by Amelia Grey
“The name is Isabella, remember. And I am involved in this up to my ears, Daniel.”
And such beautiful ears.
“I’ve seen with my eyes Mr. Throckmorten dead twice now.”
And such sparking eyes.
“My skin pebbles with gooseflesh whenever I think about that poor man.”
And such lovely skin.
“I can’t possibly bow out of this unfortunate situation until it concludes,” she insisted.
Daniel was enchanted by her. She was the most unconventional young lady he’d ever met. She was as refreshing as she was enticing. He wondered if she knew her appeal.
Daniel wanted to remain firm, but it was getting harder to deny what he was feeling. “Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t possibly take you with me to Throckmorten’s house.”
“Why not?”
He gave her an incredulous stare. “Must I remind you, it’s not proper for a young lady to call on a bachelor at his home?”
Her smile lingered and he felt as if she were casting a spell on him.
“Don’t be so stuffy, Daniel. You will be my chaperone.”
“Me?” He was enthralled by her fresh manner. He moved in closer to her. “I’m a bachelor, too. Don’t be daft, Isabella. You know I can’t possibly be considered a chaperone for you.”
“Of course you can.” She stepped closer to him, putting them dangerously close. “Do you have any romantic designs on me, sir?”
“Certainly not,” he lied. He had to. He had to stop the magic she was working.
“Good. Then I’ll be perfectly safe with you. What time shall I expect you to pick me up for our ride in the park?”
“The park?”
“But of course.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I cannot possibly tell Auntie Pith that we’re going to Mr. Throckmorten’s house. While I’m quite happy to bend the rules of Society to suit my preference, my aunt is not. She would faint if she even thought I would do such a thing.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You can’t be serious about this, Isabella. If you were caught with me at his house your reputation would be in tatters.”
“We won’t be caught. I’ll secretly borrow one of my aunt’s old bonnets and a cloak. And I know where to find a wig. No one will recognize me.”
She made him want to say yes to her precarious scheme. “We still can’t risk it.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
He was too close to her. He felt her breath. He caught her scent of lavender. He needed to back away, but he didn’t want to. She drew him much the way a drunkard was drawn to his ale.
Their eyes met and held in the shaded light of the gray-swept moon, and Daniel knew without a doubt that he wanted to kiss her.
“Why are you willing to risk your reputation for something like this?”
“Perhaps because it’s not that important to me.”
“It should be. A young lady’s reputation is supposed to be her most prized possession.”
“Perhaps if she wants to make a good match. I’m not interested in that.”
He studied her face in the faint light. She seemed serious. “Why not?”
“I’ve thought about marriage, and some time ago I decided I’d rather stay unmarried like my aunt and one day be free to come and go as I please without the fetters of a demanding husband.”
Not want to marry? She was a free-thinker. “It would be a shame if you didn’t marry, Isabella.”
“But it’s what I want.”
“You’re much too beautiful and exciting to remain a spinster.”
“And I’ve decided I’m much too headstrong to be married. I want to be free to do the things I want to do and not have to answer to a husband. Now, we need to find out what is going on with Mr. Throckmorten and what his connection is to your sister. This started in my garden. I can’t let it rest until I find out what happened to the man.”
Daniel realized he didn’t want to refuse her, not tonight.
“All right, I will call for you around half past noon. We’ll have a picnic lunch in the park and discuss this further.”
A blissful expression of satisfaction softened her face. “Wonderful. I shall be ready with—” She stopped and her eyes searched his.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Yes. Is there a reason you are standing so close to me, Daniel, that I feel the warmth of your breath touch my face?”
A heat of pleasure curled inside him, reminding him of long ago when youthful eagerness ruled his head and his body. He wanted Isabella. He wanted to lay her down in the wet grass and make her his lover.
Daniel shook his head. Where had those thoughts come from? She was a lady of quality. He was an earl, and with that came responsibilities he couldn’t ignore. And he was no longer a callow youth. He was older and should be able to control his sexual urges, but he hadn’t been this excited about a woman in years. She had him hungry for the taste of her.
He realized she was waiting for a response to her question, so he said, “Yes, there is a reason. I want to kiss you.”
Eight
His breath grew low and deep. Was there any chance she was feeling the same things he felt?
“So you weren’t truthful when you said you had no romantic inclination toward me?”
“No, not entirely. I don’t want to be attracted to you, Isabella, but I find that I am. Does that frighten you?”
She moved her face closer to him and looked deeply into his eyes. His heart felt as if it was going to beat out of his chest. She was provoking and stimulating, and he didn’t want to fight the way she was making him feel.
“Not at all, my lord. I suggest you go ahead and kiss me.”
Her words didn’t surprise him, they elated him. “I intend to.”
Daniel slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her up to him. Instantly he realized she was cold. “You’re chilled,” he said.
“A little, but had I known how warm your arms were, I would have asked you to hold me earlier.”
That was the wrong thing for her to say, and pulling her so close to him was the wrong thing for him to do. He didn’t want to let her go. He felt the length of her beneath the sheer gown she wore, and his lower body reacted to her softness.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were cold? I would have given you my coat.”
She stared into his eyes and said, “A gentleman should know when a lady needs his coat.”
“You’re right. I don’t seem to act like a gentleman when I’m around you. And I shouldn’t have said I didn’t have romantic designs on you when I do.”
“I know.”
He bent his head and lowered his mouth to her lips. They were cold and unmoving. She made no attempt to respond to his kiss in any way. He raised his head and looked into her eyes again.
“Have you ever been kissed?” he asked.
“Of course.”
He suspected as much. She was such a free spirit, defying convention at every turn and boldly admitting she wanted him to kiss her. Proper ladies didn’t do that.
But whoever the blade was who had kissed her must have been an idiot. He hadn’t taken the time to teach her how to respond to a man’s kiss. Daniel might as well have been kissing a fish.
“How long has it been since you’ve been kissed?” he asked.
She laughed lightly. “This morning, of course.”
He hadn’t expected that answer. Who was she seeing that would have kissed her this morning? “Truly?” he asked, unable to hide his shock.
“Yes,” she said without any guile. “Auntie Pith kisses my cheek every morning.”
He smiled to himself. “Have you ever been kissed by a man?”
“Of course, my father always kissed my brow each morning and night when I was a child.”
Her simple answer pleased him and made his heartbeat speed up. He asked, “Have you ever been kissed on the lips before I kisse
d you just now?”
“No.”
Daniel felt his chest expand with relief and he felt like laughing. “Would you like me to teach you how to kiss properly?”
Her eyes widened, and then she seemed to cringe. “I didn’t do it right?”
“It’s not that it was wrong.” His gaze drifted to her lips. “But there’s a way to get more pleasure from a kiss.”
“Then perhaps you should show me. In the name of learning, of course.”
“Of course,” he agreed.
His body tightened at the thought of being the first to awaken her to passion. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been the first to kiss a young lady, but he knew it’d been years.
“Put your arms around my neck like this.” Slowly he showed her how to wrap her hands behind his neck so that he could pull her tighter to his body and press his hardness against her softness. She felt so good, so right in his arms that he felt himself tremble.
He bent down and pressed his lips to hers again, only this time he really kissed her, moving his lips over hers, teaching her how to respond. He moved a hand up to her cheek and helped guide her lips against his. She relaxed against him. Her lips became soft, heated and active.
His body tightened even more and his shaft grew bigger, harder as she responded to his teaching. One kiss had his blood pumping with anticipation and his body hungry for more.
He lifted his head a little, giving her time to let the kiss settle on her lips. He didn’t want to frighten her and it didn’t appear he had. Her breath, like his, was short and shallow. Her hooded eyes were filled with wonderment.
“What did you think of your first real kiss?” he whispered.
She looked at him from beneath long, velvety lashes. “It was quite enjoyable, but it didn’t last very long, did it?”
A low chuckle rumbled in his chest, and desire thickened in his trousers. “A kiss can last as long as you want it to.”
“Then perhaps I should have another, longer one to see if I really enjoyed it as much as I thought I did.”
“I was just about to suggest that.”
Surrounded only by a pale gray mist, he lowered his mouth to hers again. The kiss was soft and gentle at first, but feeling her body so tightly against his own, he couldn’t hold back his desire. He kissed her deeply, sensing her untapped passionate response, and suddenly Daniel was kissing her hungrily. He prompted her to part her lips, and he probed her mouth with his tongue. She tasted sweet and innocent and young.
She didn’t resist his aggressiveness. He covered her mouth with his again, slipping his tongue gently inside, sipping her sweetness again and again, and increasing the ache that had consumed him. His groans of pleasure mixed with Isabella’s soft feminine sounds, which heightened his own enjoyment.
His lips left hers and grazed along her cheeks, over her nose, and up to her eyes. He tasted the dampness that had settled on her skin from the heavy mist. His lips made a path down her cheek, over her jawbone to trickle down the slender column of her neck.
“How do you feel now?” he whispered without letting his lips leave her skin.
“Like something warm and fluttery is attacking my stomach and floating up in my chest.”
“I hope that is a good feeling.”
“Very good,” she answered.
The touch of her soothed him while it provoked him to try things he never should try with such an innocent. He slipped the cap sleeves of her gown off her shoulders and kissed the soft skin along the crest of her collarbone and over to her naked shoulders, feeling any moment that she would tell him to stop.
He lifted his head and looked at her satiny skin in the gray moonlight. She was captivating. He placed the palm of his hands on her shoulders and caressed them gently before letting his fingers slide down her chest. He stopped when the tips of his fingers found the gentle swell of her breasts.
Daniel looked into her eyes and was relieved to see desire floating in their depths. Her breath came in short little gasps, indicating her pleasure at the new sensations he was creating in her. It pleased him that she had no fear about what they were doing.
“I shouldn’t be touching you this way,” he whispered in a tender voice.
“I know.”
“But I find I can’t stop myself.”
Her eyes were swirling with emotions. “I don’t want you to stop. It feels so delicious. I can hardly catch my breath and my knees are weak.”
He laughed gently. She knew how to say what he wanted to hear. He had that same fathomless feeling.
“I don’t want to pressure you into anything you don’t want. Do you want to continue?”
“Oh, yes. Kiss me again, Daniel.” And she lifted her lips up to his.
Daniel’s breath fanned her cheeks as his lips pressed against hers once again in a deep drugging kiss. His fingers continued to caress the full supple flesh that pushed up and out of her gown while his palms dropped to the roundness of her breasts. Her skin softened and heated beneath his hands like velvet beneath a hot iron, leaving a burning sensation in their wake.
No woman had ever felt this good, this invigorating in his arms, and Daniel was lost to the sensual essence of Isabella. He let his tongue rake down her chin, her neck, and her chest all the way down to the rise of her bosom. He dipped his tongue below the cold fabric of her dress, searching for her nipple so that he could suck it into his mouth and sate his hunger.
With slow and deliberate movements of his hands he traced a path of passion from the nape of her neck, across the width of her shoulders, down to the small of her back until his hands reached the firmness of her buttocks. He fit her cheeks into the palms of his hands and lifted her bottom up against the thick, heavy hardness beneath his trousers.
Daniel moaned with need as Isabella gasped with pleasure. She felt so good. She made him feel good, and he couldn’t get enough of her.
He didn’t want to move his hands from her buttocks because she was pressed so tight against his thickening shaft. He couldn’t bear the thought of taking away that gratifying sensation that helped ease the ache of wanting to be inside her.
The distant sound of laughter stilled him. He fought his natural impulse to continue even though he knew the danger in doing so. But finally he dragged his lips back up her chest to her lips and held her tightly against him.
Damnation, what was he doing? And what was he thinking? If they were caught like this, he’d be married to her before the week was out.
Daniel hastily set her away from him and stepped back. For a moment his breath was too shallow to speak, but he saw in her eyes that she didn’t understand his abrupt change of heart.
Bloody hell! He was supposed to be a gentleman, a titled man of honor. He would be expected to right the wrong he committed against her. He should offer for her hand. Suddenly his head went light, and it was difficult to breathe. He didn’t want to wed her.
He desired her yes, but marry her? She was too unconventional, too uncontrollable. He had expected to marry a quiet and demure young lady. But the fact that he didn’t think she’d make a suitable wife shouldn’t matter. If she demanded he marry her, he would.
“I’m sorry, Isabella. I shouldn’t have let things go so far between us.”
He watched as her eyes adjusted to the moonlight. She looked down at her dress where the bodice had fallen off one shoulder. Desire stirred inside him. A lump grew in his throat as hard as the one beneath his trousers. He still wanted her.
“Sweet merciful heavens!” she exclaimed. She spun around, pulling her dress up as she turned her back to him. “I don’t know what came over me! What just happened between us?”
He cleared his throat and hoarsely whispered, “We were kissing. That’s all.”
“Nonsense. I might be an innocent young lady compared to your worldliness, but I know we were doing far more than kissing. Your hands were on my… body, and I… felt every inch of… I was very close to you.”
“We were maki
ng love.”
Isabella turned back to face him with an incredulous stare. “Love?” She straightened her sleeves on her shoulders and pulled up her gloves as far on her arms as they would go. “What are you talking about? We couldn’t have. I don’t love you and you don’t love me.”
No truer words had ever been spoken. Daniel would have laughed if he hadn’t realized the seriousness of how close they’d come to being lovers.
“Would it please you better if I said we were on the verge of copulating?”
She gasped and he saw a flaming red flush creep up her neck and settle in her cheeks. “Copulating?”
“Yes. After the way we just kissed, why do you sound so surprised?”
“It’s just that I’ve never heard anyone actually say that word before. I’ve read it, but it sounds so different hearing it.”
“That’s because it’s not a word anyone would usually say to a woman of quality, and I shouldn’t have said it. But I find that rules of convention fly out the window when you are around.”
“Obviously my good sense goes the same way when I am around you. I do believe we were headed for trouble, Daniel.”
“That seems to be all I’ve had since meeting you this afternoon, Isabella. If I believed in such notions, I’d be thinking you had bewitched me.”
“Funny you should say exactly what I was thinking about you. I can assure you, sir, I have never had an encounter such as we just had.”
Daniel didn’t understand why or how he had lost control so quickly, either, but his feelings shouldn’t matter. He had an obligation to her, unless, of course, she released him.
“I’m quite aware of that, Isabella. If anyone had stumbled upon us, your father would have had us married before sunrise.”
Daniel watched a fleeting sadness cross quickly and fade away.
“My father has more pressing concerns than me. It’s always been that way. He’s content to let my aunt handle my affairs. But I will soon turn twenty-one and have control of the allowance my mother left me.”
“That day has not yet arrived, Isabella, and no doubt your aunt would be just as disapproving as your father had anyone caught us.”