Dear Stranger by Suzanna Medeiros Page B

whimpered with need.
    “No, don’t stop,” she said. “Not now, Henry.”
    He brought his hands to her shoulders and pushed her away from him. His eyes, glittering with an unnamed emotion behind his mask, went straight through her.
    “What is the matter?”
    He pulled her bodice back into place and regret and embarrassment rushed through her. Had she shocked him with her wantonness? Truth be told, she’d shocked herself. It was only now, as he released her and took a step back, that she remembered where she was. Good heavens, anyone could have come upon them.
    His expression had cooled to the point that the man standing in front of her now bore little resemblance to the one who had stripped her of her senses just moments before. How could he remain so unaffected by their embrace after all the wonderful things he had done? Her uncertainty grew when he raised his hands to his mask, only to change to shock when he removed it. Her breath escaped with a strangled gasp.
    The man she’d been kissing, the man she had practically begged to take her, was not Henry Hearst.
    Her mind whirled with confusion. How was this possible? How could she have mistaken this man for Henry? True, they did look alike. Many of his features were similar, but he carried them differently. Whereas Henry’s expression was normally open and friendly, this man had an air of authority and haughtiness about him. The mask may have hidden some of that, but it hadn’t hidden the fact that his eyes were darker than Henry’s.
    How blind could she have been? She’d noticed the deeper blue of his eyes. He’d even told her he didn’t know who she was, yet she’d still thrown herself at him.
    She took another step back to put some much needed space between them.
    “I thought you were someone else.” The excuse was feeble at best, but it was all she could manage when she finally found her voice.
    “That much is apparent,” he said. Silence stretched for a long moment. His gaze swept down her figure and she saw a muscle tic along his jaw. When he met her eyes again there was a new determination in his expression. “But now that you know I am not him…”
    He moved to close the distance that separated them and she knew he was going to kiss her again. Worse, with her body still craving his touch she feared she was going to let him. She had to get away before that happened—she was supposed to be salvaging her family’s reputation, not damaging it further.
    She turned to escape, but had only gone a few steps when she ran straight into someone else. Strong male hands grasped her arms and steadied her.
    “Sophie?”
    She looked up into the face of Henry Hearst. He looked at the other man, his surprise clear, then back at her.
    “What are you doing out here with my brother?”
    His brother? That would explain why the two men looked so much alike. Sophie groaned inwardly as she realised the full import of what had just happened. Simply being alone with Richard Hearst, the notorious Earl of Dearbourne, could ruin a woman’s reputation. And to be found by Henry, of all people!
    She could only stare at him. What could she say? That she’d come out to the garden to beg him for a kiss and had ended up doing so much more with his brother?
    Dearbourne stepped forward and Sophie waited for his damning words.
    “It was a simple case of mistaken identity. This young lady, Miss…?”
    “Crandle,” Sophie managed.
    He raised an eyebrow at that, but continued. “Miss Crandle saw me come out here and, thinking I was you, followed.”
    Henry’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “To the maze, where no one could see you?”
    “Don’t be a fool, Henry, you know I find these things suffocating. All those mothers throwing their daughters at me. I came out here for a moment of peace. When she didn’t see me, Miss Crandle thought I’d gone into the maze. I heard her call your name and came to investigate. We were on our way out when you arrived.”
    “Is that what