She continued to hold the shirt to her, but reached out with her right hand to touch him, all the while looking into his eyes. She saw them close as she lightly ran her fingers across his chest, saw his muscles contract and his nipples harden.
Fascinated that she could have this effect on him, she rolled his nipple between her fingers, saw him fighting for breath. Leaning in she ran her tongue around the puckered dark stub, circling it, dimly aware that she still felt the same sensation on her own skin. With a sense of wonderment she closed her lips around him and gently suckled.
She felt more than heard the falter in his breath, grew bold and pushed him back against the pillows so that she could feast on him. When she stopped and looked up, his eyes were still closed, his nostrils pinched, his jaw clenched.
I’ve done this to him, she thought.
A thrill of delight that this could be so swept through her as she fumbled open the buttons on his breeches, worked them down his legs and over his feet, then dropped them on the floor beside the bed.
She reached out and touched his naked body, ran her hands over him, loving the swell of muscle, the undulation of each curve and contour of his frame. Every catch in his breath as her fingers explored his nakedness made her smile. This was her man, her husband and right now, in this moment, totally in her power.
Emboldened by this realization, she ran her hand up his straining erection and smiled with satisfaction as he groaned out loud. Her smile widened when, as she closed her hand around him and squeezed gently, he groaned again.
His sigh of pleasure changed to a surprised gasp as she circled her thumb over the tiny bead of moisture appearing at the tip of his shaft. She lowered her head and ran her tongue along its length, licking and kissing before taking him gently in her mouth and suckling him as he had her. He moaned softly and his body stiffened. He stopped her and pulled her up in a tight embrace.
He nuzzled at her cheeks, his breath moist on her neck as his lips began their downward journey again. Emmaline gasped at the lightning speed with which she responded. She twined her fingers in his hair, shifted her hips so that he could grasp her buttocks. Her legs lifted and she cried out as she felt the hardness of him against her soft folds.
She reached down and guided him into her. She had no pride, no shame, knew only that there was an emptiness in her that only he could fill.
He gave one thrust, then stopped as he again felt that delicate barrier in his way. His forehead rested on hers as he propped himself on one elbow, breathing laboured, face glistening with sweat. He took a deep breath and his heart thumped. She was his, truly his.
“Sweetheart, this will hurt,” he whispered.
Her answer was to thrust upward to meet him. The pain made her gasp in shock, a gasp that changed to a soft mew of delight as he slowly sank deeper and deeper into her. She tightened her legs around him, held him as close as she could, began to move with him as the now familiar tightening in her belly began to strengthen.
She rocked with him, her legs cradling him, opening more and more for him like a flower opens to the sun. He moved faster and she kept pace with him, felt him harden even more, felt her own pleasure spike and splinter as he emptied himself into her, one heated rush after another until, both spent, they lay limp in each other’s arms.
When their breathing steadied, Emmaline turned on her side and smiled at him. She reached up, pushed back the wayward lock of hair that fell across his forehead and stroked his face.
Lucius captured her hand and placed a kiss in it.
There was no need for words.
He pulled her into the crook of his arm. She snuggled her head into the now familiar hollow beneath his shoulder and closed her eyes.
In moments they were both asleep.
CHAPTER 24
When she awoke, she was alone.
Emmaline rested the back of her hand in the depression on the pillow where his head had been, breathed in the scent of him, of them.
She was not sure how many times she had awakened during the night, turning to him in eager anticipation, loving his hands on her naked body, loving the feeling of him deep inside her.
Finally sitting up in bed, she peeped out of the closed curtains on the four poster bed only to see two footmen carrying a bath tub into the bed chamber. She closed the curtain again and pulled the sheets up to her chin, all the while listening to Lucius’ firm instructions and the ordinary sounds in the room.
Ashes were raked out of the fireplace. Logs were dropped on the hearth. She heard the crackle of kindling as the fire was made up. Water splashed as the tub was filled. Cups rattled slightly on a tray as it was placed where Lucius requested.
Emmaline waited, suddenly shy. She wasn’t exactly a new bride, but what might be expected of her after the night they had spent together? Hearing nothing she reached up to open the curtain again but, before her fingers caught the fabric, Lucius drew it back and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” His hair was damp as if he’d just washed it and an easy smile sat on his face.
“Some of the time.”
She smiled at him. Lucius loved the lazy look of left over love in her eyes.
“And when you weren’t sleeping?”
“Aah.” The lazy look changed to dancing happiness. “Those were times when dreams were made.”
“Well, there’s no time for dreaming now. Come.”
Lucius drew back the covers and she swung her legs out of the bed and stood up, astonished to see the tub in front of the fireplace.
“This is a little decadent, is it not?”
“Maybe, but a soak in warm water will help ease muscles that I am sure must be aching somewhat this morning.”
She could not deny it and held on to his hand as she stepped into the lavender scented water. As she lowered herself into it she realized just how right Lucius was. Once she was soaking luxuriantly in the tub be brought her a cup of hot chocolate.
“Oh, my.” She grinned up at him. “Did all your ladies receive this treatment?”
Lucius shook his head. “My ladies, as you refer to them, never stayed the night. Either I left them, or insisted they leave me.”
Emmaline handed him the empty cup and let her head drop back on the curve of the tub and before she knew it, Lucius was behind her, brushing her hair in long steady strokes.
“Mmm. That is so good,” she murmured. The strokes continued. There was no sound other than the pop of the logs on the hearth, the sensation of the brush on her hair and Lucius’ steady breathing.
He had not said he loved her, but surely he would not be tending to her so sweetly if it were otherwise? A small nagging doubt wormed itself into her mind. What if he still had feelings for his first love? She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She had to know.
“Tell me about her, Lucius,” she said softly. “Tell me about the girl who broke your heart.”
The brushing stopped. Behind her Lucius sighed as he began brushing again.
“Her name was Lucinda Hawkes-Carradine. Her hair was as fair as yours is black. She had pretty brown eyes and a quick wit and I had never met anyone like her before. Her family were only too pleased to approve my suit and within six months of my coming down from Oxford we were engaged.”
Emmaline heard the soft thud of the brush landing on the table, but Lucius still held her hair as if he were afraid to let her go.
“Caroline was afraid I had moved too fast and urged caution, but I wouldn’t listen. This was the love of my life, or so I thought. We were invited to an Oxford fellow’s Christmas house party. Beamish and Skeffington were there, a couple more from our circle, and Peregrine Styles. We had rubbed shoulders somewhat during our college years, but I found his envy wearing and avoided him when I could.”
Emmaline waited, sensing how much the story still pained him. He sighed again and moved from his chair to sit on the floor beside the tub. He leant his head back and rolled it wearily from side to side again
st the hard edge.
“Styles didn’t just seduce her, he corrupted her utterly and completely,” he said quietly. “He let it be known how willing she had been, how expert in bed she was, almost as expert as the most high class courtesan. He also let slip that she had born a child when she was sixteen.”
“Do you think your sister knew that?”
“Caroline admitted to having heard a rumour but, after meeting Lucinda, could not allow herself to believe it.”
“What happened to Lucinda?”
Lucius was at first silent, then sighed. “Her family removed her to a lunatic asylum. They couldn’t deal with her excesses, you see.”
“And then you hardened your heart.”
Something between a snort and a bark of laughter erupted from Lucius’ lips.
“That is one way of putting it,” he said. “I was determined to not love again. I did not want the pain of it.”
“Until you met me.”
Lucius got to his feet.
“But you are my dark enchantress,” he whispered and dropped a kiss on her head.
The shiver of delicious anticipation it kindled ran right to her toes.
“Oh, Lucius,” she whispered. “I do believe you have unleashed a monster. What would I do without you?”
Lucius watched her face for a moment, drank in the soft curves of her cheeks and the outline of her lips, then knelt beside the tub and took her hand.
“You would do this.”
The still warm water rose a little higher as Lucius guided her hand to lie on her lower belly and encouraged her fingers to explore that exquisite peak between her thighs. He put a little pressure on her fingers, moved them under his, watched as her eyes closed and her eyelashes fluttered as gently as butterflies on her cheeks, watched her tension begin to build.
He moved his hand and watched as she moved hers, knew from the way her teeth caught her lower lip that she was close to climaxing. He heard her first gasp of delight and felt a stirring of his own pleasure at the expression on her face, swallowed hard and clenched his muscles to prevent it growing further.
The water rose and fell against the sides of the tub as she rocked with gentle motion until she cried out as one strong ripple after another flowed through her.
Lucius continued to watch her, wanted her, knew he would do anything for her. The smile that lightened her face softened her lips and rounded her cheeks and, when she opened her eyes, they sparkled with an inner satisfaction and a new knowing.
She reached a wet hand up to his face, slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down.
“I love you,” she whispered and kissed him.
***
The following days were the happiest Emmaline had ever known. Other than Juliana, she did not have a wide circle of friends, only acquaintances. But Lucius, she soon discovered, was a friend as well as husband and lover and conversed with her on as many subjects and levels as had her father. The laughter in her eyes and the bloom in her cheeks did not go unnoticed.
“She’s getting used to it,” Mrs. Swift remarked to the housekeeper. “You mark my words, Mrs. Hammond, it won’t be long before it’s not only my oven what has a bun in it.”
Mrs. Hammond, secretly agreeing, pretended shock. Lady Emmaline had certainly been a surprise and a delight to them all with her understanding and unaffected manners.
That she preferred to be in the stables or out visiting tenants with his Lordship in no way deterred her from her intention to learn all she could about Avondale Park.
The house keeper’s little office was their meeting point each morning and Mrs. Hammond found her pupil not only eager and willing to learn but intelligent too. She answered the many questions that were put to her with sound logic that Emmaline found easy to process.
Of all the rooms the house keeper had shown her, Emmaline’s favourite was the Peacock Room. With its velvet drapes of deep turquoise at the windows and the canopy around the bed a swath of blue and green silk and satin, Emmaline found the room quite delightful but it was the large painting of a peacock hung over the fireplace that caught her attention.
“My father used to tell me stories of the Greek gods and goddesses,” she said, standing in front of the hearth and gazing up at the painting. “The goddess Hera’s watchman, Argos, had a hundred eyes and slept with half of them open. One night Hermes tricked Argos into closing all of them and killed him. The peacock was Hera’s favourite bird so she put some of Argos’ eyes in its tail.”
“I don’t hold with those nasty heathens.” Mrs. Hammond, unimpressed with Emmaline’s story, shuddered as she picked up a tasselled cushion from the sofa and plumped it up.
“I’m going to claim this room for my own.” Emmaline twirled in circles on the richly patterned carpet which reflected the iridescent colours of the bird’s plumage.
“I’m sure his Lordship won’t have any objections,” Mrs. Hammond replied, unable to resist smiling at her protégé’s obvious pleasure.
“Of course he won’t,” Emmaline said with confidence. “He has his office and library to retreat to and I shall come here when I wish to read or otherwise be quiet.”
Their business for the day finished, Emmaline went directly to the stables where she groomed Sadie, the mare she had brought with her from Baymoor, and chatted with Noble and Tockington, who had now long recovered from his crack on the head. He had complimented her on her needlework and shown her with pride the very faint scar that was all he had to show for the incident.
Her intention was to ride in the park that afternoon, but a chance remark from Tockington changed her mind and she rushed back to the house to find Lucius.
He was in the library with Edward and looked up at her hurried entrance.
“This cannot be my wife,” he said in mock dismay, taking in the scarf tied over her head and the piece of straw strewn sacking about her waist.
Emmaline looked down at her make-shift apron.
“Rather this than a dirty skirt,” she said. “I’m sorry to intrude, Lucius, but I have to ask you if I may buy a pig.”
“A pig?” Lucius sat bolt upright in his chair in disbelief. Edward did his best to hide the grin that split his face at his employer’s shock, but his best was not good enough and he spluttered into silence under Lucius’ withering glare.
“Yes, but it’s not just any pig,” Emmaline insisted. “Mr. Tockington was telling me someone in the village is selling a Gloucester Old Spot. Although I have never yet seen one, I know they are famously practical and I think Mr. Collett at the home farm would very much appreciate it.”
Lucius shook with laughter. “God forbid that my wife should wish to purchase anything as mundane as a bonnet. Go and buy your pig, Emmaline, and have the bills sent to Edward but please do not go abroad looking like an orphan.”
“But of course not,” she responded with a toss of her head. “I shall select an appropriate gown from my new wardrobe for I intend to visit Miss Jarvey at the school and deliver some preserves to Mrs. Jenkins.”
As she left she hesitated, but turned to him witha smile on her face and blew him a kiss.
Lucius’ laughter rolled around the room and Edward, having been in his employ for ten years, could not remember a time when there had been so much in joy in him.
With Emmaline gone to the village, Lucius took a gun and two of his spaniels and set out across the park for a far covert where he hoped to flush out a brace of pheasant.
The September afternoon basked under a clear blue sky. The gentlest of breezes occasionally buffeted his face and ruffled his hair, and all was as perfect as it could be. He traipsed through the fields, clambered over walls and fences that he would be jumping over once the hunting season started, got his feet wet in the trout stream that ran close to the southern boundary of the Park and the Beamish estate, and returned home well satisfied.
He cut through the stable yard after leaving the dogs in the kennels and noticed the carriage house door ajar. Curious, he p
ulled it open.
The place where the gig should have been was still empty.
Puzzled, he closed the door and checked Sadie’s stable. It was also empty. He looked up at the stable yard clock. It was gone five.
Panic gripped his heart, almost stilled his breathing.
He charged up the stairs to the grooms’ quarters, two at a time bellowing for Noble who met him at the door.
“What time did her ladyship leave, Noble, and who accompanied her?” he barked.
“She left a little after noon, my Lord, and insisted she drive herself.”
“Did she indeed?” Lucius seethed inwardly but paused for a moment, holding his temper. “And you let her go alone? Where were your wits? Saddle a hunter, Noble, I’ll go to Nettleford across country.”
As soon as the horse was ready, Lucius set off at a steady gallop across the park, scattering the herds of fallow deer and sheep that grazed there.
Damn her! The pig was one thing, but driving off without a groom? Who did she think she was to drive herself unaccompanied? And how could Noble have been so foolish as to let her go alone?
He steadied the horse for a post and rail fence, soared over it and picked up the pace across the next field. A gate and two hedges later he was pounding along the road into the village where he pulled up abruptly and dismounted outside the inn.
“Jackson!” he roared as he pushed into the taproom.
The landlord had already heard him and sent a boy to take the horse and now met him in the corridor.
“What’s amiss milord?”
“Have you seen her Ladyship?” Lucius demanded.
“Put the gig up here while she did some visiting, left about mid-afternoon.”
“Then where the devil is she?” Fear replaced the panic in Lucius’ heart and he cursed himself for not having asked the whereabouts of those she planned to visit. “Do you know who was selling a pig?”
“That would be Tom Thresher,” Jackson told him. “His place is just outside Nettleford, past the church. But I know her Ladyship made an arrangement with him, for he came in here for a, er, well a celebratory beverage and told everyone.”
His Dark Enchantress (Books We Love Regency Romance) Page 21