Deepest Desires of a Wicked Duke(21)

Sin barely heard the last bit. Too many thoughts were racing through his head. He was expected to bring Portia downstairs? What the hell? Why was someone doing this? Who?

The object appeared to be to ruin Portia, but he couldn’t see who would engineer all this for that end. And what would be the point—Portia was a spinster. She’d said she would not likely marry. It had taken money to hire men to kidnap her and bring her here. As well, this party had required a great deal of money. This had to be the work of a gentleman. What gentleman would want to destroy Portia’s reputation? Or see her ravished at an orgy?

Was she right—was all this over a wager?

Sin followed the butler to the drawing room. Seething. He barely noticed the décor of the house around him. Modern, with delicate plasterwork and pale white-painted mouldings, all light colors. White marble statues of well-endowed naked gods sat in niches.

The butler opened white double doors, revealing a large drawing room. A glossy-painted white piano sat off to the side. The room was blindingly white. Sin was the first guest to arrive in the drawing room, a room lined with arched windows that looked out to the sea, away from shore. Dark clouds massed on the horizon, high, gray, imposing. A storm was coming.

He waited, pacing in front of the windows. If a storm hit, he wouldn’t be able to get Portia off the island.

High-pitched giggling told him a woman was coming. And he was right. Two courtesans strolled through the door, arm in arm, whispering to each other.

“Your Grace!” At the sight of him, they both dropped into deep curtsies.

He knew them. They were London’s darlings of the courtesan world at the moment. One was Sadie. With pure golden blond hair, she looked like an angel, but she could be coarse and blunt. Men liked the contrast between her sweet-as-pie appearance and her brazen, wanton behavior. She wore a tight scarlet dress, with her large cleavage jiggling over the low neckline. When she curtsied she dropped low, so he could see down it. He took one glance, remembered Portia in his room, and looked away. Sadie stuck out her lower lip, playfully wounded, he was sure.

She’d been to his parties and he’d seen it all before. And given Portia needed a protector, he had to put other things on his mind than sex.

For him, an unusual undertaking.

The other woman held out her hand to him with more elegance and aplomb than a royal princess. “Your Grace. How delightful,” she crooned, in her posh, throaty accents.

She was Clarissa Carrington, London’s most sought-after Incognita. Dark haired with large green eyes, she was elegant and lovely. She dressed exactly like a young lady of the ton. And looked like the sort of blue-blooded heiress a peer was supposed to marry, except she had bedroom talents no girl of the ton would ever learn. Men adored her. Clarissa claimed she’d received marriage proposals from every eligible peer and had turned them all down. It was a lie—Sin had never proposed to her.

They were the sort of courtesans invited to any and every orgy held in London. But at no other bacchanalia that he’d attended had one guest been kidnapped.

Clarissa sidled up to him, her green eyes glowing at him. “I had no idea you were to be a guest. What do you think of the island setting? It’s rather isolated.” She gave an exaggerated shudder. “I find it rather frightening. But perhaps you shall protect me?”

“From what?” Frowning, he looked down at her. He’d thought her fear was just a ruse to snare his attentions for the party, but she looked pale. Did she know something?

“Did you receive a note?” he asked abruptly.

She blinked her huge green eyes. “A note? What kind of note?”

“One from our mysterious host.”

“Is he mysterious? I was told he was delayed and will arrive tomorrow. I have never met him. Of course, you must know him well. Given this is to be the grandest orgy ever held in England, I assume he must attend your famous parties all the time.”

“I’ve never met him either,” Sin said. He watched her eyes. “Did he send you a note in which he threatened to reveal your sins?” He gambled and revealed, “I received one also.”

“If he wished to list your wicked sins, it would take him weeks to do so.” She laughed a silvery laugh. “I have nothing to hide. I don’t think I am a sinner in any way. I’m a survivor.”

Sin glanced to the other courtesan. “Do you know if Sadie received a note?”

Clarissa narrowed her eyes, looking instantly much tougher. “Darling Sadie Bradshaw got something all right. She says it was a request from the host that she join him tomorrow night when he arrives. But I think she’s lying.”