because she thought she could persuade him to release her, but because for the very first time in her life, here was a man who knew the truth—the complete truth about her—and he still wanted her. Wanted her despite it. Maybe evenbecauseof it.

Her senses reeled. That, paradoxically, was freedom.

He stood abruptly, and she did the same, instantly alert. He prowled around the desk and she sidestepped the opposite way, retreating until her bottom bumped the table that held the lamp. He sent her a mocking, triumphant look that said,Where do you think you’re going?He was blocking the path to the door and the only other choice was his bedroom.

Not an option.

She leaned back as he stopped in front of her and closed the distance until they were almost nose to nose. His breath warmed the skin of her cheek and something dangerous and ungovernable crackled in the air between them.

“Here’s another truth,” he growled, and this time she had no trouble reading the anger in his glare. His nostrils flared and his eyes grew impossibly dark. “You’re mine now, Emmy Danvers. I will never release you. Not even if you begged me on your knees. Not even if you fucked me all night.”

The coarse declaration dropped between them like an incendiary device. His storm-dark eyes dropped to her throat, to the dip of her clavicle exposed by her shirt, then travelled back up to her mouth. They were both breathing hard, as if there wasn’t enough air in the room, and Emmy couldn’t remember when she’d been so aroused. Every cell in her body burned.

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