by Gaelen Foley
The timid, homely creature was all aflutter to see Serena again, and to know that she herself would soon be reunited with her idol, Mama.
While Papa went to make himself comfortable, Serena picked up Wesley the cat and introduced Mrs. Fisher to Cousin Tamsin. The lady spy proceeded to charm her mousy cousin with a skill as practiced as Lord Beauchamp’s.
At last, after about two hours, Papa and Cousin Tamsin traipsed out toward the carriage. Lord Dunhaven had braced himself for the long trip back, while Tamsin fluttered along haplessly with an armful of books and papers, muttering that she was sure she was forgetting ten things.
“If you remember something you forgot, just write to me, and I will send it to you,” said Serena. By then, she was ready to kick them both out the door so she could be free to run back to Azrael at top speed.
Papa had thought of one more thing he wanted to tell her fiancé before he left Town, so Serena and Mrs. Fisher rode back across the square with them in the coach.
It was no secret that Serena intended to spend more time with him this evening, after their painful separation. She assumed they would have dinner together. Papa frowned but did not object.
“And, um, why are we going here?” Cousin Tamsin asked, looking at Mrs. Fisher. “We don’t even know this gentleman.”
“Serena’s marrying him,” Papa grunted.
“What?” Tamsin’s eyes bulged behind her spectacles.
Mrs. Fisher chuckled.
Serena shrugged and gave her kinswoman a sheepish smile. “Mama will tell you all about it.” She kept as innocent a look on her face as she could manage until they reached the other side of the square.
Papa got out and handed her and Mrs. Fisher down, while Cousin Tamsin waited in the coach, peering out the window in confusion. The two Order “footmen” jumped down off the back of the coach where they’d ridden, marching over to stick close by Serena.
They’d been introduced to her as Brody and Porter, and both were charged with defending her with their lives, if necessary. Quite impressive for two people she didn’t even know, she thought.
Azrael came out to the front of Rivenwood House again to see the travelers off. Papa marched ahead of the ladies to have a private word with the duke; Serena did not hear what was said.
She stared at their exchange, though, worried that Papa might be threatening her fiancé again, but to her surprise, Azrael pulled a piece of paper out of his waistcoat pocket and showed it to him with a smile.
Papa glanced at the paper for a moment by the light of the front lanterns—daylight was fading fast—then he nodded, gave the paper back to Azrael, and offered him a handshake.
Azrael shook his hand, and the sight of the two men officially reconciling after their row at the manor warmed the cockles of her heart.
Tamsin looked completely baffled, but the private exchange between future father- and son-in-law was brief. Then the two men returned to the waiting vehicle, where Serena and her new chaperone stood, waiting to see them off.
Azrael hung back at a polite distance to let her say goodbye to her father.
“How do the new horses seem?” Dunny called to his fresh driver, another Order man, who’d be making the return trip to the manor, along with another armed groom.
“Sound and ready to go, my lord,” the driver called back.
They’d replaced the four hired horses and added two more, for extra speed and power.
“Right. Well then, I’m off. Come here, you.” Papa hooked an arm around her shoulders and pulled Serena near to kiss her on the forehead. “I’m proud o’ you, poppet.”
“What did I do?” she asked. After surrendering her virginity to the duke across the street, the last thing she expected was to hear that Papa was proud of her.
He shrugged. “I just am. You’ll always be my little girl, you know that, don’t you?”
Serena nodded and hugged him, choked up. “And you’ll always be my papa.”
She knew in that moment exactly why Mama had chosen Lord Dunhaven, when she could’ve married anyone with her beauty. He was a good man, and he truly loved her and her children.
Even the cuckoo in his nest.
“Anyway, you were right.” He cleared his throat. “The lad’s nothing like his father, thank God.”
“What were the two of you talking about?”
“He got the special license. He was asking me officially for your hand. A bit late for that, so what else could I say? It’s all right, though. I know a man in love when I see one.”
She beamed.
Then Dunny turned to the unsmiling, square-jawed footmen. “You lot, look after her for me.”
Brody and Porter nodded. Serena wondered if these fellows ever spoke. Papa tapped her on the nose. “And you be good.”
She flashed a grin. “I’ll try. Thank you—for everything, Papa. Truly.” Then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Safe travels. I’m sure we’ll all be together again soon. Give Mama and the boys my love.”
He nodded, and Azrael came over to stand beside her as Lord Dunhaven lumbered up into the coach. The whole thing tilted, and the springs groaned a bit under his bulk.
“Take me home, driver!” the earl boomed cheerfully through the window, which he’d let down a crack. “Let’s get this journey over with.”
“Hear, hear!” Tamsin squeaked.
“Goodbye.” Serena and Azrael stood waving in front of Rivenwood House as the carriage rolled off down the street toward a sunset the color of a bruise.
Tamsin waved through the back window, but even before the coach had disappeared, Azrael leaned down toward Serena.
His warm lips brushed the curve of her ear with a whisper that sent a thrill through her entire body: “I want you in my bed. Right now.”
CHAPTER 18
Wild at Heart
The needy little groan that escaped her at his mere proposition stoked Azrael’s blood. She bit her plump lower lip and gave him a smoldering, sidelong glance that admitted she’d been as desperate for him as he’d been for her over the past week.
He started getting hard where he stood right there on the pavement. Now that would get the neighbors talking, he thought as he captured her hand.
“Come with me,” he whispered, pulling her inside.
She pattered after him with an eager skip in her step. He sent her a doting smile and got the door, already undressing her with his eyes.
His heart pounded as they strode back into the entrance hall followed by Mrs. Fisher, whoever the hell she really was.
“Ahem, er, yes, I say,” Azrael attempted, turning to the spy, “Lady Serena and I need to discuss a few particulars of our wedding…privately, if you don’t mind—”
“Oh please,” Mrs. Fisher drawled, while Brody and Porter exchanged a cynical glance. “I am not some Patroness of Almack’s, darlings. Help us rout out this nasty cell, and I don’t give a damn what you do.”
“In that case, see you in the morning.” Azrael hurried Serena ahead of him, his hands on her waist.
Giggling wickedly, she picked up the hem of her long skirts in both hands and pounded up the stairs ahead of him.
He captured her on the landing above and pinned his luscious prize against the wall, claiming her mouth fiercely. She clung to him, kissing him back just as heartily, her dainty fingers already plucking at his clothes.
Her chest heaved against his. Unable to resist, he cupped her breast. “I’ve been wanting you sooo badly,” he admitted in a ragged murmur. But that was no doubt obvious when he leaned against her body, demonstrating the truth of his claim by letting his hardness throb between the juncture of her thighs.
She groaned, visibly enjoying the randy caress of his pelvis against hers. Serena captured his face between her trembling hands and kissed him with drowning depth. “Oh, God, Azrael, I need you,” she panted. “I missed you so much.” She slid her hand down between their bodies and squeezed his rigid member through his clothes.
A
zrael closed his eyes with a shudder. His world was spinning. At this rate, they’d never even make it to his chamber. He laughed breathlessly. “Oh, my angel, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
“Why don’t you show me, then, Your Grace?” The little hellion pulled back to entice him with a sultry stare. The golden chips in her eyes burned, and her ruby lips were already swollen with his kisses.
He needed no further invitation, and lifted her off her feet and carried her into the nearest chamber. The hell with waiting. He had to have her now. He had brought her into the music room. Indeed, it would serve, for the instrument he intended to play was her enchanting young body. By God, he’d make her sing, he vowed as he nudged the door shut behind him.
The room was all but dark with the last glimmer of daylight fading beyond the windows. The curtains were still open, swooped back in their holders, but since no candle burned in the room, nobody would see them.
Azrael laid her down on a luxurious divan of green brocade near the tall harp and stool. Reaching out her fingertips, Serena could just skim the strings, and they trilled gently through the room.
He smiled, then kissed her again.
The music room connected by pocket doors—currently closed—with the drawing room, where he had just explained the plan to everyone.
At least, as much of it as he was willing to share at this point. He did not want to worry his future bride unduly, but things could get more dangerous than she yet understood. Azrael could not think about such things at the moment.
He was desperate to be inside of her. He knelt over her, unfastening his trousers. Serena licked her lips beneath him and loosened the bodice of her gown.
Belatedly remembering the rest of his clothes, he tore away his cravat. She helped him peel his tailcoat off his shoulders, and his waistcoat, too.
His skin burned, flushed with fevered longing as he lifted his shirt off over his head.
She murmured that he was beautiful. It was a strange thing for a man to hear, but he knew she had meant it with earnest innocence as she curled up to a sitting position and kissed his chest softly, again and again, while her hands caressed him.
Her touch told him she knew he was all hers. Not an atom of his body could have denied it. He jolted with a thrill of anticipation when he felt the exploratory brush of dainty fingers at his waist; she proceeded unfastening the placket of his trousers the rest of the way, and he caught his breath when she thrust her hand daringly inside.
He rested his palm on her hair, a breathy whisper of relief escaping him as her hand curled around his throbbing cock. “Yes.”
He bared her shoulders, tugging at her gown, while she went on kissing his stomach and chest. He forced himself to be gentle, though he wanted to rip the damned thing off her, half ready to spend in her hand simply from her touch. He could not remember any woman in the past ever making him feel so out of control. It was all he could do to rein himself in, let alone her, the little wild thing.
He captured her hand, stilling her ardent stroking, lest she make an adolescent fool of him. Determined to hold himself back, he pressed a fingertip softly under her chin to lift her gaze to his and bring the rain of her sweet kisses all over his torso to an end.
With his entire being focused on her, he pressed her down gently onto her back once more. Then he moved downward over her body, tugged her bodice just a bit lower, and captured a plump, straining nipple in his mouth.
He moaned with his mouth full. She gripped his hair in both hands, squirming with pleasure beneath him. As her body undulated with still-innocent demand, he was consumed by the fire he’d awakened in her. So ripe, this flower he had plucked.
He needed more of her. So much more.
He could feel her heartbeat thumping under his palm as he caressed her chest and throat with his right hand, swirled his tongue around the swollen nipple in his mouth, while his left hand crept down her thigh to gather the hem of her skirts in his clutch.
He pulled the crumpled fabric upward slowly until he found the shapely stockinged leg beneath her skirts. He quivered as he molded his hand against her calf. So perfect. The white stocking under his skimming touch was soft, but the flesh beneath the thin silk was even softer, as he rediscovered when he reached the lace garter around her thigh and found bare skin above it.
He lifted his head to attend to the other nipple, pausing only to say, “You are truly exquisite.”
She whimpered with need and arched beneath him, and he sucked longer on that sweet pink candy while his fingertips explored and played with the regions above the pretty garter. Serena groaned and bit her lip when he slipped a finger into the pearlescent dew that dripped from the folds of her quivering passage.
Feeling her teeming wetness for him was more than he could bear. Much as he wanted to drink it all up, his cock had other, very firm ideas. He couldn’t wait a moment more. He needed her at once.
Keeping his finger sliding within her, teasing her with a little hors d’oeuvre ahead of the main course, he raised his face from her breast, licked his lips, and then lifted her skirts the rest of the way.
Her eyes glazed, frantic with want, she clutched at his waist, pulling him to her. He withdrew his hand from between her legs and braced himself over her, plunging deep into her core, unable to hold back a second longer.
Serena yielded to his taking with wanton abandon. To his delight, she simply lay back and enjoyed it. Probably not as much as he did, though, thrusting between her silken thighs as he willed.
Soon, she was writhing beneath him, lifting her heels onto the edge of the divan, so that her knees embraced his sides. His hair fell forward amid his lusty exertions, veiling them both as he lowered his head and kissed her again.
His tongue swirling in the warm, welcoming depths of her mouth, his cock surging deeper in her body with every needy lunge, he took her with all he was, all he had. And he’d never give her back.
She ran her hands up and down his arms, scratched at his chest with her fingernails with just enough pressure to arouse him all the more. She touched his face and petted his hair, making him feel so loved, so very loved, as she lifted her hips to take him in as far as her soft supple body would allow.
They were both frenzied with desire; Azrael was out among the stars. She had intoxicated him entirely. He was shaking as he braced himself on his hands over her. God, he had tried to fight this, but it was no use. If he failed, if his enemies won and destroyed him rather than the other way around, this moment made everything worth it.
Yet even as she satisfied him, he only wanted more of this woman. Everything, forever.
“Oh, Azrael, I love you,” she said against his mouth.
“I love you so much, Serena,” he whispered. He slowed in his rhythm, moved by her breathless confession. Half of him wanted to explode with release, but the other half yearned to make this moment last forever.
Above all, he wanted to please her as she pleased him. And so he made an effort to help her savor every sensation, kissing her more tenderly, gliding back and forth between her thighs with deep, leisurely thrusts.
Ah, but the lady was impatient.
She gripped his shoulders with an anguished moan. “You are a cruel man,” she panted. “In the best sense.”
He stopped kissing her and pulled back a bit to give her a very wicked smile.
“Do you like this?” he asked, lifting his hips and inching into her again from a steeper angle with tantalizing slowness.
“Unh, I’ll get you back for this, I swear. Next time.”
“You promise?” he whispered.
“Oh, darling, make me come,” she begged him, her chest heaving.
“I love to hear you say that.” He bent his head and brushed his lips featherlight atop hers.
“Make me come,” she repeated in the most seductive murmur he’d ever heard.
A violent ripple of need flamed through him—and it was time.
“As you wish, my lady,” he growl
ed, gripping her.
Then he obeyed.
# # #
Afterward, Serena was left languishing, enervated, in a mindless state of bliss as he withdrew from her body. After a long moment, catching his breath, Azrael rose and pulled up his trousers, then dragged a hand through his long hair and went to close the curtains.
“Mm. Truly,” she said, laughing with satisfaction, “you are a talented man, sir.”
“You don’t say.” He lit a candle, and Serena could only stare helplessly at his handsome face as the light rose, sculpting his high cheekbones and seductive mouth in its faint glow.
The most delicious feelings, both of body and soul, enveloped her every time she looked at the man. With a great heave of strength, she managed to sit up, idly brushing her skirts back down where they belonged, straightening her bodice.
“It was terribly agreeable of my new chaperone to leave us alone, don’t you think?”
“She’s an interesting woman,” he murmured as he sauntered back to her in all his shirtless glory. He sat down beside her on the divan as she swung her feet down to the floor, her core still throbbing.
All she wanted to do was lie back in his arms, but merely being with him was just too exciting. She put her arm around him, then ran her hand back and forth lovingly along the line of his smooth, solid shoulders.
She played with his hair for a moment, then, overcome by the need to dote on him as much as he would let her, she rose and went to stand right in front of him while he sat.
She stepped between his legs, still caressing his shoulders and neck.
“That was fun,” he purred.
“There’s that wonderful gift you have for understatement again,” she teased, leaning down to steal a kiss.
He pulled her down unceremoniously onto his lap. She sat down on his thigh and rested her head against his, simply adoring her fiancé. He linked his fingers through hers and ran his thumb along the side of her hand. The tender sensation pleased her.