Moses searched her eyes for understanding, and saw it dawn there, saw the realisation that he was hers and no one else’s.
“Then … you did not lie to me?”
Moses kissed her deeply before answering. “No. I only have eyes for you.”
It had not been planned, and looking back, he could never exactly pinpoint the moment when the decision had been made. All Moses knew that as he looked into the eyes of Chloe Vaughn, glittering and sparkling with the joy of knowing that she had secured his affection, she and no one else, he knew what he wanted to do.
Moses dropped to one knee on the cool green grass, not taking his eyes from the woman before him whose eyes, if possible, grew larger. “Miss Chloe Vaughn. This last day has been the most joy filled and pleasure filled of my existence, and you are the reason for it. I do not wish to pass another day of my life without you. Would you do me the greatest honour, and give me the greatest gift, by promising to become my wife?”
There was a pause, and to Moses’ discomfort, the pause continued. Chloe was smiling at him but had not said a word. Time passed, so slowly that his heartbeat seemed to beat the minutes.
“What keeps your tongue?” He said eventually, a little desperately. “If ‘tis so difficult to consent to be my wife, damnit, then perhaps you had better not accept!”
Chloe smiled, and it was a wicked one. She took his hand and pulled him upright. “Just testing to see how long it would take for you to crack and say something to me.”
Moses groaned, and dropped his head onto her shoulder as Chloe burst into giggles. “Are you always going to be running experiments on me, Chloe?”
“Probably,” she said kissing his cheek as he raised his head. “And now, I only agree on three conditions.”
“Conditions!” Burst Moses.
His beautiful wife-to-be nodded her head. “Firstly, on the condition that you will always allow me to have my own way.”
Moses shook his head slowly and pinned her to the trunk of the tree with his hands on her hips. “What have I let myself in for? And the second condition?”
“Secondly,” said Chloe, as she dreamily wound her hands around his neck, “that we have as many children as possible.”
He had to laugh at that one, as he nuzzled her neck. “I do not think you will hear any complaints from me on that score. And the last?”
It was starting to get difficult to concentrate now, for she was arching her back and pushing her firm breasts into his chest, and her hips were gently thrusting into him as she spoke.
“Thirdly,” she whispered in his ear, “that they will all receive an outstanding education. Boys and girls.”
Moses smiled as he growled and kissed her harshly on the lips. “Done, done, and done,” he said darkly. “And now you will stand here as I do you.”
He had not planned this just as he had not planned the proposal, but it was a chance too good to miss; the wind was blowing from the house so no one would hear them, and there was little to no chance that anyone would come looking for them for the next ten minutes.
Moses bit her lip gently as he kissed her, teasing out that delicate balance of pain and pleasure, as he moved his right hand away from Chloe’s hip and gathered up her skirts.
“What – what are – ?”
But he would not allow her to speak: this was her chance to receive unadulterated pleasure from him, and he was not going to let her get in her own way.
“Trust me,” he murmured into her lips as he possessed them once more with his own. Her back was arching again, but this time due to uncontrolled passion, not teasing playfulness, and Moses felt the painful stir in his breeches as his body tried to respond – but no. This was about her pleasure today. He would have plenty of time to sink himself into her in the years to come.
His searching hand finally found the sweet flesh underneath the skirts, and as his fingers raked her thigh, Cloe moaned in his mouth.
It was everything Moses could do not to throw her down onto the ground and take her right there and then, but he was going to be patient; this was going to be done right.
Slowly, painstakingly slowly, as his lips and tongue wound up the tension in her, his hand moved slowly along her thigh to her secret place – and at the same time that he touched her inner folds lightly with his fingertips, his other hand moved to the back of her gown and pulled once more at that ever-so-obliging ribbon.
Chloe cried out in pleasure as his lips moved to her exposed breasts, bouncing erotically in their new-found freedom, at the same time that her most secret place felt the heat of his fingers.
“Oh, what are you – oh, this is more than I can take!”
His entire body throbbed with pent up desire, but he was determined: this was to be Chloe’s pleasure. The softly moving fingertips underneath her skirt started to become more firm, more determined as they grew wet from her desire and Moses groaned into her body as his tongue scraped her nipple.
Her hands were in his hair and her legs were turned to jelly, but his left hand held her steady as she started to lose herself to the rising sensuality of the moment.
“Yes, deeper,” she moaned, “deeper, oh yes!”
Encouraged by her words, Moses gently inserted two of his fingers into her tight folds, and almost wept to feel how ready she was for him, how wet, how hot, but she was not ready to reach her climax yet. Slowly, slowly the rhythm started to build, and he matched it with his tongue on her breasts, fondling them, teasing first one nipple and then the other, driving her wild and knowing that she would give him a sign when she was ready to capitulate to her building desire.
And there it was.
“Oh Moses!” Chloe cried out his name in a jagged cry that almost caused him to climax himself.
His fingers now worked, curling inside her to touch that special place deep within her that he knew would push her over the edge, and his head lifted to capture her lips in his own as his other hand took up the charge of budding and twisting her nipple as she shuddered against him and the tree, unable to think, barely able to stand, and she cried out his name in his mouth as she climaxed around his fingers in heady waves of pleasure.
Moses took deep breaths as she fell against his chest, his fingers still deep within her, glorifying in the aftershocks of her ecstasy.
“And next time,” he said jerkily in her ear, “I will do that with my mouth.”
Chloe laughed raggedly, and lifted her desire-hazed eyes to his eyes. “Next time?”
Moses felt a surge of carnality wash over him, and wondered how long it would be until a search party would be sent out to look for them. “I will give you five minutes to recover, and then we begin again.”
His laughter mingled with hers as their lips met for another fiery kiss.
10
When the kiss broke there was applause.
“Let’s hear three cheers for the happy couple!” Sir Kyle shouted. “Hip hip!”
“Huzzah!” Came the answering cry, and Chloe looked out across the churchyard at the people who meant the most to her – save for the man whose loving arms, now adorned with a gold wedding band, were around her.
“Is it possible to feel this happy?” She whispered to him, as cheers for their love echoed in the afternoon sunlight.
“I think it must do,” he murmured back with a smile. “Otherwise I am dreaming, and I never wish to wake.”
Chloe smiled and beamed at the wedding guests who had just seen them vow to spend the rest of their lives loving and caring for each other. It was too much, all too much, and yet it was not her own happiness that gave her the most contentment, but that of Moses.
He had not stopped smiling since she had accepted his proposal of marriage, and now just six weeks later, here they stood, man and wife.
As merry chatter broke out amongst their wedding guests, Moses squeezed her hand. “You know, I think it is only right that we go and greet our friends.”
Chloe sighed. “If only it could just be the two of us
.”
A pair of dark eyes twinkled. “Within a few hours, it will be. And then I am going to – ”
“Hush!” Chloe blushed, but only slightly, as her husband grinned down at her, his wide shoulders offering that love and strength that she had never known she had been without until she had stumbled into his home. “Look, there is Rebecca!”
She waved at her friend, and began to walk down the church steps, hand in hand with Moses, when a man stopped them with a beaming smile.
“Wandorne, this is the most marvellous day. Congratulations to you both!”
Chloe did not recognise the gentleman, but by the warm welcome that her husband gave him, knew him to be an old family favourite – for all others had been lost by the wayside. There was a woman standing beside him, with strikingly bright red hair, and green eyes like jade that glittered in the sunlight. She was also heavy and swollen with child.
“I cannot say how pleased I am to see you so happy, Wandorne,” the gentleman was saying.
Moses laughed and shook his head. “Rather different from our last meeting, eh Dewsbury?”
The name nudged Chloe’s memory. Ah yes, Luke, Marquis of Dewsbury. He was another man recently married, and if she recalled correctly, was there not a whiff of a scandal over their marriage?
“My wife, Adena,” he was saying, and the beautiful woman curtseyed as low as she could with the weight of her child resting heavily on her. “Lady Wandorne, permit me to introduce you to my wife.”
For a moment, Chloe waited quietly for this Lady Wandorne to be introduced, and it was only when her husband’s gentle laughter began that she coloured, and smiled.
“You know, I think that it will take me ever so long to become accustomed to that,” she said, slightly embarrassed. “Lady Wandorne, wife to a baronet!”
“You will be surprised,” said the Marchioness prettily. “I believed the same, and yet it was but a few months later that I realised I no longer respond to Miss Garland at all.”
There was pleasant chatter on the summer breeze, and Chloe found herself standing beside the Marchioness, who put her slightly from her ease, so heavily was she with child, and with such a title.
“I greatly enjoyed the ceremony, and I am most grateful for our invitation,” said the Marchioness. “How did you manage to organise the wedding in such a short time?”
Chloe blushed slightly, fully aware of the hint that was being given. “We were just determined to make the arrangements,” she said with an innocent smile. “Really, when it all comes down to it, there is not much that comprises a wedding, is there?”
“And how is Anthony?” Her husband was asking Luke in a low voice, but loud enough for their wives to hear. “I have not heard from him myself. Have you seen him?”
The Marquis shook his head sadly. “I am sorry to say that I have not – but my apologies, we are keeping you from your other devoted guests! Congratulations again Wandorne, Lady Wandorne.”
Luke took his wife’s arm in his own, and started to walk off to greet other friends.
Chloe moved closer to her husband, and whispered. “Anthony?”
“The Count of Stratham, you know,” replied Moses quietly.
She rolled her eyes. Were men to ever be so opaque, could it not be trained out of them? “Yes, thank you, I remember my first introduction to the Count and his sister quite well! I meant, who is Anthony?”
For a moment, Moses hesitated. Then he jerked his head slightly to indicate that a quieter place around the church was a better locale for that conversation.
Interest piqued, Chloe smiled and nodded at well wishers as they strode around the churchyard, and within a minute they had left the majority of their wedding guests behind.
“Well?” She asked immediately.
Moses chuckled. “You were not underestimating your level of curiosity, were you?”
Chloe had no reply save for a kiss, and that she gave more than willingly. When they eventually broke apart, Moses’s eyes had dilated and he moved towards her, hands outstretched.
“Not now!” Chloe hissed with glee. “You will have plenty of time for all that later! Now, tell me about Anthony. What has happened? Why are you worried about him?”
It was one of Moses’s most endearing features, she decided. When he cared, he cared deeply and forever. Anthony had been a childhood friend, he had said, and she could see now that he was truly worried about him. His forehead was crinkled, and he bit his lip unconsciously.
“Anthony and I were not just friends, we were business partners,” Moses said quietly, taking Chloe’s hand in his and walking slowly throughout the churchyard. “We discovered three weeks ago that one of our investments was going to go bad. Very bad. We decided to get out.”
A chilly wind blew through them, and Chloe shivered. “And after you got out of the investment, what happened?”
Moses sighed. “That is just it. I managed to get out in time, sold my interest to another, but Anthony … I do not think that he was as fortunate. The shipping company went bankrupt two days ago, and I have not heard from Anthony since. If he was not able to extricate himself in time …”
His voice trailed off, and Chloe shook her head sadly. “We shall have to pray that he did. Why not extend our time in London to call on him? The continent will still be waiting for us.”
Moses squeezed her hand. “You truly are the best of women, you know that? Thank you for storming into my house.”
Chloe laughed, and her heart soared at the thought, at the knowledge that he loved her. “You do not have to thank me! Believe it or not, I believe that I knew the moment that I saw you.”
“Knew what?” Moses asked, as they turned a corner in the churchyard and started to make their way back to the chattering crowds.
“That I would have no choice but to love you,” she declared, and her husband raised his eyebrows at her quizzically.
“That does not sound nearly so romantic as you think it does,” he said. “No choice? My darling Chloe, you always have a choice.”
Chloe smiled to herself. Was this the moment? It did seem perfectly formed for such a revelation, and she had been keeping the secret now for six full weeks. It did not seem fair that he was unable to share in her joy, in their joy.
“Well, I do not know that I quite agree,” she said carefully. “I would say that I did not have a choice the moment that I discovered that I was pregnant … with your child.”
Moses stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her in utter amazement. “Discovered … pregnant. Pregnant with our child?”
“Yes!” Chloe laughed as she nodded her head at his astonishment.
He looked her up and down. “Are - are you sure?”
Her laugh grew as she saw incomprehension blossom into excitement, mingled with disbelief. “As sure as I can be! We have not always been as careful as we should have been. Of course, I will need to see a doctor to be entirely sure, but – ”
Chloe’s words were stopped with a kiss, passionate and yet reverent, from her husband. “A baby,” he said emotionally, barely able to speak without his voice cracking. “Our baby, oh Chloe!”
She returned his kiss with ardour, for what gift could she ever give him that he would appreciate more?
“I cannot wait to see if it is a girl or a boy,” he whispered, holding her face in his hands. “Do you know – is it possible for you to tell? Can you feel it inside you? Do you feel any different?”
Chloe smiled at his excited words, and felt as though the sunshine in the sky could not hold so much happiness as she did right at that moment. “I suppose I shall have to run an experiment to compare … but I will have to carry many a child before I have enough empirical data to accurately hypothesise. Although my mother was a twin, and her mother before her, so you never know…”
“Oh, Chloe!” His kiss was deep and powerful, rocking her to the core and making her want to melt in his arms as she had done time and again in secret before their wedding. “You are the b
est natural philosopher I ever knew.”
“And yet not the best sailor,” Chloe managed with a laugh as Moses kissed her hands and held her close. “Though being beached with a baronet has led to the greatest happiness that I could ever know.”
Concerned about Count Anthony? Continue his story in his own Ravishing Regencies story in Catastrophe with a Count – read on for the first chapter…
You can also read Adena’s story in Marooned with a Marquis!
Please do leave a review if you have enjoyed this book – I love reading your thoughts, comments, and even critiques!
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To the other Emily: Emily Rampley.
May you live bright dreams, and write them all down.
And to Joshua, my dearest darling.
Acknowledgments
This was the series that I never thought I could publish, so first thanks must go to my amazing Kickstarter supporters! Thank you for your faith in me, and I hope you love this book as much as I do!
Thank you to my wonderful editor, Julia Ibbotson, who has given me unparalleled advice – any mistakes left are completely my own!
Thank you to my glorious cover designer, Samantha Holt, a true artist whose patience with me is much appreciated.
Thank you to my ingenious formatter, Falcon Storm, whose willingness to format whenever I drop an unexpected email is fantastic!
And to my family. Thank you.
1
After managing to tread water for what felt like hours, but was more likely six or seven minutes, it was a strong wave that eventually pushed Anthony, Count of Stratham’s head under water and finally caused despair to enter his heart.
Spluttering and coughing, tasting the burn of saltwater in his lungs and retching in his throat, his eyes darted once more to the tantalisingly close shore. If he could only get there, the destination that he left England for – but the current was strong, and he was tired. No one could fight drowning this long.
Ravishing Regencies: The Complete Series: A Steamy Regency Romance Boxset Page 52
