The Earl of Morrey

by Lauren Smith

Letty briefly closed her eyes but soon opened them again. “Do you mean one of your mistresses?”

  “Yes, but she was also a friend.”

  “Well, I send her my thanks. This is quite wonderful.” Letty closed her eyes again and couldn’t help but moan as Adam’s strong fingers pressed into her tender foot, the tips of her toes, her ankle, and the arch of her foot in the most splendid way. She wondered what else he could do with those hands, where else he might put them upon her.

  “Now, your other foot,” he said.

  Letty placed her other foot in his lap without hesitation, and he repeated the ceremony for her.

  “I feel quite certain I would do anything for you just now, my lord,” Letty said drowsily.

  Adam chuckled. “I shall remember that. But for now, it’s time for you to be in bed.”

  Letty grumbled a little as he removed her feet from his lap. She walked toward the bed.

  “Lady wife.” Amusement filled those two words.

  She yawned.“Yes?”

  “You are still dressed.”

  She glanced down at her gown and nearly groaned. She so desperately wanted to sleep.

  “Here, allow me to assist you.” Adam came up behind her and started to undo the tiny buttons down the back of her gown with an experienced deftness no doubt also acquired from his previous mistresses. For this, too, she was grateful. Within moments, her gown gaped at the back, and she was able to slide it off with ease and let it drop to the floor. She turned toward him and sat on the edge of the bed as he bent, lifted her chemise, and next removed her stockings.

  “Adam, you must think me quite a silly, useless creature,” Letty sighed.

  He pulled the covers on the bed back, and she slid beneath them.

  “Why would I think that?” He started to remove his own clothing.

  “Because I cannot seem to stay awake like you can.” She burrowed deeper under the blankets and watched her husband bare his beautiful, muscled body.

  “My dear, you’ve been through quite a lot these last few days. Indeed, more than most men could handle. It would be well within your rights to dissolve into hysterics after this nightmare of a honeymoon. Hell, I might dissolve into hysterics if you don’t.”

  The thought made her giggle.

  Down to his smallclothes now, Adam joined her under the covers. She slid toward him, feeling more awake now as she realized that perhaps tonight he would finally claim her as a husband would his wife.

  She rested her cheek against his chest, the heat of him emanating through to her and his heartbeat steady and slow.“Adam?”

  He rubbed her arm, slow and soothing.“Yes?”

  “I’m too tired to fall asleep. Will you tell me about your uncle?”

  “Of course.” His hand moved to her hair, stroking it.

  “Is he frightening?”

  “Frightening?” Her husband sounded confused.

  “Yes, he is a Highlander? I hear some of them in the far north are still quite brutish.”

  “He isn’t frightening, but he is fierce. Show no fear when you meet him, and he will love you in an instant.”

  “Will he?”

  “I promise.”

  “What else can you tell me about him?”

  “He has two sons close to my age. Angus and Baird. They resemble him in their height and brawn, but they have their mother’s attractive features.

  “Your uncle is married?”

  “He was. His wife, Bonnie, died a few years after Baird was born. She was Tyburn’s great love, and he never married again, though many a Scottish lass has wanted to be in his heart—and in his bed.”

  “You visit them often in the Highlands?”

  “Not often enough. Caroline and I quite adore Uncle Tyburn. I hope you will too. We could visit him often if you do.”

  Adam rolled onto his side to face her. The candles on the bedside table created enough light to illuminate the outline of his body, making him look more of a shadow lover than a man of flesh and blood.

  “Adam, I do not think I am so overly tired now. If you wish to . . .” She couldn’t say the rest of the words.

  “If I wish to what, my darling?” Adam’s white teeth gleamed in the dim light as he smiled at her. It made her tremble with that balance of fear and anticipation.

  “You know . . .”

  “Say it. You must say exactly what you wish me to do.” He brushed her hair back from her face. The gesture was so tender, yet so at odds with the intensity of his eyes.

  Letty was so aware of his strength then, of the massive width of his shoulders, of how easily this man could do whatever he wished with her and how she would be powerless to stop him.

  “I wish for you to . . . bed me.” She was glad for the shadows that hid the wild blush on her face.

  Without a word, he leaned in and kissed her. She fell onto her back as he moved partially over her. He took his time kissing her softly, and she delighted in the way his kisses created a fever beneath her skin. He unfastened the laces of her chemise and teasingly loosened the top so he could pull it down off her shoulders. He pressed loving kisses to each shoulder, then kissed her collarbones. She arched and gasped as he finally tugged the fabric farther down, exposing her breasts.

  He fastened his lips over one nipple, sucking on it until she clawed her hands in his dark hair and writhed. Waves of heat moved from her head to her toes as she tried to focus on the sensation of his mouth at her breast, but she couldn’t help but notice that his other hand was creeping up her inner thighs.

  “Your skin is so soft,” he said as he focused his attention on her other breast. As he sucked, he slid two fingers between her folds and drove deep into her. She squeaked in surprise as her hips shot off the bed.

  He paused to look up at her.“Did I hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “No, no. It just feels . . . like too much,” she confessed.

  “Ah, but there are better things still to come,” he promised as he bent his head to her breasts again.

  Her shaky legs parted for him, and he pushed the covers back on the bed, moving his body down so that he knelt between her thighs.

  “Adam, I don’t know if . . .”

  “Hush, love. You must trust me.” He lowered his face to her belly and kissed a path down to her mound. It so shocked her that all she could do was inhale sharply as he reached the hidden pearl at the top of her mound. He looked up at her then, their eyes meeting. “This, too, I learned from an old friend.” His chuckle caressed her for but a second before he sucked it between his lips.

  An explosion rocked through her, sudden and violent, so much so that she could do nothing but gulp for breath as he licked and sucked at that part of her body. As the sudden climax began to give way, she became aware of his mouth still on her mound, his tongue playing with her in the most sinful way.

  “There,” he said as he sat up a little. “You are relaxed, are you not?”

  “I may never leave this bed,” she sighed dreamily.

  Adam gently gripped her thighs and pushed them wide as he settled between them and kissed her again, their bodies pressed chest to chest now. The weight of him was surprising, but welcome. She felt strangely safe with his body cradled by hers, yet the hard press of his shaft so close to her core was a little frightening as well. Such a curious thing, she thought, to feel so excited and afraid at the same time.

  “I’m sorry, my darling,” he said against her lips as he shifted himself closer to her and his shaft now pressed just at the edge of her folds.

  “For what?” she asked a second before he drove into her. Her twitching inner walls vibrated with panic as he breached her maidenhead. She cried out, digging her nails into his shoulder and biting her lip.

  “Relax, my darling. Let your body adjust.” He held still, and she felt too full of him, of everything. It was almost hard to breathe.

  “Is that the worst of it?”

  “Yes, but when I move in a moment it may sting. I’m sorry if it
does.” He sounded like he meant it, that he hated hurting her. Something stirred in her chest, something wonderful and full of light at the thought.

  Letty tensed as he started to move. He cursed and stilled.

  “Letty, sweetheart, if you do not relax, I won’t be able to move.”

  “I don’t know how,” she admitted, then looked away in embarrassment.

  Adam’s lips came down on hers, kissing her, nibbling at her playfully until she started to giggle and her legs widened and her inner muscles eased their rigid tension.

  Now when he began to move, it stung, but not so terribly as she expected. She felt oddly empty as he left her body, but as he drove into her again, his shaft, now much like the arrow she’d been warned of, seemed to strike at the heart of her. How was that even possible?

  He thrust over and over, the stinging fading away to something else entirely. Her lashes fluttered closed, but Adam commanded her to open her eyes.

  “I want to see that sweet fire in your eyes as I take you,” he growled. His domination of her in that moment took her to a frightening new peak. This . . . this was the thing he’d been trying to tell her about. The secret battle of wills and pleasures that was sacred between two lovers. It was not something words could ever describe. It was dozens of complex emotions woven into a tapestry of pleasure, domination, and surrender. Of trust on both sides.

  In some wild and wondrous way, she was both fully present with him, their flesh becoming one, yet also lost in some land where a shadowy lord claimed her as his own. Adam was both of these male presences, and she was fascinated, addicted to it, and to him.

  He drove into her harder, his hips flexing as she moved her hands down his shoulders to his buttocks, gripping him, feeling his raw power as he filled her over and over.

  Now she was the one in control as she gazed up at him and thrust her hips up, crashing them together more fiercely. Then something miraculous happened—that blinding pleasure hit her at the same instant it hit him.

  He roared her name hard enough that the walls shook. He grew rigid, the tendons in his neck standing out as he gave himself up inside her. She felt him, wet, hot, filling her. They clung to each other in the aftermath, their bodies quaking.

  Adam relaxed into her, his weight heavy but not unwelcome. Sweat dewed upon their bodies, and the chilled air of the inn began to cool them. He stirred long enough to pull the covers back up over them, but he remained inside her. He was not as hard as before, which left Letty curious, but she would ask him later to explain the mysteries of the male body.

  “Now, I have finally claimed you.” Adam let out a rough chuckle before he kissed her temple and rolled them both over so they still lay fused together on their sides, facing each other.

  “Perhaps it is I who have claimed you?” she replied, feeling her body still twitching around his. A thought occurred to her that at first brought joy, then fear.

  Adam brushed the backs of his knuckles over her cheek.“What is it?”

  “What if . . . What if I have a child from this night?”

  Hurt darkened his stormy eyes.“You do not want my child?”

  “I do, but I worry about its safety. We cannot run forever, not if we want to raise a child.”

  Comprehension lit his eyes. “I wish I could say I would’ve pulled out of you and spilled my seed upon the sheets, but I don’t think the devil himself could’ve stopped me tonight. For that, I am sorry. I can only promise that if we have a child, I will protect it with all that I am, just as I will with you.”

  His vow should have made her feel safe, but it didn’t erase the knowledge that they were still in danger, that any child she might carry may also face that danger. Letty burrowed closer to Adam. Her fear for the future would rob her of any decent sleep she might have before dawn.

  12

  Adam awoke as dawn crested the horizon. He tended to wake up exactly when he needed to, no matter how tired he was. It took him a moment to orient himself and remember why he was still holding a mostly naked woman—correction, hiswife—in his arms. Her chemise was scrunched up around her waist, her lovely breasts on full display.

  Adam pushed the covers off as he sat up and dragged his hands through his hair. Letty’s virgin blood was on his shaft and thighs. He winced. He should have been tender and slow with her, not like a rutting stag. He had lost himself in her last night in a way he never had before. Deep down he had known it would be like this, that first moment he met her. It was as though part of him had recognized its other half, the part that would make him whole once more. Ever since he’d lost John, he hadn’t been himself. Being with Letty was allowing him to recapture that joyous part of himself, the part that thrilled at being alive, and being in love.

  She didn’t know yet that what they had shared last night was extraordinary. It was truly a gift. Thoughts of their incredible joining soon led to thoughts of its possible consequences, such as a child. He had to find whoever was after Letty and put an end to the threat by any means necessary. He would not have any child of theirs put in danger.

  With great reluctance, he dressed and woke his wife. She rubbed her eyes, stretched, and blinked against the pale morning light.

  “Adam? Where . . . ? Oh.” She realized then that she was naked and pulled the covers up over her breasts, her cheeks deepening to a rosy hue.

  “Good morning.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and cupped her cheek, unable to stop grinning. “How do you feel? Are you sore?”

  “Sore?” She tensed and then nodded. “A little. Oh heavens, I’m so embarrassed.” She tried to pull the covers over her head like a child. Adam laughed as he pulled them back down to see her face.

  “You were magnificent last night. The best I’ve ever had,” he promised her.

  Her eyes grew round. “Truly? The best?”

  “Most certainly.” Adam wanted to tell her that the previous night had been more than he had ever dreamed, that it had been magical, but he was afraid such words would make him sound like a foppish schoolboy. “You’ll have time to rest in the coach today. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

  Thankfully, a coach wasn’t the best place to make love. He had done it in the past, but it was far from comfortable. The jarring of the road and the sudden unexpected dips in the holes were quite disruptive to moments of passion. Besides, she needed time to heal before he made love to her again.

  “I’ll see to the horses and check on our driver while you dress.”

  Adam left her to give her time to adjust. He imagined it might be a little jarring for her to wake no longer a virgin, with the remnants of her blood upon her thighs. He should’ve cleaned her last night, but they had been too tired to do much else but collapse. Now she would have some time to herself to adjust and prepare for the day.

  The horses and the driver were made ready, and he returned to find Letty finishing the buttons on a day gown that she needed no assistance to put on. It seemed Mina had packed her bags wisely, with gowns that left Letty able to care for herself. He had hated leaving Helms and Mina behind, but it was safer for the two of them to travel alone.

  He leaned against the doorway, watching her finish the last button on her gown, lost for a moment simply relishing that this woman was his. Even though they had been brought together under terrible circumstances, he was content. No, more than content—he was happy.

  “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.” She gathered her long hair at the nape of her neck and tied it up with a rose-colored ribbon that matched her gown. She looked so much younger with her hair styled like that. More like a girl of sixteen than a married lady of twenty. It only increased his urge to protect her. She started to lift her valise, but he gently nudged her aside and carried it along with his own down to the coach.

  The ride north took another two days as they left England behind. At night, they collapsed into bed at an inn, and despite Adam’s desire, he didn’t have the heart to stir Letty awake simply to satisfy his lust. Instead, h
e held her in his arms, whispering to her about his life, and she whispered back—sharing of themselves in matters of the heart and mind rather than their bodies. He grew closer to her, reveling in each moment that his wife opened her heart to him.

  Letty was a woman who believed in love, the kind that made poets dream and lovers sigh. Yet she was not a silly girl with nonsense in her head. She was a true romantic, but he could tell she had tempered that longing for love some time ago, holding her deepest dreams within. He understood, in a way. The marriage mart was not always seen as a place for love. The very name announced the mercantile or even mercenary intentions some went into marriage with. It wasn’t a place where love matches came often. Perhaps that was why she had passed two seasons without a marriage proposal.

  As he watched her sleep in his arms, he brushed his fingertips over the curve of her nose and the winged arches of her eyebrows.

  “Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”

  She stirred at his recitation of Lord Byron’s words but didn’t wake. Adam continued.

  “I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.”

  “Adam?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

  “Yes?”

  “I do so like Byron. Do not stop.” She moved a hand to rest above his heart, and something sweet and pure caught his breath as he held still. “Please.”

  “Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes. Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.”

  She sighed dreamily. “I like that one. Tell me another.”

  “You are you and I was I; we were two, before our time. I was yours, before I knew; and you have always been mine too.”

  He thought back to the day when she’d first come to see him, to seek answers about Gillian. He had been struck by her then, and not simply for her beauty. There had been something else, as though she was a piece of him that had long ago been parted and had only just in that moment been brought together.

  She had looked upon him with the same baffled recognition, but he had done nothing. He had been polite and kept his distance. Love and marriage did not belong upon a path to vengeance.