“You’re lying! They’re one of the wealthiest families in Boston.”
“Undoubtedly. But Caroline’s father was a bit of a black sheep, and apparently her great-uncle decided to cut them out of all of it after he inherited. The woman has nothing! She is a charity case on her aunt’s doorstep who works as little more than a glorified governess at a boys’ college! Why else would she have come to England and accepted such a ridiculous offer from your grandfather to babysit you? He must have promised her some money! So there! You see? I won the wager! You never did give up whores.”
Ashe pulled him to his feet in one swift move and then promptly punched him squarely in the face. Yardley’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor, cold-cocked from a single blow.
He couldn’t let it stand another minute.
Ashe walked out, ignoring the wide-eyed stares of the other guests as he tore off his masque and threw it on the floor.
Hades can have them all and be damned! I’m not going to lose you, Caroline. Not without a fight.
“Open this door, woman!” Ashe pounded on her bedroom door, frustration adding to the force of his fist to the wood. He’d chased her all the way home, determined to intercept her before she could slip from his reach. “Damn it, Caroline! I’ll break down this door if I have to—but you’ll not leave things like this without hearing the truth!”
Ashe took a deep breath and stepped back from the door, eyeing the thick oak with a cold calculation of just how to splinter the barrier without breaking his own body.
But just as he determined that kicking it was probably the best approach, it flew open and she was standing there, pale, her caramel brown eyes full of a wild fire he didn’t recognize. She’d taken her hair down but still wore the beautiful gown and sapphires.
“I don’t want to hear the truth, Ashe.”
“Like hell you don’t!”
“Ashe—”
He cut her off, “You’ll hear me out, Caroline Townsend!”
She shook her head. “To hear you say what? That nothing happened? That it was a misunderstanding? That she lured you into that room and then threw herself at you?”
Ashe’s brow furrowed as his every planned speech suddenly seemed trite and inane. She was fury and fire and he was starting to feel like a man who had failed to bring a weapon to the war. “God damn it! You steal a man’s arguments as if that proves anything!”
“It was obviously staged, Ashe. I’m an American. I’m not an idiot.”
“Of course you’re not! Margot is insane and a meaningless creature to even attempt such a thing!”
“Insane? Meaningless?”
“She mistook a passing interest for more and sought some kind of twisted revenge for her trouble.”
“A passing interest—how foolish of her!”
Ashe sensed that he’d missed a critical step, but he wasn’t going to retreat. “By all appearances, Yardley paid her to play the part and I never dreamt that she would throw herself into my path like that.”
She covered her face with trembling hands. “Oh, God, I’m the world’s fool.”
He reached for her. “Caroline, please! It was a contrived scene meant to humiliate me and incite your jealousy! It is nothing to us!”
“And my jealousy wouldn’t please you?” She avoided his hands, keeping him at arm’s length.
“No,” he spoke slowly, instinctively aware that he was on thin ice now.
“Why not? I thought you found it acceptable enough when it was you pawing and growling about when your friend Darius came within a carriage’s length of my person! So why not relish a bit of jealousy on my part?”
He had no ready answer.
She continued, pain fueling her words. “Is it because it implies possession, Ashe? Well enough for you to possess and guard me but not the reverse?”
Oh, God. She has a horrible point of logic. Ashe ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, wishing he’d paid more attention to his debating skills at the university.
“Once again”—her voice trembled, but she held her ground—“you would dictate the rules, Ashe, but not live by them. And once again, I will tell you that you are not in charge of me!”
Ashe reached for her again, intending to sweep past the defenses of logic and make her see that his heart was the cause of their tangle. “Caroline, if you would just—”
She pushed away from him, furiously striking out to ward off his touch, landing blows against his chest and shoulders, tears weakening her attack. “No more, Blackwell! No more! I want you out!”
Frustration and passion were a dangerous mix. He endured the onslaught of her anger, almost relieved to be on familiar ground. She was still his. If she had retreated with icy indifference, he would have known she didn’t care. Need and desire overrode everything else.
In one fluid movement, he captured her flailing hands and bent his knees to pull her over his shoulder. Standing up, he positioned her better, and her feet left the ground before she could manage a single shocked squawk. Ashe made sure he had a firm grip on his prize before striding from the room and out in the hall toward his own bedchambers.
“Put me down this instant!” She kicked out, pounding on his back as she hung over his shoulder, a storm of feminine anger in his arms. “You have no right!”
“No.” He pushed open his bedroom door and kicked it shut behind them. “We can fight later about scandals and rules, arrangements and contracts, chaperones and guardians, and anything else you care to explore. We can even have a lively debate about all the lies that Yardley’s been spewing, but not now, Caroline.”
He walked over to his bed and dropped her in the middle of the mattress in a beautiful disheveled pile. “Now, I’m going to prove to you that nothing between us need change—that I desire you above all others, Caroline, and that you alone can keep me from despair.
“Love me, Caroline.”
She shook her head, her lips parting soundlessly as shock and desire, anger and lust warred within her. “I—”
“Love me, Caroline,” he repeated the command and she nodded in miserable surrender.
I already do, Ashe. How can you not see it?
He wasted no time, seizing her to tumble back onto the bed in a rushed and glorious embrace that tangled their bodies together. There was no time to even undress completely as they meshed in a fury of raw hunger and emotion. The seams on her décolletage tore as he tugged at it to free her ample breasts, spilling them out into his eager hands, and he kissed away her protests.
She didn’t want him to be gentle. Her pain was too fresh and every bruising, crushing touch of his lips to hers was a strange salve that lessened her agony. For Caroline knew that no matter what else this would be, it would be the last time he touched her.
He tasted her bare breasts, lifting them, blazing a trail with his mouth and tongue over every ripe curve, circling each one until her nipples were so hard she thought she would scream if he didn’t suckle them. His hands pressed them upward, and at last, he rewarded each pert tip with the roll of his tongue around the jutting flesh, wetting her, drawing from her as if she were all the sustenance he needed. She writhed and shuddered beneath him, burying her fingers in his hair to drive him on.
She held nothing back, more vulnerable than she had ever been. Caroline was determined to feel everything—even if it broke her. Every word he’d uttered condemning Margot could have applied to her and Caroline knew it now.
Meaningless. A passing interest. Paid to play her part. Threw herself in his path. Oh, God. All misfortunes are earned, isn’t that what he said? Well then, I have earned every bittersweet kiss, and heaven help me, I will have my fill.
Even now, a fierce need for him rocked through her, and on the heels of it, a terrible shame. I am no saint to judge him.
She’d spent a lifetime pursuing her ideals and secretly feeling superior to her morally bankrupt family, comforting herself with dreams of philanthropic pursuits and sacrifices. But
Ashe had forced her to look beyond her dreams and face her hidden desires.
I am merely human, after all. All I really wanted was to be loved, and I made a pathetic mess of it.
Her skirts and crinolines frustrated him and Caroline winced as the lovely garment was torn from her body, damaged just enough to reveal her thighs for him and give him the access he demanded.
And then it was as if his mouth were everywhere, dragging hot kisses across her collarbones and throat only to find her rib cage and lick the soft curves of her stomach and hips. She kept her eyes tightly closed, wanting to give in to every forbidden caress and embed every kiss in her memory. His mouth moved downward, worshipping the hot flesh between her legs. She boldly spread her thighs for him, giving him the access he craved, eager for the release she needed.
I want to forget that this will never happen again. That I will never win your heart.
His lips kissed the soft folds of her sex and Caroline moaned when his tongue danced lightly across her clit, each repetitive feathery touch sending arcs of sensation through her body, up into her breasts, and across her skin, until each stroke of his tongue affected her entire being. The hard little pearl became the center of her existence and he ruled her with the searing sweet flicker of his attentions.
Yours. Always.
She came in a slow explosion more like a sigh of release, shivering and shuddering against his tongue. And then everything slowed. The frantic edge of their desires melted away and his every touch seemed reverent and careful—as if he feared that she might vanish. His fingers replaced his tongue on her clit only to allow him to dip his mouth into the well of her entrance and taste her release as she spent herself against him.
And then he was above her and his rock-hard cock was inside of her, Ashe’s languid, luxurious thrusts coasting along the soft echoes of her climax, stretching out her enjoyment but not overwhelming her. He stroked the silk of her hair and whispered sweet nonsense in her ears about never hurting her and never letting her go and Caroline could feel her heart begin to rend itself in two.
His climax answered her own, and she hid her face against his shoulder as her hot tears mingled with the salty-sweet smell of sweat and sex.
Their breathing slowed, and after several minutes, she knew that sleep was just beginning to claim him as she slid from the bed and began to gather her things.
“Caroline?” he asked softly, one hand outstretched to try to retrieve her and pull her back into his arms.
“Sleep, Ashe. I . . . I’m just going to retrieve a change of clothes. I don’t want . . . Godwin to see me in my ball gown at the breakfast table,” she whispered.
He smiled, his eyes closing. “After we’re married, I’m going to make you eat breakfast in your birthday suit.” His voice slowed as a contented sleep overtook him. “I’d like to . . . see his face . . . wouldn’t you?”
“After we’re married,” he’d said. Her heart fractured at last and Caroline put a hand over her own mouth to keep from crying out. I’ve held on to the tiger’s tail for too long and now it will destroy me to let him go. But if I don’t, I don’t think I can survive it.
Good-bye, my dear Ashe.
He awoke alone.
Panic made him grab his robe and race to her room, only to find the door still open. Ashe could hear a woman crying and his knees almost buckled in relief.
She is still here. She’s upset but tears dry and I’ll just apologize until she tires of hearing it or begs—
It was Daisy, sobbing as she sat at the end of a bed covered in her mistress’s beautiful clothes. Again, he felt a twinge of relief.
She couldn’t have gone. Her clothes are all still here . . .
But then the truth sunk in. The books were missing from her desk.
“Her trunks?”
“She took only the clothes she brought with her, sir.”
“The . . . she took nothing else?” The morning light caught the gleam of blue stars and diamonds lying on top of the coverlet, and he knew defeat. “Did she say where she was going?”
“I think to Bellewood and then home, sir. But, if you . . . stopped her . . .” Daisy sniffed loudly.
Why? Who better to convey the worst of it to my grandfather than my beloved chaperone? And how could I stop her—after last night? What else could I say to hold her?
Daisy blew her noise, an indelicate attempt to compose herself. “She didn’t take any of the new things because she didn’t want you to think less of her. Miss Townsend was a proud thing, and I mean that in the best way! Poor as she was, she was a true lady!”
Daisy burst into tears again and for Ashe the world came to another unsettling halt. “Poor as she was? What do you mean by that?”
“I never said nothing to her—I mean, a lady is entitled to think she has her secrets, isn’t she? But Mrs. Clark and I both saw! And Mrs. Clark had a letter from her aunt at Bellewood that said as much, but Miss Townsend was so sweet that none of us wanted to cause her any harm.”
Daisy’s speech was gaining momentum and Ashe put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her into a more intelligible report. “Daisy, easy there. Let’s have it.”
“It was her clothes that set us off! Not where anyone would really see, but a maid’s eyes couldn’t miss the signs. Her stockings were darned more than a half dozen times over and shoes patched on the insides. The dresses she came with were new enough . . . but nothing a stitch below. And Mrs. Clark’s aunt said she was skin and bones when she first came to Bellewood.”
“Sh-she’s an heiress.”
“No, sir. Not that one. An heiress would have complained long and loud about every draft or darkened crust of bread, but she only said thank you again and again for the simplest courtesies. Didn’t even yell when I sat on one of her new hatboxes!”
Ashe shook his head. “A good disposition doesn’t disqualify her from wealth. Caroline is—eccentric, but her family’s financial worth is at least equal to mine, Daisy.”
Daisy was adamant, her cheeks reddening. “Beggin’ your pardon, Mr. Blackwell, sir. A woman with a dowry wouldn’t fret over missing candlesticks.” She curtsied a quick bob and left the room before he could respond, a hand covering her mouth to stifle her sobs.
Missing candlesticks? Granted, Caroline dressed like a governess when I met her but . . . can I be that blind? Everything else Yardley ever said was a lie, but was he right about Caroline? Is it just rumors taking on a weight of their own and the servants mistaking an odd frugality for true poverty?
Unlikely.
And because I was so determined to win her with kisses, I neglected to ask. Hell, I didn’t think it was important! But now . . . It’s all a wretched tangle, isn’t it? Ashe’s breath came in long ragged pulls, unable to keep up with the scorching pace of his thoughts. Caroline. Poor. Poor, not eccentric. The books. The college. Oh, God. My grandfather must have promised her that college! And I, I thought nothing of any of it. The scandal. If I’d succeeded in reforming, she’d have gotten whatever my grandfather promised her. But I failed. I failed her, in every way possible.
The gleam of the stones caught his eye and Ashe went over to retrieve them, hating the cool weight of the necklace in his hand. “Rich or poor,” he said to an empty room, “you leave me no choice, Miss Caroline Townsend.”
Ashe knew if he didn’t go, he’d always wonder if there was one more thing he could have done. He dropped the necklace into his coat pocket and turned on his heels without looking back.
Chapter
21
“I’m not entirely surprised to see you here, Miss Townsend. Your letters said nothing of a visit, although that last note . . . I was wondering if something drastic had occurred.” Gordon Blackwell readjusted the blanket over his legs as she sat across from him on the settee.
“I thought I should explain before I returned home.”
“Our agreed time isn’t over, Miss Townsend.”
“For me, it is finished.”
“What did h
e do?”
Caroline took a deep breath. She’d practiced her speeches a thousand times in the carriage ride to Bellewood, sure she was taking the only path open to her to save the last glimmer of integrity she had left. Something good has to come from all of this.
“He did nothing. It was me. I fell in love with him.”
“And he with you?” he asked hopefully.
“His feelings for me are unchanged. Truthfully they may have worsened in light of . . . recent events.” She had to swallow hard to dissolve the lump in her throat, emotion threatening to choke her.
“What recent events?”
“I presented myself to him and put him in an impossible position because of our . . . arrangement. He couldn’t dismiss the chaperone you’d assigned him, not without revealing how far things had gone.”
The elder Blackwell looked at her, astonished. “Did you really come to love him? My blackguard of a grandson?”
“He is not so unworthy.”
“And his oath?”
She hesitated. “Ashe would rather cut off his own hand, I think, than disappoint you.”
“Yet you speak of yourself and not Ashe as the source of this great disappointment.”
“Ashe did everything he could to protect my reputation. But there is no going back and there is more to life than an avoidance of scandal. That’s why I sent the note to you and why I’ll beg you again never to tell him about your offer of the money. He would rightly think the worst after my behavior, and I don’t think I could live with it.”
“But the wager did involve public scandal, and you could have both kept the secret of your affections to yourselves. I’d have been none the wiser.”
Seduction Wears Sapphires Page 24