The Mysterious Governess (Daughters of Sin Book 3) by Beverley Oakley

was deadly serious.
    “This is a grave state of affairs,” he told her, chafing her hand between his, perhaps to soothe himself as much as her. “Naturally I know you’ll keep this entirely to yourself, but I saw Jem just before he apparently disappeared, and I saw the letter myself. I won’t tell you the arrangement I made with Jem, and that’s not because I don’t trust you, but because if you are in some way implicated through having accompanied your...Miss Partingon, it will be safer for you to be ignorant of its contents.”
    Deep furrows crinkled his brow. Lissa wanted to smooth them away, and run her fingers through the springy brown hair that he was continually raking back from his eyes.
    Instead, she told him her greatest fear: that Ralph would somehow find himself in similar danger to Jem. “I don’t know how Cosmo knows about us, but earlier this afternoon, he threatened that if I didn’t paint for him, harm would come to my,” she blushed, “young man.”
    To her surprise, Ralph looked remarkably chuffed. “I say, ‘young man’, is it? Well, if that’s what I am, then, I haven’t yet enjoyed all the perks. May I kiss you, Miss Hazlett?”
    Lissa gasped as delight and trepidation speared her.
    He must have noticed the furtive way her eyes darted to the windows above, for immediately he looked contrite, retreating slightly and dropping his eyes. His voice was heavy, as if he greatly feared he’d overstepped the line. “Please forgive me, I had no right to make such an ungentlemanly request.”
    But barely had he finished the sentence than, in the greatest act of bravado in Lissa’s life, she raised herself on tiptoe and touched her lips carefully to his.
    They were soft and warm and immediately she was consumed by the greatest desire to lose herself in his embrace and the intimacy of his kiss. A desire kindled by the feeling of his arms tightening around her as his lips yielded to hers in a bonding that quickly grew in intensity.
    A kiss that transported her beyond the realm of her narrow existence and filled her heart almost to bursting.
    Her hands, which had been resting against his breast, now twined behind his neck and she pressed herself against him, just as she felt him retreating.
    When she opened her eyes in disappointment, it was to see the sentiment echoed in his. “Oh, Miss Hazlett, this is far too dangerous.” He was breathing heavily and he shook his head in agitation.
    Embarrassment swamped Lissa. “You think I was...too forward? Please don’t assume the accident of my birth makes me that kind of woman.”
    The misery of her dreadful origins threatened to swamp her. Her shoulders heaved and she didn’t resist when he wrapped his arms about her once more and gently kissed the top of her head.
    “You are the most virtuous, delectable armful I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet. The accident of your birth means nothing.” His voice was a soft, cathartic murmur. “You are my angel, Miss Hazlett. I recognized it from the moment I laid eyes on you, but it’s only now that I realize the danger you place me in.”
    A note of amusement crept into his voice at her predictable gasp, and he went on, “A danger that has nothing to do with my unsavory employer and everything to do with the fact that such close proximity to you makes me a danger—for I want you, Miss Hazlett.” Sparks of light radiated from the depths of his gaze. “I want you with every particle of my being—oh yes, for my own selfish reasons, but also to keep you safe and protected.”
    Reluctantly he dropped his hands. “And I cannot do that when I cannot trust myself not to kiss you with a passion that would be dangerous for both of us. There’s only one thing for it.” His tone became brisk and businesslike. “I must go away to think, Miss Partington.”
    “Think?”
    “Of how to expedite this bold and cunning plan I’ve only just now put into motion. I’m not rich enough to offer you marriage at this