This time a tear slid down her cheek. “You did a marvelous job for a man who struggled.” Then she leaned in closer. “Meet me at the garden gate tonight and bring a blanket.”
He smiled, leaning in close. “If you insist.”
Her mother rushed up, wrapping her arms about Minnie and breaking the moment. But Minnie watched Tag watch her. She could see the love shining in his eyes. Tonight she’d show him exactly how much his proposal meant to her.
Tag stood by the garden gate for the second night in a row. He hadn’t brought one blanket, he’d brought seven or eight along with a few pillows. It was just cool enough that all the windows were closed, affording them some much-needed privacy, but warm enough that they could be outside.
He’d hardly thought of anything but her since this afternoon. Everything had come together in his mind. What she needed, why he’d been holding back, and how it was time to let his past go.
Minnie had already showed him the path to a life filled with love. She’d protected him, comforted him when he’d been hurt, stood up for him against Lady Abernath. Now it was time for him to show her that he was capable of learning and willing to set his past hurts aside.
He’d hoped that he’d reciprocated her strength in love today and he knew, he hoped, what it meant to be a good husband.
She appeared on the path, the moonlight making her easier to see than she had been last night. A crisp white night rail billowed around her and his breath caught. Not only did she look beautiful, her hair in a simple braid, but she’d dispensed of all her layers of clothing. The implication of that choice tightened all his muscles.
She didn’t say a word as she reached for him, her hand sliding into his, and he pulled her close, wrapping an arm about her waist. “Are you cold?” he murmured just before he captured her lips with his own.
“No,” she said between kisses. “I’m lovely. Just perfect.”
Wrapping his other hand below her buttocks, he lifted her into his arms continuing to kiss her in long leisurely strokes of his lips against hers. Minnie wrapped her arms about his neck, sliding her hands into his hair. “What you said today. Did you mean it? You really love me?”
Tag leaned back, assessing her. “It’s not like you to be insecure.”
“I’m not.” She smiled as she brushed her nose against his. “I just want to hear you say it again.”
He laughed and, reaching the blankets, lay her down. “I love you, Minnie. I plan to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much.”
She sighed, settling back onto his makeshift bed. “See. That wasn’t so hard.”
He settled his weight on top of hers. “Would you like me to show you all the ways I care?”
“Oh yes,” she breathed, her legs spreading to allow his to settle between them.
He kissed her again. This time the touch wasn’t slow or light, it was filled with all the passion building inside him.
Minnie responded, her heartbeat quickening against his.
He ran his hands over her body, feeling every dip and curve until they were both panting with desire. As he ran his hand down her legs, he hooked the hem of her night rail and began pulling it up until the fabric pooled about her waist. “I want to see you. All of you,” he said against her lips. She gave him a light push and for a brief moment, he worried she was pushing him away but the moment he rose, she grabbed the fabric and sent it sailing over her head. Then she lay back down, arms raised so that he had a full view of her naked body.
“Like this?” she asked, giving him an impish smile.
He swallowed, his eyes running down her slender frame his hand following close behind. “Like that.”
Her skin was velvety soft and so creamy in the moonlight, his mouth was dry and his throat clogged. She was perfection, with her perfect mounds for breasts, flat stomach, and small tapered waist. He slid his hand over her hip and then caught sight of the flaming hair that tapered off between her legs. He made a noise deep in his throat as his fingers brushed the curls and settled in her soft womanly flesh between her thighs.
She bucked against him and he pulled his fingers away, yanking off his own waist coat, cravat, and shirt.
He settled against her again, their skin coming together in the most satisfying way. His manhood throbbed. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself inside her soft, waiting flesh, but he held back and began kissing a trail down her body instead. Her pleasure would come first.
As his mouth settled over her slit, Minnie gasped, clutching the blankets closer. She wasn’t cold. She’d never been hotter in her life but she needed to hold onto something as pleasure rocked through her, tensing all her muscles.
He set a steady pace with his mouth as he slowly inserted a finger in her channel. Her eyesight blurred as little noises of delight fell from her lips. She’d never imagined rapture like this and she started to beg for more. “Please. Tag. I want…don’t stop.”
She felt his smile as he increased the pace. “Never,” he said then drove his finger deeper inside her until she convulsed and then shattered.
As she slowly floated back down, she looked up at him with heavy eyes as he peeled the rest of his clothing off. Raising her arms toward him, she gave him a slow smile. “Come here.”
He didn’t hesitate. Lowering himself on top of her, his weight settled over her. She gasped in a breath. He was so hard and muscular and yet somehow, he felt like home. “Tag,” she whispered. “I love you so very much.”
“I love you too.” He kissed her as the tip of his manhood pressed to her opening. “Minnie, you’ve brought love to my life and I don’t know how to thank you for it but I’m going to try.”
She pulled back, shaking her head. “Just give me yourself. That’s enough.”
Slowly, he slid inside her. She tensed at the pain but held still. Minnie was not the sort to shy away from a bit of pain. However much it hurt, he was worth it. But she couldn’t help but cry out a bit as her maidenhead broke.
He stilled, smoothing back her hair and peppering kisses about her face. “I’m sorry, love. Thank you for such a beautiful gift.”
She leaned up and kissed him back. “You’re welcome. Is now the appropriate time to ask when our wedding will be?” Then she giggled. She’d meant it as a joke but he grimaced.
“I should have waited but I’ve already retrieved the special license. I think your family will object to a wedding tomorrow but I’m hoping for the next day.”
She stilled, looking up at him. “Tomorrow or the next day?” She held his face in her hands. “We’ll begin our life together in a day or two?”
“We’ve already begun,” he said as he slowly moved inside her. “You’re mine, Minnie.”
They didn’t say more as Tag slowly slid out of her body and then back in. Soon the pain diminished and only pleasure remained.
She didn’t need to say that yes, she was his. She showed him with every touch and kiss until her own body begged for release again. When she fell over the edge, he cried out her name, spasming above her.
She held him against her. She’d love this man forever.
Epilogue
Two days later…
Minnie stood in the garden only feet from where their blanket bed had been two nights prior. She kept grinning at the spot where Tag had held her in his arms until the wee hours of the night.
“Minnie,” he whispered leaning over. “We’re about to say our vows.”
She blushed, her cheeks surely as red as her hair. “I suppose I feel as though I already said them.”
He squeezed her hands. “That’s true.” Then he looked out over the small gathering of family and friends. “But they don’t know that, so do me a favor and look at me. Otherwise they might think I’m forcing you to the altar.”
A giggle nearly burst from her throat but she swallowed down. “Forced into marriage by a duke.”
He returned her smile. “Could happen.”
The magistrate cleared his throat. “If
the couple is ready.”
Minnie gave a tiny nod. As Tag agreed to love, honor, and cherish her until death do them part, a sense of peace washed over her. She’d managed to marry as her mother requested, or rather insisted, to a man who made her bubble with joy.
“I do,” she added as they finished their vows.
“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Tag leaned over, capturing her lips with his. A cheer went up from the crowd, filling the early morning air.
Tag led her back down the garden path and into the house where a wedding breakfast awaited them.
Her hand in the crook of her husband’s arm, she closed her eyes. How had the surly duke she’d first met become the man that filled her heart?
When she opened her eyes again, however, she realized several of the guests hadn’t followed her into the room. Diana stood in the doorway, holding a note, her lips pursed.
“Diana?” she called.
Her cousin dropped her hand to the side and strode in through the doors. “It’s from Emily.”
Minnie swallowed a gasp. “What did she say? Is she all right?”
“She’s fine.” Diana huffed. “All that worry and they are taking a holiday in Scotland after their elopement.”
“Did she say why they eloped in the first place?” Tag asked as the Marquess of Malicorn came to stand beside him.
Minnie gave Tag’s friend a tight nod of greeting. Tag hadn’t invited his other friends to the wedding. He’d said the notice was too short but Minnie suspected this had something to do with the club.
Ada, Cordelia, and Grace joined the group too. Diana snorted before she answered, “She only says that she hopes we understand but they needed to follow the path of true love.”
“I think it sounds romantic,” Cordelia sighed as she pushed up her glasses.
Malicorn made a choking noise in his throat. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those ninny-headed women whose dreams are full of romance and true love?”
Cordelia straightened, attempting to look down her nose at him. “So what if I am? It’s not your concern.”
He said something under his breath that Minnie couldn’t quite catch. She gave her head a shake. It didn’t matter. “Did Emily say anything else?”
“Just that they’ll be home in a fortnight.” Diana refolded the paper, her movements jerky and short. “Does she realize she’s left us in a pickle? I mean the countess didn’t appear happy with the threat you made.”
Tag held up a hand. “We’ve got her cornered.”
“Says you.” Diana gave him a look up and down. “She’s a predator, you know. They often come out of corners fighting. And that one’s got a full set of claws.”
Malicorn grimaced. “We’ll be ready for her if she does.”
“She can’t ruin us all, can she?” Grace asked.
Ada squeaked. “I don’t think I’m meant to be a spinster.”
Tag wrapped his arm about Minnie. “One way or another, we’ll keep you ladies safe.”
Minnie inwardly winced. She was completely protected as Tag’s wife but her cousins and sisters…that was another story entirely.
Marquess of Malice
Lords of Scandal
Malice, as his friends fondly referred to him sat on a bench in the garden of the Chase family home, staring at the newly emerging spring flowers that were sprouting from the ground.
His name was Lord Chadwick Hennessey, Marquess of Malicorn, but no one had called him by his given name since his mother had given him it with her dying breath.
Which was likely why he hated being called Chadwick. It held too many ugly memories. He ran his hand through his hair staring at a small green bud struggling to rise up through the dirt. He grimaced. He’d been that flower as a child. Struggling and straining to flourish, the very ground that was supposed to nurture him, pushing him back into the dirt.
He straightened his back, drawing in a deep breath. He wasn’t that child any longer. He was a grown man now who never wallowed in self-pity.
Standing, he stared down at the tiny plant. He wouldn’t expend emotion on a flower but he could help it. Just a bit. He leaned over and brushed the dirt away from the small plant giving it more room to grow. Satisfaction, spread through his limbs and he let out a long breath as more of the bright green stock came into view.
“Oh,” a feminine voice trilled from his left. “My apologies, my lord.”
He stopped, his fingers still in the dirt. He’d been caught caring about a tiny plant. Even worse, it was her who had made the discovery. His insides tightened. Despite the fact this was only the second time they’d met, he knew the sound of Lady Cordelia Chase’s voice without even looking at her.
Malice had carefully fostered a reputation of reckless abandon sprinkled with a healthy dose of sarcastic indifference. He rarely showed emotion toward anyone or anything. He most definitely didn’t want Lady Cordelia to think he was a sappy sort. It would give her the wrong impression. “What are you apologizing for?” Malice straightened, giving her a long look as he glared down at her. How odd.
She pushed up her glasses, nibbling at her lip. “For interrupting. Had I known anyone was out here, I would have come with a chaperone.”
He relaxed, his shoulders slumping down. She didn’t seem to have noticed that he was aiding tiny plants. “No need to apologize.” He cared not if she were chaperoned despite the fact that she was a tender debutante. “How goes the wedding breakfast?”
Cordelia turned back to look at the house. “Very well. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just return inside.”
“No need.” He waved his hand. “I’ll escort you back to the wedding breakfast in just a moment.”
She cocked her head to one side. “I beg your pardon?”
He ignored her question, instead studying her from top to bottom. Her fair hair was tied rather tightly back from her face. The hair itself looked soft and he wondered how she might look with a looser coif. Her glasses perpetually slid down her nose, likely because it was the tiniest nose he’d ever seen with just a slight upturn at the bottom. When she looked at him over the top of the glasses, her eyes were a striking color of crystal blue like a lake on a sunny day. Quite pleasant.
On their very first meeting, she’d not been wearing the spectacles and had promptly tripped into his arms. She had a nice figure. Curvy without being overly large, and without the dark rims of her glasses, he’d noted the lovely shape of her eyes, large and clear with a gentle upturn at the outside corners. Glasses or no, a man couldn’t miss how nice the curve of her mouth was—so full and tempting.
He’d also realized she was a quiet and affable lady who would make an excellent wife.
Unlike many men, he’d made several decisions on that front. First, he planned never to fall in love. Emotions like that were an affliction. As the holder of the title, he was obligated to continue his line, by marrying and conceiving an heir. Not a part of his life he looked forward to.
His parent’s marriage had been brief to say the least. Barely a year. He didn’t remember his mother, of course, but he couldn’t imagine that the union had been a happy one, if his own relationship with his father was any indication. Although his father would swear that all the love he felt had died with his mother. “Tell me, Lady Cordelia. How do you spend your time?” He assumed reading, knitting, and socializing were at the top of her list. All excellent past times for a wife.
She shrugged, inching back a bit. “I don’t know. What all ladies do. A little of this and a bit of that.”
He stepped forward. Her comment highlighted what he liked about her. She appeared to be a malleable woman. Easy in her temperament which was exactly the sort of woman he needed.
And that was the main reason he was here. Cordelia, along with her sisters, had arrived at their secret club in the middle of the night. Now one of his partners, the Earl of Effington, was married to Cordelia’s sister, Emily. But the ladies weren’t supposed to be there. In fact,
they weren’t supposed to know about the club at all.
When Emily had arrived with her two sisters, Cordelia and Grace and her cousins, Minnie and Diana, all hell had broken lose. The men were concerned about the club’s secret, the ladies about their reputations. Emily and Jack had almost called off the wedding. And the other men had begun to fear for their club’s reputation and continued business. They’d made a thriving financially successful gaming hell by creating an air of mystery about their identities. To make certain this continued, Malice and his friends had decided to watch the ladies and make certain they didn’t share their secret.
“Sounds delightful,” he said, his thoughts still on their first meeting a few weeks prior.
When Cordelia had nearly fallen directly into his arms, she’d blushed and apologized. He’d held her close, taken off her domino, and studied her face. She was pretty, petite, almost pixie-like. Quiet and unassuming. He’d decided right then. He’d marry her, make an heir and settle her into his country estate leaving her to raise the child. Easy.
She squinted her eyes. “Really? I was thinking a little of this and a bit of that didn’t sound like anything at all.”
He looked back at her, his mind refocusing to the present. Was the sun reflecting off her glasses or was there a glint in her eye? “Precisely.”
Her small pink tongue darted from her mouth and licked her full upper lip, starting in one corner and sliding across the entire bow of her mouth until it finally finished on the opposite side. His insides tightened in the strangest way. He knew what lust was, he was a seasoned man of eight and twenty. He’d had more than his fair share of partners. But Cordelia should have nothing to do with such emotions. Why was his body responding to her? She was the safe and predictable choice.
He’d chosen her so that he’d have a wife he could remain detached from.
“What do you mean, precisely? Precisely what? That doesn’t make sense. You don’t want me to say anything of consequence?” She narrowed her gaze. “Why do you care what I say at all?”
Duke of Daring: Regency Romance (Lords of Scandal Book 1) Page 12
