Blood Lust

by Jamie Salsibury

  Katherine said nothing. She simply stared into his eyes. When he let her go, she surprised him by stepping closer instead of backing away. Sliding her arms around his neck, she raised up and pressed her cheek against his.

  “I don’t want you hurt, either. That is the reason I followed you.”

  She thought he might push her away. His powerful muscles were tense now. Then, he made a sound low in his throat and pressed her against him. “I don’t understand you at all. You are not like any woman I’ve ever known.”

  Katherine did not answer, instead she snuggled closer, pressing herself against his chest. She clung to him and felt his heart pounding against her breast. His clothes smelled of rain and a faint hint of smoke from the tavern.

  Desire slithered through her. She recognized it now for what it was. She planted a soft kiss against the side of his lips, moved to the rim of his ear and a tremor slid throughout his tall body. She bit down gently on the lobe and then kissed the pulse at the base of his throat.

  William groaned at her touch. His hands moved down her back, settled around her waist and he drew her even closer. He kissed her throat, the line of her jaw, then his mouth captured hers in a searing kiss that scorched the breath from within her.

  She tingled all over. Oh, dear God! Hot, damp heat slithered through her limbs, pooling in the place between her legs. Her breasts began to swell, the nipples distending, chaffing against the chemise beneath her gown. She wanted him to touch her, to soothe the ache he had stirred. She wanted him to make love to her as he had done before.

  She unbuttoned his shirt, with trembling fingers, slid her hands across the hard bands of muscle beneath the fabric, laced her fingers in his curly brown chest hair.

  A deep sound came from deep within his throat. His hands slid over her bodice, delved inside the neckline to cup and mold a breast. He kissed her deeply, his tongue sweeping in, little swirls of heat tugging low in her stomach. His fingers teased a nipple and her legs went wobbly.

  “William. . .” she whispered.

  The hand on her breast grew still. He chest rose and fell with each of his ragged breaths even as he forced himself away.

  Grabbing her arms, he set her apart from him, holding her at arms length, as if she posed some sort of threat. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I was kissing you. You seemed to like it.”

  “In another five minutes I would have had you down on the floor. I’d have had your skirts tossed up and my breeches undone. I’d have buried myself inside you as deeply and as hard as I could and to hell with the consequences.”

  “It isn’t as if it hasn’t happened before. At least now we are married,” she replied, her head held high.

  “We are not married! I told you that from the start that this was only a temporary arrangement. I don’t want a wife.”

  Ignoring the heat still pulsing through her, Katherine looked at him closely. “I think you would have made a fine husband, William.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t understand.” He turned away from her, his voice low and gruff. “It’s late. Past time for you to retire upstairs.”

  Her heart was still beating with a soft heat that made her ache to touch him. She didn’t want to go, she wanted him to kiss her again. One look at those determined, hard features and she knew the best thing to do was to leave him be.

  “Good night, William.” she said softly.

  She got a nod and a scowl in return.

  He was sleeping in the room next to hers. She didn’t hear him enter until several hours later. Once she knew he had arrived, her eyes began to close and she finally fell asleep.

  Dressed in a dark blue gown trimmed in yards of white lace, Katherine descended the stairs to the dining room. She hadn’t expected to hear the sound of Thomas’ laughter or the deep rumble of William’s own mirth as he joined in. It was a happy, pleasant sound and it drew her toward them like a bird homing back to his nest.

  “Good morning, my dear.” Her brother smiled. Both men rose to their feet at her entrance. “Your husband and I were regaling each other with tales from our youth. Some things never change, don’t you know.” He chuckled good-naturedly.

  Katherine smiled at William and he smiled back at her. The past was always easy for Thomas to recall. It was the present that posed a problem. William apparently had shrewdly discerned the fact and directed the conversation to a subject that put the young man at ease. Katherine’s heart filled with gratitude at his compassion.

  She watched the pair, noticing how comfortable they had already become with each other. If only her marriage were real, if they could truly be a family. She dismissed the thought. It would only hurt more when he left if she wondered what if.

  A knock at the door sounded. The butler appeared in the doorway. “The earl of York has made an unexpected arrival.. He wishes to see you my lord. I have shown him into the drawing room.”

  “Thank you,” William said. He turned to Katherine and Thomas. “If the two of you will excuse me. . .”

  “By all means,” her brother said, but Katherine rose and followed him down the hall.

  She caught up with him just before he stepped into the drawing room, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “I’m your wife, William, at least until you leave. What Damien has to say concerns me as much as it does you.”

  He started to argue with her, but must have seen the truth in her words, and instead made a slight bow of his head. “As you wish, my lady.”

  Damien stood at the mantel when they walked in, his dark countenance a thundercloud of emotion.

  “What is it?” William closed the doors, assuring they would be private.

  Damien’s steady black gaze sung to Katherine, noting her unexpected presence, but there wasn’t the least hesitation. “It’s Benjamin, I’m afraid. He’s apparently married Elizabeth Stanwick. The settlement he has gained is rumored to be huge.”

  “Oh, dear lord, poor Elizabeth,” Katherine said.

  “Quite so,” Damien replied.

  “I had hoped if the gossip of their involvement proved correct, their betrothal would be long enough for her to discover the truth about him,” William said.

  Damien frowned. “They say it was a love match. The pair was so taken with each other they eloped while her father was away. I asked our man to search out the veracity of the affair and he claims Elizabeth Stanwick was forced into marriage. He says the girl was lured away from a house party on the pretext her father was ailing.”

  “Sounds like Benjamin,” William said darkly. “There’s no length he wouldn’t go to get the money he needs.”

  “It must have been terrible for Elizabeth.”

  William’s eyes fixed on Katherine. “As much as I pity Elizabeth, I am equally glad the woman was not you.”

  Surprise swirled through her. Katherine said nothing, but a protective gleam in William’s eyes stirred a blossoming sweetness inside her.

  Damien’s face looked grim. “If the man was a fearsome opponent before, with the backing of his powerful new father-in-law and his wealth securely back in place, he is at least twice as dangerous as he was then.”

  “We’ll have to move up our timetable,” William said.

  “You’re speaking of Jane?” said Damien.

  William nodded. “Among other things. At least several dozen invitations have arrived since news of Katherine’s marriage leaked out. Half of them are demanding to meet the lucky man who has married her. We won’t be able to put them off much longer without stirring up more gossip. Benjamin will be even more curious than the rest. We have to figure a way around the problem and continue to search for evidence against him.”

  Katherine shook her head. “You shouldn’t have married me. You life was already at risk. Now the matter has worsened.”

  “It makes no difference. Steps have been taken to release your dowry. As soon as I have it, I shall see it signed into your name. It as a debt I owed you. Soon it will be paid.”


  Katherine’s heart fell. A debt he owed. The price of her innocence. She knew that was how he felt, yet it hurt fo hear him put it into words.

  “In the meantime,” he was saying, “I want to speak to our man, see what else he might have unearthed.”

  Katherine hoped the man had found something that could help them. Benjamin Spencer was a vicious, evil man. Every day William stayed in England the chances grew worse that he would be discovered. There had to be a way to prove his innocence. Katherine vowed that she would find it. Once she did he would be safe.

  She ignored the jolt of pain that reminded her that once he was, he would also be gone.

  John Stanton, the earl of Stanton, leaned against the door leading out to the terrace. About an hour ago, Katherine, now married to her distant cousin had arrived at a crowded soiree in company with the earl of York, along with Lord and Lady Chastain, who had become her close friends.

  Katherine had sent a message to John, of course, a letter informing him of her marriage the day after it had occurred. It explained that she had long been enamored of her cousin but hadn’t expected that he would make an offer. She asked him for his understanding in this, a matter of the heart, and hoped that they might remain good friends.

  John watched her now, saw her smiling as she paused to speak to his guests, and found himself wondering at the story that her husband was a bookish, shy sort of man, who preferred his scholarly endeavors to the fashionable world of society. Not to worry, she had said with what John believed was a false amount of gaiety, she and Lord Habersham were planning a celebration of their marriage in the near future. Her friends could meet her illusive husband then.

  He had offered his congratulations, and for the most part, he meant it. If Katherine was happy, he was happy for her. In the matter of wives, however, it galled him a great deal that the first two women he had wanted to marry had turned him down.

  It was a thought that drew John’s gaze to the opposite end of the crowded salon. Her grace, Elizabeth Spencer, duchess of Sussex, stood like a ghostly waif next to the lean, smiling figure of her husband. He was decked out like a peacock. The clothes must have cost him a fortune, a suit of gold and royal blue encrusted with brilliants. It was a statement of his wealth and the power that his marriage to Elizabeth had created.

  But what of Elizabeth? In truth, John had wanted to marry the girl himself. He was taken with him from the moment he laid eyes on her. Seeing her now, looking so pale and forlorn, stirred a painful feeling within him.

  It made him wonder, if the gossip he had heard, and so far discounted might, after all, be true. That instead of a love match, Elizabeth had been forced into marriage with the duke.

  The hour grew late. Katherine’s face felt brittle from the constant smiling she had done and accepting the endless rounds of congratulations. Until now, she had endured the evening without complaint, pretending to a gaiety she did not feel, determined, however, to discover some small shred of information that might be of value to William.

  Standing beneath a brilliant chandelier at the edge of the salon, she laughed at a remark of her current companion.

  Jane Roberts had been her quarry from the time of her first meeting at Sussex Manor. Each time they had spoken with Katherine’s subtle attempts at friendship, Lady Cromwell’s interest had grown.

  Katherine laughed at another lusty sally, this one describing one of the lords male anatomy as compared with that of a shriveled up toad.

  “You are delightfully wicked, my lady,” Katherine said, wondering if William had ever seen this side of the woman. She doubted it. Lady Cromwell was extremely good at enthralling a man, teasing him to distraction while disguising the true depths of her depravity.

  “My dear,” she said, “it is past time we ended the formalities between us. From now on, please call me Jane and I shall call you Katherine.”

  Katherine forced another painful smile. “I should be delighted, Jane.”

  The woman leaned closer. “I abhor most women, you know. However, once in a while, a female comes along who knows what she is about. I sensed that in you. You are a woman determined to live as she pleases. I do not know your husband, but whatever manner of man you have married, a woman of your passionate nature will not settle for less than a zealous lover.” There was something seductive in the look she case Katherine that made her suddenly uneasy. “It’s another thing we have in common.”

  Katherine nodded as if she agreed with the woman, but for the first time she felt wary. She had done it, formed a friendship with a woman who preferred the company of men. It was odd, but in the past few moments, Katherine could swear Jane had begun looking at her with the same sultry glances she usually reserved for her unwitting male prey. Surely she was imagining Jane’s thinly veiled sensual scrutiny. Surely the whispered stories Katherine had heard about woman taking woman as lovers weren’t really true. Suddenly, however, she wasn’t so sure.

  Jane glanced over her porcelain shoulder. “My escort is walking this way. I believe he has plans for me that will require the balance of the evening.” She threw the young man a seductive smile, then returned her attention to Katherine.

  “You must come to tea,” she said with a seductive lowering of her lashes. “Perhaps this upcoming Tuesday?” She smiled. “I promise I shall have all the juicy gossip on your ex-betrothed’s hasty marriage to Elizabeth. You may count on hearing every sordid detail, right down to the wedding night.”

  Tea with Jane Roberts. And Benjamin would be the topic of discussion. It was the chance she had been seeking, the perfect opportunity for her to ask questions, though the notion of an afternoon spent with Lady Cromwell made her decidedly uneasy.

  “I shall be delighted, Jane.”

  The woman smiled with satisfaction. Katherine said nothing as Lady Cromwell waved and strolled off to meet her lover. A few moments later, Damien arrived with Lord and Lady Chastain in tow. Stanton had introduced them, as she would have a proper chaperone. Fortunately she and Lady Chastain had liked each other at once and even her marriage to William had not altered that friendship.

  They left the soiree half an hour later, all of them exhausted from their evening.

  All the way home, Katherine thought of her upcoming meeting with Jane. She decided that telling William would not be the wisest move.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The moonlight shown brightly on this clear night, peeking through the trees outside the bedchamber, reflecting off the paving stones, reflecting the carriages as their occupants returned home. William paced the floor, stopping to peer into the darkness, waiting.

  Katherine had not returned from her evening with Damien and Lord and Lady Chastain. It was close to two in the morning. Damn her - where was she?

  William turned and retraced his steps, listening for sounds at the entry, worried about her, though he knew she was safe with his friend. At least the man who had been watching the house had apparently ended his surveillance.

  Another half hour passed before he heard Damien’s carriage approach. Then he heard Katherine climbing the stairs. A wave of relief rushed through him, followed by unexpected anger. Opening the door between their two rooms, he stormed into hers.

  “Was there something you wished to discuss, my lord?”

  The softness of her voice drew his attention toward her. She was starting to undress from her evening out.

  “You know damn well there is. I want to know what you’ve been up to that kept you out until this late hour.”

  “Late evenings are part of society soirees, my lord. Surely you remember that?”

  He tried not to notice how enticing she looked, but his body had noticed and the blood lust began to pulse through his veins.

  “You are suppose to be married. Did no one ask about me, your husband?”

  “They did indeed, my lord.” She sat down on the stool in front of her dresser and began to pull the pins out of her hair.

  “As we agreed,” she continued, “I told them
that you were a bookish sort, far more at home in the country than in the city. I told them I had, however, convinced you to host a ball at the end of the month in celebration of our marriage and then they could meet you. That should take care of their curiosity, at least for a while.”

  “Yes, the promise of a ball will take care of their curiosity for a while. Perhaps by then I’ll have enough evidence to confront Lady Cromwell. If I do she’ll be forced to admit to Benjamin’s guilt and to my innocence.”

  Katherine pulled her long hair forward over one shoulder, then pulled the bristles of her brush through it, past the tip of a breast. His gaze fastened there. He jerked his eyes away.

  “Once my name is cleared,” he said, “I’ll be able to leave. You can invent some sort of tale of my abandonment and then you can start the annulment proceedings. Damien can guide you, grease whatever palms he feels is necessary.”

  Katherine said nothing, for what seemed like forever, then she simply rose from her dressing stool, crossed the room, and turned her back. Wordlessly asking for his assistance to unfasten the row of tiny buttons.

  “I see no reason to hurry,” she finally said, waiting for his fingers to do their work. Beneath his hand, he could feel the smoothness of her skin. Inside his breeches he was hard as a stone.

  “Perhaps,” she said, “I shall grow accustomed to the notion of being married.” His head snapped up. The last button popped free and his fingers went still. “Once you have left the country and I am alone, I shall be allowed all manner of freedoms. A married woman who behaves with discretion may do nearly anything she pleases.”

  “Parading around as a husbandless wife wasn’t part of the bargain. You agreed to an annulment, Katherine.”

  “True.” She dramatically sighed, turning to face him. She held up the bodice of her unfastened gown, her breasts nearly spilled over the top as she did. “But if you have no wish to marry someone else, why would it matter? As your wife, I could move freely about without fear of scandal.”