The Conundrum of a Clerk

by Sande, Linda Rae

  “As I said earlier, I would like to make love to you,” she whispered.

  His heart pounding so hard he was sure Daisy could hear it, Teddy regarded her for a moment more before giving her a slight nod. “Does that include... kissing?” he managed to ask, rather surprised his voice didn’t crack or squeak or otherwise sound like a frog in heat.

  Kissing.

  The word had Daisy blushing, and she was thankful the room wasn’t better lit. Other than pecks on the cheek, she had never kissed a man in her entire life. It’s far too intimate, her mother had warned her and her sister. Give a man your body, you still have your body. Give a man a kiss, and you give up your heart. She supposed her mother knew to what she referred. Lily Albright had been hopelessly in love with James Burroughs after just such a kiss. But then, he had fallen in love with her, too.

  “If you would like it to include kissing, I suppose I am not opposed. But, I must warn you. I haven’t any experience with kissing,” she said, a bit breathless. “I think I would enjoy it very much, though. But if you’re having second thoughts…”

  Teddy blinked at this bit of news. No kissing? Daisy Albright had the most kissable lips in all of London. He could hardly believe that if he kissed her, he would be her first. “No. No, I’m not. I am...” He sighed, his eyes closing in an attempt to prevent her gaze from having its hypnotic way with him. Honored. Horny. Aroused, and amazed. This beautiful, worldly woman wanted to make love to him, and he was hesitating.

  He knew why, of course. On the one hand, he hoped she knew it, too. On the other... well, he didn’t have an ‘other,’ so it probably didn’t matter that it might not matter.

  Even if it did.

  But of course it did! He was missing an arm. An arm that could otherwise hold him up, or wrap around her, or provide an anchor of support.

  Before he could say another word, he was aware she had moved closer. He didn’t have a chance to step back, or to open his eyes before her lips were suddenly within inches of his.

  “Teach me how to kiss you,” she whispered.

  Every contrary thought flew from his head in an instant. Teddy lowered his lips to hers. He could have described what he was about to do, or given her instructions on what she should do, but dammit, actions spoke louder than words.

  Soft and sweet, open and welcoming, her lips responded to his in only a moment. When her hand moved to the side of his head, her fingers spearing his short hair, a shiver shot through him. His arm wrapped around the back of her waist, he spread his fingers wide, and then he pulled her hard against his chest.

  Teddy wasn’t sure if she moaned or if he did. Perhaps they both did. She had said she was going to make love to him. Did she really intend to share his bed with him? Engage in sexual congress? Sleep next to him?

  He reluctantly pulled his lips from hers, leaving his forehead barely touching hers. “If I don’t stop this right now—”

  “I’’ll have my way with you,” Daisy warned with an arched brow. She was already seeing to his cravat’s knot, her slender fingers easily freeing the fabric ends.

  His own brows furrowing in confusion, Teddy was at a loss as to how to reply. Instead, his attention went to the cravat. The length of silk passed in front of his face three times as she unwound it from around his neck. Deft fingers were already undoing his topcoat and waistcoat buttons, her small hands pushing open the garments so they slid from his shoulders. The button at the top of his shirt was undone even before he realized she was working on the fastenings of his breeches.

  If he didn’t do something to stop her right then, she was going to have him completely undressed before he would get a single article of clothing removed from her body.

  Except, how would he manage with just one hand?

  “May I help with your boots?”

  Teddy gave a start. “Boots?” he repeated.

  Daisy had to stifle the grin that threatened just then. “If you sit on the edge of the bed, I can remove them for you,” she offered. How else would they come off? She couldn’t imagine it would be very easy for him to get them off with only one hand.

  Hence, the reason for a valet, she supposed.

  When he made no move to move, Daisy placed the flat of her hand on his lawn-covered chest and gave a gentle push. “Sit down before you fall down, darling,” she whispered.

  Darling? No one had ever called him “darling” before. Not even his mother.

  Blinking, Teddy did as he was told, watching in wonder as she knelt before him and removed each boot with a practiced tug. “You’ve done this before,” he accused quietly.

  Lifting her eyes to meet his, Daisy gave a shrug. “Removed boots? I don’t know that I have,” she said, before turning her attention to his stockings. “Other than my own, of course.” She wasn’t about to add that she had removed just about every possible article of clothing from a man at one time or another.

  “Seduced a man, I meant,” he countered in a whisper.

  Daisy’s gaze met his again as she settled onto her thighs. “Am I seducing you?” she asked as she angled her head. “Here I thought you were the one who was doing all the seduction.” Knowing she had to get up before her injured leg protested too much, she straightened from her knees and leaned forward, her hands pressed against the bed to provide support as she lifted herself until her face was directly in front of his. Grabbing the sides of his shirt, she was about to lift it over his head when his hand covered one of hers.

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “If we do this, it stays on.”

  If we do this?

  Daisy wasn’t about to stop now. Besides, she couldn’t imagine taking her leave of his house this time of the night.

  Straightening to her full five-foot, one-inch height, she crossed her arms. “If you don’t show me yours, then I won’t show you mine,” she warned.

  The look of confusion crossed his face again before she once again gave his chest a push. He fell back onto the bed, and she went about pulling his breeches from his body. His manhood, already engorged, made the removal difficult at first. “You’re what?” he asked, lifting his head and watching as she made quick work of the breeches and his smalls. At least his shirt was long enough to cover the evidence of his arousal.

  Once the garments were free of his body, Daisy pretended not to notice his lean legs, muscled from fencing and horseback riding. “My leg,” she said, using one hand to pull up the satin and chiffon of her skirts to just above the knee—just above where her silk stocking ended. Enough to show the puckered skin where a bullet had penetrated her leg. Although the projectile had passed completely through her leg, it had nicked the bone and destroyed the muscle tissue in its path.

  A look of shock appeared on Teddy’s face. “Damn! What happened?” he asked as he sat up on the edge of the bed. “Oh. Pardon the curse,” he whispered, rather surprised she didn’t seem the least bit scandalized by his language.

  Daisy let go of her skirts and turned to sit next to him. “I was shot,” she said, turning slightly so her back was angled in his direction. “Could you undo the two hooks, please?”

  Without thinking, Teddy reached up and used his thumb and forefinger to unfasten the hooks. Then he watched as she removed her slippers and lifted a calf to roll down a stocking.

  He sighed at the perfectly formed limb. Despite its obvious scar from the bullet wound, it was still a beautiful leg. He had half a mind to lean over and kiss the spot where the skin was puckered.

  Daisy turned her attention back to Teddy. “It’s why I limp on occasion,” she murmured as she waved to the scar. She removed the stocking before rolling down the other stocking, suppressing a grin when she noted he was watching her every move with bated breath.

  Teddy blinked. “I hadn’t noticed,” he replied.

  Well, truth be told, he had noticed her distinctive sway when she walked. A sway that accentuated her hips. And everything else about her.

  Getting to her feet, Daisy turned and rega
rded Teddy for a moment. The one piece of clothing still on his body—his shirt—not only covered the evidence of his erection but also the fact that he was missing most of his right arm. “Liar,” she teased.

  She pushed down the sleeves of her apricot gown and allowed it to fall from her shoulders and onto the floor. Then she went about undoing the tapes of her petticoats, well aware that Teddy’s gaze followed her hands. “I don’t suppose you can help with my stays?” she half-asked as she allowed the petticoats to drop from her hips.

  Daisy turned around and presented her back to him, well aware of his barely audible gulp. The slight pressure of a thumb and forefinger undoing the fastenings had her pushing back a bit, the heat from his fingers permeating the thin fabric of her chemise. “Not bad for a one-handed man,” she said as she rested her chin on her shoulder and watched as his expression of concentration aged his face. “But then, I never doubted your skills.”

  Teddy cleared his throat. “And what skills might you be referring to?” he asked when he had the last fastening undone.

  Since he hadn’t been in the company of a woman—like this—since before he had lost his arm, he wasn’t sure if he had the ability to make love to a woman. How am I supposed to hold myself up? he had wondered on occasion.

  Fencing had helped to keep his one good arm strong as well as the shoulder of the other, but what if he lost his balance? Fell on top of her? Or went tumbling over to one side? Or worse, fell entirely off the bed?

  Embarrassed didn’t begin to describe how he would feel. Humiliated might be a better word.

  “Since you’re a clerk at a bank, I should think you can write numbers and words,” Daisy replied in answer to his query about skills. “Left-handed, no less.” One of her eyebrows arched up as she turned around, the stays loosening of their own accord until their sleeves fell from her shoulders and dropped down her arms. “The Devil’s hand?”

  Inhaling sharply, Teddy watched as the garment fell to the floor, and then he returned his gaze to her face, trying with all his might not to stare at her now that her translucent chemise barely hid her breasts from view. The dark triangle at the apex of her thighs was even evident. “Usually, I would attempt to disabuse someone of such an idea, but at the moment, I’m inclined to let you think that,” he managed to get out between labored breaths. Although he desperately wished to have his right hand again, he was rather glad to be left-handed just then.

  He was fairly sure he could still perform miracles with his left hand.

  Daisy allowed a wan smile as she sat on the bed next to him, resting an arm on her thigh so her chemise was pulled taut over the front of her body. The silhouettes of her nipples appeared through her chemise, and although Teddy’s eyes never left hers, Daisy knew he was aware of them from the way his Adam’s apple bobbed against his throat. “Would you be inclined to make me believe it?” she asked in a whisper as one of her fingers drew a line along the back of his hand where it rested on his thigh.

  “Depends on how much convincing you require.”

  Her eyes darting to the side, Daisy allowed a grin. “I’m quite sure it won’t take much,” she whispered as she lay back on the bed. She used a bare foot pressed into the mattress to push herself farther into the middle, the move forcing the chemise to reveal one of her shoulders and the shape of her breasts in relief.

  Sucking in a breath, Teddy regarded her for only a moment before he allowed his body to simply take over and do her bidding. Supporting himself on his stump, he discovered how easy it was to use his hand to smooth over her entire body, to cup her breasts and hold and mold them before lowering his lips to suckle the nipple that poked into the chemise. He lifted his head and was about to lean over to capture the other one when he realized he couldn’t quite reach it. “Could you... turn?” he asked between labored breaths.

  Daisy angled her body in his direction, one of her hands moving to the back of his head to draw it down. Inhaling as first his lips and then his tongue worried the nipple through the fine silk, she found she was impressed. The man seemed to know what to do and where to touch. Indeed, with his hand smoothing down the front of her body, his finger tips barely grazing over her mons, she felt a thrill when he gripped the bottom edge of the chemise and slowly pulled it up.

  “And here I thought I would be making love to you,” she whispered just as his hand moved between her thighs, two fingers sliding along her honeyed folds. Gasping when he barely touched her womanhood, she arched her back and spread her legs a bit.

  “I won’t object when you do,” he murmured, before his lips returned to their worship of her nipples.

  Grinning at his comment, Daisy was about to respond when his hand did something down there. She let out a yelp of surprise as a frisson of pure pleasure shot through her lower body. “Oh!” she breathed before he did it again. Sensations she hadn’t experienced in a very long time had her writhing beneath him, had her mewling and moaning and speaking in Italian. “Come into me,” she begged.

  Teddy lifted his head to regard her before giving it a shake. “I don’t think—”

  “Get off the bed,” Daisy ordered. She was using her hands to push herself to the edge. “Hurry,” she pleaded when he didn’t do her bidding.

  Teddy managed to work his way off the bed, not sure what he was supposed to do until he saw how she pushed herself until she was almost sitting up. She used one hand to guide him between her bent knees, her other sliding along the back of his rigid manhood and down to his sac, cupping it as the length of him slid along her wetness.

  He allowed a growl as her hands moved to his buttocks, grasping them until his manhood was firmly pressed against her quim. He watched as her back arched and her head fell back, jerked when he was aware of her legs wrapping around his hips. And then her fingers gripped his manhood, and she guided him into her wet, warm haven.

  He allowed a curse when his first attempt at a thrust required he hold onto something. Despite standing on both feet, he feared he might fall over. Given the position of her legs, he wrapped his hand beneath one thigh and tried again.

  Pleasure he hadn’t felt in a very long time consumed him. He steadied himself to try it again. He found he didn’t have to try hard—Daisy had both of her hands wrapped around his hips, her fingers pressed into his buttocks. Despite knowing what she was about to do, he still had to suppress a growl when she pulled hard at the same time her own hips thrust forward.

  Teddy wished he could understand Italian. Wished he could speak it, for her murmurs sounded as erotic as she appeared just then. Wanton. Sensual. Having barely recovered conscious thought, he was lost again when she repeated her movements.

  “Harder,” she murmured, the word clearly spoken in English. Or perhaps he had managed to learn some Italian.

  Having established a rhythm, Teddy found he could do her bidding, and so he did, pushing into her as hard as he could manage.

  “Faster,” she begged, the whispered word sounding as desperate as he felt just then. The added, “Please,” only gave him more incentive to please her. To see to her pleasure so that she might beg him to do this again.

  For he had every intention of doing this with her again.

  He couldn’t give the thought more than a moment’s consideration when he realized how tightly she held onto him. How she had dropped her head back and arched her chest up, how she exposed her neck and the hint of her collarbones above the edge of her chemise. Another thrust, and then another, and he watched as she seemed to break apart beneath him.

  Which was just as well, for his own release had him groaning with pure pleasure. That is, when he could breathe.

  Had he ever felt this intense pleasure with Gertrude?

  As he fell forward, his legs giving out on him so he could no longer stand, Teddy chastised himself for the odd thought and instead concentrated on just where he would end up—leaning over the bed and pressed onto Daisy, still firmly buried inside her.

  Her hands moved to his back, her fing
ers gripping him as she mewled and struggled to breathe. Her bent legs hitched higher about his hips, her thighs gripping his.

  For just a moment—or perhaps it was five—the two lay wrapped around one another, Teddy’s face pressed into the space above one of her shoulders, his one hand wrapped behind the other shoulder in an effort to simply hold on while his body put itself back together.

  “I must be crushing you,” he whispered in dismay. But Daisy’s hands only increased their hold on him.

  “You’re not. Truly,” she said in a hoarse whisper, her lips taking purchase on one of his eyelids to leave a kiss there.

  “I won’t let you leave this bed,” he said then, finally lifting his head to regard her from above.

  “Then I shan’t leave it,” she replied, giving her head a shake to reinforce her words. “But I do think we’ll be more comfortable if you are actually on the bed instead of halfway off of it.”

  Teddy sighed. “But then I would have to give up my hold on you,” he argued, sounding ever so disappointed.

  Daisy allowed a wan grin. “But only for a moment.”

  They would be more comfortable on the bed. Under the covers. Their heads on the pillows. “You promise you won’t leave the bed?” he asked in a whisper.

  Spearing her fingers into his dark blond hair, Daisy asked, “Where would I go?” She had briefly wondered what might happen if her ruse didn’t work. If she hadn’t been able to convince Teddy to bring her to his home. She couldn’t very well seduce him in her quarters. Given the servants who lived above and the instructors who lived in the house next door, Teddy’s presence would be noticed. The scandal would have her losing her position.

  If this night didn’t.

  The thought had her wondering once again just what Teddy Streater might be thinking about her right this very moment. She was about to ask when he finally said, “Out the window—”

  “What?”

  “Or out the door and into a hackney.”

  Daisy raised herself onto her elbows, a rather difficult task given most of his body rested atop hers. “I would never,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “How could you ever think such a thing?”