Daniel’s expression was grim as he refilled his brandy glass before sprawling in an armchair to stare broodingly into the unlit fireplace.
On one thing Daniel was resolved; he may be forced into marrying, and to producing an heir, but he had no intention—absolutely none—of ever allowing his emotions to be engaged by the young woman who would become his wife!
CHAPTER THREE
“I had no idea that the duke of Stourbridge was to stand as your witness…” Alice attempted conversation with her husband of five hours as the four perfectly matched grays pulled the coach the two of them traveled in ever onward to Wycliffe Hall in Bedfordshire.
“The implication being that you considered the worthy duke of Stourbridge far too toplofty to have ever considered him as a possible friend of mine?” Daniel mocked as he faced her across the carriage.
That had been her implication, Alice acknowledged. The duke of Stourbridge was known to be the haughty and aloof head of the St. Claire family, as well as a diligent and forceful member of the House. Surely a complete contrast to the dangerous reputation as a rake and gambler that Daniel had enjoyed for so many years.
A man with a dangerous reputation who was now her husband, Alice thought with a shiver of apprehension.
Her confident air of the previous evening had been shaken somewhat earlier today when her clothes and personal belongings, as well as her maid, were loaded into one of the earl’s coaches in order to precede their own arrival at Wycliffe Hall later today. A forceful reminder to Alice that once the wedding had taken place she would be completely in Daniel Wycliffe’s power, his to do with as he wished.
The fact that he had looked so wickedly handsome as they stood together to make their vows before the parson had only added to Alice’s feelings of unease. What if later tonight, as had happened yesterday evening, she could not resist Daniel’s heart-melting brand of seduction? As so many women before her had not.
“Hawk and I were at school together.” Daniel took pity on his bride’s obvious nervousness as they approached Wycliffe Hall and the first night she was to spend in what was now to be her home. Her only home if Daniel had his way and left Alice there when he returned to London in a few weeks’ time. An increasing Alice, if he were successful in impregnating her during their first weeks of marriage.
For, having briefly considered the situation after Alice had left the previous evening, Daniel did not give too much credence to her threats of not becoming his wife in the fullest sense. Alice was very young and inexperienced, and her declaration had obviously been a case of last-minute nerves. She had certainly been responsive enough during those few minutes Daniel had held her in his arms, her curves warm and inviting, her breasts and thighs as heated as his own. Pleasurably so.
In fact, as Daniel looked admiringly at his wife’s flushed beauty beneath her white bonnet, and the soft swell of her breasts above her white gown, he anticipated doing much more than merely holding Alice in his arms and kissing her later this evening…
“Oh, what a pretty village,” Alice exclaimed in an effort to divert the attention of her husband’s intimate blue gaze as it moved lazily over the firm swell of her breasts, and in doing so bringing the heat of awareness to her own body.
“Wycliffe,” the earl informed her dryly.
Alice sat forward to look more interestedly at her surroundings. “Oh, look, my lord!” she cried with delight. “The villagers have come out to welcome you home!”
The earl also sat forward, the silkiness of his hair brushing lightly against Alice’s cheek and causing her to gasp as she drew back from that contact. His sinful eyes danced with mockery as he glanced back at her. “I assure you, they are not welcoming me, my dear Alice, but the new countess of Stanford.”
Alice swallowed hard at the realization she was the new countess of Stanford, her gaze quickly shifting from Daniel as she sat forward once again to return the enthusiastic waves of the children and the more muted cheers of their parents. These were her people, Alice realized emotionally. Tenants and workers of the estate had come out to welcome the new mistress of Wycliffe Hall.
Daniel’s lids were lowered now as he watched his young wife’s obvious pleasure in her welcome. A welcome that was no longer extended to him, even when he had returned home six months ago as the seventh earl of Stanford. Oh, he had been popular enough as a child, but the last ten years had dulled the memories of the villagers to anything other than the lurid stories of his rakish behavior in London that had reached their scandalized ears.
No, he was not and never would be, the prodigal returning. But Alice, with her obvious youth and warmth, was certainly being heralded as the wife of one.
“Sit back, Alice, and remember that you are no longer a child but a countess,” Daniel rasped reprovingly, his mouth thinning in self-disgust at his harshness as he saw Alice’s pleasure in the welcome instantly fade and she sat back almost guiltily.
“I apologize, my lord.” Her back was ramrod straight, hands clasped tightly together, her eyes no longer smiling.
He was behaving like a bastard, Daniel accepted heavily. Worse, his behavior just now had been far too reminiscent of the contemptuous way in which his father had always treated his mother. “No, I am the one who is at fault, Alice,” he said on a sigh “for being so jaded as to dampen your enthusiasm for your new life.”
She eyed him from beneath long, dark lashes. “Perhaps you would have been more…content if you had married someone of more mature years, my lord. A woman such as Lady Benbow, perhaps?”
If he was a bastard then his little wife had claws!
That Alice knew Lady Teresa Benbow had until recently been his mistress, was obvious. That she disapproved of the choice was also apparent in the slightly derisive curl to those delightfully kissable lips.
Daniel gave a grin of amusement—something he had not expected to find in his marriage. “Lady Benbow is not a woman that a man takes to wife, Alice.”
“Is she not?” Her tone was sharp.
“Most assuredly not,” he drawled. Clearly, Alice, during her social round of the salons and ballrooms, had heard some of the gossip concerning his relationship with Teresa. “Neither am I sure that it is altogether—proper for the two of us to be discussing her in this way,” he added with a frown.
“Why is that, my lord, when Lady Benbow is now to be such a part of both our lives?” Alice’s gaze was deceptively innocent.
Daniel narrowed his eyes. Admittedly, his young wife was proving far more entertaining than he ever would have credited, but that did not give Alice leave to question him on so intimate a subject. “I have no idea to what you are referring, Alice,” he snapped with finality.
A lesser woman would have quaked at the earl’s coldness, Alice felt sure. Fortunately, Alice was not such a woman. “I am, of course, referring to the fact that yesterday evening you returned home with Lady Benbow’s—perfume upon your person. A regular occurrence upon which I, as your wife, am no doubt expected to maintain stoically silent…?” She arched her dark brows.
The earl’s face darkened thunderously. “Something no one could accuse you of having done so far in our acquaintance!”
“I am merely trying to ascertain my own role within our marriage, my lord,” Alice assured him lightly. “Having already discussed your own yesterday evening.” She was, Alice knew, playing a dangerous game. One that could so easily backfire upon her. But it was a game she considered well worth the risk if at the end of it she had managed to acquire the respect and love of the earl of Wycliffe. All of her husband’s love. Anything else was simply unthinkable.
“You go too far, Alice—”
“I go as far as I have to, my lord,” she retorted determinedly. “It is not my intention to be one of those wives who remain in ignorance of their husband’s…affairs. To become the object of the ton’s pity and ridicule.”
The life Alice had just described was exactly that of his mother’s within the confines of her loveless marriage to his father, Da
niel acknowledged frowningly. A life ruined by an unrequited love that Daniel had sworn neither he nor any future wife of his would ever be subjected to.
His mouth thinned. “Lady Benbow is no longer part of my life, Alice. She ceased to be so on the occasion of our betrothal. Yesterday evening was by way of a—a final farewell. We will not discuss this any further, Alice.” The iciness of his tone brooked no further argument.
For Alice’s part there did not need to be. She had heard the gossip of the earl’s latest in a long line of mistresses before he so much as made his offer for her a month ago. Just as Alice had been aware of the gasps of disbelief following the announcement of their own betrothal. The whispered doubts of the ton that she, the young and inexperienced Alice Fortesque, would ever be able to hold the attention of a man such as Daniel Wycliffe.
It was Alice’s intention to do everything in her power to achieve exactly that.
In whatever way she deemed necessary…
CHAPTER FOUR
“I trust you are happy with your apartments?”
Alice was brushing her hair as she sat before the ornate dressing table, but she whirled round at the sound of her husband’s voice, her eyes wide as she took in his large, handsome presence. She watched as he entered the yellow-and-gold bedchamber to which the housekeeper had so recently brought her and announced as being the apartments of the countess of Stanford.
Alice’s eyes moved to the door that connected the earl’s bedchamber to her own, her frown deepening as she saw that the key she had turned earlier was still firmly in the lock.
“I took the liberty of entering through the door from the hallway,” Daniel drawled as he saw the direction of his wife’s gaze. “This door appears to be locked.” He strolled across the room to turn the key.
Alice’s mouth tightened. “It was locked for a reason, my lord.”
“Indeed,” Daniel rasped. “I advise you not to lock it again, Alice.”
“You—”
“As must already be apparent, Alice, a simple key turned in a lock will not keep me from my wife’s bedchamber if I should choose to enter it!” His eyes glittered warningly.
Alice turned away from that dazzling stare to resume brushing her hair. “I asked my maid to inform you that I would not be joining you downstairs for dinner this evening, my lord. It has been a long day, and I—I have a headache.”
Daniel studied his wife’s reflection in the mirror. She did indeed look pale, and there were lines of tension between her eyes. She still wore the simple white gown she had worn for their wedding earlier today, but the bonnet had been laid to one side, and the pins removed from her hair. Long, dark, gloriously curling hair that reached almost to her waist, the chandelier overhead picking out auburn lights amongst the ebony.
“Where is the ache?” Daniel prompted as he crossed the room to stand behind her.
Alice was no longer sure. After her tensions of the day, the ache in her head had indeed been genuine a few minutes earlier, but with her husband’s entry to her bedchamber Alice was aware of a much deeper ache. An ache that caused her breathing to become shallow, and her body to tremble even as she felt the warmth stealing from her shoulders, to her breasts, and down to her thighs.
“Alice…?”
Her startled look met his in the mirror as Daniel stood so close behind her. So tall. So meltingly attractive…“I—My temples,” she claimed breathlessly, that breath halting altogether as her husband raised his hands and placed them on either side of her head, his fingers gently tangling in her hair as his thumbs caressed her temples.
Alice’s skin felt soft and smooth, her hair silky beneath Daniel’s touch as he studied her reflection in the mirror. Her lids were closed over her expressive eyes, her lips slightly parted, and the tops of her breasts quickly rising and falling above the low neckline of her gown.
Rather full breasts, Daniel observed as he moved even closer, his desire stirring restlessly at this assault of beauty upon his senses. “Better?” he encouraged throatily.
Alice could only nod as she felt the press of Daniel’s arousal behind her and the caress of his fingers moved from her temples onto her shoulders and down her spine, releasing the buttons of her gown as they did so, Daniel’s lightest touch increasing the rapidly rising heat in Alice’s body.
She stirred protestingly. “Daniel—”
“Shh,” he murmured huskily, his breath warm against Alice’s skin before she felt the caress of his lips against her neck.
Alice raised sleepy lids to look at their reflections in the mirror, Daniel’s hair so golden against her dark curls as his lips traveled the length of her throat. The light lick of his tongue against her earlobe caused her to groan as it sent rivulets of pleasure through her body.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the mirror as her unbuttoned gown fell away from her breasts, her nipples dark and firm beneath the thin material of her chemise. Her neck arched and her tousled head fell back against Daniel’s chest, as she could only watch in fascination while his hands moved ever downward even while his lips and tongue continued to seek out and pleasure each sensitive hollow of her throat and shoulders.
Those hands cupped her breasts now, capturing her nipples between long slender fingers and thumb, gently squeezing and caressing, Alice feeling the thrill of those caresses all the way down to her toes.
Daniel’s heated gaze held hers in the mirror for several long seconds before he moved to sit facing her on the stool, his head lowering to capture and suck one of her nipples through the thin material of her chemise.
Alice groaned low in her throat as her hands moved up to become entangled in the thickness of Daniel’s hair as he drew her nipple deeper into the moist fire of his mouth, the heat that had pooled between Alice’s thighs becoming almost unbearable.
Still she watched their reflections in the mirror, unable to look away as Daniel turned his attentions to her other breast, rolling the hot rasping length of his tongue across her chemise as his hand cupped and rhythmically caressed the breast he’d just left.
The flimsy material clung to Alice now, wet from Daniel’s ministrations, the rosy tips of her breasts hard as her excitement grew. Alice found she wanted more. That she wanted to feel Daniel’s lips against her bare flesh, and she slipped the straps of her chemise down her shoulders to bare her breasts completely to the heat of Daniel’s gaze and of his mouth.
Daniel continued to look into Alice’s eyes as he slowly licked his tongue over one of those hardened tips. “I wish for you to touch me, too, Alice,” he encouraged gruffly as he moved one of her hands down to his thighs, her first tentative touch causing his erection to leap eagerly against the restrictions of his breeches.
Daniel moaned as Alice became bolder in her caresses, her fingers touching the pulsing length of him as the palm of her hand pressed against the base of his shaft.
“Harder, Alice,” he urged as he moved encouragingly against her hand. “I need to have your fingers about me,” he explained at her confused expression.
Daniel almost came apart completely as Alice released the buttons on his breeches, then he turned his head slightly so that he could look at them both in the mirror. He watched Alice’s face as she released him fully from his clothing and her fingers closed about him. She began to caress him, her tongue running unconsciously across her lips as she stared down so intently at his pulsing erection.
More than anything, Daniel wanted that hot tongue against him!
Alice had never seen any part of a man’s body naked before, but even so, she was sure that every part of Daniel was beautiful. His erection was long and thick, her fingers tightening about him as her caresses became quicker and harder.
Daniel had never fought so hard to hold on to his ejaculation, the pleasure all the more torturous as Alice’s tongue continued to move slowly across her parted lips. As if she did indeed want to take him into her mouth and pleasure him. He sat up abruptly, the movement dislodging her hand. “We will be
much more comfortable on the bed, Alice,” he assured her as she looked at him in bewilderment.
Daniel stood up to swing Alice into his arms and carry her over to the bed, peeling the chemise from her body to gaze down at her—naked apart from white stockings secured at her thighs with pale blue garters.
“Let me, Alice,” he groaned, hearing her gasp as he moved to kneel between her parted legs.
His fingers were gentle as he bared her completely to his gaze, his lips and tongue starting the ascent up the inside of her thighs. Alice moaned in protest as Daniel ceased his exploration of her, that moan quickly turning to one of renewed abandon as Daniel turned the attentions of his mouth to the throb of her clitoris, whilst at the same time gently pushing two of his fingers deep inside her. Her hips moved up to meet the rhythm of his thrusts as her own fingers curled desperately into the bedclothes beneath her.
Daniel felt Alice rapidly approaching release, and reversed his position so that he was above and over her looking down at her parted thighs. His fingers continued to move inside her as he lowered his head once more and sucked hard at the very center of her pleasure.
In the maelstrom of unimagined pleasure, Alice reacted instinctively, her fingers moving to curl about the length of Daniel before she guided the tip of him into the heat of her mouth.
Again her actions were instinctive as she began to suck rhythmically, her hand moving slowly up and down, knowing that her instincts were correct when she heard Daniel groan gruffly.
His own tongue was now a hard caress against the sensitive spot between her thighs, the thrusts of his fingers increasing in tempo to match those caresses, driving her closer, ever closer—
Suddenly Alice’s body caught fire, her hips lifting high off the bed as she pressed herself into Daniel’s lips. Pleasure unlike anything she had ever known, ever dreamed of, coursed like molten lava through every particle of her body.
At the same time Daniel’s own release came.
Convenient Wife, Pleasured Lady Page 2