The Jordans Collection

by Jess Michaels

  Though he’d run the scenario over and again in his mind, Noah still wasn’t exactly sure how he would tell her what he’d come to say. After all, they hadn’t exactly been engaged… yet. Despite that, he owed her an explanation. And an apology.

  The door opened and Noah immediately clamored to his feet to greet her. As she pushed the door shut, he examined her. She looked pale, even paler than usual. Worse, she looked upset.

  “Sit my lord,” she said softly.

  “Lady Charlotte,” he choked out, truly unsure of what to say now that she was standing before him with accusation in her eyes.

  “Sit,” she repeated as she did the same. “Would you like some tea?”

  He started. How could she be so polite?

  “No. I think you know why I’m here.”

  Her serene expression blanched for a moment, revealing the anger beneath her icy exterior. “Yes. I’ve heard the whisperings about your activities at Woodbury. Some little country girl, wasn’t she? And now she is to be your…” She paused for effect. “Marchioness.”

  He shut his eyes briefly at the disgust in her voice. Though he’d never cared for Charlotte the way he cared for Marion, the last thing he’d wanted to do was hurt her. When he left for Woodbury he had fully intended to keep the vow he’d made to her about no public dalliances. How was he to know he would meet Marion?

  “Yes, I’m afraid what you’ve heard is true.” His eyes opened to face her when he confessed. “I assure you, I never planned for this mess to happen and I’m sorry you’ve been embarrassed by my actions.”

  With a twist of one slender wrist she waved off his words. “It doesn’t signify. What does signify is you made a promise to me and you didn’t keep it. I don’t like being lied to, my lord.”

  Guilt stabbed directly in to Noah’s heart, gnawing at his every nerve. How he would have liked to spare everyone involved the pain his decisions had caused. Then his mind strayed to Marion and the way she’d responded to his touch, to his mouth. The way she’d looked after her father had beaten her. No, there had been no choice, and he would never again regret it.

  “There were circumstances.”

  She barked out a sharp burst of humorless laughter. “Circumstances? I can imagine what those were.” She shook her blonde head. “A man like you will never settle for one woman. I only hope your newest obsession realizes that.”

  Noah winced at her harsh words and the ring of truth they held. Yes, in the past he’d bored of his conquests. But Marion was different somehow. He wanted to be true to her.

  “Charlotte…”

  “I never should have trusted a rake.” With a soft sigh, the heat left her voice and for a brief moment her shoulders sagged. “Please leave.”

  Noah rose to his feet and held out his arms in surrender. “I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t look up, but her face had returned to its normal calm and unflappable mask. Noah far preferred Marion’s passionate expression of the emotions in her heart.

  “Just go,” she whispered.

  He did as she asked with a short bow. In the foyer, the butler opened the door with a sniff, and Noah found himself once again in the muggy late summer air of London. He shook his head as he swung up on his mount to head back to his estate.

  As he rode away, he was wracked by conflicted feelings. Yes, he did care for Marion, but he still doubted his own ability to do the right thing where she was concerned. Perhaps his own true self would never be stifled to conform to the man his father had been. Marion professed not to care about that fact. In fact it had been she who’d urged him to remain his own self instead of trying to be his father.

  Yet, did she really understand what that real self was? A womanizer. A spy. A man who lived for pleasure. At least, that’s what he’d been for so long that he hardly remembered anything else.

  Suddenly he longed for a private moment with the woman who would be his wife. A moment without a chaperone where he might look into her eyes and see if he could find any goodness in himself reflected there. He would have that moment. Tonight, after supper was over.

  Proper or not.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Marion twirled a lock of hair around and around her fingertip as she stared out her chamber window at the flickering lights of London. Where was Noah?

  He’d shared supper with his family, but had left before ten, saying he had other business to attend to. From his somber expression and quiet demeanor, Marion guessed his meeting with Charlotte hadn’t gone well, but there had been no opportunity to ask him privately.

  But now he was long gone, perhaps at home in his own bed. Or perhaps off at a club gaming. Or somewhere else. Somewhere she couldn’t and didn’t want to imagine.

  She rubbed her bare arms with a shiver. Her dressing gown remained draped across the bed where she’d left it, but she doubted putting it on would help. It wasn’t the room temperature that made her quake. It was the idea of Noah in the arms of some other woman. A woman who wasn’t nervous about giving him her body. A woman who knew how to return the intense pleasure he’d shared with Marion back in Woodbury.

  Her body reacted at that thought, softening and aching as she remembered the touch of Noah’s mouth on her skin. His hands caressing her in ways she’d never imagined, arousing reactions she couldn’t control.

  She leapt at the quiet tap on her door. Spinning around, she stared guiltily at the barrier between her and the hall. Here she’d been thinking the most intimate, scandalous thoughts and a visitor was right outside.

  “Co-come in,” she stammered, for she feared her legs wouldn’t hold her up if she tried to walk.

  With a quiet click, the door swung open and the very man she’d been fantasizing about leaned on the doorjamb, occasionally glancing over his shoulder as if he were afraid he’d be caught.

  “Noah.” Without hesitation, she hurried across the room to him. Here was the opportunity she’d been longing for. To be alone with him. Before she thought of the prudence behind her action, she threw her arms around his neck to hug him.

  For a moment he stood stunned, but as Marion’s warmth seeped through his coat and into his skin, Noah brought his arms around her in a crushing embrace. It felt so right to hold her. Despite

  “Marion,” he breathed into her hair.

  When he said her name, it seemed to snap her back to reality. With a gentle shove, she pulled from his arms and scurried back a few steps. An enticing pale pink blush spread from her cheeks to her chest.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Noah couldn’t have agreed with her more. She stood just feet away from him in a thin shift that barely covered the smooth, velvety curves of her skin. He hadn’t snuck back in to Griffin and Audrey’s estate to make love to Marion, but now that he was standing in her bedroom with her warmth still on his skin, he was having a difficult time thinking of anything else.

  She cocked her head. “Noah?”

  He shook away his thoughts as he slipped into her chamber to shut the door behind him. The last thing either one of them needed was to be caught. Again.

  “I was worried about you. I came to see if you were doing well here.” He took another small step toward her, reveling in the way she swayed in his direction.

  She snapped herself back to full attention as she turned away. “I’m fine. Your family is very kind.”

  “They like you.”

  “I’m glad of that, I like them, too.” She looked at him slowly. “How did things go with Charlotte? I wanted to ask at supper, but it didn’t seem the time.”

  Noah’s expression transformed from one of desire to sadness and guilt.

  “It went as well as could be expected. She’s angry, but she’s accepted the change. And no one called me out over it, so I won’t be dueling with her father at dawn at least.”

  Marion sank her teeth into her lower lip. “I wonder if she’ll make things difficult for me as a form of revenge.”

  It had been something she’d not wor
ried about until that day. Audrey and Tabitha seemed so focused on making her appearance in Society perfect. She would hate to see them, or Noah, disappointed.

  He brushed her arm. His touch heated her skin even as it sent goose pimples across the flesh.

  “No, she wouldn’t do that. It isn’t in her nature. She’ll avoid you before she’ll try to hurt you.” His eyes darkened to a midnight blue that drew Marion in and didn’t allow her any room for escape. “I don’t want to talk about her any longer.”

  “No?” She heard the tremble in her voice as she stared up into Noah’s eyes, the eyes that told her so clearly how much he desired her at that moment. And she hoped hers gave him the same message. That she ached for his touch. “What do you want to talk about?”

  In answer, he dipped his head and caught her lips with his own. Their pressure was firm, yet gentle as he drew her into his embrace. When the tip of his tongue nudged her mouth, Marion melted. Her limbs became water and Noah her only support as she opened herself to an even deeper kiss. She arched against his hands as he slid them down her spine, their heat piercing through the thin cotton of her shift.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her mouth before he pulled away to run a hand through his hair. She smiled as little pieces stood up on end, giving him a disheveled , utterly rakish look.

  “Why?”

  Before he could respond, she rose to her tiptoes and placed another heated kiss on his lips. Noah surrendered to his desire and pulled her against him a second time, loving her taste and her smell and the way her chestnut hair curled around his shoulders.

  “Because,” he panted, grasping her arms to push her back a fraction. “I know this marriage isn’t what you want.”

  Her eyes flickered with brief sadness, but it was quickly replaced by the desire he’d kindled there. With a shrug of one shoulder and a soft smile, she whispered, “I’d like to make the best of it.”

  To Noah’s surprise, she shrugged out of his hold to glide her palms across his chest. Looping her fingers under the lapels of his jacket, she pushed it from his shoulders and down to the floor in a heap. Her eyes never left his as she began to work the buttons of his linen shirt.

  “Wait.” He caught her roving hands with both his own. “Are you sure you want this? Because once it’s done, there will be no turning back.”

  “I’ve wanted this since Woodbury. I’ve hardly thought of anything else.”

  She blushed, but there was no hesitation in her eyes when she pushed his hands aside to continue her exploration of his body. Her fingers nudged his buttons open, pulling his shirt aside until finally it, too had fallen to the floor.

  “You’re so perfect,” she breathed, running soft fingertips along the contours of muscle and tangling them in the wiry chest hair that peppered his chest.

  Noah sucked in his breath through his teeth, all the while reminding himself of the control he’d been taught as a spy. He needed all of it to keep from throwing Marion on her bed right then and there and taking her. No, for this first time he would give. There would be plenty of time for taking in the future.

  With a dip of his head, he placed a hot kiss on her throat, easing his lips down the curve of her shoulder until his mouth met the thin strap of her chemise. He caught it with his lips to lift it away from her skin. She whispered her pleasure as his teeth grazed her shoulder.

  “Noah…” Her hand gripped his bicep as he slid the strap from her shoulder to droop around her elbow.

  “Yes?” he asked with a smile.

  Marion shook her head. She wanted something but didn’t know how to ask. She wanted him to ease the ache he’d begun by touching her. “I don’t know.”

  His mouth returned to her sensitive shoulder, his tongue probing her soft skin as he slowly eased her back toward the bed. The gentle touch sent moist heat from his mouth directly through her body. Every nerve crackled with even the slightest touch, and between her legs she throbbed with need for him to give her the same powerful release she’d experienced before.

  His fingers caught the second strap of her gown and with aching slowness he pulled it down. The soft fabric slid over her breasts, down her hips to pool at her feet. Though she should have been embarrassed to be so revealed to him, she wasn’t. In fact, she was proud of how his eyes widened as they moved over her skin.

  “And you say I’m perfect,” he murmured as he stepped nearer to her to cup the base of her neck for another soft kiss. “You’re more beautiful than any woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes at his compliment. “Then make me yours. Tonight. Now.”

  He nodded as he brought her up against the full, hard length of him. The warmth of his body took away her chill from earlier in the evening, leaving her almost too hot. His hands did nothing to ease the fire in her. When he made a slow slide up her stomach to cup the smooth flesh of her breast, that fire was only stoked. His thumb strummed over her nipple in a rhythmic way that had her wriggling closer while sensation rushed through her.

  They knelt on the bed and for the first time Marion felt bold enough to touch Noah the same way he had her. She slid her hands over his muscles, smiling when they bunched under her palms, and he closed his eyes at the pleasure of even the slightest stroke of her fingers.

  With hesitation, she pressed her lips against the hollow at the base of his throat and felt his pulse throb beneath her with a wild cadence. Feeling even more adventurous with this newfound power, she darted her tongue along his collarbone as her hands kneaded the cut muscles of his stomach.

  When she wrapped her lips around the tight ridge of Noah’s nipple, he let out a low groan and his fingers dragged around her shoulders.

  “Did I hurt you?” she whispered as she continued to place wet kisses on his chest and neck.

  “Far from it,” he choked out before he grasped her in animal desire and brought his mouth down on hers to devour and claim. “But I think you’ve played long enough for now.”

  She squirmed as he laid her back on the bed. “But I want to know your body as well as you know mine.”

  Again, his eyes closed and he muttered something unintelligible under his breath before he brought his hand up to cup her chin. “And you will. You’ll have years to find every spot that makes me moan, every way I like to be touched.” He grinned. “And there are many of those. But tonight I’m going to pleasure you.”

  She shivered as his voice dropped to the husky tone she instinctively knew meant that the time for talking was over. Silently she took his hand to place it on her breast and with a smile he followed her lead. He dropped his dark head to her chest and began to suckle one nipple as his fingers teased the other. The sensations he created there seemed to go straight to the core of her womanhood, the place where she grew wetter from every brush of his hand, every sweep of his lips.

  With a slow slide, Noah brought his hand down her body to rest it on her thigh. Immediately her legs fell open, inviting him to touch her in the most intimate ways possible. He took the invitation willingly. He took a teasing sweep of his fingers across the cleft between her thighs and found the tell-tale dampness amongst the dark curls that told him she was more than ready to join with him. With a second sweep, he parted the soft lips there and grazed his thumb across the tight bead of pleasure that had her rising from the bed with a little cry.

  Her eyes were dilated with anticipation, fear and desire. They met his with a wild intensity that both flamed his need and inspired a deeper protectiveness in him.

  “Don’t be afraid.”

  He continued his slow massage of her womanhood as he kissed her deep and slow. She eased her head back against the pillow with a sigh as she arched against his finger. In response, he slid the long, thick digit inside her, mimicking the way he would move when they finally made love.

  Her face filled with heat, her eyes shut as he brought her closer and closer to the brink. He’d brought many women to the edge of where she now balanced, so close to releas
e, but he’d never paid much attention to their reactions. Marion’s breath was short and shallow, and a soft flush tinged her neck and chest. She arched up with a little cry and her inner muscles throbbed around him in release.

  As the blinding colors faded around her, Marion opened her eyes to give Noah a shy smile. The delicious feeling of him touching her was incredible, but not enough for her to forget that he hadn’t taken his own pleasure, not either time they’d lain together in a bed. Tonight she wanted to remedy that. She wanted to experience the full joining of a man and a woman. She wanted to hear Noah cry out her name the way she cried out his.

  When he began to rise from the bed, her hand shot out to grip his arm. “Don’t go!”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he reassured her. “God, I couldn’t leave now.”

  He peeled her fingers from his wrist and stood up to shrug out of the remainder of his clothes. Marion’s eyes widened as he turned back to her. He seemed carved in granite, larger than life, from his broad shoulders, to the hard thrust of his erection that jutted out proudly from between his legs.

  He returned to lie beside her. “Slow and easy, I promise.”

  “Slow and easy,” she murmured, drawn to touch him as intimately as he’d touched her moments before. With trembling fingers, she slid her hand down his body, over his stomach until her fingertip glided over the curve of his penis. Noah groaned out his breath.

  “The skin is so velvety.” She wondered how he could be so hard and strong and yet tender at the same time.

  With a grunt, he rolled over to lie on top of her. He pushed her legs apart with a gentle nudge until the tip of his shaft pressed against the moist opening there.

  “Slowly,” he said softly before he pushed forward, claiming her inch-by-inch.

  The feeling wasn’t unpleasant, just strange to be filled in such a way. Marion felt as if she were being stretched, but her body seemed made for the task and her nerve endings crackled with the heavy, hard weight of Noah atop and within her.