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by Crystal

  “No daughter of mine will be made a laughingstock and whispered about in drawing rooms.” Her father took another step forward and pressed the point of his blade against George’s shoulder. George didn’t move despite the sharp press of the blade.

  “I’ve offered for her hand,” George said. “I’ve even argued for a long engagement. You’ve refused me at every turn.”

  “My daughter will never marry a man of your ilk. And when she does marry, it’ll be with someone of a nobler title than yours.”

  Kate stepped out from behind George. She would no longer hide behind anyone while facing her father. “Papa, I’m twenty-one and old enough to make my own decisions.”

  “Go back up to your room, child. I’ve an issue to settle with this turncoat.”

  For probably the first time in her whole life, Kate did not indulge her father. She threaded her fingers through those of the man she loved. They would stand defiant . . . together. “I wish you would see reason. What Mama did was wrong. And I would never hurt you the way she did, but you have to understand that I’m a grown woman and quite capable of making my own decisions.”

  “You’re but a child. You can’t know what you want.”

  “You well know Westmoore and I would never suit. I don’t think you even care for him much; you just like the fact that he has no desire for adventure. Do you think that by pairing me with such a bland personality, my need for adventure—which you’ve told me is very much like Mother’s—will simply desist?”

  “There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t regret listening to my father when he spoke out against marrying your mother.”

  She sighed. This wasn’t a battle she would win. She would worry about the consequences when she returned to London.

  Jason came up behind her father. He wore a dark frock coat that allowed him to blend into the shadowed hallway. He held his finger to his lips, indicating that both she and George should remain silent.

  She hoped her father didn’t hurt himself. She trusted George to have instructions only to detain her father should he stand in their way of elopement.

  “I’m sorry, Papa.” Tears blurred her vision.

  Jason wrapped his arms tight around her father, immobilizing him. Her father was forced to release the rapier, which clanked and rang as it hit the stone floor.

  “What is the bloody meaning of this?” he yelled.

  “Now is our chance,” George whispered in her ear. “Let’s leave before we cause your father a fit of apoplexy.”

  Kate gave her father a sad look—one filled with regret as she reached out and pressed her palm against his cheek. “I wish you would see reason, Papa. I hope you’ll forgive me in time. I love you.”

  With that, she turned away from her father and left the house she’d grown up in. She leaned on George and let him lead her out to an unmarked carriage. Leaving was so much harder than she’d imagined. Once situated inside the carriage, she looked up at the dark house of her childhood. A tear slid from the corner of her left eye. She would miss her home. But more than that, she’d miss her father with all her heart.

  Chapter 4

  “We won’t stop now till we roll into the first posting inn to change out the horses.”

  She gave a weak smile. She wanted this, she really did, but she’d always wanted her father to be there for her as well.

  “Don’t be so glum, my darling. Your father will eventually come around.” George wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a comforting hug.

  “Not in time for our vows, though.” She rested her cheek against his shoulder.

  “We’ll win him over on our return. I promise to be a model son-in-law.”

  “Where will we go after we are married?”

  “Anywhere you wish. I thought you might like to tour the Continent, or we could sojourn in Scotland for as long as you like.”

  “This is all like a dream, George.”

  With a light pinch of her chin between his forefinger and thumb, he said, “It’s all finally real. I told my mother of my intentions before I came back to England. She’s excited to have you visit the estate in Barbados.”

  “You told her?”

  He only grinned in answer. “Tell me—” George patted the interior of the carriage. “—what do you think of this beauty?”

  “Is it a hire?”

  “No, I had it made while I was away. I thought we might be forced to elope.”

  Kate sat up and gave him a quizzical look. “You did try to persuade him that we were a good match.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because you have always enjoyed a grand adventure.”

  He laughed and leaned forward to stare her in the eye. “We have the rest of our lives for adventure. I would never take you away from your father intentionally.”

  The skepticism in her gaze didn’t waver.

  “You yourself were unable to convince him to give his permission for our union. Your father has despised me since the first moment he noticed my infatuation with you.”

  “You’re right, of course.” She stared down at her entwined hands. “And we’ve given him more reason to dislike you.”

  George wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “He’ll forgive you. You are his only child and he’s always doted upon you.”

  “I hope you are right.” She flopped back on the leather seat of the carriage with a heavy sigh and slow smile. She’d always been determined to get whatever she wanted. She would do everything within her power to win her father’s affections back. And this gloom was no way to start her trip to Scotland.

  “Ah, you seem happier already,” George observed.

  “You make me happy, and I’ll not spend our trip in a state of maudlin.”

  He took her hands and bade her closer. “You might as well rest your head on my shoulder. We’ll be going strong for five hours at the very least.”

  “I’m too excited about our escape to sleep right now.” She glanced at him sidelong . . . coquettishly. What she really needed was a reason to want to sleep.

  George leaned in suddenly and captured her face between his big hands, then planted his lips against hers. Snaking her arms tight around his shoulders, she nearly pulled George atop her on the seat.

  “Feeling feisty, are you?”

  “You seem to bring out the most unbecoming traits in me.”

  He released her face to slide one of his hands down between her dress and cloak.

  “Take it off,” she whispered as she nuzzled her nose against his.

  His whole body was suddenly tense above hers. “What are you asking, Kate?”

  “You know what I’m asking.” Or at least she hoped he did. Because beyond their passionately shared kisses, she wasn’t really sure what would happen after he removed her cloak and nightclothes.

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “You are a temptation I never want to refuse. But don’t ask me to start something I cannot stop. We will be wed in a few days’ time—”

  “I don’t want to wait a few days, George.” Her voice had dropped nearly an octave and she had to clear her throat before continuing. “Haven’t we waited long enough?”

  With a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a growl, he hitched her up on the seat so she was once again seated away from him. He stared at her like a man starved. She wasn’t sure if he’d ever looked at her quite like that before. It was . . . intoxicating. Since he seemed unwilling to remove her clothes, she released the frog clasp at her throat and pulled the ties loose so she could shrug out of the first layer impeding her.

  He swallowed visibly, his gaze attuned to her rapidly rising and falling chest.

  “We’re to be married. Can we not enjoy our trip as though we are already so?”

  “A carriage is no place for your first time.” He buried one hand in his already disarrayed hair and sighed—it was a sound of defeat and concession.

  “Who is to say what should and should not be done now? It�
��s just the two of us here, George.” She motioned around the carriage.

  “I expected you to be furious with me for stealing you away in the middle of the night.”

  “If I hadn’t wanted to come, I would have taken the rapier from my father and insisted on you leaving just as he did.”

  That comment earned her a warm smile, though the intensity never left his eyes as he stared back at her. Holding his heated gaze, she said, “Show me what it will be like to be your wife.”

  “Kate.”

  “I always knew that you were the only man for me, and that we would marry, why shouldn’t we begin the first day of our lives now?”

  George crossed his arms over his chest. Did she really understand what she was asking? And he hadn’t been kidding that the carriage was no place for them to consummate their union and love for each other. He wanted it to be special for her. And rutting along the road at a suicide pace wasn’t what he would consider appropriate for such an enormous step in their relationship . . . and it could hardly be considered romantic.

  “This isn’t what I had planned.”

  She pouted out her lower lip. “Are you saying you would prefer to spend the next few days sitting across from me like so?” She imitated him by crossing her arms over her bosom. The action drew his gaze down to her plumped-up breasts.

  He decided right then and there that she’d be the death of him. Hopefully not till they wed, but yes, she’d test him at every turn and he’d enjoy every moment of it. “Dearest, you enjoy challenging me.”

  “It’s what you love most about me. I’m resilient even when one should think I’d be simpering and curled up in the corner fearful of the wrath my father might bring down on both our heads before we can even reach Gretna Green.”

  He scratched the back of his head roughly. “There is the issue of your father. Thank you for reminding me that he’s probably only a couple of miles behind us.”

  She edged closer and finally plopped herself in his lap with her back pressed to the cushioned wall and her arms loosely curled around his shoulders.

  “Are you worried for your safety?” she asked.

  Yes, that and his manhood, but he would never say anything so crass to Kate. So instead, he said, “And what do you suppose we’ll do if he catches us?”

  “He’ll have to agree to us wedding, as you’ve compromised me.” She gave him a delighted smile with the pronouncement of her ruin. She did have a point.

  One of her hands slid from his shoulder to tug playfully at the knot holding his cravat tightly in place.

  “Won’t you give me another kiss, George?”

  “Don’t you know that I’d pull down the stars in the sky if you asked it of me? I can never refuse you a kiss.”

  She pressed her soft, plump lips to his. He didn’t hesitate to tongue lightly at the seam of her mouth before gaining entry. They’d kissed a thousand times over the last few years that they’d courted in secret, but this felt like their first time. Full of wonder, full of possibility—and it drowned them both in unspent passion.

  The carriage hit a rut in the road and they bounced and jostled uncomfortably in their seat. Kate pulled away with a laugh and stretched her hands out to hold the edge of the seat at his back to better steady herself in his lap. He clasped on to her waist to move her into a better position. Feeling the soft flare of her hips under his hands had him groaning at the delight of touching her so intimately.

  Sliding his hands higher, he clasped her small waist, her rib cage, and finally the underside of her breasts. He gazed at her in question, waiting for her to stop him. To say no. To ask him what in the world he thought he was getting away with, touching her as he was. But she said none of those things. His resolve to remain chaste over the course of the week in the carriage came to a standstill as he took in the expression on Kate’s face.

  Kiss-swollen lips parted, her eyelids rested at half-mast, she lowered her hands over his and slid them over her breasts and bade him to release the buttons on her bodice. He closed his eyes for only a moment to savor the feel of her before slipping one rounded button after another through their holes. He took his time revealing her pale skin beneath, relishing the unveiling of the woman who would be his wife. Though he wanted to unclothe her completely, he’d not do so in the carriage.

  Her fingers squeezed the material of his coat high on his arms as the backside of his hands grazed over her warm flesh for the first time.

  “More beautiful than I ever imagined,” he said.

  Kate sat up on her knees and helped him push the stiff material of his jacket from his shoulders. Once the jacket was shrugged off, he tossed it on the seat beside them.

  They stared at each other a moment before he took her by the hips and had her sit astride his lap. “You’ll be more secure if you sit like this.”

  “No different from sitting atop a horse when no one is there to reprimand me,” was her response.

  He slid one hand beneath her rear to feel the curve of her buttocks and to guide her body so she hovered just above his erection. “Four hours isn’t nearly enough time to do everything I want to do to you.”

  He kissed a path along her collarbone. Kate brushed her hands roughly through his hair and was clasping tight to his head as though afraid he’d stop. Not a chance of that happening.

  Kate’s whole body felt like it was on fire. She was anxious and excited and she needed more of everything George was doing to her. Her body tingled wherever he touched her, and her heart pounded faster in her chest with every kiss he laid upon her bare skin. It had never been feasible for them to be this intimate in the past. Now, there was no one and nothing that could stop them from expressing their love for each other.

  A hot stream of breath fanned against her exposed skin, and it caused a shiver of delight to run up her spine. Kate undid the clasps of the half corset she wore and tossed the paneled material aside. George’s teeth grazed into the top portion of her breast with the next rut in the road. The carriage was momentarily airborne, and one of the four-in-hand neighed their displeasure at the speed with which they raced over the uneven road.

  George speckled gentle kisses where he’d unintentionally nibbled down too hard. “Sorry, love. I’d say you bring out the primitive being in me, but I think you’re feeling like a dame with her claws in a juicy tidbit of meat.”

  Kate blushed, realizing she was grasping his forearms so tightly, her knuckles were white. She released her hold suddenly and hid her hands in her lap. “It’s hard to be sure I have a good grip when your shirtsleeves are in the way of me reaching you.” She didn’t know where the words had come from, but she liked this new brazen side to her personality.

  “Then remove my waistcoat so we can pull off the insensible material.”

  Glancing out the window at the scenery whizzing by at a wickedly fast speed, Kate couldn’t focus on any one thing in the dark of the night—not even where the lantern on the outside of the carriage swung on its post, flickering and sputtering its breath of fire with each forward rush.

  “No one will see that we are hardly clothed,” George assured her.

  She reached for one of his brocaded buttons on his waistcoat and fingered the soft material decorating it. She was suddenly nervous. “What will we do, George?”

  “Nothing more than love each other, my darling.” His hold on her face was gentle. “You’re frightened of what will happen?”

  She nodded her head.

  “You needn’t be. This is no place to consummate our union. I only want to see more of you. And I think you want the same.”

  “I do.” She felt her face heat with the admission.

  He wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding her against his chest and resting his chin atop her head. She released his buttons as he held her close. Snaking her hand beneath the material, she rested it against his pounding heart.

  “Try to sleep some, Kate. I’ll wake you when we are close to the posting house. We’ll even stop for breakf
ast. Matthew needs to switch out with my coachman at the posting inn.”

  “What about my father? He won’t be far off.”

  “We’re taking a slight detour on our trip to Scotland.”

  “What kind of a detour?”

  “The kind that keeps your father off our tail. He’ll probably arrive before us, but this gives us an opportunity to rest when needed. Gives the horses a break, too, instead of changing them out at every posting house.”

  George stretched out his legs to the other bench, reached for his jacket, and spread it over both of them.

  She yawned as she spoke and wasn’t sure whether George could make out what she said or not, but was too tired to attempt speaking again. “You’ve thought of everything.”

  And then she was asleep.

  Chapter 5

  George rubbed his hand over Kate’s arm where it curled under his face. She stirred above him and stretched her feet down to the carriage floor, arching her back and pressing her bound breasts into his side.

  “It’s time to rise, darling. We’ll need to rest up the horses and ourselves if we are to continue on by midmorning,” he said.

  She covered a long yawn as she sat on the bench next to him and tried to flatten the wrinkles in her dress. The sun poured over her and he was struck by how beautiful she looked with the yellow rays lighting her skin.

  He leaned closer to her and pressed his lips against hers. “Have I told you how happy I am that we will spend the rest of our lives like this—together? You look lovely and well rested, despite the rickety ride here.”

  “George, don’t be silly.” She smoothed her hair back and gave another yawn. “I’m sure I look dreadful and you’re wondering how fast you can escape the carriage to put some distance between us.”

  He chuckled. “Never. You were too amusing with that light snore while you slept.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I—I do not snore!”