An Improper Seduction

by Quill, Suzanne

  Wesley handed Mrs. Nash the boy, routed in his medical bag then came to the side of the bed with a clean, damp towel. Gently he wiped Angeline’s face.

  “She will be fine, my lord. She has been through it delivering two. One is no easy task.” He wiped her face again then waved something beneath her nose.

  Angeline came to with a start.

  “Angeline,” Geoffrey held her close. “You are all right. We have a son. You have delivered twins!”

  “One more time, Lady Colburn. We need the afterbirth.” The doctor was at the end of the bed again.

  Geoffrey helped her sit up again. Then held her hands for her last push.

  “Good girl, my lady. You are truly done now. You best get some rest.” Doctor Wesley pulled the sheet back down over her legs as Geoffrey scooted them back to the head of the bed.

  Mrs. Nash came back round the bed glowing a smile that would pale the sun. “Here is your son, my lord.” She handed the boy into his father’s open arms.

  “Angeline, look we have a son, too. My God, you are wonderful, my love.”

  Angeline perked up to look into the beaming face of her husband and the slumbering face of her son. Mrs. Nash handed her their daughter.

  “This is quite remarkable, my lord,” she said as she smoothed the cheek of the first child with the tips of her fingers.

  “No wonder you are so early, my lady.” Doctor Wesley was beside the bed. “No woman I have ever known has carried two babies to full term. They just get too large.”

  Angeline looked into Geoffrey’s laughing eyes. “You always do get what you want, do you not, my lord?”

  “So it seems, my lady. But now it’s time for you to rest. Hand the little ones over to nap and you do the same. I’ll get the doctor settled downstairs and be back up in a trice.”

  “Geoffrey,” Angeline handed her daughter to Mrs. Nash. “What shall we name them?”

  “We have time to deal with that.” He rose from the bed to put his son next to his daughter in the waiting cradle near the hearth. He returned to kiss his wife’s cheek. “You take a rest. I will be back shortly.”

  “I should have known you would not do even this by halves, Angeline.” Geoffrey paced the room slowly rocking the small bundle in his arms.

  Geoffrey could still not believe how quickly Angeline had settled in to organize the staff of the manor and bring it to smooth working order just as Hartfield had run when he had met her. All the while she had been increasing and looking all the more radiant for it.

  As Angeline had grown with child, Geoffrey’s heart had filled even more with love of her and contentment with the peace they had found in each other’s arms.

  “I had to make up for lost time, my lord. Other women have had six children or more by my time in life,” stated Angeline as she lifted the second child from her breast and laid her against her shoulder. After a few firm pats on the back the burp was released and the mother smiled in warm appreciation. “Take Phoebe, Geoffrey, and let me see if your son has need to nurse further. I swear Pierson will be as large as you are by the time he is ten years old if he continues to eat at this astonishing rate.”

  Geoffrey walked back to the bed and took his daughter in his free arm then gently released his son into his wife’s loving embrace. In moments the boy was hungrily suckling at his mother’s breast.

  “I swear he’s as greedy for my attentions as you are, Geoffrey. Thank God Phoebe can hold her own among two such demanding men.”

  Geoffrey returned to the window and held his daughter up before him. “Well, my darling daughter, what have you to say to that? Can you see holding your own among such a set of demanding males? Of course you can. Just look at you. You are your mother’s daughter and you shall surely scorn any man who tried to put you in your place.” With that Geoffrey turned back to Angeline as he cuddled his daughter close to his chest. “I still think, my love, you felt you had to insure the inheritance of your estate as well as mine as quickly as possible. I swear I saw relief in your father’s eyes when I told him you had twins - a boy and a girl. But,” he said as he crossed the room to sit down on the bed next to her, “I doubt this will be the last of your contributions.”

  “Really, Geoffrey, I have barely delivered these two yet you are expecting more?”

  “I expect nothing. But knowing how you are already counting the days until I can get back in your bed, I would imagine similar results will eventually occur.”

  “Really, my lord, it’s your own fault. Was it not you who ignored my scorn? Then you had the audacity to improperly seduce me and taught me the pleasures of being bedded? And I started so late in life. Surely it will take me years to catch up.

  “And it will be my pleasure as well as yours, my love. Forever and always,” responded Geoffrey as he bent to press his lips against hers while the babes cooed in their arms.

  Also available from Soul Mate Publishing

  and Suzanne Quill:

  IF LOVE WERE ENOUGH

  Priscilla Brunell, Marchioness of Rutherford, is in desperate need of a son and heir. Her seventy-year-old husband of ten years has died leaving her a virgin and the protectress of his estates. If she can’t produce a son in the next nine months, the current heir, Damon, will succeed in ruining the family fortunes in a matter of a few years due to his gaming and womanizing. Dare she ignore her morals and pass another man’s child off as her husband’s? Can she do so without losing her heart?

  Soon to be the Viscount Brookfield, Brandon Bradley arrives at a house party at the insistence of his dying father. In all rights, he should be home marrying Estella and begetting his heir. Estella is certainly pleasant and attractive, but in all their years of friendship he has never felt anything but a cold distance from her. Then he meets Lady Rutherford. Not only can she help him through his grief, he is immediately attracted to her. Can he let down his father and Estella merely for his own benefit? Can he break the pattern of society and marry for love?

  Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/oumjb6m

  ONLY YOU

  Denied the right to marry his beloved Jessica due to his depleted estate, Jonathan Stratton, the Earl of Sheffield, travels the world in search of his fortune. Not only does he gain wealth, he learns the ancient Tantric sexual teachings of the Order of the Crimson Lotus. Returning after a five-year voyage, which was only supposed to take three, he finds Jessica more beautiful and desirous than when he left and married another.

  Heiress Jessica Esterly, Lady Wickham, is beside herself. Not only was she forced to marry a man she did not love, she discovers him to be a debauched, avaricious rake of the first water. To make matters worse, she’s having nefarious nightmares and hauntings that are threatening to drive her mad.

  Then Jonathan returns, handsome, wealthy, and ready to love her and share the ancient Tantric mysteries of the Order of the Crimson Lotus.

  How is she to tell Jonathan of her impending madness? How is she to tell him her husband will kill her rather than give up any of the funds her inheritance provides?

  Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/kxshp75