Page 125 of Once an Angel
what lurid things they might do to her if she fainted.
She backed into the stranger's arms. His elegant fingers closed around her throat, pressing gently against her throbbing pulse.
"Come with me,cara mia," he commanded. "You won't be sorry."
Emily was already sorry. She bowed her head, sorry she had shamed her father. Sorry Justin didn't
love her enough to marry her. Sorry she'd been such a fool as to believe selling her body wouldn't cost her her soul.
A sinister swirl of music, light, and laughter enveloped her as he drew her inexorably toward the stairs. Suddenly, the frenzied gaiety was marred by shouts and the sounds of struggle. Emily jerked her head
up just in time to see one of the guards go flying into a walnut occasional table, splintering it. He sat up, eyes crossed and wig hanging askew over one ear, then slumped back over, out cold.
Women screamed and several of the gentlemen tried to climb over each other in a rush for the back
door, fearing a constable's raid. She saw lascivious Uncle George crawling around on hands and knees, searching for his precious quizzing glass. It rolled under Emily's foot, and she gave it an unkind stomp.
Shouts rang out near the door. "Grab him!"
"Careful, he might be an opium user."
"He's quite mad! A bloody savage!"
A cold rush of air behind her warned Emily her debonair captor had fled. She lifted her skirts and
peered around wildly, planning to take advantage of the chaos to make her own escape.
At that moment a path parted through the jostling crowd, revealing the golden-eyed tiger clawing his
way through their midst.
Emily's heart leaped in her throat, and she went flying across the room to fling herself into the mad savage's arms.
Chapter 28
I hesitate to shatter Justin's faith
in his friend. . . .
Emily snuffled into Justin's rumpled waistcoat. "Oh, Justin, it was awful!" she wailed. "Tansy made me wear this ridiculous dress, and there was this horrid man with the whitest, sharpest teeth you've ever
seen just like the Big Bad Wolf's and the most cleverly knotted tie. Better than Penfeld's even. And
then there was Barney lurking in doorways, waiting to jump out at me just like he did at Foxworth's,
and he said the most awful things."
Emily was too intent on gulping in the musky spice of Justin's scent to realize how strangely stiff he
stood in her embrace. Clutching his sleeves, she tilted her head and peered up at his face. It was set in lines of polished granite. She dropped her arms and backed away from him, more afraid than she'd been in the entire terrible night.
In grim silence he reached down, pried her lollipop off his sleeve, and thrust the fuzzy offender into her hand. He wouldn't even look at her. His eyes were all for the buxom woman who came sauntering out
of the crowd.
Gone was the grandmotherly creature who had spooned warm broth down Emily's throat and bussed
her cheek good night. Mrs. Rose's ample curves undulated beneath the blush satin sheath of her dress. "You're that renegade duke, aren't you?" she drawled.
