A Proper Scandal

by Paula, Rebecca

  “I want you, Minnie,” His voice was a low verbal caress. “I’ve dreamed,” he whispered, pausing to quickly undo her garter, “of you.” The other garter snapped. He removed her stockings one by one with his teeth until they pooled at her ankles. “But I don’t want to keep you up.” With the faintest touch of his fingertips, he lifted her foot and pulled the gossamer silk off her skin. “If you’re so dreadfully tired.” He threw the other over his shoulder, arching an inquisitive brow, daring her to make a move of her own.

  “I can stay awake, if you can.” Her voice faltered. His smile grew larger.

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Alex climbed over her once more, pausing with his lips above hers.

  “What about your work?” she whispered.

  “I can’t think straight with you in my bed.”

  Minnie blinked, needing a moment free from his hardened stare. His eyes begged her to touch him, to kiss him, but she needed to hear he wanted her just as much. “Alex,” she begged. “Please.” It was a whimper. She never whimpered for anyone. “Touch me.”

  It was the softest of kisses, but it rang through her body, vibrating from the soft flesh of her lips, to her fingertips, to the shivered skin of her stomach, ultimately warming her to her core.

  “Please.”

  “You’re shivering.” He kissed her closed eyelids.

  Minnie felt like she had been dropped into a heap of burning coals. She shook her head, unable to form a complete sentence. She didn’t remember him ever having as much power over her as he did now. He left her tongue-tied and shaking, begging for his blissful touch.

  She could not tolerate much more. Her hands hungrily yanked at his shirt and pulled it free from his trousers.

  He stilled her hands. “Patience.”

  She ignored his request. She tore at his shirt until he was blinded and forced to sit back on his knees to pull it over his head.

  Minnie gasped.

  Across his abdomen was a tangled mess of flesh. It was an ugly reminder of that last time they shared a bed. Without thinking, she sat up and pressed her lips upon the wound. A low rumble sounded from Alex’s chest.

  Their eyes locked, suddenly unsure of what to say or what to do. They were even once more.

  “Why are you here?” he asked finally.

  “Let me stay. Until morning. Just for tonight.”

  His cupped her face, brushing away the tears that clung to her eyelashes. “You can stay as long as you want. C’mere and kiss me.”

  Minnie erased the small space between them, her lips moving over his in careful practice, committing his touch and taste to memory. He laid her gently back amidst the pillows, raking his hands through her undone hair. “I think you’re more beautiful than when I saw you last. I don’t know how—”

  “I’m here now.” If she began remembering what happened during their time apart, Minnie would draw back into that place within her and push Alex away. There were nights and weeks, men, she didn’t wish to remember. That was best left alone and separate from Alex.

  He furrowed his brow as he undid the rest of her laces, freeing her body from the confines of that terrible torture device. He ran his fingers over the deep, red lines from the whale boning and frowned.

  Minnie worried her bottom lip with her teeth, her mind speeding ahead, trying to make sense of the beautiful man above her.

  He bowed his head to her chest, his lips discovering the thrumming beat of her heart. “I don’t want any more secrets between us, Min.”

  They couldn’t withstand any more secrets. Everything that had happened had lead up to this one point, his body waiting to be with hers in his bed, without censure from others. They didn’t have to hide from anyone if they didn’t wish for it. That was, if he would have her. There were too many years between them now. Far too many confessions left unsaid. Too many feelings to be pushed aside for the sake of a happy reunion. There was no clean slate, only Minnie and Alex, each of their clouded pasts, thick with sins and crime.

  She laced her fingers through his hair, his heat coursing down her arms as she tugged his gaze back to hers. “I don’t want that, either.”

  Her heart split in two as he smiled, the perfect mirror of the strange emotion fluttering in her chest. Minnie had never been looked at like that her entire life, except by Alex. Somehow, he had always known the person she truly was, not the imagined woman.

  He stood on his knees, a wistfulness filling his eyes. Minnie remained still, even as he moved to the side of the bed and finished undressing. “I’m tired of running, Min.” When he laid back down, he wrapped his arms around her body, igniting the shallow passion pulsing through her veins for him. He settled back into the pillows and drew up the bed covers, cocooning her with the sensations of him—his skin, his smell, his heartbeat drumming against her ear. Alex drew her fingers to his lips and kissed them tenderly until her eyes grew heavy with sleep.

  “I’m glad you’ve come back,” he said. She heard something else entirely. Something like, I’m glad you came back to me. Minnie was glad of that as well.

  He asked nothing further of her than to lie there and sleep beside him. It was a blissful experience not to have to live up to expectations. When his breathing evened out and she thought him asleep, she said ever so softly, “I missed you, too.”

  Chapter 19

  It was the first morning Alex had Minnie to share his bed, and of course his head was about to explode with the force of a lit gun factory. He attempted to lift his head off the pillow, but felt swept off to sea, the mattress swaying underneath him. His stomach lurched and he groaned as he buried his head under the pillow, moaning again, half in shame, half in frustration. This wasn’t how he wanted to spend the morning at all.

  He thought perhaps they could have breakfast in bed and stay there for a while and practice their gymnastics before he was absolutely forced to go to the club and start his day. There was a lot of kissing involved and naked limbs and pleasure in his plan. But the steady thrashing in his head was going to make that all impossible. He winced when the pain wracked his body, just as steady as his shallow breathing.

  He felt Minnie leave, before his stomach gave another disconcerting lurch. He didn’t want to her to leave. He didn’t want her to see this either. He heard her draw the curtains shut and the click of his study door.

  She removed the pillow from over his head. “There,” Minnie whispered softly into his ear. “It’s dark.”

  If it didn’t hurt so much, he would have nodded. She dropped a kiss at the base of his neck and ran her fingers through his hair, gently massaging his scalp. It was treacherous and delightful all at the same time. His head didn’t appreciate her touch, but the rest of him did. She gave him calm. That was enough for the moment.

  “If you wanted me to leave, you could have thought of something more original than taking ill with a migraine.” Her voice was like a warm balm to the thrashing of his skull. He winced as he fought back a smile at her teasing. He tried to roll over, but his stomach lurched again, and this time, he could not fight it back.

  Alex flailed his arm, hoping she would understand that he needed the bucket by the bedside table, but she didn’t. Instead he rolled out of bed and crawled, pulling the bucket to his face where he emptied the contents of his stomach with the most wretched and disgusting sound.

  “Oh, dear,” Minnie said, her voice a little stronger.

  His head. The blasted thing would not quiet. It was just a parade of bone-crushing pulses against his skull. One after another, after another.

  His eyes watered and burned as he struggled to open them. Alex was sure this wasn’t the way to win back Minnie. It certainly didn’t make him appear very manly, lying about on the floor, naked, and tossing the contents of his stomach in a bin like a drunk.

  He pushed himself off the floor and staggered to his feet, feeling overcome with sea legs. The ground wobbled beneath his feet and he swayed. He held his arms out in hopes of finding a center of gravity. The t
ouch of her cold fingers sent a shock through his body and he stumbled again.

  “Steady,” she whispered. Her hands held his waist, steadying him. “We’ll just get you back in bed and I’ll ring for someone.”

  “No,” he groaned, feeling the edge of the mattress hit his thigh. “Work.”

  “I don’t think so.” Minnie softly chuckled. “There you are.” She settled him back into bed and pulled the sheets over his body. Alex grimaced, pushed suddenly into a corner of hell as her breast brushed his bare chest.

  “You’re killing me,” he groaned, clutching his head as another wave of pain struck.

  “I don’t believe I am.” He heard her pad away to his dressing room. He opened his eyes as she reentered wearing his velvet dressing robe. Her copper hair looked like a candle’s flame against the navy of his robe. Good God.

  There was a knock at the sitting room door, sounding as if he were back stoking the fires at the iron factory once more.

  “Sir?” Chapman asked.

  “Go away,” Alex said, waving his arm.

  “Don’t worry about him. You must know how he is when he’s like this,” Minnie said.

  Alex opened his eye as she addressed the butler wearing only his robe. “I’m fine,” he grumbled. But he wasn’t. The pain washed over him again, and he groaned.

  “You’re a bear,” she said back in a snappish whisper. “Can we have some tea and laudanum, Chapman? Oh, and maybe some dry toast.”

  “You’re trying to kill me,” Alex said, moaning into his pillow. If she hadn’t just slept in his bed, he might have had Chapman escort her to the curb. Problem was, he was awful fond of the frustrating creature. “Send a note that I’ll be late for the theater meeting, Chapman. I’ll be dressed shortly. Have the carriage waiting.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere,” Minnie insisted. “I’ll go to your meeting.”

  “Sir?” Poor Chapman was lost to their volleying debate.

  Alex was about to protest, but it came up in the bucket instead. For the love of all that’s holy, he was ruining his first day with her.

  “No.” He wiped his mouth clean and sank back into the pillow. “Work.”

  “If you get out of that bed, you’ll live to regret it, Alex Marwick.”

  “Please, sir,” Chapman said again.

  The room wouldn’t stop spinning, his head wouldn’t stop feeling as if it was on the verge of blowing to bits. Fucking hell. “Send a note to Boyd. Inform him that the inquisition is coming.”

  “Alex,” Minnie chided. Her hand smoothed over his head, soft strokes that helped with the pain some.

  “Miss Ravensdale will take my place.”

  “Very good, sir.” Chapman left, closing the door, leaving Alex with Minnie.

  It was selfish, but he didn’t want her to leave. “It’s important, Minnie. I should explain...”

  “Close your eyes and sleep, sweet.” She smoothed his hair back from his forehead and kissed his eyelids. “Have some faith.”

  §

  “I think the only reason we won them over today was because you were at the meeting.” Alex’s friend, Boyd, brought in a cup of tea for her in Alex’s office.

  “Thank you.”

  “They ate out of your hand.”

  “They were idiots,” Minnie said, staring into her cup of tea. “And I don’t take kindly to threats.”

  “Against Alex?”

  She considered lying, but whoever Boyd was to Alex, she sensed he wasn’t like the other fools at the meeting, trying to shut down the theater before her production began. “Especially against Alex.” She laid her spoon down and settled back against Alex’s chair.

  “He worked hard for that theater. Alex would work for Ainsworth, then work with the rest of the laborers, fixing the floors and ceilings. I found him in the rafters once, trying to repair that damn angel above the stage.”

  Boyd didn’t appear much younger than Minnie. She wondered just where Alex had befriended him, but the more he spoke, the more she knew the answer—the East End. Then it struck her that she had seen him before, and as if guessing, he laughed at her.

  “I was wondering when you’d piece it together.”

  Questions cluttered her brain, tying her tongue for once. Here stood the boy who used to follow Alex around Whitechapel, waiting for breadcrumbs. Like a little brother at the heels of an older brother. Whether Alex had realized it, he had built a family of his own through the years. Something about that warmed Minnie up and lessened the ache she felt thinking about their years apart. They might have been separated, but there were others around him who protected him.

  “If anyone takes that theater away from him—”

  “They’ll have to talk to me first.” He winked at her.

  “Oh, good,” she said with a laugh. She felt as if she owed him her thanks or some such. For being with Alex. Seeing that he was never truly alone.

  “I’ll call the carriage around for you. No need to have two scandals in one day. Alex warned me about you.”

  “Did he?” Boyd had a way of making her miss that impossible man. “I should tell you he’s wrong, but he’s always been right when it regards me.”

  It looked like Boyd was going to say something, but he must have thought better of it and held his tongue. “The carriage,” he finally mumbled, bowing out of the room and Minnie alone.

  She looked over Alex’s office, feeling as if she were in a dream. That this was all his, the club, the theater. She had said something to him once about knowing him, but thinking he was a stranger. The feeling was the same now. The years had changed him, but his hands were the same, the soft lilt to his voice, the way he would smile suddenly and her world would tip into a brighter place.

  She blinked, finding herself thinking about last evening. She must write a note and leave it as a surprise for him. Minnie opened the drawer, searching for a pen and paper. She stopped when her own eyes stared back at her.

  The photograph was worn around the edges, signs of study and contemplation. But it wasn’t punctuated or folded, all corners intact. It was an object in safe keeping. She had been by his side all those years when she thought herself lost to him.

  She traced the lines of her young face and body. The photograph wasn’t one of the ones usually posted and printed, not of her as the enthralling Evangeline, but of a young Minnie Ravensdale, the aspiring ballerina. She could not believe that he had found this picture. It was of her, with her coppery hair, wearing a crown of flowers and Grecian gown. There was hope in her eyes and a playful upturn of her smile. She barely recognized herself.

  She was about to place it back in the drawer before she spotted the stack of newspaper clippings tied together with a ribbon. Her old hair ribbon from long, long ago. He had clipped every mention of her in the papers and kept them. They didn’t have the same wear as her picture. It looked like they had just been collected and stored away.

  Alex had been a friend, a momentary fiancé, her first lover, but she had never considered that he held her so close to his heart. She had treated him poorly, behaved terribly, teased and taunted him. How could he possibly come to care for her in such a way that he kept her prized navy ribbon?

  Minnie leaned back in the chair, kicking her boots up onto the desk, and contemplated a great many things as she drew the length of chain from her dress and dragged the warm signet ring back and forth.

  Chapter 20

  Minnie tenderly kissed his forehead. The netting from her hat brushed against his hair. He smelled her perfume, then smiled into the pillow. Pain was present, perhaps not as bad as it had been, but it lingered. Between moments where it waned, a strong spasm would wring his brain.

  “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” Alex swallowed, trying to ease the cracking in his voice. The soft caress of her laugh urged his eyes open.

  “You heard.” The mattress sank as she sat next to him on the edge of the bed. The silks of her skirts crinkled and crunched, but the noise no longer bothe
red him.

  “Chapman read me the note you sent earlier.”

  “Good,” she said, her voice notably dropping off. She studied her gloves before she peeled them off. He knew before she spoke that something troubled her. He saw it in the way her shoulders slumped forward, the hard line of her lips.

  “Darling?” He reached for her, cautious to keep his head still in case the pain surged back.

  “No one saw me enter. No one knows except your staff.”

  “I don’t care about that.”

  She wrung her gloves in her hands, quicker and quicker, until she rushed out, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Hadn’t he been the one to speak of secrets? It was only fair she was angry. He supposed she had heard the rumors as she rushed in to save the day.

  “If I had known—”

  Alex sighed and slowly pushed himself up onto his arms, turning so he could face her. “I didn’t want for you to know because it does not matter to me. I won’t let them—”

  “It’s nothing new for me. I have grown a thick skin toward the ugly words. But when it begins to affect you and what you’ve fought to build for yourself...”

  Minnie stared at him with those large hazel eyes. Even in the dark, they sparked. Everything within ached for her. It had been nice to hold her again last evening, but he wished now they had followed through with Minnie’s original intentions. He might not have been much of a fighter when they first met, but the years had given him skills to lay a man flat. With the look in her eyes, he wanted to deck half of London for hurting her. Then there was Paris, and Europe...

  “Well, you charmed them and the theater will get its funding. The show will go on and you will be a smashing hit.”

  She looked away, then lifted her hands to the tangled netting of her hat, unpinning it before tossing it onto the chair by the bed.

  To say that the opinions of others didn’t matter was a lie. After years of hearing high praise from the perverse and the lowest of set downs from the morally spirited, words did matter. She wanted to please everyone.