Page 54 of Enticing the Devil

Another wave of embarrassment washed through her. Running hotter and deeper than the last. She ignored it. Turning toward the study, she didn’t hesitate when Beynon’s fierce gaze landed on her with the force of a cannonball. She kept her head high and her gait unhurried. Holding his gaze, she approached both gentlemen.

Then she paused and glanced to the earl before returning her focus to Beynon.

She might have overcome the rush of humiliation her father so easily triggered in her, but there remained a heavy dread—an acute fear—encroaching upon her like a black cloud swallowing the moon.

Staring into Beynon’s menacing gaze, she forced a steady calm to her voice. “Why was my father here?”

Beynon’s scowl grew ever darker—heavier—as he stared at her. The muscles of his jaw were so hard beneath the shadow of beard growth they looked turned to stone and the line of his mouth was so firmly drawn she wondered if she’d ever detect softness there again.

When it appeared he wasn’t going to answer, Anne glanced past him to Lord Wright.

“My lord?”

“Please, Lady Anne, join us for a moment and all will be explained.”

What on earth was going on?

She glanced to Beynon once again but encountered only a forbidding wall of intensity and fury. Then he took one step back and turned to the side so she could enter the room. She could see nothing of the man who’d kissed her so passionately just last night. But as she stepped past him, she still felt the magnetic pull of his body. The solid heat of him, the lure of his strength and hardness. Especially in this moment, when she felt so small and alone.

But she’d been alone all her life.

Whatever was happening now, she could weather it. She’d surely faced worse.

The earl gestured for her to take a seat in the chair set before Lord Harte’s large desk.

She gave a small shake of her head and continued to the center of the room, where she turned to face them while tight bands of foreboding wrapped around her lungs, cinching tighter with every breath.

“Leave us.”

The harsh words were spoken by Beynon to his brother. The earl frowned and looked to Anne. “I don’t think that’s prudent.”

Anne’s voice was firm as she was quick to interject, “It’s all right.”

Concern tugged at the earl’s mouth, but he nodded. “I’ll be just outside.”

Once the door closed behind him, leaving Anne and Beynon alone, she forced herself to meet his gaze without faltering. “Why was he here?”

“I requested his presence.”

Anger was starting to overthrow the trepidation inside her. “Why?” she asked sharply. “I thought you’d gone to London. My father spends his summers in Surrey.”

He cleared his throat and finally lowered his arms to his sides as he took a few steps into the room. But not toward her. He stalked first toward the desk before hesitating and stopping behind the chair Lord Wright had intended for her to sit in. He braced his large hands on the curved back as his dark gaze found hers.

“I did go to London but not before sending a note to Lord Humphries, asking him to meet with us here.”

Her eyes narrowed and her belly gave a hard lurch as a terrible suspicion gripped her. “Why would you do such a thing?” And what had he said in the note to bring her father from his summer estate so quickly? He was not a man to follow the whims of others.

“I required his permission.”

“For what?” The words flew from her lips in a near shout as panic caught her in its grip.

He glanced to the desk. The surface was extremely neat and tidy, which made the paper lying in the center stand out in stark clarity.

A strange numbness began to spread up from her toes.

“What is that?” she prompted.

“A special license. Obtained from the archbishop this morning.”

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