by Gaelen Foley
When he put it like that, Lily suddenly wondered what she was protecting Owen for. The strength in her balled up like a fist in her middle. You’re right.
“His name was Lord Owen Masters.” She turned to Derek. “He was twenty-six, the younger brother of a marquess. He was visiting one of the local gentry in our village. That’s how he first saw me. I was sitting up in a tree reading a book.” She paused, allowing herself to remember.
Where shame had been before, now suddenly there was grief. But Derek’s nearness steadied her.
“He thought my reading a book up in a tree was very amusing and struck up a conversation.” She shook her head. “I had never been outside my village before. What did I know of highborn London rakehells and their charms?”
“No wonder you despise their breed.”
“He told me I was pretty. He came up into the tree with me.”
“Like a snake,” he muttered.
“Yes. He asked about my book and then he wanted to know everything about me.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Derek said amiably.
“Oh, Derek, he was vile, but I’m the one who was stupid and gullible and naïve.”
“You were a little girl! Surely you don’t blame yourself?”
“Of course I do, as well I should.”
“I don’t believe my ears.”
She stared at him. “I let him have his way. Not once, but twice before my mother discovered the affair.”
“Did you even understand what he was doing?”
She just looked at him. “N-no, but if it wasn’t my fault,” she said haltingly, “then why would my mother have screamed at me so much and threatened to throw me out on the street?”
“Oh, darling,” he whispered, moving closer. “I see why your grandfather left you Balfour Manor.” He shook his head. “Lily, your mother’s reaction was hugely wrong. You mustn’t believe her.” His eyes narrowed with a brooding look. “I’ve seen men like this. I’ve gone to school with them, I’ve served with them. Whoever he was, this man singled you out because your father wasn’t around to protect you.”
“No.” She flinched and looked away as though he had struck her. “Please don’t say that, Derek.”
“Why? It’s true and I think you know that.”
“You can’t blame my father, it’s my fault!” she wrenched out.
“No.” He gazed into her eyes. “It’s the man’s fault, and your parents’.”
She shook her head.
“You were innocent,” he said softly. “You were just a girl. I know how frightening it must be to realize that. That there truly are vicious people out there in the world, people with no conscience who would do such a thing. And to be made a victim of something beyond your control that is terrible.”
Lily wept softly until he wiped her tears away.
“But you’ve got me now,” Derek told her in a harder tone. “And if anyone ever tries to hurt you again, they’re going to have to get through me first.”
Lily trembled as she gazed at him, longing to believe. “You’re going to kill half the world for me, eh?”
“If they annoy you, yes.”
“My soldier.”
“Actually, I’m interested in a new career.” He cupped her cheek.
“Oh?” she whispered unsteadily. “In what field?”
“This one will do,” he replied with a glance around at the moonlit meadow around them. “Whatever keeps me close to you.”
She pulled back a bit and looked at him uncertainly. “I thought you were going back to India.”
“Change of plans.”
“Since when?”
“Since now.”
“Do you mean it?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
Her heart quaked. “Maybe you should think about this. Take a day or two and—”
“What is there to think about? Did you stop and think before you rushed into that burning stable to save my life? Or when you gave up your most prized possessions to keep me out of Newgate? No, Lily. My mind is made up. I may not be a rich man, but everything I have is yours, and if I have to pick up a hammer myself to fix your damned roof, I’ll do it. I’m yours—” He bowed his head. “If you’ll have me.”
She stared at him in wonder. “Are you saying…?”
“Marry me. I know we can make it all work out, as long as we’re together.”
“Oh, Derek.” She flew into his embrace and pulled him down to kiss him with pure joy. “I love you.”
“I love you, Lily.” His arms wrapped around her waist and he lifted her off her feet a little. “Thank you for trusting me with your confidence.”
“Thank you for being worthy of it.” She kissed him again. “You taste like smoke.”
“You taste like smoked ham.”
“Disgusting.”
“I don’t care.” He laughed.
“Just kiss me.”
She did.
“You know,” he drawled after a long moment, “for our honeymoon, dear, I have always wanted to see Italy.”
“Derek!” She couldn’t help laughing through her tears as she tilted her head back and looked at him, shaking her head. How Grandfather would have loved him!
“Hm?” he asked, gazing down at her with an innocent lift of his eyebrows.
“Oh, nothing, you impossible creature,” she murmured. “More kisses, please.”
He smiled and obeyed.
“Mmm, Derek,” she purred after a moment, plucking at the waistband of his trousers. “We’ve got to do something about all these clothes.”
He nodded, gazing at her with a ravenous smile. “Agreed. Time to go for a swim?”
“Oh, yes. I think so.”
Exchanging another eager kiss, they stripped with speedy efficiency, watching each other like hungry diners waiting for the chef to quit explaining his delectable creations so they could indulge. Lily freed her arms from the tailored sleeves of her torn bodice. Her fingers trembling with anticipation, she unfastened the side buttons at her waist.
Derek had a head start on her, already rid of his shirt and boots. He peeled off his snug breeches and flung them aside. Staring avidly, she watched him rid himself of his short drawers. He slid her an impossibly seductive smile as he turned away, and then walked in all his naked glory into the water.
Lily watched him, wide-eyed.
Heart racing, she hurried to follow him, fighting her way free of the intricate lacing of her stays. At last, she let her riding habit fall away and stepped out of its pooled fabric at her feet.
Ahead of her, Derek waded into the water, testing its depth. Then he dove forward, disappearing with a splash. He came up for air a few seconds later with an “ah” of manly relish.
“How is it?”
“Blissful.” He flung his head back, smoothing his hair out of his face with both hands.
Lily marveled at his biceps.
He cupped his hands and drank a few swallows of the water to relieve his thirst, and then splashed at her.
She grinned.
“I’m waaaiting,” he called softly.
“Coming!” As she lifted her chemise off over her head and paused to drop it into the pile of her discarded clothing, she heard the low, almost pained exclamation that escaped his lips at the sight of her nude body, though she did not know the word he had uttered or even what language.
She glanced at him. He was standing in waist-deep water in the moonlight, his stare devouring her. Dressed in nothing but her diamond earrings, Lily tucked a lock of her hair shyly behind her ear and slowly walked toward him. She could not believe she was standing outside in nature totally naked.
Scandalous!
Wonderful.
Never before had she felt so free, with nothing left to hide. All her skin tingled with heightened sensitivity. She could even feel the zephyr’s softest current whispering past her sides.
He moved forward, the silvered water rippling around him as he came toward he
r, offering a gallant hand to assist her down the gentle slope into the lake. Smiling wide, she trod carefully over squishy mud and slippery stones.
“There you are,” he murmured.
The water was cold, but after the fire had nearly melted them, it felt glorious. Lily laughed.
The next thing she knew, she had dunked herself under the surface and came up breathless and exultant. It was like washing the past away with all its hurt and shame, becoming fresh and clean and new.
Derek flicked water at her and Lily in turn duly splashed him. “Excuse me, I saved your life and this is my thanks?” she scolded.
He laughed. “Come on, I’ll take you for a ride.” He pulled her toward him through the water. She clasped her hands around his neck as he indicated, and then he swam, Lily floating along over his back.
“My sea horse,” she whispered in his ear.
“Down we go.”
She held her breath and hung on tight; his powerful strokes sent them gliding through the water’s silent world, trailing bubbles. When they came up for air, she let go of him, treading water across from him. “Can you touch the bottom here?”
“Yes.” He stood firmly. The water was up to the middle of his chest. “Come here. I’ll hold you.”
It was an invitation she was happy to accept. She smiled and swam over to him. He gathered her into his embrace. Lily lay back luxuriously across his arms, buoyant on the water, her hair floating around them like pale seaweed.
His eyes smoldered as he watched her in tender amusement. “My water lily.” Droplets glistened on his body as he leaned down to claim her lips.
The water was cool, but his kiss was hot; his skin was slick as she curled her arms around him. Drinking in his kisses, she ran her hand down the smooth, hard curves of his chest and arms. He moaned softly with pleasure at her touch. Holding her, his arm hooked across her bottom, their wet naked bodies pressed close, warm skin and cool water. She felt intoxicatingly, exhilaratingly alive.
Derek paused to gaze at her. His wet hair was blacker than the night, slicked back from his forehead. His pale eyes captured hers in a hungry stare. His lips were plump with her kisses and moisture gleamed along his square jaw. She looked into his eyes in longing, and he smiled.
Bending near again, he began kissing her whole face, her brow, her eyelids. He nibbled at her cheek and chin, teething her lower lip gently, drawing her mouth open to consume her tongue. Lily’s chest heaved. Her fingers dug into his broad shoulders.
Derek kissed his way down her neck. Her nipples were hard, and as she arched back a bit in the water, his tongue played over them. He licked and drank the water off her skin, his exquisite mouth sliding along her body. “You should always be naked,” he murmured. “Like Lady Godiva.”
“Only if you join me.”
“With pleasure.” Then his wicked smile faded to a look of rapt intensity as he visibly savored her caresses.
Lily’s hands glided over his sleek, sun-bronzed body, the corded steel of his sinewy arms, the rippling muscles of his abdomen. He looked into her eyes, his own dark and stormy with passion. Silver starlight glided over the sleek contours of his body. He watched her with a smoldering gaze as she reached below the water’s surface and grasped the rigid length of his arousal, stroking him.
She could feel him throbbing in her hand as he accepted her worship. She gave him the deepest possible kisses, even sucked on his tongue as she pleasured him, entranced by his masculine grace. The solid power of his hardness, so thick in her grasp, told her how much her touch excited him. She thrilled to his response and persisted dauntlessly until he stopped her with a groan and gathered her near.
“I want you.”
She brushed her cheek hungrily against his. “Make love to me.”
He took her face between his hands briefly and kissed her again and again. He went slowly toward the water’s edge. There, he got her up onto the banks and laid her down on a bed of velvet grasses.
He rose out of the water and leaned over her, braced on his hands. She enfolded him between her thighs and groaned with needy pleasure as she took him in. His big, swollen member filled her to the brim. Breathless, Lily raked her fingers down the muscled wall of his chest. He licked his lips and lowered himself to kiss her.
She grasped his nape, taking his tongue and his cock inside her in ravenous need. His hand was so warm, cupping her breast artfully. She wanted him in her over and over again, this beautiful man, her true love. Wrapping her thighs around his waist, she hooked her heels together behind the small of his back and arched beneath him.
“Ah, you’re rather a naughty one, aren’t you?” he purred in great approval.
“I want to give you pleasure.”
“Oh, you do, Lily. You do. I knew you were passionate, but I never guessed this much.” When he moved down and kissed her again, she ran her hands down his lean sides and molded her palms over his sleek buttocks and his hips, drawing him in more aggressively at the same time she arched to meet his thrust. “You want it harder, love?” he asked in a taut growl.
“Yes,” Lily whispered.
“I can do that.” He had been holding back, she realized, gallant as he was, protective of her supposed sensibilities. But she was going mad for him. Sensing the wild degree of her desire, he took her mercilessly, ravishing her.
It was nirvana.
Placing his thumb lightly on her pleasure center while he took her, he made her toes curl with the delightful sensations. Their damp bodies slapping, his loving was bone-jarring, fierce, and sublime. As her strength ebbed in the sheer luscious delight of his taking, her hands slipped weakly from his neck.
She clasped her wrists loosely above her head and let him do with her what he willed, her whole body subject to his every whim. He cupped the bare cheeks of her bottom in his big hands, the better to feed her quivering passage with his massive erection. He was trembling with arousal. Her breasts rocked to and fro as he took her; his lips chased them in hot, playful courtship.
His fevered panting filled her world.
Lily made not the slightest protest when he shifted positions, eager to accommodate whatever wicked notion had inspired him. He knelt behind her, turning her and pressing her forward onto all fours. When he took her from behind, Lily knew she had no further claim whatsoever to call herself a lady.
Happily, though, she did not care. They were as randy as two animals in a field, naked and unself-conscious, absorbed in their mating and lost to everything else.
She reached up behind her and caressed Derek’s cheek. He kissed her shoulder and pulled her up onto her knees, never leaving her body. She parted her legs wider, all but sitting on his lap, leaning back against him. He slid his hands around her waist, touching her body everywhere, Her chest heaved as did his.
He was so deep inside of her now that if he moved a fraction of an inch more, she would scream. “It’s never been like this for me before,” he blurted out in a ragged whisper at her ear.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. You could make me lose control. I love you.”
“Derek.” She curled her fingers loosely in his long hair. “You’re an angel.”
“I want to come inside you.”
“Yes,” she panted.
“You could make me explode, the way you move.”
She smiled with the heady knowledge that she pleased him.
“Turn for me,” he breathed. “I want to kiss you when you come.”
She turned slowly to face him, straddling his lap.
Gently she welcomed him again, relishing her impalement on his tremendous shaft. “Mm, Derek, you are very well made,” she remarked in an admiring whisper.
He kissed her softly in amusement, his passion deepening with every stroke of his tongue on hers. His desire was robust and virile, full-bodied, and his need was strong. She burned to slake it.
The position he had chosen for their climax was wonderfully intimate. They were both sitting, f
acing each other, she on his lap, he with his arms wrapped around her.
The world beyond the few-feet circumference of lake and stars and grass around them had ceased to exist. There was only each other. They had defied death and certain doom together, and now must answer instinct’s demand to affirm their mutual survival and their bond—and indeed, the fact that they had found each other at all.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you, too. I can’t believe you saved my life. How can something so fragile-looking and sweet be so brave?” He kissed her hand. “Lie back for me, darling. Let your man complete you.”
His heavenly words alone could have brought her to climax, but he was right. She craved his love—and release from this delicious frenzy. He wanted to give. She needed to receive, and only he would do.
He laid her down in the same position from which they had started and he loved her with every stroke of his magnificent body on hers, heightening her satisfaction. Tender and thorough, attentive to her every desire, he was a lover beyond her wildest fantasies. Weeks ago, she had given him a kiss, a bold, handsome stranger in a garden folly. Now she gave herself to him in total, mind and body, heart and soul. She had never thought she would trust again—but then came Derek Knight.
“Come for me, Lily. Come for me.” His gentle urging and his velvet gaze were all it took to coax her surrender.
“Oh, Derek.”
“That’s right, darling. I’m here for you. Let it all go.”
She obeyed. She closed her eyes and relaxed into the beauty of the silken fire sweeping through her. Desire consumed her. Derek drove her to the edge with his intoxicating rhythm and then she was falling into ecstasy. He watched her surrender in stormy, loving reverence and then gifted her with his own. Dimly, distantly, she heard the escalation in his deepening moans.
As he lunged against her bucking hips, her splendor-dazzled eyes were opened to mere slits as she watched him arch his head back with a grimace of pure rapture. His seed flooded her core in massive pulsations. “Oh, yes.”
As the powerful surges of lightning-like pleasure racked them both with sweet convulsions of release, the shudders gradually eased, their violent flashes of brilliance simmering down to a warm, heartfelt glow.