Those dark lashes rose as Lily Seagrove gave him a startled look. ‘And why might I have done that?’
Giles looked down at her coldly as he resisted the hurt reproach in her pale eyes, knowing his anger was directed towards himself as much as Lily. He had fallen as much into a tangle over this particular young woman as his brother Edward had a year ago.
Unlike Edward, Giles did not believe there to be anything more than desires involved in his intentions towards Lily, but there was no denying that he did desire her. Still. Even after discovering her pretty performance yesterday was an act, and seeing her with Judah Lovell earlier today…
There was just something too appealing about the wild passion he knew burned beneath the innocent beauty of Lily’s eyes and the fineness of her features. A passion which had resulted in her reaching a physical climax in his arms, and which Giles had answered in kind beneath the caress of her fingers. Those same caresses which Giles had recalled and relived ever since in an effort to rid himself of this ridiculous desire he felt to possess her completely!
He had no intention of becoming involved with any of the local women whilst he was here, although he could perhaps have sought release by riding over to Buxton and seeking out some willing woman there. But somehow the thought of making love to any woman but Lily Seagrove had not appealed.
And still did not, if the tightening in his breeches, just at sight and smell of her light and floral perfume as she shook those dark curls, was any indication!
He eyed her impatiently. ‘It is quite useless for you to attempt to deny the possibility of such a tryst, Lily, when earlier today I saw you enter the woods with Judah Lovell!’
She gasped. ‘I— You—’ She gave another shake of her head, those dark curls caressing the paleness of her cheeks. ‘I am sure there was nothing for you to see, my lord.’ Her voice was low and husky when she finally managed to speak.
‘No?’ He raised dark brows. ‘The two of you seemed to be…well acquainted.’
A frown appeared between her eyes. ‘I had never met him before today, and no doubt when you saw the two of us together he was merely offering to accompany me on my visit to his aunt.’
‘Indeed?’
‘Yes—indeed!’ Lily felt stung into snapping indignantly, irritated beyond words that it should have been Giles Montague, of all people, to see her at that moment. He had clearly drawn his own condemning conclusions, which she already knew he would have been only too pleased to make where she was concerned.
‘At a time when Mr Lovell should, by rights, have been at work in the fields at Castonbury Park,’ he added impatiently.
‘Your arrangement with Mr Lovell is not my concern,’ Lily dismissed. ‘I only know that he behaved the perfect gentleman throughout our own meeting earlier today.’
‘As opposed to…?’ Giles’s voice was dangerously soft.
A danger Lily chose not to heed. ‘As opposed to those who should, but obviously choose not to, behave as such!’
His mouth thinned with displeasure. ‘You are referring to me, no doubt?’
‘No doubt,’ she confirmed coldly.
A derisive smile curved those sculptured lips, the darkness of his clothing and the snowy white linen seeming to indicate he was dressed for dinner. ‘Oh, I assure you, Lily, I have no difficulty whatsoever in behaving the gentleman—when I believe the lady to whom I am talking warrants such niceties!’
Lily’s eyes widened indignantly. ‘You—’
‘I believe I have advised against repeating this once before,’ Giles warned between gritted teeth even as he reached out and grasped the wrist of the hand Lily Seagrove had once again raised with the obvious intention of striking him. ‘Unless you are goading me into retaliating?’
She gasped. ‘You would strike a woman?’
‘No,’ he assured softly, eyes narrowed. ‘But if you were to strike me, I should very much enjoy putting you over my shoulder before carrying you into the stables, throwing you down upon the straw in one of the stalls before making love to you with all the enthusiasm the stallion shows the mare!’
Lily had felt herself go deathly pale as each successive—and shocking!—word left Giles Montague’s scornful lips, so much so that her own lips now felt numb, and her mouth and throat so dry that she could not have spoken even if she had been able to think of anything she might say in answer to such deliberate crudeness of speech.
A crudeness which had nevertheless caused a rush of liquid heat between her thighs, and also rendered her breasts hot and aching.
‘Nothing to say?’ Giles Montague raised one arrogantly mocking brow. ‘Perhaps that is because you find the idea of such a…wild coupling to be arousing?’
To her everlasting shame, Lily knew that was exactly how his words had affected her!
To a degree that her breasts now felt so swollen and aching she could barely breathe, and the hot dampness between her thighs had become a veritable flood as she began to throb and ache with a desire to know the same completion she had experienced once before under the expert attentions of this gentleman’s caressing fingers.
Lily attempted to swallow and then moisten the dryness of her lips, and instead shook her head in denial as her tongue refused to do her bidding.
Grey eyes glittered down at her knowingly and hard lips smiled in satisfaction at her silence. ‘Indeed, I assure you I would be only too happy to oblige, Miss Seagrove—’ he managed to invest a wealth of insult into the formality ‘—but having just come from the stables myself, I am fully aware that Tom Anderson is still there tending to one of the horses. Unless, of course, you would find having Old Tom as audience to our lovemaking to be even more…stimulating?’
‘You are being both disgusting and crude!’ Lily finally managed to gasp her outrage.
Yes, that was exactly what he was being, Giles acknowledged, disgusted with himself. Just as he was also aware that it had been Lily’s disparaging remarks to him that were responsible, in part, for goading him into being so drawn into the problems now besetting the Castonbury estate, when his initial intention had been to visit briefly before leaving again for the entertainments of London.
He drew himself up to his full height. ‘I apologise, Miss Seagrove,’ he bit out curtly. ‘A single…taste of your passions does not entitle me to insult and abuse you simply because I do not approve of the next man upon whom you choose to bestow those same favours.’
She released an incredulous gasp. ‘Only you could possibly contrive to make an apology sound even more insulting than the original slight!’
He gave a humourless smile. ‘Perhaps that is because only I know of your true nature, Miss Seagrove?’
She gave a slow shake of her head. ‘And perhaps you do not know me at all, my lord,’ she spoke quietly. ‘Now, if you will excuse me—’
‘I asked if it is your intention to meet with Judah Lovell on your way home?’ he demanded harshly as he reached out and clasped her arm.
‘Not that it is any of your business, but no, it is not!’ Her eyes flashed in the darkness before she looked down at that restraining hand. ‘Now release me, sir, before I am forced to scream and alert Tom Anderson, and no doubt others of your household staff, to my imminent danger.’ She glared up at him in challenge.
Giles’s hand dropped slowly back to his side as he looked down at her in grudging admiration. ‘You are in no danger from me, I assure you. Of a repeat of our time together three days ago, or anything else. Which is not to say,’ he continued firmly, ‘that you would not find yourself in such danger from others if you are allowed to walk home alone in the dark. Did you not heed anything of what Mrs Lovell told you with regard to the “dark and dangerous man” who means to “do you harm”?’ he added derisively.
‘Why should I, when it is clear the only person who is a danger to me stands before me right now?’ Lily came back challengingly.
‘I am?’ Giles’s mouth was tight with displeasure.
‘Do not look so surprise
d by my deductions, my lord,’ she taunted. ‘Your crudeness this evening is but another example of how much you enjoy hurting me. As such,’ she continued over his protestations, ‘Mrs Lovell’s dire predictions or otherwise, I would still prefer to face alone whatever dangers may lie in wait in the darkness for me, than be forced to suffer your insulting company another moment longer!’ She turned firmly on her heel before marching away.
Admiration gleamed grudgingly in Giles’s eyes and he continued to watch Lily until she had disappeared into the darkness. A totally futile gesture of defiance, of course, when his own father’s friendship with Mr Seagrove at least dictated that Giles could not allow that gentleman’s daughter to roam about the darkness of the countryside alone.
Nor did he like the idea that Lily had so obviously decided that he was a danger to her safety.
As to Giles enjoying hurting her—he knew he would far rather pleasure Lily than hurt her….
* * *
Lily barely had time to stumble blindly along the pathway and out onto the lane, as hot tears tracked down her cheeks, before she heard the sound of something moving stealthily through the forest beside her, accompanied by the sound of loud and laboured breathing.
One of the deer allowed to roam the Park, perhaps?
Or possibly a fox, or a badger?
Or perhaps one of the cows had escaped from the field?
Whatever it was it appeared to be coming ever closer!
Lily’s tears ceased and she stumbled slightly as she continued walking whilst turning to look nervously into the depths of the woodland that now seemed so much darker and more menacing than it had in daylight. She wished she had not so rashly refused Giles Montague’s offer to accompany her home; she may have every reason to consider him the most obnoxious gentleman she had ever met, but she had no doubt that his presence would have ensured that no harm came to her. From anyone but himself, at least!
None of which was at all comforting when Lily was now so obviously alone and vulnerable to whatever might be chasing her…
She gasped, unable to move, even her heart seeming to stop beating, as she saw a pair of glittering eyes fast approaching before a huge black beast rushed out of the forest towards her, snorting loudly, and slathering at the mouth, before it rose up on its back legs and—
‘Down, Genghis!’
Lily’s eyes widened even further at the harsh sound of Giles Montague’s voice in the darkness, and she stumbled back as she realised that voice was coming from the back of that huge and glittery-eyed black beast.
But she had no time to think further, even to attempt to turn and run, as hands reached down to painfully grasp the tops of her arms and she was lifted up to sit sideways on the back of that huge black beast as it began to heave and buck beneath her!
‘Easy, Genghis,’ Giles softly soothed his mount again. ‘Genghis only eats stubbornly unaccompanied young ladies on Fridays, and today is Thursday, I believe,’ he drawled tauntingly as he now easily held the skittish Genghis in check with one hand on the reins whilst holding the warmth of Lily Seagrove against his chest with the other.
Lily only seemed to cling to the lapels of Giles’s jacket all the tighter as she turned her face into his waistcoat. ‘Please put me down at once…’ she instructed shakily, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Giles scowled in the darkness. ‘Stop being ridiculous, Lily—’
‘It is not ridiculous when I have never learnt to ride!’ She raised her head to glare up at him, her eyes large in the pale oval of her face.
‘Then that is clearly an oversight in your education which is about to be remedied.’ Giles ignored her protest, his arm tightening about her slender waist as he turned Genghis in the direction of the village. The muscles in his thigh began to ache from the effort of controlling Genghis and the old sabre wound he had sustained on the Continent.
‘I insist you return me to the ground, at once!’ Lily repeated fiercely as she began to struggle in his arms, only to still again as the horse beneath her showed his displeasure by tossing back his head, and causing the heavy black mane to whip lightly across her cheek. ‘Giles, please…!’ She looked up at him in appeal.
He scowled down at her, his face appearing all hard planes and angles in the moonlight. ‘You are completely mistaken if you think I intend to walk to the village when I might ride. As it is I had to leave the stables so quickly I am without benefit of the comfort of a saddle!’
‘I did not ask that you accompany me to the village.’
‘And yet here I am,’ he pointed out as he looked grimly ahead.
Lily gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘If you insist on accompanying me—’
‘I do.’
She heaved a shaky sigh. ‘Then by all means you must ride. I shall walk beside you.’
‘That is utterly preposterous when we have a perfectly good horse we might both ride!’ he bit out scathingly as he urged the mount into a slow trot.
It was a move which instantly prompted Lily to cling all the tighter to Giles’s lapels as that heated horseflesh surged and dipped precariously beneath her thighs. ‘I…admire horses tremendously,’ she spoke huskily. ‘Have always believed them to be splendid, beautiful creatures—’
‘I am sure Genghis will be pleased to hear it!’
‘—but I have never wished, have no wish still, ever to be upon the back of one,’ she continued raggedly. ‘Edward tried several times to encourage me to learn to ride, but I—I could not…cannot…bring myself to do so. The truth is…’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘The truth is I have always been rather nervous of being too close to all that—that uncontrolled power!’ she admitted huskily, at the same time aware that she was now just as nervous of being near Giles Montague’s uncontrolled power! Her sudden embarrassment caused her to rush into further speech. ‘Mabel is the only horse I have ever been able to dare approach—’
‘Mabel…?’
‘My father’s old mare.’
Giles easily recalled the nondescript brown mare which he had seen in front of the vicar’s equally as decrepit carriage. ‘There is no comparison between a docile nag of that kind and a fine hunter like Genghis!’ he snorted dismissively.
‘Which is why I have asked that you put me down—’
‘We will arrive back at the vicarage in less time than it would take me to halt and lower you to the ground.’
‘Please…!’
A frown darkened Giles’s brow as he felt Lily trembling in his arms, her face turned pleadingly up to his as he glanced down at her in the moonlight. ‘You truly are frightened…’ he realised slowly.
‘Yes.’ She gave an involuntary shudder.
That the normally indomitable Lily was willing to admit as much to him was, Giles knew, a testament to the depth of that fear. Just as he knew that his displeasure earlier at being thought the ‘dark and dangerous’ man Mrs Lovell had predicted in Lily’s future had rendered him less than understanding in regard to that fear. ‘I was always taught that the best way to overcome fear is to face it—’
‘And I am sure that for you that is true,’ she acknowledged softly. ‘I am obviously made of poorer stuff!’
Giles knew that to be untrue, in as much as he had learnt these past ten days that Lily was more than a match for him, both in obstinacy and determination. Nor—no matter what Lily may think to the contrary!—was he a deliberately cruel man. He remembered now that as a small child one of his sisters—he did not recall now which of them it had been, Kate or Phaedra—had had an irrational fear of spiders, and he or Jamie had always been only too happy to rid their sister of the offending arachnid. His upbringing now demanded that he could not be less considerate of Lily’s nervousness in regard to Genghis.
‘If that truly is the case…’ He halted Genghis before gathering Lily more firmly against him, her face once again turned into his chest as he kept one arm behind her back and placed the other beneath her thighs as he swung his uninjured leg over the hunter�
��s sleek back before sliding them both down onto the ground. ‘You may look now, Lily,’ he drawled, as she kept her face buried against his chest.
Lily raised her head tentatively before looking around, relieved to see that she was no longer up on the back of that fierce-looking horse. Although she was not sure she considered her present position as being any safer than she had been on the hunter’s back!
‘I am capable of walking now if you would care to release me,’ she assured huskily.
He glanced down at her only briefly as he began to stride down the lane to the vicarage visible in the distance, grimly ignoring the twinges of discomfort in his thigh. ‘And I am perfectly capable of continuing to carry you in my arms.’
Lily’s cheeks blazed with colour. ‘If someone should see us together like this—’
‘Such as the baker’s cat? Or Mrs Crutchley’s overweight pug unexpectedly out for an evening stroll, perhaps?’ he dismissed scornfully.
Admittedly, it was very late for anyone to be abroad in this part of the village, but even so… ‘You are the one who earlier seemed concerned about my reputation,’ Lily reminded him, her voice sharp as she recalled how offensive Giles had been in his hurtful accusations.
Not that her precarious social position rendered the young Romany as an unsuitable match for her. Perhaps the opposite. But she liked Judah Lovell no more than she did Sir Nathan Samuelson and felt no romantic interest in either man.
How could she possibly, when despite her own dislike of Giles Montague and his less than flattering opinion of her, simply being held in his arms now was enough to make her heart beat faster and her body to feel fevered?
Chapter Ten
‘They do not appear to have left a candle burning in anticipation of your return,’ Giles observed gruffly as he lowered Lily to the ground at the front door of the vicarage several minutes later.
She finished smoothing and straightening her cloak over her pale gown, and righting the bonnet upon her curls, before looking up at him. ‘It is an unnecessary expense in a household where every penny must be accounted for,’ she dismissed without complaint.
Castonbury Park 01 - The Wicked Lord Montague Page 11