The School for Brides

by Cheryl Ann Smith

  The idea brought another smile as she reached for the buttons on her gown. Undoing them proved difficult as she twisted to reach behind her. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the maid. Unfortunately, the girl liked to chatter, and Eva was not in the mood to listen to her endless selection of topics. She was pleasantly exhausted and wanted to be alone.

  “Need some help?”

  Eva yelped and spun around. On the far side of the bed and in shadow, His Grace sat on a spindly chair, his booted feet up and crossed on the deep pink coverlet, without a care for the fabric.

  “What are you doing here?” she hissed, listening for hurried footsteps in the hallway. When no alarm sounded in response to her cry, she planted her hands on her hips and tapped her toe. “How did you find me? How did you get in?”

  Thankfully, the room was near the end of the hall and the closest room to it was empty. If Noelle had discovered him lurking in her room, she’d have had him dragged out and horsewhipped under the light of the moon.

  His teeth flashed in the dim light. “I deduced you might stay here as part of the ruse. I instructed my footman to find out which room was yours. The oak outside your window was an effective ladder. It was only a small jump to the sill and a fistful of ivy, and then I was in.”

  “You climbed the tree?” That was difficult to believe. From what she could see, he hadn’t a scuff or a stain anywhere on his clothes. “You don’t seem like the tree-climbing type.”

  “You would be surprised what mischief I can get into when I’m motivated.” His gaze caressed her body and his eyes darkened. Her peaks hardened beneath her gown. “Tonight I could not resist the temptation drifting from your window. I had to climb up and help you undress.”

  “I see.” She removed her earbobs and returned them to the case. Her body was filled with nervous tingles. He must have left the ball before she and Noelle had, from the arms of his almost-fiancée, to come to her. It made her ridiculously happy to know that he would rather be with her than the lovely Lucy. Again. “Noelle will have to instruct the groundskeepers to cut down the tree tomorrow.” She returned his enticing gaze. “I wouldn’t wish to be the cause of your death if you fall.”

  “I couldn’t fall.” Mischief spilled from him. “We have plans for this evening that I’d hate to miss, should I crack my head open in a tumble from the tree.”

  She arched a brow. “Funny. I do not remember making plans with you.”

  “Oh, make no mistake, love,” he said confidently. “Every time you gazed into my eyes tonight, there was a clear invitation to have my way with you.”

  Eva flushed to the roots of her hair. He was correct. She had teased and flirted with him outrageously. Even when he was conversing with someone else, she’d managed to catch his eye, and her smiles had been meant as a call for him to return to her. She’d openly invited her lover to seek her out, and seek her out he had.

  Nicholas had shucked off his coat and loosened his cravat. The latter hung in twists down both sides of his open shirtfront. His hair was mussed from his climbing the tree and a second-floor catlike leap to her window.

  He looked devilishly handsome and quite at home.

  Feeling mischievous, she sauntered over to where he sat and turned her back to him. She straddled his legs and sat on his lap. Almost instantly, she felt his erection against her.

  She lifted her hair out of the way and waited. “I understand you are an expert with buttons.”

  Nicholas lowered his feet to the floor and leaned to inhale her scent as he brushed his nose against her neck. Warm breath caressed her skin as he plucked the buttons open, one at a time. The intimacy of the moment made Eva feel decidedly like a wife.

  “Did I mention how lovely you were this evening, mistress?” He paused and pressed a kiss in the opening as her gown began to fall away.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. He was perfection in the sensuous aspects of lovemaking. The duke knew just how to pleasure a woman, and she thoroughly enjoyed his efforts. “I don’t recall. Perhaps you should remind me.”

  He eased the gown down her arms and leaned in to place a soft kiss on one shoulder. “Every other woman paled in comparison, sweet.”

  Another burst of happiness lifted her heart.

  “But what of Lucy?” she asked casually, tamping down the unwelcome image of Nicholas sneaking into the girl’s room with debauchery on his mind. The virginal chit would likely expire from fright. “I saw her. She’s very pretty.”

  Nicholas quietly opened a few more buttons before answering. “I was to offer for her hand this evening,” he said softly, and lowered the gown a bit more. The silver fabric fell away in the front to expose a full swell of cleavage. Only her nipples remained hidden beneath her chemise. “Your arrival changed everything.”

  “Oh?” A silly grin crossed her face. She was thankful her back was turned. Her presence at the ball had been perfectly timed, and she couldn’t hide her satisfaction. His Grace was still unattached because she’d allowed her sister to bully her into attending. She silently thanked Noelle.

  Poor wealthy and perfectly unengaged Lucy had gone home to a lonely bed while the duke climbed through her window, like a sneak thief in the night. For her.

  Eva wanted to laugh for sheer joy. Instead, she wriggled her bottom and heard his breath deepen. In a matter of seconds, she was free of the gown and his hands were sliding around her waist as if seeking her breasts. Bracing her hands on his thighs, she stood and stepped away.

  “Stay,” she commanded over her shoulder when he moved to rise. She exaggerated the sway of her hips as she walked several steps and turned. His hint of a smile led her as she slowly wriggled out of the gown and placed it across the foot of the bed. She had his full attention.

  Eyes wide, she asked, “Do you like it when I strip for you, Your Grace?”

  At his nod, she loosened her corset, then paused. “And this?” He nodded again, as she pulled the laces open and slid it down her hips. She kicked it away. Instead of removing the rest of her garments, she tugged the ribbon holding the neckline of her chemise closed. Her full breasts pressed the limits of the thin cloth and threatened to spill over.

  He groaned. “You are a tease, Evangeline Winfield.”

  His words came breathlessly. She smiled and locked onto his stare. Slowly, hips swaying, she walked back to him and dropped to her knees. His position made freeing him from his breeches somewhat difficult, but after a few false starts, she finally managed to part the cloth and free his erection.

  A deeper groan rumbled from his throat as she gathered the length in her hand and caressed the soft tip. How perfectly his body was made to pleasure them both.

  “You push me to distraction, mistress.”

  Eva smiled and pressed a kiss on the tip. “Indeed? I thought we were enemies.” She released him, then stood and straddled his knees. He watched intently as she bunched her chemise and petticoat in her hands, drawing them up over her hips until only her drawers, garters, and stockings remained to cover the patch of curls from his eyes.

  With care, Eva spread the opening of the drawers. With his help, she positioned herself over his erection and slowly impaled herself on his hard cock. Nicholas buried his face between her breasts and let out a harsh sound.

  She slid up and down once, then lifted her attention to his face. His hunger was complete and blinding to see. Their previous encounters had not cooled his ardor. He wanted her as much, or more, now than he had the first time he took her to bed.

  “You like this, Nicholas?”

  “I do.” He grinned as she leaned to capture his mouth for a brief, deep kiss. He swirled his tongue with hers, then broke free. He looked deep into her eyes. “I like it very much.”

  Eva ran her hands down the sides of his face and cupped his jaw. The smoldering desire in his intense eyes left her trembling and confused by the fluttering in her heart. In that moment, she realized all her fears had come to fruition. She’d fallen deeply and compl
etely in love with her dark duke.

  “I am a well-trained courtesan,” she said lightly, struggling to keep the tiny cracks opening up in her heart from becoming deep fissures. There was no place for love here. It was all about passion and pleasure, and the mating of two bodies. So she closed off her heart and pulled his shirt free of his breeches. She drew it over his head and tossed it toward the bed. “I am here to please.”

  Splaying her hands across his chest, she teased his nipples and bent to inhale the warm scent of his skin as she pressed a kiss at the base of his throat. He tasted slightly of salt, and his body radiated heat. Nicholas plucked the pins from her hair, and the mass tumbled down her back. He cupped her hips and lifted and lowered her, burying his erection deeply inside her, again and again.

  She rocked with his movements in a primal dance and found a position where she could brush delightfully against him for maximum pleasure. He sucked her nipples through her chemise, wetting the fabric and drawing small cries of delight from her. The spindly chair creaked in protest as their combined weight pushed it to the limits of remaining upright.

  He plundered her flesh, two bodies moving in perfect synchronization until Eva felt the world around her explode in sparks of bright light. She threw her head back and cried out his name. Nicholas pumped into her deeply as he found his own release with a ragged groan.

  Eva slumped on his chest, replete. Nicholas pressed his mouth into her hair and caressed her back in slow lover’s strokes. She listened to his rapid heartbeat, wishing they could stay this way forever.

  “You do please me, love,” he said softly. “Very much.”

  With her face hidden, Eva sighed sadly as she took as much comfort from him as she could. Their time was limited. She needed to make as many memories as possible of his scent, his face, his touch. One day soon he’d officially offer for Lucy, and Eva would never see him again.

  Blinking back tears, she forced a smile. “You please me, too, very much, Your Grace.”

  Later, Nicholas stared at the ceiling, where the glow of the fire flickered across plaster, and relished the warm feel of Eva as she slept beside him. Her soft breathing tickled his skin where she rested her face on his chest. The hint of flowers infused her hair, tangled around his shoulder and scattered in silken strands across his chest.

  She was everything he desired in a mistress, yet all he feared, too. He was losing control when she was near. The ball was a perfect example. It wouldn’t surprise him in the least if society was abuzz tomorrow with speculation about his infatuation with the beautiful stranger.

  The chance to wed Lucy was all but destroyed. There was little chance his attraction to the mysterious Miss Harrington wouldn’t get back to her and her parents. Only his wealth and position might keep her from refusing him.

  Still, was Lucy his desire? Had she ever been?

  Eva haunted his days and nights. Every thought, every dream was filled with her. She’d become his obsession.

  At this moment, he should be engaged and ready to embark on a new chapter of his life. Lucy should be happily dreaming of a wedding. Instead, he’d broken into Lady Seymour’s home and seduced her sister right beneath her nose.

  Well, Eva had seduced him; completely and passionately and without a moment of hesitation or regret. She’d turned his desire for revenge into a desire for her, one he couldn’t shake. When he looked into her eyes, he was lost.

  He realized that the idea of spending the rest of his days and nights with the sweet but uninteresting Lucy Banes-Dodd had lost most of its luster. Hell, all of its luster. He wanted passion and fire, not milk and dry biscuits. Yet, Lucy would make an ideal wife. Why, then, was that no longer enough?

  Eva murmured in her sleep and slid her arm around his waist. The flames in the fireplace had died to a smattering of embers, and her small hand was cool in the chill room. Her lips upturned at the corners. He wondered what sort of dreams she dreamt and if they were about him. With Eva, it was impossible to say.

  His spinster-courtesan was a puzzle. Why she drove him insane was even more puzzling. They had nothing in common. He lived his life by stiff rules, by a code of conduct set forth as appropriate for his position in society. She mocked him and tormented him for everything he was and believed, yet the moment he’d seen her across the ballroom, he’d forgotten everything and everyone else. The spinster had engaged not only his body but his mind as well. He’d begun to see his world through her eyes, and had found many aspects of it lacking.

  The slight smile on her face grew. Eyes still closed, she eased her hand down his chest, under the sheet, and over his cock. He twitched and began to harden.

  “I was having the most delightful dream, Your Grace,” she whispered as her eyes opened. “You were cast as the hero, and all the things you were doing to me were positively wicked.”

  Nicholas chuckled and pushed her back on the bed. Now he knew her dreams were filled with him, too. The thought gave him immense satisfaction. “Then you must tell me all about it, Eva love.”

  The last shadows lingered just before dawn when Nicholas draped one leg over the sill and paused to rake his gaze down her thinly clad body. Her dusky nipples were visible beneath the thin nightdress, and if he looked closely, he thought he caught a hint of the curls at the junction of her thighs. Whether it was truth or his heated imagination, it didn’t matter. He knew every inch of her body intimately and could summon her curves in his mind whenever and wherever he chose.

  “You can sneak down the back servants’ stairs, Nicholas,” Eva whispered, her voice worried. She had her hands curled into his coat. “This window seems very high up.”

  He drew her close, a hand around her back and the other in her hair near her ear. “I think the danger of leaping into a tree is far more enticing for a damsel such as my lovely Eva than my sneaking down and out a servants’ entrance like a cowardly dandy.”

  Eva leaned out the window and looked down. “If you fall and break a bone, your screams will awaken the household, and the whole city will quickly know where you spent the evening, Sir Knight.”

  The concern on her face touched him. She no longer hoped for his violent, painful death. The idea pleased him. He pulled her tight and kissed her hard.

  “Then I shall just have to be careful.” He released her reluctantly and climbed onto the sill. She slowly untangled her hands from his coat. “Say a prayer, Milady.”

  Eva gasped as he leapt to the tree. He bobbled slightly but grasped the branch above his head. In an instant, he found his footing, thankful he wouldn’t have to bear the shame of falling in an untidy heap while Eva watched. She let out a relieved laugh. “Well done, sir.”

  He flashed a grin. “I’m off to pillage and plunder, Milady.” He bowed, wobbled, and righted himself. “Until later.”

  Without further fanfare, he climbed down the tree. After a last look up at her, framed in moonlight in the window, he made his way silently across the lawn and out the gate to the street.

  Eva heard branches rustle, then the sound of Nicholas dropping to the ground with a thump. She couldn’t see him, yet felt his eyes on her, and she lifted a hand. When the gate from the garden squeaked open and closed, she turned back into the darkened room and sat on the bed, her eyes and heart troubled.

  What to do?

  Love. Often spoken of and sung about, it was the most complicated of emotions and seldom a part of relationships. When one did find love, it was rarely part of marriage, or between a man and his mistress. It was easier to hate His Grace than to fall head over heels for him.

  He was a drug so heady she craved him the way some craved the demon drug, opium. He’d promised her nothing but pleasure, and he’d fulfilled that promise. Not once in their most private moments had he given her any reason to expect anything more than stolen bits of time.

  Though he called her “love,” it was nothing more than an endearment in the moment of passion; a term of affection he used in the unguarded occasions when they were alone. Nic
holas would never love her. He might feel affection, perhaps, but not love. It was not in him. He was practical. She was the slave to emotion.

  Eva placed her hands over her face. He had cared for Arabella and he cared for her. She sensed it in the way he held her. But he came with limits. As long as she stayed within her boundaries, all was well. For the moment, he’d forgiven her for attending the ball. Once his mind cleared, he would be angry for her impertinence. He’d likely irreparably damaged his arrangement with Lucy. He’d not forgive her for that, as he had not forgiven her for losing Arabella.

  She was the cause of both losses.

  There was only one thing she could do.

  Chapter Fifteen

  No news of Yvette, Miss Eva?” Abigail said as they settled down for tea. The four young women were very worried. Days had passed since their friend disappeared, and they all felt her absence. With the passage of time it became difficult to finish their lessons and to keep focused on the last details of their instruction. They were ready to be matched. Eva was pleased with how hard each of them had worked and the changes in all of them.

  Even the book met with little enthusiasm when Eva suggested one last look in case there was anyone they might have missed. The party was a week away, and though they’d each chosen two men to invite, and Eva included several choices of her own, their concern for Yvette overshadowed the party.

  Eva had hoped to withhold the information she’d received from Mister Crawford this morning until she had news. However, the fearful faces left her no choice but to tell them about the report. The women deserved the truth.

  “The investigator has discovered the identity of Yvette’s lover and has gone to his country home to have a look around. He has given me the man’s name, and I have hope we will soon learn if Yvette has been seen there.” Eva did her best to hide her worry. It was her greatest wish to find Yvette alive. “There was no sign of her at his town house.”