He shook his head. “You told me in Bath that you had been truthful with me when it came to our connection. Is that correct?”
She nodded swiftly enough that Liam’s heart soared.
“When I began, I used sharing information as a way to obtain your trust,” she admitted. “But Liam, I ended up telling you things that no one else in this world knows. And the more I shared, the more I came to know you, the more bound to you I became. That was all real, no matter my motives at the start. In fact…”
She shifted, swallowing hard and Liam leaned closer. “Yes?”
“Not being able to talk to you has left me bereft,” she admitted softly. “It was like a part of me has gone missing this past month. Until you rode up, I couldn’t find it.”
He stared at her, taken in by her beauty, swept away by her honesty, loving every part of her and hoping, with everything in him, for a future.
“It is funny you say that, for I have missed talking to you, as well. Especially since Malcolm left.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Left?”
He nodded. “Yes, run off to Gretna Green with Olivia.”
She lifted her hands to her cheeks, and there was no mistaking the joy on her face at the news. “That is why she hasn’t written to me! I hoped but wasn’t certain.”
“Oh yes. I imagine they will sweep in from some fantastic, private escape any day now.” He smiled, just as happy for their friends as she was. “But you can see how that absence would affect me.”
She nodded. “Yes, you two are so close.”
“It’s more than that.” He reached out to brush the back of a hand down her cheek, reveling in the softness of her skin and the way she leaned into him.
“How so?” she asked.
He could see how much she needed to hear him declare himself. A good thing since he intended to do just that.
“When Malcolm left, I lost not only a man at arms, but a friend and confidante. And yet, as I lay awake in my bed at night, I realized the person I wanted to see most, to confide in most, whose voice I wanted to hear…was yours.”
She caught her breath, but didn’t interrupt. He was just as happy, for saying those words out loud made him want to say so much more.
“Violet, may I tell you all my troubles?” he asked.
She drew back, clearly confused by his question. “Y-Yes.”
“You see, I love a woman,” he said, his hands nearly shaking as he said those words he never thought he’d say again, let alone have his heart so light with the feeling. “I love a beautiful, wonderful, unexpected woman. And I do not know if she could ever love me in return.”
A tear trailed down her cheek, and he reached out to catch it on his finger. “Could she love me, Violet?” he whispered. “Could you love me?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Violet stared at Liam, hardly able to breathe, to think, let alone speak as he cupped her chin and stared into her eyes with the focused expression of a man bent on possession.
“You love me,” she murmured when she could find words.
He grinned, his face lighting up as bright as the blazing sun above them. “Was I not clear? I’m sorry, let me say it again. I love you, Violet. I adore you. I want to spend every day of the rest of my life worshipping you.”
She gasped in her breath, reaching out to grip his lower arms as she was filled up by his love. And yet, she couldn’t surrender to him.
“You don’t know what your words mean,” she said. “But Liam, I cannot go back to the world of a mistress. Even yours. I would love you, but I couldn’t bring my son into the madness that would create. And now that I have had a month with him, I could never, ever find the strength to leave him again.”
“I don’t want you to leave him,” Liam said, drawing back as if she was speaking nonsense. “Truly, I must make myself plainer. What I have come to realize, through sleepless nights and troubled dreams and analyzing every moment with you, is that I want to marry you, Violet Milford.”
Now her world screeched to a halt and she flinched back, staring at him with what she knew were wild eyes. Wild eyes that reflected a wild heart at his declaration.
“Marry you,” she said, scrambling to her feet and backing away. “But that would make me a countess, Liam.”
He got up, watching her like he feared she would bolt. “Yes, the last time I checked the lines of titles, that would be correct. And that is a problem because…?”
She stared at him. “Please do not sport with my intelligence, Liam. Or forget your own. I am no woman of rank, no matter who my father was. And I have made my living for the past five years as a mistress. The men of your stature will know that and many would gleefully share it with the women in their lives. We would be whispered and talked about for months, years. We might never find acceptance.”
Liam’s eyebrows lifted, but he showed no hesitation about what she said. “So it is the scandal you worry about?”
She lifted her hands in frustration. “Amongst other things, yes!”
“Well, let me deal with those worries one by one then. First, your scandal,” he said, folding his arms. “I don’t know why you think a scandal would trouble me, considering the feud I have engaged in with my brother-in-law for decades. Not to mention the accident that we were both involved in that people talk about to this day. Oh, and the fact that he kidnapped my sister, ruined her and married her. If you think marrying someone outside of rank or who was a mistress will lead the pack in our family scandals, you are really very conceited.”
Violet’s jaw dropped open in shock. Not only because she wanted to laugh at the playful way he dismissed her concern, but because he dismissed it at all.
“You may close your mouth, my love,” he drawled. “I have been whispered about before. I will survive it. Are you weaker than I?”
She swallowed hard. “No. No, I have experienced scandal before as well. But—”
He waved her off. “Then it is settled. Neither of us is so delicate a flower that we cannot bear a few whispers. What is your next concern?”
She blinked. “You are most disconcerting.”
“No, I am a man in love and I will find a way to slay these dragons,” he said with a smile. “Next concern please, Miss Milford. I would very much like to conclude this apparent negotiation and get on with the celebrating.”
She shook her head, filled with wonder at this new attitude. One she rather liked, actually.
“You are so certain of yourself?”
He nodded. “Since meeting you? Yes, I would say you have reminded me of the confidence I once had. Another reason to love you, by the way. Now, next concern.”
She fumbled for her thoughts, which were jumbled by his unexpected reaction.
“My son,” she said softly. “He is of great concern.”
Now the playfulness left Liam’s face and voice. “Of course he is. You would not be a woman I could love if you didn’t adore your child and didn’t think of him in every decision you make. What specifically is your worry?”
“If I agreed to marry you,” she said and shook her head when his face lit up. “If, would you accept my son?”
“I would treat him as my own,” Liam said without hesitation. “I would include him in my life and yours and never let any children we might have of our own believe that I felt anything for him other than the love of a father. I would also include him in my financial arrangements after my death. I cannot leave a son not of my blood my title, but I will leave him a hefty inheritance and a property if he desired that.”
“How do you know you could feel love for him?” she whispered. “When his own grandfather looks at him and sees him as bastard trash?”
His jaw set. “Is that what he said to you at some point?”
She nodded, trying not to recall that moment when she could have ripped her own father’s eyes out. It had been their last encounter. It would forever be their last, as she would never set foot in a room with the man again.
“Your father is an idiot,” he said softly. “I looked at that boy today, all sweetness and brightness, and I can’t imagine anyone not loving him. I will be there.”
“And what if he doesn’t accept you?” she asked, taking in a sobbing breath. “To be honest, he’s not yet fully accepted me. It would be so much for him to bear, so much change in such a short time.”
He tilted his head and seemed to ponder that. Finally, he spoke again, low and sweet.
“I would like to marry you today if I could, Violet. But we must consider Peter, I know that. If you would agree to be my wife, I would buy a home near yours here in Romwell so we could be near each other. And I would wait until he was ready to accept you, until he was able to accept me.”
She tilted her head. “And if that took a month? Six months? A year or even more?”
He shrugged as if those timelines meant nothing to him. “It seems I’ve been waiting for you for a long enough time as it is, Violet. I wouldn’t be so foolish not to practice some patience if it meant having you in my life forever. I would wait. Although I would require conjugal visits in my prison down the lane.”
“Would it be a prison?” she asked on a broken laugh.
He smiled. “Without you? Definitely.”
She reached out to touch his face, tracing the line of his scar that spoke of his strength, his fortitude, his stubbornness. He leaned into her hand and smiled.
“You make it hard to say no,” she whispered.
“Then say yes,” he urged, catching her fingers and drawing them to his lips where he kissed the tips. “Say yes and save me. Say yes and let me save you. Please say yes.”
She leaned into him, staring up into his eyes and seeing a future she had never dared dream about.
“Y-Yes,” she stammered and squeezed her eyes shut as she laughed. “Yes.”
He drew back a fraction. “Truly?”
“Yes!” She shouted it now, letting it echo off the walls of the protective cove. “I will marry you, Liam. Assuming approval of my son, I will marry you.”
He caught her in his arms, lifting her to spin her in the sand as he showered kisses against her lips. When he drew back, his smile was wide and bright and as beautiful as he had been to her from the first moment she saw him rise up from the water in the baths.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so very much.”
He didn’t say anything, but bent his head to kiss her one more time.
Epilogue
One year later
It was quiet in the sunroom, light streaming in the floor to ceiling windows, but Violet couldn’t help but grin as she looked out over the garden below. It wouldn’t be quiet for long.
They were coming.
She turned quickly reorganized the biscuits on her tea tray and then turned to face the door. It flew open and in came a group of babbling, laughing people.
Her family.
First came Ava and Christian. Christian had their eight-month old son Julian in his arm and hardly leaned on his cane at all anymore. Ava always beamed and said love had cured him, though Violet was fully aware that the duke still suffered from pain from that long-ago accident that had changed all their lives so much.
They were followed by Malcolm and Olivia, married for a year with their own newborn baby tucked into her mother’s shoulder, sleeping despite the ruckus.
Just after them entered Lord and Lady Weatherfield. They were new friends to her, but Portia was quite possibly the kindest woman she had ever met. Despite her misgivings and anxieties, Portia and Miles had welcomed Violet into their fold as if there was nothing abnormal about a former mistress marrying an earl.
Of course that earl followed them all, swinging Peter with his good arm as her boy belly-laughed. Her fears of her son’s acceptance of Liam had been utterly unfounded. In fact, he had been closer to her husband than to her for many months.
“Do the other, do the other! So you can get strong,” Peter cackled.
Liam laughed along with him. “My own physician,” he said to the group at large. “We will practice lifting you with my bad arm a little later, Peter. I promise you.”
Her son groaned but let Liam go. Her husband moved straight to her, his single-intentioned movements making her heart race even after nearly nine months of marriage.
“Hello, darling,” he said, pressing a kiss to her lips despite all the company. His hand slipped down to cover the swell of her belly. “And how is Agatha today?”
“You don’t know that this baby is a girl,” Violet said, laughing even as she covered his hand and they both felt the baby move inside of her. “And I never agreed to Agatha.”
“Hmmmm,” he murmured, his fingers spreading slightly. “But I have ways to convince you.” The last was said in a whisper that made her cheeks darken with a blush.
He smiled and backed away, turning his attention toward the group. Everyone was gathering around, Ava pouring tea, Portia rallying the children and handing out sweets when she thought no one was looking, but as Liam stepped away, what made Violet happiest of all was how the three men flocked together.
Christian and Liam talked for a moment and Liam actually laughed at something their brother-in-law said. Violet exchanged a quick smile with Ava. It was a slow process, but it felt like finally the men were coming to some kind of comfort with each other.
Perhaps one day they might even be friends.
Violet sighed as she settled herself into a comfortable chair and took the tea her sister-in-law offered her with a smile. After a lifetime of loneliness and knowing she didn’t belong with her family, with anyone…now she had everything she’d ever wanted.
She had more.
About the Author
Jess Michaels is the award-winning author of over forty romances, erotic romances and urban fantasy novels. She lives in Arizona with her fantastic husband and two adorable cats. When not writing about sexy gentlemen and wicked ladies, she can be found doing geeky things like playing video games and performing aunt duties to two nephews. You can find her online at www.authorjessmichaels.com, on Facebook (Jess Michaels) and on Twitter @jessmichaelsbks.
Look for these titles by Jess Michaels
Now Available:
Mistress Matchmaker
An Introduction to Pleasure
For Desire Alone
Her Perfect Match
The Pleasure Wars
Taken By the Duke
Pleasuring the Lady
Coming Soon:
The Pleasure Wars
Beautiful Distraction
The Ladies Book of Pleasures
A Matter of Sin
A Moment of Pleasure
A Measure of Deceit
The Notorious Flynns
The Other Duke
The Widow’s Wager
The Scoundrel’s Lady
Once the game begins, there is no tearing your gaze away.
Pleasuring the Lady
© 2013 Jess Michaels
The Pleasure Wars, Book 2
Her mother’s madness and her father’s and brother’s irresponsibility have relegated Lady Portia to the life of a wallflower. The only shining light in her life is her best friend, Ava, who is suffering a rift with her own brother.
Portia’s quest to help takes her to the notorious Donville Masquerade in the hells, where—behind the safety of a mask—she witnesses shocking public acts of sin. And succumbs to the touch of Marquis Miles Weatherfield.
Unfortunately, they’re discovered. And now, tainted by scandal, she and Miles are destined for a marriage neither of them want. But Portia makes a bargain that raises even Miles’s eyebrows.
In return for saving her mother from the asylum, Portia will do anything Miles wants in bed. Shocked by his driving desire for Portia, Miles agrees. As they explore every wicked desire, every forbidden act that pleases them, they discover something that goes far deeper than flesh. But the lies that brought them together could be the very wedge that drives them a
part.
Warning: This book contains wicked encounters, erotic voyeurism, lies, a brief threesome, and unexpected kindnesses.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Pleasuring the Lady:
Miles scanned the room for potential subjects, but again was simply bored with his choices. Women in plunging necklines, their breasts almost bare, panting over any man who gave them a side-glance. They were all so bored and jaded…a bit like he was. There was no one to—
He cut the thought off as the crowd across the room parted and revealed a woman standing along the wall by herself. She had pale blond hair done up in a simple chignon at the base of her long, creamy neck.
Her mask covered half her face, but it was not of the ornate variety that the others wore as calling cards. It was blue and very plain, possibly handcrafted out of leftover silk from a gown. It didn’t match her dress, which was a deep green and cut in a modest style that had little frills. Still, the fabric was high quality. He was left confused.
Was this a highbred lady or a lower-class one?
He moved closer, inexplicably drawn to her. She hugged the wall with her body, exactly like a wallflower at a ball at Almack’s would do. She stared out at the room, her eyelashes fluttering as she blinked and blinked…almost in innocence, shock.
But was that real or affected? There were plenty of women who came here and pretended to be virtuous in order to play into the fantasies of certain men.
He had never been one of those, and yet he continued to move toward her. As he reached her, he realized she had dark brown eyes and they were dilated with high emotions that did not seem artificial.
“Hello,” he said softly.
She jerked with surprise, for her attention had been so focused on the activity around them that she had not even seen him advance on her. She looked at him, cheeks flushed and those brown eyes widened with surprise and, he thought, recognition.
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