His lips brushed hers with the last word. Evie waited for the kiss, but it didn’t come. Jamie seemed frozen, as though longing to kiss her but not being able to make the final connection.
Evie rose on her tiptoes and made the connection for him.
Jamie stilled for a long moment, then he kissed her back with a fierceness that weakened her.
Evie clung to him shamelessly, wanting this kiss, coaxing him against her. Her vows to herself, promises sworn last night as well as years ago, shattered and fell to the oil-spattered floor.
She shouldn’t do this, yet everything in her craved it. This man shook her and fulfilled her in a way Hayden never would, and she knew it.
Jamie cupped her breast with his hard hand. His touch seared, awakening need.
The kiss bruised her lips then moved to her cheek, teeth scraping her jaw. Jamie’s tongue traced a scalding trail to her ear, and Evie emitted a raw noise when he nipped her earlobe.
His broad, strong back was firm beneath her fingers. Evie wanted to feel his skin bare as she pulled him down to her in the night, Jamie warming her with his mouth, his hands, his body.
She wanted it with vehemence. The shock of this awareness jolted her, but she could not let him go. Evie touched Jamie’s face and kissed him once more.
A cold burst of air made her jump, but Jamie didn’t cease kissing her, and Evie didn’t push him away. His eyes were closed, dark red lashes stark against his skin, his hard face softened with desire.
Gavina’s soft cough drifted to them.
Jamie carefully finished the kiss, taking his time. He brushed moisture from Evie’s lips, softly tapping the lower one, before he turned to Gavina.
“Aye, all right.” His rumbling voice was leisurely, Jamie not at all ashamed of being caught kissing Evie. “Give us a moment.”
“You might not have a moment.” Gavina spoke without urgency and no surprise she’d found Evie in Jamie’s arms. “There’s a nice constable walking up the street, wondering why a carriage has been sitting here so long.”
Evie’s gaze darted nervously to the bundle of the alabastron. Logic told her the constable could know nothing of it—he was probably more worried about someone breaking into the lock-up.
“If it’s Constable Taylor, he knows me.” Jamie gathered up the bundle without haste, took Evie’s hand, and led her out.
They stepped into the breeze, but the chill couldn’t cut the heat in Evie’s body. Jamie’s kisses burned on her lips, and she thought she’d never be cold again.
“Morning, Taylor,” Jamie called to the constable. He assisted Evie into the carriage, handed up the package, closed the gate, and fastened the padlock.
The constable’s scowl turned to a grin of recognition. “Morning, sir.” He touched his helmet. “Ladies.”
Jamie helped Gavina into the coach and sprang up behind her. “Carry on, Constable. Best to your missus.”
“Thank you, sir. Good day to you.” The constable stood solidly near the lock-up, watching as the carriage rolled away down the lane.
Evie closed her eyes against Gavina’s stare and hugged the bundle to her chest over her rapidly beating heart.
Evie’s meeting with Iris was to occur at Brown’s Hotel, which lay between Dover and Albemarle Streets in Mayfair. Less than half an hour after they left the lock-up, Jamie’s coach halted in the narrow street in front of the hotel’s long facade, a uniformed man springing forward to open the carriage door.
“I’ll be leaving you ladies here,” Jamie announced.
Evie didn’t like the knife of disappointment his statement caused. “Iris’s father is out,” she said, hoping this would change his mind. “We arranged it.”
Jamie jumped to the pavement, thanking the doorman and turning to assist Evie out. “Exactly why a down-at-heels Scot shouldn’t be escorting you in. Iris’s papa would hear of it and object.” He steadied Evie before reaching for Gavina. “The carriage can stay—the driver will take you wherever you wish.”
“Kind of you,” Gavina said, and she nodded graciously at the doorman. “Thank you, sir. We are here to visit our friend Miss Georgiou.”
Gavina swept inside as though she were royalty, the doorman and several pageboys rushing after her.
Attendants swarmed Evie as well, one trying to relieve her of the wrapped alabastron. “No, no, I will carry this,” she said, clutching it tightly. “It is a gift, and very fragile.”
“I assure you, madam—” a porter began.
“Better let her keep it,” Jamie advised him. “She’ll never let me hear the end of it, if you don’t.” The porter backed off at his statement, and Evie breathed out in relief.
The porter snapped his fingers at boys who raced to hold open the doors for Evie. Jamie waited until Evie was safely inside, then he turned and sauntered away down the quiet street.
Evie watched him go through the glass of the hotel’s front door. Did Jamie deliberately move so his kilt outlined his backside, so a gust of wind revealed his strong thighs beneath it?
She watched until a hurrying pageboy brushed past her, jerking her attention back to the lobby. Gavina was already waiting at the lift, a gleaming brass affair fitted into a bend of a staircase. Evie composed her expression and hurried to join her.
Gavina was mercifully silent as they rode up three floors, the uniformed man operating the lift guiding it in equal silence. He bade them a good morning as they exited, Gavina returning the farewell.
Gavina thrust her arm through Evie’s as they hastened along the hall toward Iris’s suite. “You and I will have a talk, later,” she promised.
Someone definitely needed to speak to Evie and set her straight. Her whirlwind mind and confusion were doing her no good.
Evie pressed the bell beside the door at the end of the corridor, and a maid admitted them into a foyer that held a polished table under a small chandelier. When Evie scurried into the suite’s sitting room, Iris rushed from the window to embrace her.
“I thought you’d never come.” Iris’s black hair was awry, as though she’d been running her hands through it. “You did bring it?”
Gavina emerged from the foyer after handing the maid her coat and hat, and Iris slammed her lips closed.
“This is Gavina Mackenzie,” Evie assured her. “Jamie’s cousin.”
“Oh.” Iris relaxed a fraction then extended a hand with the pretty manners she could assume. “Very pleased to meet you.”
“Miss Georgiou.” Gavina shook her hand heartily. “Never worry. I will not betray you, whatever it is you’re up to.”
Iris shot a glance at Evie as the two ladies’ hands slid apart.
Evie set down the bundle and relinquished her coat and hat to the maid, who discreetly vanished into the next room, shutting the door with a firm click.
“Jamie dropped me on Gavina’s doorstep last night,” Evie said. “I couldn’t go to Hayden’s home in the state I was in.”
Iris’s brows climbed until they met the hair that curled on her forehead. “State?”
“Because of the rain. We were caught in it.” Evie tried to ignore Gavina’s knowing look.
“I think you had better tell me all about it,” Iris said. “But first …”