Romancing His English Rose (Entangled Scandalous) (9 page)

Chapter Eleven

A kiss is designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

—The Duke of Lancaster

Simon leaned over to wrap Rose warmly in his arms before softly kissing her neck on the sensitive spot just below her ear. Rose squirmed in an attempt to pull away, but Simon just drew her even closer. Slowly he made his way up her neck, across her jaw, and finally to her delectable lips.

By the time Simon found her mouth with his, Rose was no longer trying to get away. She had instead wrapped her arms around his neck and was delving her fingers into his soft curly hair. She moaned when Simon urged her lips apart and his tongue swept in to sensually explore her sweet mouth.

Whatever control he thought he had when he began this seduction was quickly slipping. He groaned deeply when Rose’s movements became more insistent and he felt emboldened enough by her reaction to return her shy caresses with some more experienced moves of his own.

“Simon!” Rose cried out, arching. He responded to her passionate cry with a litany of unintelligible sweet nothings whispered against her lips and across her cheek, until he ended up breathing her name over and over in her ear with hot gasping breaths.

Then very gently, Simon eased Rose back against the cushions of the settee, and his exploration of her breasts became more brazen. He ran his fingers lightly over the thin material covering her nipple and exalted in the way he could feel it tighten and bead up for him. Unable to take it any longer, he slipped his fingers beneath the neckline of her gown in an attempt to touch the hardened nub with his bare hands.

It was then that he heard someone knocking at the front door. The sound immediately brought him back to the precariousness of their situation. They were lying very openly on the sofa in the Warrens’ front parlor.

Damn it! What was he thinking? It was supposed to have been just a sweet little kiss—meant to jolt Rose out of her cross mood. He had not meant to seduce her right there on her mother’s settee.

Groaning, Simon pulled them back into an upright position. Still cradling Rose in his arms, he gently drew back and then reached up to cup her face in his hands. He couldn’t help himself from dropping a few more light kisses on her lips as he tried to get his rapidly beating heart under control.

Rose’s lashes fluttered open and Simon was nearly undone by the hazy passion he saw there.

“Simon?” she whispered, clearly confused by his withdrawal. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh no, darling,” Simon replied quickly, groaning inwardly as guilt kicked him in the gut. “You could never do anything wrong. In fact, you made me forget where we were for a moment.” He looked around them.

He knew the moment she realized his meaning, for she flushed brighter than he ever thought possible, and when she heard Chauncy in the hall greeting someone at the door, she became almost frantic in her attempts to straighten her appearance.

“Rose,” Simon said, reaching up to stop her frenetic movements. She turned to look at him, her eyes wide and expressive. “Let me help you.” Rose nodded and he began deftly rearranging her hair.

“Mine,” she whispered absently, her hand drifting up to her lips.

Simon froze when he heard the soft word and when he looked at her, he could see that her eyes were dreamy and unfocused. She probably didn’t even realize she had said it out loud, he thought, but the fact that she had made his heart sink a little. He needed to get himself under control. He needed to stop this incessant wanting of Rose. Yes, she was his fiancée, but if he kept this up she would begin to think he had real feelings for her. Hell, he may begin to believe it himself!

He had just finished tucking the last stray strand of hair back into place when they heard the sound of footsteps coming their way. Then there was a woman’s voice in the hall greeting someone and within seconds Lady Holderness entered the room with Lord Pembroke just behind her.

“Rosebud, dear,” Lady Holderness said gaily, clearly overcome with joy to have two such handsome bachelors calling upon her daughter. “Look who has come to visit!”

Rose curtsied politely and said, “Hello, Lord Pembroke. What a pleasant surprise.”

William kissed Rose’s knuckles and shook Simon’s hand. “I apologize for stopping by unannounced, but Trumbull mentioned that he would be here this afternoon and there was something I wanted to speak to him about.”

“That’s quite all right, my lord,” Rose said. “You are always welcome here.”

“Primrose, my love,” Lady Holderness said, apparently not noticing her daughter wince at the endearment. Simon, however, did notice and he exchanged equally amused looks with Pembroke. “Perhaps we should leave the men alone to talk. We have a ball to prepare for, you know.”

“If you don’t mind, Lady Holderness,” Simon interjected, “we were hoping Rose could stay here for just a while longer. Lord Pembroke and I need her advice on, er…” Simon blanked as to a suitable reason why two men would need the advice of a young lady and he looked quickly between Rose and William.

Luckily William came to the rescue by smoothly continuing Simon’s thought with, “…what to purchase my future wife for a wedding present.”

Simon breathed a sigh of relief at William’s rather brilliant save, but hoped Lady Holderness wouldn’t wonder why both men would need her advice on what to get Hannah for the wedding.

He needn’t have been concerned though, as Lady Holderness replied, “Oh yes…by all means! How perfectly romantic of you, Lord Pembroke! I will leave you to your discussions then.” She turned to leave the parlor. The three younger persons in the room all sagged a bit in relief, until the lady suddenly turned around with an apparent afterthought.

Simon would have thought it humorous to see Pembroke and Rose straighten so quickly, if he wasn’t also attempting to regain his own rigid posture.

“Shall I order tea, do you think?” Lady Holderness wondered.

“Oh, no, Mother,” Rose said. “I don’t believe that will be necessary. We shan’t be here over long…we all have a ball to prepare for, as you so wisely pointed out.”

Lady Holderness nodded. “Yes, yes…well, very good then. Carry on.”

Simon watched as Lady Holderness continued her way out of the room. She frowned slightly when she got to the door and she very purposefully opened it as widely as she could. Then she glanced back with one last reassuring smile and finally exited the room.

Once they were alone in the parlor, they all burst out laughing.

“I wonder if I should be flattered or insulted that my mother left me alone in here with two single men?” Rose wondered aloud.

“Well, she did make sure the door was quite obviously open. Perhaps it is we men who should be insulted? One would think she was not quite so convinced of our gentlemanly chivalry,” William said to Simon with a grin.

Simon smiled back, but considering he had been somewhat less than a gentleman not ten minutes earlier, he decided not to comment. Rose looked at him with a slight frown before sitting back down on the settee. Clearly, she was second guessing the wisdom of letting him kiss her.

Simon gladly joined her on the sofa, but made sure to position himself as far from her delectable form as he could.

As he sat in a chair across from them, William said, “I hope you don’t mind my dropping by, but I was hoping you had found out more about the hidden room.”

Simon said to William, “No, no, we don’t mind. In fact, we were just, er, getting to that ourselves.”

“Then you have the information we need?”

“Yes, right here.” Simon pulled the notepad from his pocket and laid it alongside the plans he and William had drawn up the day before. Using his notes, he began to mark in the outside measurements and the window placement. William and Rose watched the entire process with clear interest.

It soon became obvious that there was an area on the first floor that did not match internally and externally. According to William’s and Simon’s recollection there was nothing between the second library and the study, and yet from the outside Simon had noted there being a rather distinct round-ish window between the two rooms that was not on the interior plan.

“That has to be the hidden room,” Rose said excitedly.

“I believe she is right,” William said. “I am sure we both would remember such a unique window if it were in either the library or the study, don’t you agree?”

“Yes…the question that remains is how do we get into the room, now that we know where it is?” Simon wondered.

“I think the access must be in the second library,” William deduced.

“Why?”

“Well, that is the room where Collicott displays his other collectables. I just think it would make sense to use that space as an extension of the hidden room.”

“There is some logic to that,” Simon agreed. “By using the second library for part of his collection, he can admire his public pieces on his way to his private works.”

“All right,” Rose began with confidence, “we know where the room is, the likely place to look for the hidden entrance, and we know which ring we are looking for…now what?”

“Now we figure out a plan to retrieve the thing,” Simon replied.

William nodded. “You need to determine when Collicott will be away from home. The process of finding the room’s entrance is bound to take a while and you want to make sure you have enough time to complete your mission.”

“I thought of that earlier, actually,” Simon said, “when I was speaking to Caleb in the garden.”

“You did?” Rose said, clearly impressed with his forethought.

“Yes, and apparently he is planning to attend the Yorke house party,” Simon revealed. “Rose, did you receive an invitation to that event?”

Rose wrinkled her brow in thought. “I don’t think so. I went through all of the invites we have received just this morning and there wasn’t one for a house party.”

“Hmmm, it’s strange that Caleb would receive an invitation to a party that you or your parents would not receive,” Simon said with some confusion.

“Ah, Trumbull,” William cut in, “that’s not quite true.” He looked at the younger man pointedly and Simon realized that the earl was quite correct. There were certain parties that mainstream members of the ton would not be privy to. These types of parties were rife with debauchery and depravity and only the most notorious of London elite would be invited to attend.

“Gentlemen,” Rose said drily, “do you care to expand on what Lord Pembroke meant by that?”

“Oh, Miss Warren, please call me William. I think we are friends enough to forgo such formality,” William said, clearly hoping he could change her focus from the house party.

“Thank you, William. And you must call me Rose,” Rose replied politely, before skewering him with her unwavering gaze. “Now, friend, will you kindly tell me what is going on here?”

“Rose, Rose,” Simon jumped in, “it is nothing. Pembroke was simply alluding to a more private party than you would typically experience during the season. They are not the sort of thing that, ah, everyone would enjoy.”

Simon felt as if his cravat suddenly seemed much too tight. He had been to such a party—or parties, if he were being completely honest—in the past. They were the type of event that young men consider a rite of passage, but his interest in them quickly waned and now he would never consider attending such a gathering again.

But frankly it didn’t surprise him that Caleb was still interested in the less-than-moral soirees. They were known for their discretion, which meant men and women could behave as wantonly and promiscuously as they pleased. It was also an environment where people with different, ah, predilections could indulge their baser instincts if they so desired.

Rose appeared to be considering Simon’s words very carefully. It must seem odd to her that someone would throw a party that not everyone would enjoy, but Simon hoped she would just take his words at face value and not read anything more into it.

“Fine.” Rose sighed finally. “How can we learn more about this house party without an invitation?”

“Ah, it’s possible I have an invitation to the Yorke’s party at home, actually,” Simon confessed.

“I see,” Rose said, looking at him with an arched brow and pursed lips. And Simon had a sinking feeling that she did, in fact, see. Despite his attempts to keep her in the dark about the type of party it was, Rose had figured it out. At least enough for her to immediately think the worst of him for being invited.

“Obviously, I had not planned on attending,” Simon assured her.

“Obviously.”

William, clearly feeling the shift in the mood of the room, decided that perhaps now was a good time to make his leave. Standing, he said, “Well, I believe we are done here. I should probably, ah, go.”

“Coward,” Simon muttered.

William just grinned. “I will see myself out. Rose, it was a pleasure. Trumbull…good luck.” And with that the Earl of Pembroke departed.

Simon watched as the man quit the room and he rather wished he were going with him. When he turned back to Rose, he found she was still looking at him frostily and he wondered if he could get out of this particular situation with another kiss.

“Hmph.”

Simon assumed that sound was meant to imply that nothing he could say at the moment would be important, but rather than test that theory, he decided he should just say his good-byes and hope that when they met again at the ball, she would be in a more tolerant mood.

He gathered up their drawings and stuffed them unceremoniously into his jacket pocket as he stood. “I suppose I should be going too. We both have a dance to dress for. I will look for the, um, invitation when I get home and see if I can determine how long we can expect Caleb to be gone. We can talk more about the plan tonight, if that is acceptable?”

He looked at Rose and she nodded once in acknowledgement.

Again Simon thought he should say something, but nothing of worth came to mind. Better to leave now than possibly make things worse. Right?

“Good afternoon, Rose.”

Without waiting for a response Simon was sure would never come, he took his leave.