The Earl of Morrey

by Lauren Smith

  “You see the land there, at the end of the distant hill? How the grass darkens?”

  She nodded.

  “Those are the marshes.” He turned to her, as though needing to see that she understood the danger. She did. “Do not go there, no matter what.”

  She took her time studying the landscape, learning the patterns of the native meadowlands before they turned to marshes.

  “Adam, why were you halting your horse so abruptly in the field?” She positioned Lizzie beside his horse again. “Before the chase?”

  “I often practice maneuvers that help me to be better prepared.”

  “For your work.”

  He sighed. “Yes.” He was silent a moment before adding, “I sometimes run into dangerous situations. I quickly learned that a man’s skill on a horse could save his life and the lives of others. Being able to stop my horse where I need to, even at a full gallop, can be very useful.”

  She toyed with Lizzie’s reins and stared at him hopefully.“Would you teach me?”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Please. This marriage was to protect me because you believe I am in danger. You must realize the necessity.”

  “I plan to be your veritable shadow.”

  Letty arched a brow. “Even shadows fade when night falls. You must acknowledge that I should have some skills of my own. Isn’t that a more intelligent course of action? If we are separated, wouldn’t you prefer me to have some sense of how to deal with my enemies? If nothing else, it would allow you more time to hone your own skills.”

  Adam looked heavenward. “Am I ever going to win any arguments with you?”

  With a devilish grin, Letty trotted past him into the field. “Probably not. But you can win other things.” She had no desire to control him when it came to everything, especially those things she sensed he would control very well—like the marriage bed.

  “Very well, I will teach you what I was practicing.”

  For the next half hour, Letty became more comfortable in the saddle than she ever had been before and was easily able to train Lizzie to slide to a stop. When she felt she had practiced enough, she slid off Lizzie’s back and walked along the edge of the woods. Adam dismounted and tied their horses nearby to graze before joining her.

  Letty circled around a large tree, unable to keep her eyes off Adam as he came behind her. His hands were behind his back, and his lean legs moved in a gentle rhythm as he watched her playfully hide from him behind the tree. Adam came around one side of it, and she turned, putting her back to the tree as he cornered her against it.

  “I am sorry about last night,” she said.

  He braced a hand against the bark beside her, and his other hand settled on her hip. A flare of heat filled her lower belly, and a faint throbbing pulse came to life between her thighs.

  Adam’s grip over her hips tightened ever so slightly.“I was sorry too.”

  “Perhaps we can try again tonight?” she offered, both nervous and excited at the thought. He took a step closer, his body now pressing against hers. She was suddenly afraid, though of what she wasn’t sure, so she attempted to move away. He caught her waist and pushed her back against the tree, deftly capturing her wrists with one of his large hands, pinning them above her head.

  “Adam—what—?”

  “Hush, lady wife. I have caught you, and now you are mine.” His words sent that faint throbbing deep in her belly into a more frantic pounding within her. He lowered his lips to hers, but he didn’t kiss her. His lips brushed over hers, moving along her jaw down to her throat, where he nipped the sensitive flesh. She cried out, her hips arching away from the tree. All because of what he’d done to her neck. She was a terrible, wanton creature, yet at that moment she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

  Adam’s other hand parted her split riding skirts, gripping one of her thighs. He slid his hand between her legs, his strong fingers questing through layers of undergarments until he found her. She shrieked in shock as he stroked the folds of her sex.

  “Hush, pet,” he purred, and all she could envision was how a dangerous tomcat would pounce upon a trembling mouse and gently bat at it with its paw.

  One of his fingers moved up and sank into her, pressing tight inside that secret part of her. Wetness flooded between her thighs, and she wriggled, unable and unwilling to escape. He kissed the shell of her ear as he pushed that finger in and out of her.

  “This is a taste of what I will teach you, this dark yearning for something more. The need you feel to be chased and caught. To have me master your body.” His words, carnal and wicked, confused and excited her.

  “I don’t—I shouldn’t—”

  “Don’t lie to me, or yourself. There is nothing wrong with wanting this. You are my wife, and I your husband. We may explore this together.” Adam kissed her now, a ruthless, violent kiss that matched the sudden thrust of his finger.

  Something was building within her, something wild and uncontrollable. It felt as though her body was changing, as though whatever was coming, once it came, would leave a mark upon her that would never go away.

  “Keep touching me,” she demanded, needing his skin upon her skin in whatever way she could get it.

  “Let go,” he urged between his hungry kisses. “Surrender yourself to me.” His hold on her wrists tightened as he inserted a second finger inside her, stretching her to the point where it was nearly painful.

  “Christ, you’re tight,” he groaned against her mouth.

  She was tight, and upon hearing him say it, itwas like a curse and a blessing broke whatever had been holding her together. She simply came apart, and a frightening, powerful pleasure rippled through her. She screamed, but the sound was drowned out as he covered her mouth with his.

  Letty was consumed by him, their bodies pressed tight, her will and his bound by this dark, exciting energy that his wicked touch created. He kept thrusting his fingers until she was begging for him to stop, not because it hurt, but because she could not take any more pleasure. He slowed down, his hand stilling as he cupped her sex. Then he brushed a finger over the bud of her arousal, and she flinched at its oversensitivity. He rested his head against hers, their panting breaths mingling.

  “That’s it. Ride it out with me,” Adam encouraged. “Don’t fight it.”

  She melted, unaware that she had been holding herself rigid as her mind and body tried to process what had happened. As she relaxed, little aftershocks of pleasure came more freely.

  “There now,” he soothed her as he pulled his hand from beneath her skirts. She was embarrassed at the wetness coating his fingertips but gasped as she watched him slip them between his own lips and lick them clean. It made the throbbing between her legs return.

  “You taste sweet, lady wife, and your eyes . . .” His voice was soothing as he gazed down upon her. He still held her wrists trapped in his hand, and she couldn’t find it in herself to care. She was safe like this, safe in his arms and his control.

  “I thought . . . I thought I might fall apart and I would never be put back together again. It was frightening,” she admitted in a small voice.

  His silvery eyes held hers. “That is the beauty of embracing your passion. You can fall apart, and I will always be there to hold you together.”

  “Is this . . . Is this how it always feels?”

  He nuzzled her cheek and kissed her forehead. “No, not always. Not for everyone. But a good man should always do his best to make his bed partner feel this way. It is only lazy men who do not.” He released her hands then and gently rubbed her wrists, massaging them. “You and I are lucky. We have something many husbands and wives do not.”

  “What is that?”

  “I understand your desires, what you need to ‘fall apart,’ as you call it. To reach your peak. And your needs are not like those of other women.”

  “They’re not?” She attempted to move, but her legs buckled. Adam caught her and swung her up in his arms as he started back to the
spot where they’d left their horses.

  “You mustn’t be ashamed, lady wife. Many men and women have relations only in a certain way, the woman lying on her back and the man on top, but that is only one way. There are many ways to make love, and I plan to show you all of them.”

  At this pronouncement, Letty fell silent, wondering what all those ways might be. Adam carried her to the horses and only set her down next to Lizzie long enough to help her up onto the horse. When she sat astride, his brows rose.

  “I was raised to ride this way. I assure you, I am far safer seated like this.Do you wish to make me ride sidesaddle?”

  “Not at all. It is indeed much safer and better for your back. I was only surprised that I hadn’t noticed it earlier.” He smiled wickedly at her. “I was focused on other things, I suppose.”

  “I use my skirts to hide how I sit.” She showed him how the riding habit fell to one side, covering one of her legs and making it look as though she were sitting sidesaddle.

  Adam eyed her appreciatively.“That’s a clever design.”

  “Thank you.” She waited for him to mount, then grinned at him. “Race you back?”

  She took off before he had a chance to respond, and she heard his laughter as he chased after her.

  8

  “Please, you mustn’t kill it,” Letty begged Adam.

  Adam’s curved silver fishhook paused before it could pierce the wriggling worm. His wife gazed at him from the other end of the boat where they floated on the water of the moat that surrounded Chilgrave Castle.

  “I fear that I must,” he chuckled. “You realize that even if I don’t hook him, he shall still be eaten by a fish?”

  Letty sighed. “Then do it, but know that I am saddened.”

  Adam had to work not to laugh at her adorable, childish pout. He hastily prepared the worm and then cast the line far away into the water before handing the pole to her. She accepted it, and while he focused on his hook, he could sense her studying him. He pretended not to notice.

  “Why did you want to take me fishing?” she asked.

  “Why?” He cast his line out parallel to hers in the moat.

  “Yes. It’s not exactly the sort of thing a woman expects to do the first day she’s married.”

  He leaned back comfortably in the boat, his fishing pole held in one hand.“Oh? And what did you expect?”

  “I suppose I thought I’d be meeting with Mrs. Oxley, Mrs. Hadaway, Mr. Sturges, and the rest of the staff. Then I would start to familiarize myself with the account books, menus, and any other things that the mistress of an estate like Chilgrave should know.” She said this with an air of confidence, as though she thought that was exactly what she ought to be doing instead of lounging about in a boat with him. Adam knew she had been raised for those duties, but she was still rather young to have that thrust upon her.

  “There is plenty of time for that. I wanted you and I to have time to learn about one another.”

  “That is a good idea. We do barely know each other,” Letty said. “I don’t even know how you take your tea.”

  “With one lump of sugar. I like a hint of sweetness.” He winked at her and was satisfied by the deep blush that claimed her features. She was sensual yet so wonderfully innocent too. She was no jaded courtesan faking coquettish smiles in a mercenary fashion.

  “What about you?” Adam asked. “How do you take your tea?”

  “With enough milk and sugar that you barely taste the tea.” Her impish reply had him laughing. “But I do need to know more about you. The serious things, I mean,” Letty insisted.

  “And what do you consider serious things?”

  “Well . . . Your family, to start with.”

  “Ah, the paterfamilias and such. Well, the late earl wasn’t a bad man. He was a decent sort, but my mother died young, just after Caroline turned four, and Father turned to her lady’s maid for comfort.”

  Letty nodded in understanding.“Gillian’s mother.”

  “Yes. Caroline and I loved Gillian’s mother, but when she became pregnant, she left. I didn’t realize until I was much older that Father had sent her away. He paid for her and Gillian to live comfortably, but he feared my finding out about them.”

  “Why?”

  “He assumed—wrongly, as it turned out—that I would be upset. I wish he had married Gillian’s mother, to be honest. Society be damned. I would have liked for her to have been raised alongside Caroline and me. But my father discovered this truth too late. On his deathbed, he begged me to find them. By then, Gillian’s mother was dead, and my father’s solicitor had lost track of Gillian.” Adam paused, his voice softening a little. “I found my sister, only to learn that I had already lost her to your brother.”

  Letty scooted closer to him in the boat. “She loves you, even only knowing you such a short time. She sings your praises.”

  He smiled, his melancholy thoughts retreating a bit. “I wish I could say I deserved any such praise.”

  “Well, she believes you do, and Gillian is not a person to put her faith in someone undeserving.”

  “And what about you? What of the noble house of Pembroke?”

  “Much the same as yours, I suppose. Father died when I was very young, and my mama . . . Well, she did not die young, but her mind faded away only a year or two after Father passed. In a way, James and I raised each other. That’s what I like about you, that you and Caroline have a bond the way James and I do.” There was a bittersweet ache to her words. Their lives were similarin so many ways.

  “I think a sibling is a blessing and a comfort. I am fortunate to have two sisters now.” He gave a gentle pull on his fishing rod, testing what he thought might have been a nibble on his line, but found no resistance.

  “May I ask a more serious and sensitive question?” she asked, her tone carefully neutral.

  “I am, in most ways, an open book for you.”

  That blush returned. “Have you had many mistresses?”

  That question was entirely unexpected. “Well . . .Not many by certain standards. I’ve had four in the last ten years.”

  “Four,” she said, and he wished he could read her tone. Was she upset? Jealous? Worried?

  “I promise you that, as your husband, I belong to you now. I haven’t had a mistress in the last two years, and I will not take one ever again.” He braced his pole on the edge of the boat and leaned over to take one of her hands in his. Holding someone’s hand was incredibly intimate. In some ways, even more so than what they had done in the woods this morning. Hands were the way people connected to the world around them, and holding those hands, linking them like this, forged a bond with her that he didn’t wish to break.

  She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t meet his gaze either.

  “I feel rather silly and unworldly,” she said at last. “Do I disappoint you?”

  Adam had to bite his lip not to laugh. “I would prefer you to be exactly who you are. No wilting maiden, nor some seductive courtesan. I wish for you to be you, lady wife. I find an abundance of delight in who you are—the wild Amazon creature who rides astride better than most men, yet succumbs to passion in my arms, whose surrender drives me to fresh heights of madness. You need never worry whether I am disappointed. I’m quite far from that particular emotion when it comes to you.”

  Letty smiled, and Adam’s heart fluttered as it never had before. It wouldn’t have surprised him to realize he was in very real danger of falling in love with his wife. He was not complaining about it either.

  “Now, will you permit me a similar question?” Adam asked.

  Letty looked like a doomed criminal on a scaffold. “I suppose I must.”

  “How many men caught your eye before you married me? Any former beaux who might track me down and challenge me to a duel for you?” he asked.

  She relaxed. “Only a few, but I doubt any would challenge you to a duel.” She nibbled her bottom lip in a way that reminded him of their glorious moment of passion in th
e woods.

  “Tell me about these men.”

  “There was Silas Wilson, the son of a doctor near our country estate. He was three years older than me. I thought him quite handsome.” She shook her head. “He never looked my way. I was but thirteen, a child to him. I caught him in the stables with a maid from our house. They were kissing quite seriously. It hurt to see him like that. I remember running back up to the house, and I tripped, skinning both my knees. The doctor was seeing to our mother, and he took a moment to patch me up, asking what had caused a young lady to run so frantically as to trip. I remember just wanting to die of embarrassment. I couldn’t tell him about his son. I still have the scars.” She raised her skirts to show her knees, unfastened the ribbons holding one stocking up, and rolled the stocking down. She seemed entirely unaware of what she’d done at first, then gasped and flung her skirts back down.

  “Heavens, I don’t know why I did that.”

  Adam moved closer and put his palm on the bright-green gown covering her knee. “We are becoming more comfortable together. There is nothing embarrassing about that.” He removed his cravat and pulled part of his shirt down to expose his throat. He traced a raised line near his collarbone.“You see this scar?”

  She leaned forward, tracing the scar with her gentle fingers. “How did you get it?”

  “I was determined to improve my fencing skills while at university. We had been practicing with protective-tipped foils. Another boy challenged me to fight with an unguarded blade. Thinking that the danger would heighten my senses and reflexes, I agreed. My presumption was very wrong. The other boy caught me with a thrust, and I bled quite terribly. One boy even fainted, much to the embarrassment of our fencing master, who returned in time to see this happen. We were both tossed out of fencing school. My father had to hire a private fencing master to teach me.”

  “Oh heavens, it is a fierce scar,” she agreed, still tracing the spot. Adam caught her wrist in his hands, holding her close to him.

  “Are you less shy of me now?” he asked, smiling.