To Catch a Countess

by Patricia Grasso

  The majordomo and two footmen walked into the room. They carried coffee and tea pots along with the accompanying cups, saucers, spoons, cream, and sugar.

  “I’ll have black tea.” Victoria looked at Alexander. “Plain black tea is beneficial to the brain.”

  “You’ll need to drink the whole pot if you want to improve your dinner table conversation,” Prince Rudolf teased her. The prince laughed when she gave him a disgruntled look.

  Angelica passed a white card to everyone. On the card was the name of a famous person.

  “The youngest goes first,” announced the oldest, Duke Magnus.

  Victoria looked at the name on the card and felt her heart sinking to her stomach. How was she going to play charades if she couldn’t read the name?

  “You don’t have your spectacles?” Alexander asked, leaning close.

  Victoria shook her head. “Will you help me? We can be a team. You read me the card and I’ll act it out.”

  Alexander gave her a devastating smile and leaned close, his face nearly touching hers. Victoria felt hot and cold at the same time. She definitely wanted to be alone with the earl.

  With his hand cupping the side of his mouth, Alexander touched his lips to her ear. Victoria felt a melting sensation in the pit of her stomach.

  “King Louis,” Alexander whispered, his warm breath sending a delicious shiver down her spine.

  Victoria gave him a sidelong glance and nodded. When she rose from the settee, she saw her family watching their byplay.

  Victoria felt the blush rising on her cheeks. She suffered the feeling that her family knew she wanted to be alone with the earl.

  After pausing a moment to think, Victoria grabbed a decorative pillow and, holding it in both hands, marched across the room to set it on a table. Then she lifted an invisible crown off the pillow and placed it on her head.

  “King George,” Angelica called.

  Victoria shook her head and then mimicked digging a hole with a shovel. She made the digging movement six times. After tossing the invisible shovel away, she crouched down and pretended to open an invisible box. Using both hands, she pulled an invisible object out of the box and dragged it across the floor.

  Samantha burst out laughing, drawing everyone’s attention. “King Louis . . . poor, poor Mister Lewis.”

  Everyone except Rudolf and Alexander burst into laughter. Even the duke smiled.

  “Who is Mister Lewis?” Prince Rudolf asked.

  “When we lived in the old cottage,” Samantha began, “before His Grace sent for us—”

  “It was right after Angelica met Robert,” Victoria interjected, taking her seat beside Alexander.

  Samantha nodded and then continued, “One day Tory persuaded me that we could make fast money.”

  “Mister Lewis lived in our hamlet on the far side of Primrose Hill,” Victoria explained, turning to Alexander. “He liked us and was always very helpful.”

  “Tory believed if Mister Lewis helped us in life, he would want to help us in death,” Samantha said. She looked at her younger sister, and both dissolved into giggles.

  “Wearing garlic necklaces to keep evil spirits away,” Angelica finished for them, “my sisters went to the graveyard the night of Mister Lewis’s funeral and dug the poor man up.”

  “Samantha and I wasted several hours dragging Mister Lewis to the cottage,” Victoria added.

  “Why did you dig him up?” Alexander asked.

  “We wanted to sell him to the anatomical school,” Samantha answered.

  Prince Rudolf shouted with laughter. After a moment of stunned silence, the earl joined in his laughter.

  “Angelica and I put Mister Lewis back in his grave,” Robert said.

  Alexander became serious. “You would never have needed to resort to that if my father—I mean, Charles Emerson—hadn’t swindled your father.”

  “Whatever he did is not your fault,” Victoria said, taking his hand in hers. “Living in the cottage wasn’t as bad as you think. In some ways, it was better than the life I lead now.”

  Alexander gave her a skeptical look. “In what way was your life better?”

  Leaning closer, Victoria pressed her lips against his ear and whispered, “I didn’t have His Grace yelling at me for my bad behavior.”

  Alexander turned his head and planted a quick kiss on her lips. With a high blush staining her cheeks, Victoria didn’t know what to do. If they had been alone, she would have kissed him.

  “I told you he was planning to molest me,” Victoria told the duke.

  Her brothers-in-law burst into laughter. Alexander gently grasped the back of her neck and forced her to turn toward him.

  “You are incorrigible.” He planted another kiss on her lips.

  When her sisters and brothers-in-law left the drawing room to say goodnight to their children, Alexander turned to Victoria and asked, “Would you care to learn to play billiards?”

  Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Yes.”

  While a footman lit extra lanterns in the game room, Alexander readied the rectangular billiards table. He set the colored balls, positioned the cue ball, and then smoothed the tip of the cue with chalk.

  “Will there be anything else, my lord?” the footman asked before leaving.

  “No, thank you.” Alexander poured himself a brandy. “Would you care for a brandy, my dear?”

  Victoria laughed and shook her head.

  “Taste it,” he coaxed.

  Victoria wanted to tell him that she didn’t like spirits. After all, she had learned a hard lesson from her father’s dependency on alcohol in order to blot the pain from his heart. She knew if she said that, he would blame himself again for what his father had done.

  Taking a tiny sip, Victoria coughed and grimaced at the taste. A burning sensation traveled from her mouth to the pit of her stomach. “That tastes horrible.”

  Alexander grinned at her pained expression, set the glass on the table, and reached for the cue. “Watch what I do,” he said, and then paused. “Are you right—or left-handed?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Which hand do you use the most?”

  Victoria held up her left hand. “I use my fork hand the most.”

  “I’ve never heard it described that way.” Alexander held the stick up. “This is a billiard cue. The player hits the cue ball with the cue, hoping the cue ball will hit his colored ball and send it into one of the pockets. He continues play as long as the ball goes into the pocket. Do you understand?”

  Victoria gave him a blank look. She couldn’t remember a word he had said. Too many verbal directions confused her. She needed to see the game in play.

  “Could you explain as we go along?” Victoria asked. “Hit a few balls to demonstrate how it’s done.”

  Alexander lifted the cue, leaned down close to the billiard table, and studied the balls. “I’m trying to hit the red ball into the pocket.”

  Laying his cue on the table as a directional, Alexander leaned down and held the shaft in his right hand. After positioning the butt through his left hand to steady it, he hit the cue ball, which, in turn, hit the red ball into the pocket.

  Victoria clapped for him. “Do it again.”

  Alexander moved around the table. Victoria studied him instead of the billiards. She started with his light blond hair, his chiseled features in profile, and saw, in her mind’s eyes, his expressive hazel eyes. Sliding her gaze down to his shoulders, Victoria admired the way his broad shoulders and chest tapered into his waist and lean hips. Her gaze drifted lower to his groin, and she recalled feeling his hardness pressed against her when they kissed at the stream.

  As he readied the shot, Victoria glanced at his hands with their long fingers. She wondered what it would feel like to have his hands caressing her body, his strength pressing her down, his powerful legs spreading her thighs. His hardness filling her softness.

  Victoria trembled, a shudder of desire shooting through her. An in
voluntary whimper escaped her lips.

  “Is anything wrong?” Alexander asked, giving her a puzzled look.

  Victoria shook her head, a blush coloring her alabaster complexion.

  “What kind of man do you want to marry?” Alexander asked, glancing sidelong at her while chalking the tip of the cue. “Titled, wealthy, and handsome?”

  “The man I marry must be smart, patient, and understanding,” Victoria told him.

  “Admirable qualities, to be sure,” Alexander remarked. “Why do you prefer those qualities?”

  “I admire smart people.” Victoria gave him a rueful smile. “My husband will need the other two to survive marriage to me.”

  Alexander smiled at that.

  “What do you want in a wife?”

  “I’m becoming increasingly partial to red hair.” He tipped his head toward the billiard table, asking, “Would you care to try?”

  “Will you help me?”

  “I was hoping you’d ask.”

  With both hands, Alexander grasped her delicate shoulders and positioned her at the table. After bending her body forward, he stood behind her and molded his body to hers.

  Victoria felt faint from his touch. She inhaled his fresh bay scent and felt his heat seeping through the thin layers of clothing, separating his flesh from hers.

  “Take my shaft in your left hand,” Alexander said in a husky voice. “I mean your fork hand. Good girl.”

  His arms went around her, holding her hands on the cue. “Put your knife hand on the table to steady the shaft as it thrusts forward,” he said, with laughter tingeing his voice. “Take aim and hit the cue ball.”

  Victoria watched the cue ball roll across the table and strike a colored ball, which dropped into a pocket. “I did it.”

  “We’ll want to hit that ball over there,” Alexander said, his body still molded to hers.

  Victoria turned within the circle of his arms, her breasts pressing against him. “If I ask you a question, will you give me an honest answer?”

  “That depends on the question,” Alexander said, tracing a line down her cheek with one finger.

  “Do you have a mistress?”

  His lips quirked into a smile. “No.”

  Relief shot through her, but she wasn’t finished yet. “Have you ever had a mistress?”

  He stared down at her for a long moment as if deciding whether to answer her question or not. “Yes.”

  “When you marry,” she asked, “will you get another mistress?”

  “Do you think I should?” he teased her.

  “No.” Victoria dropped her gaze to his lips. “Will you kiss me like you did at the stream?”

  Without a word, Alexander dropped the cue and put his arms around her. He lowered his head, his mouth covering hers in a kiss that drugged her senses and made the world fade away.

  Victoria savored the sensation of his mouth on hers. She pressed into the kiss, losing herself in it, surrendering her whole being.

  His tongue caressed the crease between her lips, seeking and finding entrance to her mouth. Alexander groaned when she touched her tongue to his. Tentatively at first and then growing bolder, Victoria pushed her tongue past his lips to explore his mouth.

  Leaving her lips behind, Alexander sprinkled kisses on her temples, her eyelids, her throat. He dropped his hands from the small of her back to her buttocks and held her against him.

  Victoria moaned, feeling his hardness pressed against her. She entwined her arms around his neck and melted into him. Her knees buckled when he cupped her buttocks and ground his hardness against her.

  Alexander kept her from falling and lifted her onto the edge of the billiard table, almost level with his groin. He pushed the skirt of her gown up and stood between her thighs, rubbing his hardness against her softness.

  Wild with passion, Victoria clung to him. His lips burned a path down her throat, and his hands caressed her breasts through the silken material of her gown.

  And then Victoria felt cool air on her breasts, felt her gown sliding down to her waist, exposing her to his heated gaze, his masterful hands. Moaning with pleasure, Victoria arched her body, urging him on, reveling in his caresses. When he slid his thumb across her nipples, desire throbbed between her thighs.

  Alexander tormented her with these new, incredibly exciting sensations. His fingers glided across the sensitive tips of her nipples, squeezing and rolling them into aroused beads. “Exquisite nipples.” His lips replaced his fingers—licking, nipping, sucking while his long, skillful fingers teased the other.

  Victoria clasped his head to her breast. She had never known pleasure like this existed. She wanted more and more, knowing there was something else, something more pleasurable awaiting her.

  The sound of a door opening penetrated her sensually dazed brain. Then Victoria heard her brothers-in-law’s voices behind her.

  Robert started to speak, “We thought we’d play billiards with—”

  “Excuse us for intruding,” Rudolf finished.

  Alexander straightened and put his arms around her protectively. Victoria hid her face against his chest and waited for her brothers-in-law to leave.

  “Give us a moment or two.” Alexander looked down at her stricken expression. “Victoria was about to retire for the night.”

  “What must they think of me?” she whispered, hearing the door click shut.

  Alexander drew her gown up to cover her breasts. With one finger, he lifted her chin and said, “Look at me, Tory.” When she did, he told her, “Your brothers-in-law do not think badly of you. I want you to go to bed now. Tomorrow, we need to have a serious discussion.”

  Victoria searched his hazel eyes. “A discussion with His Grace about my behavior?”

  Alexander planted a chaste kiss on her lips. “No, Victoria, we will discuss us.”

  Chapter 3

  She would never leave her bedchamber again. Victoria decided that when she awakened late the following morning.

  In the unlikely event that she would change her mind, Victoria dressed in a blue gown and wandered across the chamber to gaze out the window at a warm but cloudy day. She hoped a maid would come by. Starving herself did not appear on her agenda.

  The thought of walking downstairs to face Alexander and her brothers-in-law stained her cheeks with a rosy hue. She could not face the earl after the liberties she had allowed him, nor could she face Rudolf and Robert because they had witnessed her wanton behavior. What would she have done if the lovemaking had gone further? What if her brothers-in-law had walked into the game room and seen even more?

  Her gaze fixed on the woodland behind the gazebo. She saw nothing but Alexander in her mind’s eye and replayed their amorous encounter, sending a melting sensation coursing through her body.

  Again, Victoria felt her softness pressed against his hard, unyielding frame. His wonderfully talented mouth claimed hers, scorched her skin, and marked her as his. Victoria could almost feel the incredible sensation of his lips and tongue on her nipples. She hadn’t known such pleasure existed, and there was more she yearned to experience.

  Giving herself a mental shake, Victoria wondered if she suffered from some unnatural defect as well as her inability to read. No matter what she did, she could never please her uncle. Only yesterday, His Grace had given her a humiliating dressing-down for alleged immoral behavior. What would the duke do if he knew what she had done with Alexander?

  By one o’clock, Victoria despaired that any maid would bring her food, and she was hungry. The idea of sneaking down the servants’ stairs to the kitchen popped into her mind.

  Victoria crossed her chamber to the door and listened. No sounds emanated from the corridor. She opened the door and then gave a startled cry. Stepping aside, Victoria held the door open for her sisters who slipped inside the chamber.

  “Why haven’t you come down yet?” Angelica asked.

  “Alex is concerned,” Samantha said. “He asked us to look for you.”

&nbs
p; Victoria sighed. “I don’t want to see the earl.”

  “You were getting along so well last night,” Samantha said.

  “I’m embarrassed to see him,” Victoria admitted, a blush staining her cheeks. “Alex and I went to the game room, and when your husbands arrived to play billiards, I was naked to the waist.”

  “Rudolf was more embarrassed than you,” Samantha said.

  “So was Robert,” Angelica added.

  “They told you?”

  “Seeing Robert embarrassed me after the first time we—you know,” Angelica said.

  “I felt the same way,” Samantha agreed. “Seeing Alex is the only cure for embarrassment. If you don’t go downstairs, Alex will come upstairs to reassure you.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Perhaps Alex is falling in love with you,” Angelica answered.

  “How could a sophisticated man like Alex love someone as stupid as I am?” Victoria asked, unable to credit what her sister was saying.

  “You aren’t stupid,” Samantha said.

  “Even if you are stupid, Alex doesn’t know it,” Angelica said, hiding a smile. Then, “Don’t get your back up. I’m only teasing.”

  “Do you want to face Alex in the drawing room or the bedchamber?” Samantha asked.

  “Tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes,” Victoria answered, surrendering to the inevitable.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later, Victoria paused outside the drawing room to smooth an imaginary wrinkle from her skirt. The thought of seeing Alexander tied her stomach in knots.

  And then Victoria heard familiar voices coming from inside the drawing room. Rudolf’s brothers, Princes Viktor, Mikhail, and Stepan, had arrived. She was about to start forward when she heard the princes speaking to the earl.

  “Congratulations, my lord, on your betrothal and impending marriage,” Prince Viktor was saying.

  “We read about your good fortune in yesterday’s Times,” Prince Mikhail said.

  “She will make a devoted wife and give you many strong sons,” Prince Stepan added.

  “Thank You, Your Highnesses,” Alexander accepted their good wishes.

  Victoria froze. Alexander was engaged and would soon marry?