Free The Accidental Mistress by Tracy Anne Warren

freckles. The same jewel-tone eyes, her green irises nearly a match for her elegant evening gown. The same mouth, her lush, sultry lips the very ones he'd plundered with a series of hot, passionate kisses, kisses he imagined he could taste even now.
    He struggled to quash his instant rush of desire, his loins aching in a way that he knew might prove embarrassing if he didn't get himself under firm control. Catching her gaze with his own, he read the astonishment shining in her eyes.
    Her lashes swept downward just before she dropped into a deep curtsey. "An honor, my lord."
    He bowed, only then recalling the name by which Lady Coates had introduced her.
    "Mrs. Smythe." Even to his own ears, his words sounded harsh, reverberating in a graveled rumble.
Mrs. Smythe!
His brows drew together, sharp as a set of daggers.
    Hell and damnation, is she married?
Unable to voice the appalling question, he stared.
    Davina Coates, about whom he'd very nearly forgotten, glanced between them, an expression of puzzled inquiry on her face. "Perhaps it is my imagination, but do the two of you know each other?"
    "No," Lily shot back.
    "Yes," he said at the same time, their voices crossing over each other's.
    Lady Coates laughed. "Goodness, which is it? Yes or no?"
    He waited, allowing Lily to speak first.
    "No," she said. "At least not really. Lord Vessey and I have … seen each other, I believe, but have never been formally introduced."
    "Yes," he drawled. "We have
seen
each other."
And kissed each other, and touched each other as well.
    "Oh," their hostess said, looking even more curious than before. "Perhaps you were acquainted with Mrs. Smythe's late husband, your lordship? Could that be where you met?"
    Late husband? Ah, so she is a widow!
A rush of coiled tension eased from his shoulders.
    "Hmm," he said, "I do not believe so, but perhaps. Wherever it was our paths crossed, I am glad they have done so again."
    Lady Coates cast them another bemused smile. "Well, good. It pleases me that I could introduce you properly this time. If you will excuse me, I see I am needed across the room. Something about dinner, I expect."
    Lily tossed her friend a narrowed look as though she wished to protest the desertion. Instead, she held her tongue as the other woman smiled once more, then glided away.
    For a long moment, neither he nor the beautiful adventuress before him spoke. And she was indeed beautiful, more radiant and bewitching than he remembered. A part of him was irritated with her—for what he didn't entirely know—but another, far stronger part of him was pleased, happy and relieved to have suddenly discovered her once again.
    This time,
he mused,
I will not be letting her get away.
    Angling his body forward, Ethan crowded closer in the hopes of their conversing without being overheard. When she took two steps back into a nearby corner, he followed. As he did, a hint of the rose-and-vanilla scent perfuming her skin drifted upward to his nostrils.
    Desire thickened in his blood. Had they not been in company, he wasn't sure whether or not he would have been able to restrain the wild urge to press his face against her neck—or better yet, her breasts—for a deeper inhalation.
    Instead, he forced himself to meet her gaze. "So, how are you, Lily? I presume I may call you Lily, or would you prefer Mrs. Smythe?"
    She played her fingers over a button on the wrist of one of her long, white evening gloves. "Mrs. Smythe, I think. And I am quite well as you can see, my lord. Yourself?"
    He quirked a brow and smiled, more amused than annoyed by her somewhat prickly reply.
    "I enjoy robust health as well. And you may relax, Lily," he said, ignoring her request to maintain formality. "I have no intention of telling anyone where it is we actually met, nor more importantly, how you were garbed at the time."
    Her delicate brows moved across her forehead like two small slashes of fire. "I certainly hope not. Should you decide otherwise, I shall deny it most