“He said he would let me go if I took a sip.”
“And you believed him?”
She shook her head. “I thought it would be the best time to slip away from him.”
Deerhurst wanted to punch that man again. He had heard about a certain group that went around drugging unsuspecting women. Usually with wine laced with a combination of other drugs. It was said to affect the consumer almost instantly. Up until now, Deerhurst had never seen it with his own eyes.
“Phaedra, love,” he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. “Describe to me exactly what you’re feeling right now.”
“Hot.”
“Yes, hot, but what else?”
“Sluggish.” She pulled her hands from his and tugged at her cloak. “Almost like falling into a puff of clouds.”
Deerhurst let out a foul oath.
She paused, blinking at him. “Do you know why I’m feeling this way?”
“The wine you drank was laced with drugs.”
She frowned. “What drugs?”
“Damned if I know.” He rapped on the roof. He had to get her home and summon a doctor. She lurched onto his lap as the carriage jerked forward. Deerhurst grabbed her by the shoulders and put her next to him so that she could slump against him.
“We were rudely interrupted, were we not?” she murmured.
Deerhurst clenched his fists.
They still hurt from the beating he’d given her assailant. Had he known the man had drugged her, he would be dead right now. The blackguard was damn lucky Deerhurst did not recognize him beneath his mask. He had half a mind to go back and hunt the bastard down.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his mind still on the drugs.
“Our dance. Our kiss. And just when I was enjoying it the most.”
Phaedra broke into Deerhurst’s murderous thoughts by leaning forward and clasping his thigh with her hands, invading his space with puckered lips, her lashes sweeping down.
He blinked. “What are you doing?”
“Coaxing a kiss from you,” she murmured, puckering her lips again.
Deerhurst suddenly wanted to laugh. “Listen to me, love. You’ve been drugged. Do you understand? The wine you drank was laced with a dangerous substance.”
She smiled at him and placed a finger over her mouth—to silence him? She looked so silly, so innocent, in that moment that he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless. But he wouldn’t take advantage of a woman befuddled from drugs.
Though it seemed she had other plans.
Deerhurst caught her in his arms when she crawled onto his lap, pulling herself up to his chest. Dammit. Just give the woman what she wanted. The last thinghewanted was for her to hurt herself. Better he keep her close where at least she’d be safe from tumbling around the carriage.
Christ, she was not going to make it easy for him.
“All you had to do was follow four simple rules,” he muttered, more to himself than to her.
“Don’t you want to kiss me?” she asked him, then pouted.
“I want to kiss you very much, but I can’t.”
“Why not? You kissed me earlier while we were dancing.”
