Both men turned as the study door was thrown open and a disheveled Emma quickly entered the room.
“My love?” Hawkwood rose immediately to his booted feet.
His wife’s breasts quickly rose and fell as she breathed heavily. “There has been an accident. Amanda—”
Alex didn’t stay to listen to any more of his sister-in-law’s explanation as he strode past her, down the hallway, and into the cavernous entrance hall. He took in the scene at a glance.
A shivering and trembling Amanda sat on the bench beside the doorway, her clothing and hair appearing to be soaking wet. She was attended by Miss Marchment and Buckham, the new butler Alex had engaged, the latter even now in the act of placing one of Alex’s cloaks about Amanda’s wet shoulders.
“What the hell happened here?” Alex demanded. He sat beside Amanda to take over draping that cloak about her shoulders before his arms moved about her to draw her in close against the heat of his body. A move which showed him how wet and cold she was, her hands feeling icy against his chest as she tightly gripped his shirt.
“I f-fell in t-the f-fountain as w-we crossed the p-park to the sh-shops.” Amanda’s teeth were chattering so badly, she could barely speak.
“You did not fall, you were knocked into the fountain,” the headmistress corrected briskly before turning to Alex. “A woman rode by on a horse, and the next thing we knew, Amanda was spluttering to the surface in the pool about the fountain.”
Amanda pressed her face against Alex’s chest. “I am s-sure it w-was an a-accident.”
“It was not an accident,” Miss Marchment briskly correct her ex-pupil. “I specifically saw the woman ride the horse straight at you. Not soon enough to do anything about it, of course, but I am nevertheless certain it was a deliberate act.”
“Oh b-but—”
“Are you hurt?” Alex demanded.
Amanda grimaced. “Only my pride.”
“Then we will talk of the how and why again later.” Alex stood up with Amanda in his arms. “The important thing now is to get you upstairs, out of these wet clothes, and into a hot bath.” He gave the butler a pointed glance to enforce the instructions for the latter before striding over to the wide staircase. “Obviously, Amanda will not be accompanying you to the shops today after all,” he dismissed distractedly as he carried Amanda up the stairs to her bedchamber.
Amanda felt utterly ridiculous. As well as looking a perfect fright, with her clothes all water-logged and her hair falling about her shoulders in wet clumps, she felt utterly childish for having fallen in the fountain at all. Yes, the horse and rider had come very close to her, allowing her no room for evasion with the fountain so close on the other side, but this bedraggled and vulnerable state was not the way in which she had wished Alex to see her so soon after their shared intimacy on Saturday evening.
She had seen little of him since that time, Alex spending most of yesterday in his study and then having gone out in the evening. She had no idea when or if he had come home later, and with Buckham now in the house, there had been no valid reason for Amanda to wait up for Alex’s return.
For him to now see her looking such a sight was humiliating in the extreme. To add to her discomfort, Alex’s brother, the Duke of Hawkwood, was also present.
What was more immediately disturbing was to have Alex carry Amanda into her bedchamber, remove the wet cloak, and peel her out of her pelisse before turning her slightly so that he could begin to unfasten the buttons down the back of her gown.
Making her again feel like the five-year-old child having fallen into a fountain at all had already made of her.
She turned to look at Alex over her shoulder. “I am sure you should not be doing that.”
“Whether I should or should not, I have every intention of doing so,” he bit out.
“I am sure Miss Marchment or Emma would be happy to assist me.”
“I am happy to assist you,” Alex insisted as he unfastened the last of the buttons on her gown before pulling it carefully down her arms. “Did you see the face of the woman who rode you down?” Whoever this woman was, she would be found and questioned as to her reasons for doing such a thing.
Amanda shook her head. “A black veil concealed her face.”
A niggling voice at the back of Alex’s head, along with Sophia Marchment’s conviction Amanda had been ridden down on purpose, told him that he was somehow to blame for this. After all, Amanda knew no one in London apart from himself, Adam and Emma, and the headmistress.
And all those gentlemen flirting with her on Saturday evening, Alex considered grimly.
Perhaps the woman on the horse was connected to one of them.
No, Alex knew instinctively this would not be the case.
As he must now accept Amanda had not been lying about the intruder three nights ago and the reason the vase outside her room had been broken?
Which meant he had not only unfairly accused her of the crime but then spanked her for it.
Alex could not think that far ahead as yet, needing to deal with one problem at a time. And the more immediate problem was getting Amanda out of these wet clothes and into a hot bath in the hope she would not suffer anything more serious from this mishap than an hour or so of discomfort.
He dropped the sopping gown to the floor before helping Amanda to step out of it, his breath catching in his throat as he straightened to see that Amanda’s wet camisole clung to her in such a way as to reveal the full swell of breasts tipped with ruby-colored and engorged nipples.
It was merely the cold causing that reaction, Alex immediately reproved himself, both for staring and the stirring of his cock inside his pantaloons. His hands shook slightly as he reached for the hem of that wet camisole.
“Alex, you really cannot—”
“I can do what I damn well please within my own home! I apologize,” he sighed heavily, now feeling guilty for having raised his voice to her after what she had already suffered today. “Allow me to do this for you, Amanda, please.” His voice softened. “It is the least I can do after treating you so unfairly.”
She looked up at him. “What do you mean?”
He reached out to grasp both her cold hands in his own. “It is obvious to me now that I—”
But Amanda was not to hear what was “obvious” to Alex, because at that moment, the new butler entered the bedchamber accompanied by two footmen carrying the bath, three maids with heavy pails of hot water, all followed by the Duchess of Hawkwood.
The latter, after a brief glance in their direction, immediately began to organize the servants into filling the bath and lighting the fire in the hearth.
“We will talk again later.” Alex abruptly released Amanda’s hands and gave a terse bow before departing.
Emma crossed over to where Amanda stood and watched Alex leave. “I have no doubt he will return once you are bathed and warm again,” she consoled softly.
Amanda gave her friend a guarded glance. “I was only—”
“I know that look in your eyes, love.” Emma squeezed one of Amanda’s hands. “I see that emotion in my own eyes for Adam every morning when I look in the mirror,” she added ruefully.
“I do not—”
“Oh, I believe you do,” Emma chided with affection. “And beneath that self-possessed exterior, Alex is as much in need of being loved as Adam.”
Love?
Could Emma be right, and it was not just infatuation Amanda felt for Alex, but love?
Chapter 11
“Did you do or say anything to Maria Dalrimple when you ended your affair that she might feel justified in waging a vendetta against Amanda?”
Alex stopped pacing before the hearth in his study long enough to give his brother a frowning glance. “What makes you think this is Maria’s doing?”
Adam shrugged wide shoulders. “Emma mentioned to me that the lady on the horse seemed familiar to her, despite the veil covering her face. And Amanda did walk in on the two of you engaged in sex
ual relations when she arrived in London, which I believe would be enough to displease any woman.” He shook his head. “I have said it before and I will say it again, Alex, what the hell do you do in bed with these ladies that they turn feral when you end the arrangement?”
“I merely give them the physical attention lacking from their lives,” Alex dismissed distractedly as he thought on Adam’s previous comment. Could the rider have been Maria Dalrimple?
The incident with the intruder and the broken vase had happened on the night Alex had ended their affair. The second one today in the park had happened after Maria had seen Alex and Amanda together at the Stamford ball on Saturday evening. Surely that could not be a coincidence?
What was it about Alex that brought out these violent tendencies in the women he had once been involved with?
Whatever it was, Amanda was as undeserving as Emma had once been in feeling the lash of the jealous temper and recrimination of one of Alex’s ex-lovers. If Maria wished to make her displeasure known, then she could do it toward him, not Amanda.
Something Alex intended making clear to Maria at the earliest opportunity.
But first, he would empty his house of all these concerned but now unwanted visitors.
“His Lordship has gone out?” Amanda tried very hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice as she sat alone at the table in the small family dining room.
The butler nodded confirmation. “But he left strict instructions you were to be served luncheon in bed.”
Alex could take his strict instructions and shove them up his arse. Indeed, she would take great pleasure in telling him so herself—
Amanda brought an end to her rebellious thoughts to instead smile at Buckham. “I am sure His Lordship meant well, but I am neither an invalid nor an elderly or infirm lady. I take full responsibility for having come downstairs for luncheon at the usual time,” she assured as the butler continued to look uncertain, obviously not wishing to annoy his new employer. “You may now serve lunch, Buckham,” she added firmly.
He gave a stiff nod. “Very good, Miss Fullerton.”
Amanda waited until the butler had left the room before releasing a shaky breath.
She had hurried through her bath and washing her hair before wrapping herself up in a thick towel and drying and rearranging her hair and then dressing in one of her prettiest gowns. Admittedly, it had taken over an hour to complete all that, but she had still not expected Alex not to even be in the house when she came downstairs to join him for luncheon.
He had said the two of them would talk again later, and Emma had seemed convinced that Alex would be with her again as soon as she was bathed and dressed. Instead, Alex had dismissed all their guests and then gone out without saying so much as another word to her.
Amanda’s eyes stung with unshed tears.
Because delayed shock from this morning was setting in?
Or because the man she now realized she was in love with had simply gone about his business of the day as if nothing untoward had happened to prevent it?
The tears escaped over her lashes and scalded a path down the coolness of her cheeks.
Amanda had thought of Emma’s earlier remarks as she bathed, and Emma’s implication that she could see the same love in Amanda’s eyes for Alex as the other woman saw in her mirror every morning for her own husband.
And known it for the truth that it was.
Amanda had fallen in love with Alex.
Not at first sight, obviously. But Amanda now realized she had felt the first stirrings of the emotion when he spanked her for the first time. Even more so on the occasion of her second spanking. Dancing with Alex at the ball on Saturday evening had been delicious. What had happened in his carriage on the drive home even more so.
But it was not only the physical side of their relationship she loved—even those spankings—but the man himself. His deplorable taste in women apart, Alex was the most attractive gentleman Amanda had ever met. He was by far and away more handsome than those gentlemen she had met at the ball. She had also discovered these past few days that Alex was kind and generous to a fault, loyal to his brother and sister-in-law, and even to her. Even more important, he did not harbor the same feelings of what was a woman’s place to be, as so many other gentlemen of Society did.
But he also believed her to have lied to him, she reminded herself.
Perhaps not anymore?
Alex had apologized to her earlier for treating her badly, perhaps because he now believed she had not lied to him after all.
Amanda could not think of anything else he might be apologizing for.
Except he has gone out without speaking so much as another word to me on the subject!
Amanda knew herself to be opinionated, nor did she suffer fools gladly, but in the past, she had always been slow to temper. Not so today. Alex had given her hope only to snatch it away again by disappearing in this way, something for which he would feel the sharp edge of her tongue when he returned.
Something he did not do until she had finished eating the small amount of food she had been able to swallow down for her lunch before going through to the drawing room to await his return.
Amanda barely waited for Alex to enter the room and close the door behind him before she demanded, “Where have you been?”
Alex, having just spent a very unpleasant time visiting with Maria Dalrimple, was not in the mood to be verbally attacked by Amanda too. He was relieved that she seemed none the worse for her soaking this morning, and aware that he still owed her an explanation regarding those events, but there were limits to his willingness to be brought to task this way within his own household.
He moved to the tray of decanters on the side dresser, pouring himself a glass of brandy and taking a sip before answering her. “I advise you moderate your tone when speaking to me.”
“Oh?” Her chin tilted in challenge, those pale eyes glittering with temper rather than the fever he had feared she might take after being so thoroughly soaked this morning. “And why should I do that?”
Alex drew in a calming breath through his nose before speaking. “Perhaps because the last two occasions you chose to oppose me did not end well for you.”
She gave a dismissive snort. “You are threatening to spank me again?”
“No.”
Her eyes widened. “No?”
“You sound disappointed,” he taunted.
“Not at all!” Color stained her cheeks, whether of anger or embarrassment, Alex was unsure. “I just— I do not understand you.”
“Perhaps you are not meant to.”
“You are talking in riddles.”
“Am I?”
“Yes!”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you fully recovered from your ordeal this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
Alex threw the rest of the brandy to the back of his throat, then placed the empty glass carefully back on the drinks tray before striding stealthily across the room. “No lingering…chills?”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “No.”
“Are you sure?” he purred. “None anywhere?”
Amanda moistened her lips with a swipe of the tip of her tongue. “Not that I am aware, no.”
“Perhaps I should check for myself, just to be sure.”
“Alex?”
He raised challenging brows. “Amanda.”
Rather than feeling apprehensive of Alex’s strange turn of mood, Amanda felt a delicious shiver of anticipation run down the length of her spine. Perhaps because his eyes were glittering with an emotion she was starting to recognize as desire. For her.
“I… Perhaps you should,” she invited huskily.
His grin was completely predatory as he lifted her in his arms and carried her over to place her so that she was lying on the couch. He sat beside her, the intensity of his gaze moving over her slowly, from her head to her toes and then back aga
in. “What is it that draws me to you, I wonder?”
Amanda made no reply, knowing from Alex’s musing tone that he was not addressing the remark to her but to himself. Knowing that he was drawn to her was enough for the moment.
He reached out to curve his palm against her cheek, his thumb rubbing lightly across her bottom lip. “Did you know that a lady’s lips are said to resemble the ones of her cunny?”
Amanda felt the heat color her cheeks. “I did not know that.”
“Hah, something Miss Marchment did not teach you!” he noted with satisfaction.
“I have already learned these past few days that there are several things Miss Marchment did not teach me.”
“Such as?” Alex’s thumb continued that slow caress against her bottom lip.
“That no man’s…member is exactly the same shape and size as another. I learned this only through observation,” she added hastily as his expression darkened. “I also now know what a man’s cum tastes like,” she added shyly.
“And what does it taste like?”
“Sweet, but also a little sour at the same time.”
“The former is perhaps because I put honey on my toast yesterday morning, and no doubt the latter from the alcohol I had consumed yesterday evening.”
“What you ingest affects the taste?”
“Never having tasted it, I have absolutely no idea, but it is perhaps a logical conclusion to come to.”
Logic? How could Alex could talk of logic now when the very air seemed fraught with the same tension that held Amanda under its spell?
His gaze held hers captive as his hands moved to the buttons at the front of her gown and he began to slowly unfasten them. “Your nipples looked very cold earlier,” he murmured as he pushed the two sides of her gown apart to reveal the chemise beneath. “Are they warm now?”
Amanda was almost afraid to speak for fear of breaking that spell. “I believe so.”
His gaze flickered up to hers and then down again. “But you do not know for certain?”
“No.”
“Then perhaps I should check them myself.” He spoke conversationally rather than asked permission as he pulled loose the ribbon fastening and tugged down her chemise until her breasts were completely bared to him. The coolness of the air instantly caused her nipples to grow fuller and redder. “They do not look as if they are warm,” he murmured as his hand cupped beneath one of her breast and his head slowly lowered to take one of the fully engorged nipples into the fiery warmth of his mouth.
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