Julius’s lips and hands.
Because Bethany was utterly convinced she would never react to any other man in the way she did with Julius. Which both thrilled and saddened her. Thrilled, because he was here now, pleasuring her. Saddened, because she knew once Julius left here, it was unlikely he would give her so much as a second thought, let alone the two of them would ever meet again.
Which did not mean she couldn’t enjoy the here and now!
How could she do any other as Julius’s lips left a trail of fire over her rib cage and down her abdomen? He then grasped her hips firmly and pressed his nose between her belly and the top of her thigh to breathe in the perfume of her heated flesh.
Her legs trembled at the feel of the soft rasp of his tongue along that crease, lower, and then lower still, until his face was buried in the golden curls covering her mound.
He lifted his head to look at her as he raised the leg nearest to him before bending it at the knee and pushing it up and back against her breast.
Leaving Bethany feeling totally exposed to those all-seeing blue eyes.
She gave a keening cry when she felt the stroke of Julius’s tongue against the hard nubbin he had exposed. The fingers of one hand caressed a path of fire from her wet pussy lips to the exposed pucker of her bottom, while the other hand moved to cup her exposed breasts, fingers and thumb tugging and squeezing the nipple.
The fingers between her thighs continued to caress and probe as the pressure of Julius’s tongue against her nubbin intensified. The merest fingertip penetrated her pussy to become slick with her juices before caressing along that taut channel of skin between her pussy and bottom.
Resulting in her feeling pleasure everywhere. Her breasts. That swollen nubbin amongst her curls. The slickness of her pussy lips. The ache of her empty channel. The sensitive skin about her pucker.
Her senses were assaulted with those myriad sensations until they all culminated in the release of a fierce tsunami of pleasure so intense, it exploded inside her body in wave after wave of never-ending ecstasy.
An ecstasy that intensified to the edge of pain as Julius’s lips and hands continued to caress her body and take her through another, even more intensely pleasurable release.
“I have you,” Julius eventually assured as he moved up the bed to gather Bethany into his arms.
She sobbed as she buried her face against his throat. Her breathing was now uneven, her whole body trembling from the intensity of her climax.
Not once but twice, Julius acknowledged with admiration for the trust Bethany had placed in him that had allowed her to give herself over so completely to that pleasure.
A pleasure Julius realized he wished to give and share with Bethany over and over again.
But couldn’t.
For so many reasons.
She was thirteen years his junior.
She admitted being inexperienced, apart from the intimacies she had shared with him.
She was currently the ward of a man Julius utterly despised.
Worse, once the truth was revealed, she would then once again be the younger sister of Lord James Metford, the Earl of Ipswich. A man Julius was proud to claim as his friend, at the same time as he knew the younger man wouldn’t see Julius, older and cynical and to a certain extent set in his ways, as a suitable match for the young and vivacious Bethany.
A suitable match?
What the—
He had just pleasured Bethany to climax, twice, and enjoyed every moment of doing so, but that didn’t mean she was in love with him or he with her. She had asked for, and he had satisfied, that curiosity regarding physical pleasure and release. That did not mean that he—
Julius shied away from questioning his own emotions.
Whatever they might be.
The situation here needed to be settled first, in James’s favor. There would be time for Julius to question and decide upon other things once that was achieved.
To that end, he now removed his arms from about Bethany, his gaze averted as he moved to the end of the bed before standing, his back toward her.
“Julius…?”
He drew in a long breath, his thoughts racing.
For the foreseeable future, he needed to concentrate on what was important: seeing James returned to being the Earl of Ipswich, and not allowing himself to be sidetracked by this inexplicable attraction he felt toward Bethany.
There was also the fact that if Metford were to learn of the intimacies that had occurred between Julius and his beloved niece, then Julius would be asked to leave and so would no longer be of any assistance to James.
At least, those were the reasons Julius told himself as justification for what he did and said next.
His expression was deliberately distant when he turned to face Bethany. He almost weakened in his resolve when he saw she hadn’t moved, but still lay on her back on the rumpled bedsheets, limbs sprawled and her body still naked.
Julius eyed her coldly. “I trust you are not asking for another demonstration? Because I believe I have indulged you enough for one evening.” A blatant lie, if ever he had spoken one. And Julius had, by necessity, spoken many lies during his years as a spy for England.
Much as he wished to return to Bethany’s side, to spend the rest of the night pleasuring her into unconsciousness, he forced himself to remain exactly where he was.
“Indulged me…?” Bethany repeated in a hurt voice.
“Of course.” Julius managed to put a sneer in his tone. “No man in his right mind would have been able to refuse such a blatant invitation to intimacy. I pride myself on always being in my right mind.” Inwardly, Julius was seriously starting to doubt his sanity. Even more so when he saw how pale Bethany’s face had become at his deliberate insult.
But he only had to keep his distance until after he had helped James reclaim his title.
By which time, Bethany would no doubt hold him in complete contempt for having hurt her in this way.
For the moment, she seemed satisfied with hurriedly pulling the bedclothes up to cover her nakedness. Her eyes glittered with anger as she glared at him. “You may go now you have satisfied my curiosity.”
Julius bit his bottom lip to stop from smiling at how imperious she looked, even naked and with her skin blemished with the redness caused by the stubble upon his chin, and her hair a tousled gold about her shoulders.
“I am sure I shall be able to manage on my own in future,” she added dismissively.
His jaw tightened at the thought of Bethany, alone in her bed, fingers stroking between her thighs and pulling on her nipples until she reached a climax. When he wished, ached, to be the one who gave her that pleasure.
“Let us hope so,” he bit out tersely before striding across the room with the obvious intention of leaving.
Bethany kept her chin held high until Julius had closed the door softly behind him.
At which time, all her proud defiance deserted her. Her shoulders drooped, and her breathing became shallow and uneven, tears stinging her eyes.
She had felt so brave earlier, so mature, and now she felt thoroughly humiliated.
A humiliation that now required Lord Julius Soames, the Earl of Andover, leave Ipswich Park as soon as possible.
Chapter Twelve
“Where have you been? Lacey cleared away after dinner a good hour ago.”
Julius scowled at James across the guest bedchamber. “Mind your own damned business.”
“I am now wondering if it is my business.” The younger man’s eyes narrowed. “You are looking slightly…flushed, and your eyes seem overly bright.”
“And?” Julius scowled.
“Where have you been for the past hour?”
Julius released a heavy breath as he crossed the room to where a decanter and brandy had been left on the table near the window for his enjoyment. He poured two inches into one of the glasses, downing it in one swallow, replenishing the glass before looking at James again. “I have been in your
sister’s bedchamber, teaching her how to pleasure herself,” he stated truthfully.
James looked at him blankly for several long seconds before he burst out laughing. “Where have you really been?”
He frowned his irritation with not having his words believed. Although it was perhaps as well… “I have never before considered a valet being as tiresome as having a wife. But of course you are not really my valet. I thank God I shall have Adams returned to me soon.” He sighed. “And why does it matter to you where I have been?”
James poured brandy into a second glass before taking an obviously satisfying sip. “I was concerned after Lacey informed the maids downstairs that my uncle had left the dining room and they could now clear away. I came to find you in case you were searching in his bedchamber or study. When I did not find you in either place, I came in here to wait for you.”
“I went for a walk,” Julius invented. “Your uncle is the most tedious of dining companions.”
James nodded. “I do not know how Bethany stands his company.”
“Possibly because he is all she has left of family,” Julius excused. “Or, at least, all she believes she has left.”
The other man nodded. “The sooner we deal with this situation, the better.”
After the events of this evening, Julius could not agree more with that sentiment.
Which was why the following morning saw Julius returning to Metford’s bedchamber to look at the deeds of property for himself, once he was sure the older man had departed the house on his morning ride with his now-recovered niece.
According to the documents, Metford personally owned a dozen properties, bought with the Ipswich money, all in the area of Piccadilly and bought during the past nine years. Properties which, with the Burlington Arcade due to be opened next month, were now worth a fortune, either to sell in their entirety or rented as retail units to different merchants.
Reason enough to have had his nephew killed?
Along with inheriting the title of the Earl of Ipswich, most definitely.
As Metford was the local magistrate in this area, they had decided before coming to Suffolk that it would be impossible for James to reclaim his title here. They would need to take any documents they found, and James himself, and Julius would then present the evidence to the highest law in the land, his friend the Prince Regent. Prinny could then decide whether or not Metford had wanted his nephew killed and that James should, by birth, be the Earl of Ipswich.
There was just the matter of the contents of the secret drawer in the desk in Metford’s study left for them to look into before they, hopefully, received word from the smith that the carriage was repaired and they could continue on their journey back to London.
* * *
“This is the second time I have chanced upon you as you are about to enter my uncle’s study. When this time he has clearly gone out for the afternoon,” Bethany accused. “I am also aware you are now familiar with exactly where the dining room is located.”
Julius winced at the challenge in Bethany’s voice. At the very moment he was about to enter Metford’s study. At a time when Julius knew where the dining room was.
He was also aware Metford was not in his study. Julius had been standing on the gallery above the entrance hall when Metford informed the butler that he intended to visit with the local squire, but would be back in time to take tea with his niece at four thirty.
The niece who was now questioning Julius’s reason for again being caught entering her uncle’s study.
The same woman Julius had not seen since he made love to her the previous night and afterward parted from so badly. Julius had gone downstairs for his breakfast this morning only to find Bethany was the one who preferred to have breakfast in her bedchamber today.
Julius schooled his features into a mocking expression as he turned to face her. “Perhaps the question I should be asking you is why are you following me?”
She looked taken aback, and then her cheeks suffused with color. “I am not following you.”
“All evidence to the contrary,” he drawled.
She frowned her agitation. “I live here. Our paths are sure to cross at some time during the day. Today, it happens to be here. Nor have you answered my original question,” she stated firmly.
“I’ve forgotten what it was,” he dismissed untruthfully.
Bethany’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you entering my uncle’s study?”
Truth or fiction?
The truth was as unbelievable as any fiction Julius might think up, and last night, when he had told James exactly and truthfully where he had been for the hour since dinner, James had not believed him.
“Very well.” Julius nodded. “I was about to enter your uncle’s study so that I could open the secret drawer in his desk and look through any papers I might find there.”
Bethany didn’t laugh dismissively the way James had last night, but her eyebrows did rise up to her hairline. “In the hopes of finding what?”
He shrugged. “I will not know that until I have opened it and looked at its contents. If, indeed, there are any contents,” he added ruefully.
“Why do you need to see them at all?”
Julius didn’t feel it was his right to reveal James had lived through the attack ten years ago. That was for James himself to share with his sister.
He could, however, reveal a partial truth. “Your uncle is a person of interest to the Crown.” He hoped Metford would very soon be of much deeper interest to the Prince Regent.
“Has he done something wrong?”
“Yes,” Julius answered with complete honesty.
Bethany felt in that moment much as she had when she first lost her parents and then quickly thereafter her beloved brother. It was as if the cornerstone of the stability in her life had been ripped away from her.
Admittedly, her uncle could be difficult, and he was a hard taskmaster when he sat on the bench, but Bethany could not fault the kindness he had always shown her.
She gave Julius a searching glance but could read nothing in his expression. “What sort of interest to the Crown?”
“You know very well I am not at liberty to answer that.”
“But you still expect me to allow you to enter my uncle’s study and look through the papers in his desk without protest?”
Julius shook his head. “I only wish to look at the papers in the secret drawer. I already know there is nothing else of interest to me in the desk.”
“Because you searched it yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“How do you even know about the secret drawer?”
“The desk is Elizabethan. I would expect there to be a secret drawer.”
Bethany frowned. “I have caught you once again entering my uncle’s study, and you have admitted it is for clandestine activities. Is there no crime you consider beyond you?”
“Many,” he snapped. “The crime of poverty. War. Disease. Cruelty. But entering another man’s study in his absence to look at his private papers is not high on the list of things beyond me.”
Bethany blushed at this deliberate set-down. “It is still an infringement of my uncle’s privacy,” she stated stubbornly.
Julius sighed. “Yes, it is. But it is something I need to do.”
She snorted. “So I should simply allow you to do it?”
“I do not recall you being this reluctant to trust me last night,” he reminded softly.
The heat in Bethany’s cheeks intensified merely from thinking of their intimacies together the previous night. And the set-down she had received afterward. “I ask again, what do you hope to find in my uncle’s desk?”
“You are a very stubborn and determined young lady.” Julius’s gaze softened with admiration.
She would not allow herself to be diverted by his flattery. “I require your answer.”
“Very well.” He nodded. “I expect to find receipts. Letters.”
“Incriminating ones?”
&nb
sp; “That would depend upon your point of view on the matter.”
“What is your own point of view?”
His jaw hardened. “That I should like to see Adrian Metford hanged!”
“Why?” she gasped.
“Again, that is something I cannot discuss with you.”
“Cannot or will not?”
“Both.”
Bethany chewed on her bottom lip as she studied him searchingly. His gaze as it met hers was clear and direct. High cheekbones appeared stark above the tightness of his jaw. His stance was slightly defensive, as if he expected her to continue to challenge him for entering her uncle’s study.
She drew in a deep breath before nodding. “I shall come in with you—”
“Absolutely not.”
She arched mocking brows. “I know where the secret drawer is and how it opens.”
He appeared taken aback. “How do you know that?”
She brushed past him to open the door so they could both enter the room beyond. “My brother showed it to me years ago.” She closed the door behind her before turning to move behind the huge desk that dominated the room. “I must admit I have not given this drawer so much as a second thought since James died.”
“Does your uncle know of it?”
She considered. “He has never mentioned it, so probably not.”
Julius knew that meant one of two things.
Either Metford had no idea Bethany already knew of the drawer’s existence, and he hoped to keep that knowledge from her…
Or the older man really had no idea there was a secret drawer in the desk he had inherited first from his brother and then nephew.
The first meant there might be incriminating evidence from the attack and “murder” of James. The second that there might be papers or letters in connection to his suspicions regarding Metford being Bethany’s father. He still hoped, for her sake, that wasn’t true, but—
“There.” Bethany looked across at him expectantly as she stepped back from the desk.
Julius's Passion (Regency Club Venus 4) Page 9