A Taste of Temptation

by Amelia Grey

  But he could only allow this foreplay for a few moments. It felt too good to continue.

  “I want to feel your skin next to mine. I want to feel your body inside mine,” she whispered as she reached up and pressed her lips to his.

  She must have read his mind. He was slipping over the edge of his endurance. He gently took hold of her hand and moved it up to his chest.

  With no thought of pillows or coverlet, he reached down and scooped her up and laid her on top of the soft, luxuriously feminine bed. He stretched the length of his naked body on top of hers, and he groaned with indulgence from the sheer thrill of having her soft body beneath him once more.

  Andrew wanted immediately to enter her, but knew if he did he would spill his seed before he had given her pleasure. He had no desire to leave her wanting. He wanted to fill her and satisfy her completely before he gave in to his own gratification.

  His fingers feathered the outline of her face as he looked down at her and whispered, “I’m glad you’re mine, Olivia.”

  “Always want me, Andrew. I need you to always want me to be with you,” she whispered.

  “I will, my love. You know I will,” he answered with a deeper feeling than he thought possible.

  He bent his head and kissed that warm soft spot behind her ear. For a moment he rested his face in the crook of her neck. He breathed deeply, drinking in her warm, womanly scent. He kissed her soft feminine skin. He inhaled the scent of freshly washed hair. She was so warm. With tenderness he kissed his way down her neck, down to her breasts, taking first one and then the other into his mouth, moving slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

  For the first time in his life he wanted to do more than just satisfy a woman, he wanted to make Olivia feel treasured. He wanted her to know she was more important to him than any other woman had ever been. He didn’t know why or what exactly he was feeling but he knew he wanted something more than just gratification from Olivia.

  Leaving her breast moist from his tongue, he brushed her lips with his, easing over them with the lightest contact. She opened her mouth and playfully caught his bottom lip with her teeth. His tongue thrust in deep, sipping from her mouth. They teased each other with nips and kisses. With a loving hand, he raked his fingers down her breast, over her slim womanly hip and shapely inner thigh.

  Andrew moved his hand back up and caressed the warm skin of her stomach and up to her breast again, before inching his hand lower until he found the softness between her legs. There, he cupped her gently for a moment before finding the center of her desire with his fingers. He caressed her with a soft, circular movement.

  Within moments, she gasped and arched toward him. “Oh, yes, Andrew. That is where it feels best,” she murmured, dragging her lips away from his.

  “Tell me more.”

  She kissed his chin, his neck, and moved back up to his lips. “That is where I hunger for you.”

  She trembled beneath his loving caress.

  Andrew smiled. There was immense satisfaction in the way she responded to him. He relished the sensations touching her gave him.

  He didn’t want her excitement to end too soon, so he stopped stroking her center and positioned himself at her opening and pushed to enter her.

  Olivia was so tight his body trembled.

  Her arms went around his back and she hugged him to her. Using easy thrusts he pushed himself in and out, going deeper each time.

  “Open up and take all of me, Olivia. Move with me,” he whispered into her ear as he kissed the warmth of her neck.

  She raised her hips and matched his movement until they were moving as one. As soon as she joined him their tempo increased until Olivia cried out in passion. Andrew felt her body relax beneath him.

  Andrew allowed his body to release and he gasped with ecstasy as his body settled softly upon hers. He didn’t know if he had ever felt so complete.

  Lying with her, he realized he didn’t give a damn if she had forced him into marriage. Not one damn. She was the woman he wanted forever in his life.

  Forever?

  Did that mean he loved her?

  Andrew lay quiet and still on top of her as he thought about that possibility. He no longer had pleasure in the things that used to amuse him. He wanted to be home with Olivia. He enjoyed looking at her, talking to her, and just being with her.

  He especially loved the way she challenged him at every turn.

  Did all that equate to being in love with her?

  He rose on his elbows and looked down at her. She smiled up at him and his heart fluttered. Could what he was feeling for her be love? He certainly hadn’t planned on that happening.

  Olivia opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but he put a finger to her lips and silenced her. He didn’t want this time with her to end and he wasn’t ready to talk about what he was feeling.

  “I’ve not had enough of you, Olivia. Not nearly enough.”

  “Then kiss me, Andrew,” she said from beneath his fingertips. “Kiss me and show me more of what you can teach me.”

  And he did.

  ***

  Olivia’s eyes popped open to the semidarkness of her room and she blinked rapidly to adjust her sight. Something had awakened her. Andrew lay facing her, his arm thrown over her waist. His even breathing told her he was sleeping peacefully.

  But her sixth sense told her there was something wrong.

  She had that odd feeling again as if someone was in the room with her, watching her, yet she felt no sense of danger from the feeling.

  She recognized it as the same feeling she had had her first night in Andrew’s house. She listened but didn’t hear anything other than Andrew’s soft breathing and her own breath. Without moving Andrew’s arm from her waist she rose slowly up on her elbows and looked toward the door and gasped.

  The shadowy figure of a man was going out her door. The same man she had seen on her wedding night.

  Olivia bolted up in bed.

  Andrew stirred. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I saw that man again. He just went out the door.”

  “What?” Andrew said, coming instantly awake. He sat up quickly and looked at the door.

  Olivia scrambled off the bed and ran to her wardrobe for a wrap. “I saw him. It was the same man who was in my room before.”

  In one fluid motion Andrew rolled off the bed and picked up his trousers, stepping into them as he hurried to the door. Olivia met him there and he jerked it open.

  They stepped out into the corridor. It was quiet, dark, and empty.

  “Are you sure you saw someone?” Andrew asked as he buttoned the flap on his trousers.

  “Yes, but—” Olivia hesitated as a chill swept over her. “Do you smell smoke?”

  Andrew sniffed. His eyes widened. “Damnation! Get down the stairs.”

  Nineteen

  Andrew grabbed Olivia’s hand and they raced down the stairs. The smell of something burning grew stronger with each step they took. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs Olivia saw a small plume of smoke floating out of the parlor. The fire couldn’t be too big with so little smoke.

  “Get the servants and get out of the house!” Andrew exclaimed as he let go of her hand and quickly disappeared into the smoke.

  Olivia looked at the front door and then back at the entrance to the parlor. She didn’t want to wake anyone until she knew how big the fire was. And she certainly couldn’t run out of the house and leave Andrew to fight the fire alone.

  With no idea what she would see or do once inside, she entered the parlor. She immediately put her hand over her mouth and nose to keep from breathing in the smoke.

  The draperies covering one window were the only things burning. No one in the house was in immediate danger so she didn’t yell “fire.” She watched Andrew yank the flam
ing fabric from the wall to fall on the floor. He turned to grab a pillow from the settee and saw her.

  “I told you to get out,” he shouted as flames shot up at him.

  “No, I’m going to help you put out the fire,” she insisted and looked around the room.

  “Your hair and robe are too long. You’ll catch fire,” he said and began to beat the leaping flames with the pillow.

  But Olivia was already racing toward the far wall where she saw a small tapestry. She jerked it down from the rod where it hung and hurried back over to the fire. Throwing her hair to her back and catching her robe between her legs, she helped Andrew smother the fire until all that remained was the smoldering fabric crumpled on the floor.

  With labored breath and eyes and throat stinging from the swell of smoke, Olivia looked over at Andrew. Moonlight shone in from the bare window and bathed him in soft light. He was dressed in nothing but his half-buttoned trousers, his bare feet planted next to the charred remains of the draperies. His rumpled hair fell across the scowl etched on his forehead, but to her, he’d never looked more handsome.

  And she’d never been more certain that she loved him with all her heart.

  He coughed again and in a raspy voice said, “You shouldn’t have stayed.” Concern was etched in every line of his face. “You should have gotten everyone out of the house.”

  I couldn’t leave you. You’re my husband and I love you.

  “When I saw that nothing but the draperies were burning I knew there was no immediate danger to anyone. I knew we could put out the fire,” she said, wishing she could say so much more, but knowing now wasn’t the time to profess her love.

  “You are too brave for your own good.”

  His compliment pleased her, but rather than remark on it she said, “Do you think whoever did this is still in the house?”

  Andrew shook his head. “Only a fool would remain in a house after he set it on fire. Whomever you saw leaving your room just tried to kill us.”

  “No, it couldn’t have been the man I saw. There wasn’t time for him to have made it downstairs and set the fire. We were at the door seconds after I saw him.”

  Andrew’s expression remained dark. “The fire didn’t start by itself. There’s a half-burned candle on the floor. Someone lit the candle and opened the window so the breeze would blow the draperies into the flame. There’s no way this could have been an accident.”

  “I agree. Whoever lit the candle probably left the house by going out the window, but it couldn’t have been the man I saw.” She stepped closer to Andrew. “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy but I think—I think what I saw in my room was a ghost.”

  He coughed again and cleared his throat. “Olivia, this is not the time to start that.”

  “No, let me finish, Andrew. I think the spirit awakened me and wanted me to follow him to the door so I would smell the smoke. I think he wanted to warn me so no one would be injured.”

  Andrew’s eyes searched hers again. “Olivia, that’s preposterous. I have lived in this house for over ten years. If there was a ghost in this house, surely I would have seen him by now.”

  “Perhaps you have never seen the ghost because you don’t believe. Nothing else explains how the man I saw disappeared so quickly.”

  “I don’t even know that you saw anyone.”

  “I’m not lying,” she said indignantly.

  “I’m not accusing you of that, but maybe you were dreaming you saw a man, or maybe you just saw a shadow.”

  “No. I saw him as clearly as I saw him on our wedding night. It was the same ghost—ah—same man.”

  “Why do you think he came into your room that first night? What was he warning you of then?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he wanted to warn me that someone was in the house placing the pike where it would fall on you with the least bit of jarring. I don’t have all the answers, Andrew, but I know strange things are going on in this house that can’t be explained.”

  “I agree with you. Strange things are going on inside this house and outside, too, and it’s past time I got to the bottom of them. Too many things have happened for them to all be coincidence.”

  A shiver of fear raced through Olivia. “Are you thinking about a couple of days ago when you were crossing the street and a carriage almost ran you down? When you hurt your ankle?”

  “Yes. The driver didn’t stop to see if I was all right. At the time there was no reason to think it was anything other than a careless youth on a runaway carriage, but now I’m sure it wasn’t.”

  She reached out and took hold of his arm as she said, “Why didn’t you—”

  Andrew winced and jerked his arm away from her.

  Olivia gasped. “You’re hurt.” Even in the grayish moonlight she saw a large red welt on the inside of his forearm. “You’ve been burned. Come to the kitchen and let me see to it.”

  “I’ll be all right,” he said.

  She placed her open palm on the upper part of his arm, refusing to let him brush this injury off as not important. “Andrew, please, you can’t take a chance on the burn turning putrid. Let me take care of you.”

  “All right.”

  He relented and followed her into the kitchen, where he sat down at the table and lit the lamp. Whibbs had told Olivia which cabinet held the assortment of salves and medicines her first day in the house. She found the basket of ointments and placed it on the table in front of Andrew. She then poured water from a pitcher into a basin and collected some clean cloths from the cupboard and sat down to wash the wound.

  Olivia pushed her hair to her back before dipping the cloth into the pan. She squeezed the cloth, letting the water dribble over the burned area on his arm. The expression on Andrew’s face told her the cool water was soothing.

  They were silent for a few moments until Olivia said, “I was looking for the ghost for my aunt.”

  He looked up and his gaze met hers. “What?”

  “That night you found me in your bedchamber, I was there because of Agatha. The ghost is the reason we came to London.”

  “So you really are a ghost hunter?” he asked.

  Olivia smiled at him as she continued to let the cool water wash over his wound. “It sounds so disturbing when you put it that way.”

  “No, Olivia, coming to London in search of a ghost is what sounds disturbing.”

  “I suppose it is. It was disturbing for me, too, at first. I felt the same way you do when Aunt Agatha told me that Lord Pinkwater’s ghost was calling to her from the grave.”

  “Your aunt?”

  “Yes. Perhaps you don’t know that she was once betrothed to Lord Pinkwater.”

  “I don’t think I did hear that.”

  “Probably not. It was so long ago. My aunt was only eighteen at the time. Anyway, Lord Pinkwater broke the engagement, but Agatha never stopped loving him or hoping that he would return to her one day. Even after his death. A few weeks ago, she insisted his ghost called to her and told her to come to London and find him because he had something important to say to her.”

  “And you agreed to come to London and help her because you believe in ghosts.”

  “No.” Olivia put down the wet cloth and picked up a dry one and lightly patted the burn. She liked taking care of Andrew. “At the time I was quite sure I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I knew I had to help my aunt. She wanted to search private homes until she found the one where Lord Pinkwater’s ghost resides.”

  “You think his ghost is in my house?” he asked incredulously.

  “I didn’t at the time, but now I’m beginning to wonder. Do you remember the first night we met? An urn fell from the stairwell landing.”

  “Even though I tried to drink myself into oblivion that night after you left, I remember every moment of it very well.”

  “When the urn fe
ll Aunt Agatha considered it a sign to her from Lord Pinkwater letting her know that he was in this house.”

  “And that’s why you were upstairs looking for him.”

  “Yes. She wanted to search your house, but I couldn’t let her for fear someone would catch her. I was afraid she would tell them what she was doing and they would think she was a crazy old woman who should be kept locked away from Society. Her position in the ton has always been the most important thing in her life. I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone finding out that she was looking for Lord Pinkwater’s ghost.”

  “So you were protecting your aunt’s reputation.”

  Olivia nodded as she lightly rubbed the salve on his arm. The burn was red and angry looking but Olivia considered it a good sign that no blister had formed.

  “Even now she asks me if I have seen him or felt his presence in the house.”

  “And what do you tell her?”

  Olivia wrapped his arm in strips of the white cloth.

  “That I haven’t seen him. I can’t explain who or what I’ve seen in my room twice now, but I don’t believe I was dreaming. What I saw was too real. I’m beginning to think a ghost is the only reasonable explanation.”

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” Andrew said softly, “but I do believe in you. If you say you saw a man in your room, then I believe you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But what I have to do now is find the man who started the fire, and I have a feeling I know who he is. I’m going to look for him as soon as I get you out of this house.”

  Olivia’s hands went still. She felt as if her breath stalled in her chest. Her gaze flew to his. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to make arrangements today to have you escorted to my house in Derbyshire until I get this settled. There are plenty of servants there to protect you.”

  Olivia’s mind went blurry with thoughts and her head felt heavy. All she could think was that Andrew was sending her away to his country estate and he would be staying in London.

  “No,” she said in a hoarse whisper as she rose from the table and looked down at him. “I don’t want to go.”