“I apologise for not coming to see you when I first arrived in York. I had every intention of doing so, but somehow things got all muddled and then I ended up drugged at an inn and Lizzie insisted that I be tied to a chair.”
His mother’s lips twitched in amusement. “Well, it would seem that you have had quite a time of it. Perhaps it would be best if you told me the whole?”
Jack breathed a sigh of relief and told her the entire sordid affair.
“You abducted the girl, got in a carriage accident and ended up hiding in the wardrobe while playing a children’s game?”
Jack was smart enough to omit the kiss. There were some things one didn’t share with their mother.
The Countess laughed, a sound so delightful and carefree that Jack felt himself loosening up even further. He hadn’t known the stress he was carrying in his shoulders until they began to lower and rest in a more natural manner.
“I suppose that it sounds rather fantastic to you?” Jack said sheepishly.
His mother nodded. “Oh, my yes! It brings me back to some of the adventures your father and I had when he was trying to win my hand. It all seems so silly now, but I had it in my head that he could never love me.”
Jack looked incredulous. “Father? Never love you. He dotes on your every word.”
Maddie laughed. “Yes, well, when you are young and uncertain of these new feelings, sometimes it is difficult to make well informed decisions. Things did work themselves out in the end, as I am sure that they will for you and Lizzie.”
Jack could sense that his mother wanted to say more. “You might as well make a clean breast of it. You know the lot; I have my work cut out for me.”
She arched a brow. “I am not certain you quite understand the depths of a woman’s ire when she is wronged. Sometimes one has to make a grand gesture to declare their feelings.”
Jack scoffed. “I kidnapped the girl. What could possibly be grander than that?”
“Did you tell her how you feel?” his mother asked gently. “More to it, do you know how you feel about her?”
Jack met his mother’s gaze. “I love her.”
She nodded. “I can see that you do. The question is—does she know it?”
Chapter 16
It was half past two in the morning when Lizzie heard a faint knock on her door. For a moment she wondered who on earth would be trying to enter her bedchamber at such an hour. But then she remembered that her twin sister Ellie was expecting a child. Worry prodded Lizzie to jump out of bed and race to the door without grabbing her wrapper.
Standing in her thin nightgown, illuminated by the fire, Lizzie stared at Jack. He was wrapped in a deep burgundy dressing gown with the hint of his bare neck exposed. When Jack had been drugged, she briefly saw him without a neck cloth. But she had been too worried about him to notice that he was in such a state of dishabille.
It was true that as children they used to swim in the lakes in their undergarments. But it was a very long time ago, Lizzie thought to herself. And Jack had looked nothing like the tall sensual creature that was towering in her doorway.
“Might I come in?” he asked in a low voice.
Lizzie nodded helplessly and opened the door wider. She had no idea that with the firelight behind her Jack could see every ripe curve of her delectable body. With his hands clenched to his side, Jack moved close enough to speak with her and yet far enough away that he wouldn’t grab Lizzie and ravish her.
It was a far cry from the perfect gentleman that he had intended on being. Well, gentlemen didn’t call on single young ladies of quality in their bedchamber while they were alone—or at all.
But Jack had needed to see her, needed to touch her. That kiss in the wardrobe was playing over and over again in his mind. He wanted to know if it had just been the heat of the moment, or if their connection was really the explosive storm that had shook him to the core.
“Whatever are you doing here, Jack?” Lizzie’s breathless voice did nothing to calm Jack’s thundering heart.
He could see that her fingers were beginning to tighten into fists. He could also see far more through her shift than a gentleman ought to be seeing. Suddenly parched, he was dying to taste her. There had been an agenda to his visit. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, to beg her to have him, to make a life with him.
But those careful laid plans were beginning to unravel when instead of speaking Jack did the unthinkable—he touched her. Jack couldn’t help himself. He reached out and tucked a stray dark curl behind her ear. The texture to her hair was akin to silk. Jack suddenly had a vision of Lizzie splayed across his bed. Her gorgeous hair spread beneath her.
“Lizzie,” his voice was gruff with emotion.
Lizzie flushed, feeling that same strange tingling in her belly that she had when they were hiding in the wardrobe. Suddenly her body felt heavy and her fingers automatically reached up to touch her bottom lip.
His voice was intense when he spoke to her. “I read the letters you know, every one of them.”
Her head snapped up and she blinked in confusion. “Then why? Forgive me, Jack, but I do not understand. Why would you not write me back, even once?”
Hurt and confusion coloured her voice. Lizzie tried to keep calm, but like a storm, sometimes her temper could be unpredictable and violent.
Her eyes stung, but she refused to let any tears fall. “At first, I waited impatiently, knowing that you would send word any day. I was such a fool. I wrote to you with such enthusiasm about our upcoming wedding. I thought your proposal was heartfelt, more the fool I. It was not until I overheard some Mrs. Grantham gossiping with that vile Lady Benton at the milliners that I learned the truth.”
Jack felt the blow of her words just as surely as if a punch had been thrown.
Lizzie didn’t pause long enough for Jack to respond. “At the next local assembly, none of my usual suitors would ask me to dance. I did not understand. I knew that I was not a diamond of the first water, but I knew I was tolerable enough. They thought they were so clever, the other young ladies in the neighbourhood. They would whisper cruel things behind their fans that were just loud enough for me to hear.
It was then that it hit me that if this is how I was being treated in York, it would only be a thousand times worse in London. I had not given up hope entirely that you would write to me and fix everything.”
“Lizzie, I am so sorry.” Jack moved swiftly to take her hands, but Lizzie turned away from him.
Her words were low as she continued. “I was ignorant to think that I could mend things on my own. But society loves a pariah, especially one that is an ape leader.”
“You were hardly an ape leader,” Jack said swiftly. “You were little more than a child.”
Lizzie’s shoulders slumped. “Just so, that moniker was not given to me until later. Jack, I do not want to be angry with you any longer. I do not want to wait for letters that do not arrive. I do not want to be the girl that nobody wanted. If you care about me at all, please release me from this engagement. Release me from this state of limbo and let me go.”
Jack grabbed her arm spinning her around.
Lizzie gasped and reached out to steady herself. The only thing within her grasp was Jack’s dressing gown. The light silky fabric was warm with the heat from Jack’s body. But that wasn’t what caused the hitch in her breath.
It was the look in his gaze as he stared into her eyes. There was something wild and possessive that she had never seen before. Her fingers tightened in the gown. Briefly she wondered if he was wearing anything beneath the fabric. She could feel hard, hot male, his body so different from her own.
Rather breathlessly she added, “I know that your sense of honour demands that you marry me. I used to think that was enough. But I know better now, Jack. I deserve to have someone who desires me, someone who cares about me.”
“I bloody well care for you,” he said gruffly as he yanked her even tighter against him.
Suddenly Liz
zie became very aware of her nightdress. The hard length of his body was searing against her own.
Lizzie might be an unmarried young woman, but she was raised in the country and knew that she was playing with fire—they both were.
“I will not be your obligation.” Lizzie gasped as Jack leaned into her and started placing tiny kisses along the length of her neck. “What are you… I do not really… Oh!”
Jack took the fleshy part of her lobe and sucked it into his mouth. He loved the way that she melted against him. Never before had a woman felt so good in his arms. He was a damned fool for letting ten years go by. The taste of her skin was intoxicating. If he had only kissed her all of those years ago, perhaps he wouldn’t have been such an idiot. No, it was more than that. They were physically compatible, that was apparent.
But he also liked spending time with her. Lizzie was funny, fierce, and dear to him. He wasn’t sure when it happened. But he knew that he needed to straighten something out immediately before another day passed.
He took his hands and cupped her face. His stomach tightened as he noted she unconsciously raised herself up on her toes. She looked primed and ready to be thoroughly kissed.
Chapter 17
“You seem to be under the impression that I wish to marry you out a sense of duty,” Jack said tersely.
Lizzie frowned and tried to pull away. But Jack held her, trying to make her understand.
“That may have been the case before, but I was wrong, Lizzie, dreadfully and horribly wrong. I do not want to marry you because I have to.”
Lizzie’s eyes widened and her hands tightened on his wrists. “Why?” she asked, it was soft and pleading. “Why do you want to marry me?”
Jack leaned down until his lips were a whisper away from touching hers. “I want to marry you because I cannot imagine marrying anyone else. I have never met anyone that makes me laugh the way you do. I adore the fiery way you defend those you love, and I am both terrified and in awe of the schemes that you come up with. But most importantly Lizzie, I am falling in love with you—hopelessly, irrevocably, and endlessly in love with you. Please, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
She scoffed. “You hardly love me! Jack be serious. Before you came after me at the inn you wanted nothing to do with me. Why should I believe you now? Why have you had a change of heart?”
Jack hated the way that she seemed so unsure. He hated that Lizzie didn’t realise the place that she held in his heart. He might not have loved her from the start, but he had fallen in love with the girl in those letters. He knew that now.
It might have taken him being drugged and tied up to get him to finally see what truly was important, but by gad he now knew what he wanted.
His lips caressed hers in the sweetest of kisses. Brushing against her lips once, twice and then settling against her mouth to torment and tease. She tasted of sweet innocence and desirable woman. It wasn’t lost on him that they were alone, in a locked bedchamber, in nearly complete dishabille.
“Lizzie, dearest,” he whispered against her lips.
Lizzie was too far gone to respond with more than pressing her lips once again against his own. The sensations that his kiss caused within her were too glorious to disturb with mere conversation.
Jack was at odds with himself. He worried that as a gentleman he was taking advantage of her innocence. But this wasn’t a young girl in his arms. Lizzie was all woman, and besides, she was his—all he needed to do was marry her.
Instead of sending her back to bed, Jack’s hands took on a mind of their own and started to move down her body. He briefly recalled their time in the wardrobe and how frustrating it was to be so close and yet not be able to touch her the way he wished to.
Now his senses were reeling as he felt the generous curves of her body, the small defined waist and the gentle curve of her hips. She was perfect, every last inch of Lizzie was utter perfection. Jack wanted to spend the rest of his life worshiping her body, showing her that he truly appreciated who she had become.
Lizzie moaned against his mouth and parted her sweet lips allowing him to sweep his tongue inside. His body tightened painfully, and he couldn’t help the hand that settled low on her hip, bringing her fully against him.
Her sweet gasp had his blood racing, logical thought and decisions were rapidly losing their claim on him.
It seemed for a time that she was content with letting him lead the kiss. But Jack sensed the very moment when Lizzie decided that she would kiss him back. As she met his tongue with her own, deep desires started swirling inside of him. Jack’s hands couldn’t seem to keep still. This woman, this paragon of beauty had almost slipped away from him.
The kiss deepened even further and suddenly the innocent kiss erupted into a blazing inferno. Jack groaned, low in his throat. His raw passion only further served to incite Lizzie to kiss him more fervently. Her shy overtures became more pronounced until they were both demanding of the other everything that they had.
Jack felt every inch of his body ablaze with need. He wanted more—no, he needed it every bit as badly as he needed the air to breathe. It was as if an electrical storm was going off inside of him. All thoughts of slowing down were tossed aside as Jack lifted Lizzie, not breaking the kiss, and carried her over to the bed. He sat her on the edge as he nipped at her lower lip with his teeth.
Lizzie’s cries of passion were enough to cause Jack to throw caution to the wind. He was desperate to taste more of her to show her the pleasures of lovemaking, to be her husband in every sense of the word. Jack knew that Lizzie wouldn’t be one of those frigid females. Lizzie was all heat and passion.
He pulled away slightly only to bring his hot open mouth to her neck and then lower. Raining kisses upon her flesh, Jack was fuelled by the way Lizzie so openly responded to him. Her fingers, as they dug into his skin, trying to draw him closer. Her legs, that unconsciously parted and wrapped around his own. Her body, as it seemed to melt beneath his touch until they were both lost to that whirl storm of passion that raged between them.
It would be a long time before the candle that Jack had absentmindedly placed on the sideboard upon entering the room would finally shutter and blow out. Neither of the room’s occupants would notice the event having long since slipped into dreamland—hand in hand.
Let it be said, thankfully Jack had turned the key and the door was locked.
Unfortunately, the housekeeper had a set of master keys.
Chapter 18
“Lizzie? Dearest?” Her mother’s voice rang through the locked door. “Lizzie, your maid sent for me. Is something amiss?
Lizzie sat up in bed with the sheets clutched to her bosom with one hand and the other she used to shove her mane of dark hair out of her eyes. It seemed very out of character for her mother to be shouting through a locked door.
“Mother?” she rasped.
“Lizzie! Come and open this door. I am worried.”
Upon further reflection, Lizzie noted that she had at some point removed her nightdress. That was odd, she usually didn’t like sleeping in the buff. It didn’t take more than a second before Lizzie realised that she was not alone in bed. A stifled wail escaped her lips as she saw the expanse of a toned and sculpted chest.
“Jack?” she hissed.
He snorted and returned to sleeping.
“Lizzie,” her mother’s voice rang out again. “Why is your door locked? Is there something the matter? Lizzie, I am warning you!”
Lizzie scrambled to find an explanation for her behaviour, but nothing seemed to come to mind. Then to her utter horror, she heard the very distinct sound of a key turning in the lock of her door. With wild eyes, Lizzie turned to see her mother opening the door and stepping inside.
It was almost comical the way that her mother’s face changed the moment she noticed Jack. “Lizzie, whatever is… Oh!”
Of course, as luck would have it, this would be the interruption that would finally awaken Jack from slumber.
<
br /> “Lizzie?” he asked groggily as he sat up in bed. Thankfully the sheet was preserving his modesty to some degree. Unfortunately, his hand had come to rest on her bare back causing Lizzie’s mother to blanch.
“Mother,” Lizzie answered in a strangled tone. “Might I have a moment?”
Her mother looked like she might fall into a fit of the vapours.
“Alone?” Lizzie added with a shooing motion of her hand.
Lizzie’s mother looked as if she had every intention of arguing.
However, all it took was for Jack to add, “Might you have a moment to fetch the parson while you are at it?”
Lizzie’s mother’s eyes nearly popped at this statement. She didn’t even complain about the way he scratched his chest lazily or the fact that his hand was still on her daughters’ bare skin.
The magic word had been spoken, suddenly Lizzie’s mother was all smiles. “Of course! He shall be sent for immediately. Oh, this is fine news, the very best. I shall just give you a moment to, err, well, we will see you both in a moment or two. A wedding! We shall have a Christmas wedding! I can see it now! Everyone is already coming for the Twelfth Night Ball. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Epiphany Day than to surprise them all with a wedding. Charles? Charles!”
Lizzie dropped her head in her hands the moment the door was closed. Never in her life had she ever been so utterly humiliated.
Jack tipped her face up to meet his. He had thought that they had rather straightened things out the night before. He hated the defeat that marred her beautiful features. The more he remembered there was not enough talking and a whole lot of kissing. Panic shot through him as he asked, “Do you regret it?”
“No,” Lizzie whispered softly as a faint blush stole across her cheeks. “But I wish we had not paraded it in front of my family.”
“Your mother does not seem so very upset,” Jack tried to lighten things with a smile.
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