London Lace, Series Complete Set

by Catou Martine

  She reached down between them and drew half his length from his boxers. With two fingers she pulled aside her panties. She nestled on to him with a sigh—a sigh of comfort, of wholeness. She just wanted to feel one with him. But she wasn’t fully prepared for her body’s reaction, somewhat different than the times before. It was as if his entry into her most private place lit a fire between her legs, triggering a divine ignition with a driving force of its own, a force that summoned her deepest depths of raw pleasure and began to open her heart.

  “I wanted to taste you,” he mumbled into her mouth as he surrendered to what was exploding between them. She wanted to say, ‘later’, but she could only hum against him as her pelvis drove furiously into his, as her fire burned hot and insistent. Only his coming could put her out, and she begged him for it, clawing at the skin of his back, squeezing him with her thighs.

  She couldn’t stop herself; her orgasm rolled through her like a hundred galloping stallions racing along a foreshore. She clutched Todd closely, all of her sensations focused at the point of their joining. He surged forward, filling her, his eyes pressed wetly against her shoulder.

  “Oh, Eliza,” he whispered. “My Eliza.”

  Eliza was smiling through her tears. She kissed Todd’s forehead, his temples, the bridge of his nose, and whispered,

  “Todd, my darling… My love.”

  He looked up at her through his damp lashes. He seemed to have been as affected by this joining as she had.

  “You really mean that, don’t you?”

  “With my whole heart.” And she did. She really did.

  They held each other in a tight embrace.

  In the distance, mixed with the sound of lapping waves, Eliza heard harps strumming. It took her a moment to recognize the sound of her mobile.

  “It’s probably Carmen again,” said Eliza, reluctantly trying to detangle from Todd.

  “She can wait,” he said, still holding Eliza close.

  “She already has. It’s her second call. I should get it.”

  Todd sighed and released her. “Go on then. I’m still hungry for you but I’m also hungry for lunch.”

  Todd laid out the picnic that Marjorie had packed while Eliza searched for her mobile. The ringing had stopped by the time she located it, but a moment later it dinged to alert her to a text message.

  “Bloody hell!” cried Eliza.

  “Is something wrong?” said Todd.

  “Oh my god. Todd! I can’t believe it!”

  She turned to him, beaming and shaking her mobile at him. “We got the call! The call!”

  She reread the text to make sure she hadn’t imagined it.

  B Palace called. We got the Ascot for the royals. Hurry back.

  “We got the Ascot! My shop. Candied Locks. We’re doing the hats and head pieces for the Royal Family! “

  She was naked on a beach and bouncing on her knees and grinning like a fool.

  “This is only the biggest event of the year in millinery circles!”

  Todd laughed. “Yes, I can tell by your reaction. Congratulations, Eliza.” He held up a sandwich in salute.

  Eliza looked at the picnic laid out before her. All of a sudden she was famished. She helped herself to Marjorie’s tea sandwiches: watercress and creamed cheese, cheddar and Branston pickle, smoked salmon, lemon and capers. Plus Marjorie had packed sliced vegetables with a sweet mustard dip, cherry tomatoes and grapes, a basket of strawberries, and a jar of Evergreen Dairy Devonshire cream.

  “Todd,” she said with her mouth full. “I think this is the happiest day of my life.”

  He furrowed his brow. “Yes, the Ascot is the biggest horse race of the year. I can see why you’re so happy.”

  “Todd!” She swatted him on the shoulder. Then she hooked her finger into the cream and placed a dollop on his nose.

  “Hey!”

  She crawled back onto his lap and licked the cream off. Then she kissed him deeply, longingly, lovingly. Pulling back, she gazed into his gorgeous blue eyes.

  “I’m happy about this,” she said. “About you. Us!”

  “Can we stay here forever then?” said Todd with an impish grin.

  “You already said you didn’t want to go foraging for firewood. And really it wouldn’t be fair to the horses...”

  He sighed. “So we go back to London then?”

  We? “You’ll come with me?” said Eliza, afraid to be too hopeful.

  “Of course!”

  Eliza’s heart swelled. This adventure wasn’t over yet.

  LONDON LACE #5

  MAD DASH TO LONDON

  “It seems like I just got here,” said Eliza to Todd’s housekeeper, Marjorie.

  “You did, Miss. It’s a shame you have to go back to London so soon.”

  Eliza had only driven down early the day before, with Albert, Todd’s driver and Marjorie’s soon-to-be-fiancé.

  That’s why she’s frowning, thought Eliza. She doesn’t want Albert to leave again so soon.

  Marjorie helped fold Eliza’s things and put them in the overnight bag.

  “None of that’s mine, you know,” said Eliza. “Albert picked up some things for me, at Todd’s request.”

  “It’s all meant for you. It’s yours, if you’ll accept it. I’m sure that’s what Sir Montgomery intended.”

  Eliza didn’t feel right about accepting it all. Gifts made her uncomfortable. Maybe because she’d received so few in her life. Still, what was Marjorie going to do with a bunch of clothes that fit Eliza perfectly? And she had to admit, she did love the red silk robe.

  Marjorie added, “The riding suit is yours as well, for when you return to Evergreen, which I hope will be very soon.”

  Eliza didn’t think it would be very soon though. Carmen, Eliza's assistant, had called from the shop to say that they’d received the palace contract to make the hats and fascinators for the royal party attending the Royal Ascot in June. Thus the mad dash back to London. It was a millinery opportunity of a lifetime, and Eliza couldn’t squander it. She would be working her bum off over these next few months.

  Of course she felt torn. She and Todd had connected so deeply in the last twenty-four hours. Their passionate attraction had blossomed into… well, into… (gulp) love. How strange and scary it was for Eliza to admit that to herself. Normally, she’d be running off at the first opportunity—and, at the moment, she was faced with the biggest opportunity of her professional life—but she also wanted to stay. Why is it that nothing seemed to happen for a long, long time and then all of sudden everything happened at once?

  She desperately wanted to stay on at Evergreen and go riding with Todd, make love in his huge bed any time of day, eat Marjorie’s yummy food, and get to know Todd’s half-sister, Christine and her girlfriend, Melissa, who, only a short while ago Eliza believed was a rival. But she had worked so hard for this career and this call from the palace meant she was at the top of her game. Plus Carmen was counting on her. This would solidify her reputation too, and if all went well, Eliza might consider bringing Carmen on as her partner.

  There was a knock at the door but no waiting before it burst open and two young women dramatically flung themselves onto Eliza’s bed.

  “You can’t go!” they both wailed.

  Eliza laughed.

  “There’s no talking her out of it, girls,” said Marjorie as she snapped up the overnight bag and then went to tidy the bathroom.

  “But you’ll break Todd’s heart,” said Christine.

  “I think he’s going to come with me,” said Eliza.

  Melissa clutched at her heart. “You vixen, you’re stealing my fiancé?!”

  For a moment her eyes were wide and accusing, until Christine kissed her on the cheek, and then she grinned.

  That was going to complicate things. Todd had agreed to a false engagement with Melissa Selfridge in order to deflect suspicion about her romantic involvement with Christine. This had all been planned before Eliza met Todd, and without Victoria an
d Tatum knowing anything about it before setting her up. Now half of London was anticipating a society wedding that would be cancelled a few weeks before the date, but the charade had to be maintained until Christine packed off to Canada for university and Melissa could follow her—to ‘heal her heart'—after the fake wedding was called off. It all seemed unnecessarily complicated in this day and age.

  “Maybe we should cut Todd free and just come out, Lissy,” said Christine. “My love for you can withstand any slings and arrows aimed our way.”

  “But it would kill Grandmamma and all her biddy friends,” said Christine. “She won’t live much longer but I don’t want to be responsible for her demise. In Canada we can do as we like and in a few years, after she’s gone, we’ll visit England and everyone will just deal with our lifestyle. We can even come back here if you want.”

  Christine rested her head on Melissa’s shoulder. “All right. Love makes you do crazy things. But what about you, Eliza? Won’t this be hard for you and Todd?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be so busy with this Ascot contract I’ll be lucky to see him outside the hours of 12 and 6 AM. Actually, I’ll probably have my eyes closed and won’t see him at all.”

  “You can use your other senses,” teased Melissa.

  Eliza and Todd hadn’t yet talked about any of these details, nor the possible answers to the question, ‘what happens next?’.

  “Congratulations, by the way, on the contract,” said Christine.

  Melissa leaned forward. “But you’ll still have time to make me a special hat, won’t you, Eliza?”

  “You’re going?”

  “Grandmamma insists. The whole family goes.” Melissa rolled her eyes. “But this will be the last time. I don’t intend to set foot on a racetrack in Canada.”

  “We’ll be too busy making igloos,” joked Christine.

  There was a light knock at the open door.

  “Can I come in?” asked Todd.

  Christine and Melissa shimmied off the bed.

  “We’ll let you two lovebirds alone.” They giggled happily as they left. Marjorie followed them out with a sigh.

  Todd came up behind Eliza and gave her a hug. “It’s all happened so fast,” he said, breathing into her nape.

  “I know. I wish we could stay here and forget about the world, but…”

  “I know how much this means to you, Eliza. You can’t let this chance slip by.”

  “Thank you for understanding.” She turned in his arms so she could kiss him. She pulled back a bit and looked into his eyes. “What are we going to do now? I mean, how do we carry on?”

  “Well, for starters, I’m going to return to London with you. Tatum’s been bugging me about coming in to talk to him about some business opportunity, so I’ll go stay with him and Victoria in Mayfair.”

  Eliza nodded. “I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to keep my hands off you during the long drive back to the city.” She let her hands trail down his back until they rested on his taut buttocks.

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too. How do you feel about taking the train?”

  She shrugged and smiled. “Fine.”

  “It might be nice for Albert and Marjorie to have a bit of time together. Then later in the week, Albert can bring Christine to the city after Melissa goes home.”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you. I’m sure Marjorie will be thrilled.”

  Todd hugged Eliza tight enough to lift her off her feet. “If they feel half as happy as I do with you, the world’s happy quotient is double what it used to be. Triple!”

  Eliza wished Todd would hold her like this forever.

  Albert dropped them off at the station in Exeter. Gone were the days of fancy Pullman coaches and train travel for leisure. It was all about time and money these days. Still, Todd got them first class seats, and their assigned car turned out to be sparsely occupied.

  “It’s not as private as Albert’s car, but it is another adventure,” said Todd squeezing her leg just above the knee.

  “Don’t go getting any ideas,” warned Eliza. Though all one has to do is say ‘don’t think of this or that’ to encourage all kinds of thoughts about exactly this or that. The human mind was a strange phenomenon.

  “Seriously, when we get back to London, what are we going to do? When will we see each other again?” said Eliza.

  “You’re the one who will be super busy. You tell me.”

  She would have to pour all her energy into her work, but if she didn’t get to see Todd—every inch of him—her heart, and other body parts, would suffer.

  “I’ll need to see you. Can you sneak into my flat some nights? I could give you a key.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “The key to your heart, Miss Keating? Would you give me that?”

  “You know you’ve already got it. The key I’m talking about is going to give you access to the rest of me.” She took the hand she was holding and laid it across her left breast. She heard the snap of a newspaper across the aisle. She giggled as Todd squeezed her.

  “I would sneak into your flat anytime of day or night.” He kissed her earlobe.

  “Night! I have to work all day and you have to keep up your charade with Melissa.” She frowned.

  “It bothers you, doesn’t it?” said Todd.

  “A little. The secrecy. The fact that we can’t be openly together. You’re not embarrassed to be seen with me are you?”

  He laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Some of your friends won’t be too happy about it. When they find out.”

  “What friends? The people I count as friends wouldn’t give a damn.”

  “Maybe you mean jockeys and trainers and Albert and Marjorie. But what about your family—the Montgomerys— or Lord Elliot, and the rest of society you hobnob with.”

  It was Todd’s turn to frown. “You know I don’t care about all that. I can’t help what family I was born to.”

  “Neither can I. And friends or not, those people won’t let me forget where I came from.”

  “Maybe it’s because you can’t.”

  “You haven’t even told Tatum or Tori the truth about Christine.”

  Todd stroked his chin. “Do you want me to tell them?”

  “Tori’s my friend. I don’t like lying to her.”

  “What does Tori think now?”

  “That there’s nothing serious between us.”

  “Is that what you told her?”

  “No. She just naturally assumes it. That’s what I’m talking about. She thinks you’re engaged to Melissa, too, you know. That you’ve kind of got me on the side.”

  “What if you told her the truth? Could she keep the secret?”

  “Probably, but that still doesn’t mean she’d want me for a cousin.”

  “Whoa. Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?”

  “Oh, that’s right. We’re taking things ‘one day at a time’. That’s your style.”

  “Yours, too. Or so you’ve implied.”

  Eliza crossed her arms. She was full of conflicting emotions. On the one hand she wanted Todd to whisk her off into a romantic sunset, on the other, she wanted to get on with her work and not give up all she had built just to be with a man. And what was harder to detangle was this feeling about the two of them being together, really being together, not just in their own naked world but out there, dressed up, in the real world, a world of classes, prejudice, snobbery and discrimination. It didn’t matter how progressive things were theoretically. Societies and their conventions were bloody hard to change.

  She said, "I guess I’m concerned about Melissa and Christine, too. They’re so happy together. I just want them to be free to be happy, and not have to keep up appearances.”

  “I imagine you want that for yourself, too.”

  “I suppose.”

  “All in good time, Miss Keating. You’ll see. We’ll get our happy ending. For now let’s focus on the work at hand.”

  That’s
exactly what Eliza needed to do, though she was pretty sure that was going to be easier said than done. But it was only three months. By the end of June, they would be free and clear.

  The train whistle blew and the cars jerked forward. Todd leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Eliza pulled out her sketchbook to jot down some notes to take back to Carmen.

  About ten minutes later, Todd leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Have you ever fantasized about doing it on a train?”

  “Ummm…” There was that brain thing again. Whether or not she’d ever thought about it before, she was thinking about it now.

  “There’s nowhere to go,” she whispered. “I’m not climbing on top of you right here.” She giggled and looked out the window as they rolled through the countryside beyond the outskirts of Exeter.

  “The old Pullman coaches were much more romantic, true. How ‘bout we sneak into the loo?”

  Eliza stuck her tongue out. “No, thank you. They smell of that awful disinfectant.”

  Todd grabbed her hand. “Come on. I know one that doesn’t.”

  He literally pulled her up out of her seat and if she wanted to keep her arm, and not tip over the seatback in front of her, she would have to follow his lead.

  “You’re crazy. This is silly,” she protested.

  He pulled their car door open and drew her into the passage between the train cars where the luggage was stored. It was loud here, and shaky, and she could see the ground flowing in a swift blur through the boarding doors. He pushed her up against the wall and kissed her. The train’s vibrations reverberated through the wall and her bones. Todd’s body, pressed up against her, vibrated as they swayed on their feet, holding onto one another.

  “Let’s be silly today. And wild,” said Todd.

  “Not here,” said Eliza. Glass doors led to trains cars on either side of the passage and there were passengers glancing their way from both directions.

  “Come on,” said Todd. “Let’s head toward the dining car.”