The School for Brides

by Cheryl Ann Smith

  Noelle rounded the bed to the area closest to the window. She gripped both fists around the corner of the coverlet when an arm snaked out of the darkness in a flash of movement, and jerked her down on the bed!

  “Oh!” she cried sharply as she bounced against a hard body, before catching herself and cutting off a girlish scream. “Release me!” she said in her deepest tone. A hand clamped over her bum and she was dragged across a warm and naked chest—a naked and very male chest, by the feel of downy hair covering the firm, sinewy expanse.

  The effort to sound mannish was rewarded with a low chuckle and a mumbled reply. “No man smells so sweet or has such delightful curves, love. Now give me a kiss.”

  A kiss? She couldn’t see anything to give her a hint of his identity but did feel her captor’s breath brush the side of her face. It had to be the earl. This was his house. But what was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Bath!

  Think! Think!

  Through her terror she managed to somewhat calmly squeak out, “Your Lordship, this is highly improper.”

  If she panicked, she could lose everything: her reputation, her freedom, and perhaps even her life!

  “I shall show you improper,” the stranger whispered with humor edging his voice. He removed the hand from her bum and slid it up her body in a quick exploratory caress. Then he shoved his fingers into her tightly braided hair, pulled her face down to his, and slammed his mouth awkwardly over hers!

  Noelle stilled, shocked, her arms pinned against her sides. His firm mouth moved about in the dark for the correct kissing position until he found the proper place for his lips and claimed her fully with a searing kiss.

  He teased and tormented her with his exotic scent and warmth, and she felt her limbs turn to hot pudding. Shocked to find a rising tide of tingles well in her body, she opened her mouth to demand a stop to the kiss. Instead of release, the bold stranger pushed his tongue between her teeth and she tasted some unnamed spirit invade her mouth. However, it was the strength of his hands caressing places they should not, and not his savage kisses, that tumbled her world off its axis.

  The earl felt strong and untamed beneath her, unlike any of the tepid noblemen of her acquaintance. Beneath her open palms, his bare skin was warm and supple and his thigh rested hard and was honed with thick muscle.

  A flood of desire poured through her body on liquid threads, and she went slack. She’d never been kissed like this before! This was no casual peck on the mouth, but the kind of kiss one partook in with a lover.

  Her virginal mind went blank and her lids lowered as he rolled her onto her back and partially covered her with his upper body and a leg over her knees.

  Why wasn’t she fighting him? She should definitely be fighting him. But her body seemed unwilling to push him off. Suddenly, a horrified Noelle realized her arms were around his neck and she was hungrily kissing him back!

  “So sweet,” he mumbled when he broke the kiss, and then he trailed his mouth down her chin to nuzzle the base of her throat. There was something about him, his voice, that didn’t fare well in her ears. Thankfully, it forced some reality into the situation. She felt a prickle of danger from this man and knew if she didn’t get out of the bed immediately, she’d lose much more than her freedom in the blackened room.

  He slackened his hold briefly to shift positions and Noelle took the opportunity to give him a great shove. The earl fell back in the bed, enough to allow her to roll out from under him and scramble to her feet. She bumped into a piece of furniture, a vanity, she suspected, and had sense enough to pull the necklace out of her pocket. The color of the coverlet no longer mattered. This was clearly the earl’s room.

  She heard the earl climb to his feet and she dropped the necklace on the smooth surface with a muted clink. Her breath came in short gasps, made worse by his unexpected assault on her mouth. She was disoriented by the kiss and the darkness. She wasn’t sure which way was the door. All she knew was she had to get out before he reclaimed her.

  His bare footsteps moved away from her and she heard him clatter around for a moment. Bright red coals sputtered to life as fire licked the sticks, or peat, he’d dropped atop them. Quickly, the room became infused with muted light.

  Noelle knew her chance of escape was upon her if she made haste. She darted a glance about for the door and launched herself toward the oak panel. A few steps and she’d be free!

  “Halt,” he commanded behind her, and she jolted to a stop. Slowly she spun about, fists upraised, and braced herself to fight for both her freedom and her innocence.

  “You are not a maid,” he said and narrowed his lids. He gathered her up with his gaze and suspicion edged his eyes. There was no obvious explanation for her odd dress and boyish appearance. “I’ve stumbled upon a thief.”

  Fear chilled her limbs and she went numb. She was about to be arrested. She was a criminal, a thief in the eyes of the law. No magistrate would accept she’d come not to steal but to return the earl’s stolen property.

  There had to be a way out of this predicament. Think!

  The fire flamed higher and she got her first good look at the earl, the half-naked earl. Her breath caught.

  Though he was wearing black trousers, they were unbuttoned and sagged low on his narrow hips to a shockingly indecent degree. It was painfully clear he had nothing on beneath. Any sort of shift and the trousers could fall to his knees, leaving him without coverage altogether.

  She flushed and pulled her eyes up from the thin trail of hair pointing downward beneath his waistband, to scan her gaze over the most incredible chest she’d ever had the fortune to gaze upon. Well, truthfully, she’d never before had the opportunity to take a close-up look at a male chest. Her experience was limited to one brief glimpse of a tenant’s son in a distant field. Still, she was certain the earl’s was magnificent in comparison to other men.

  There was very little about Bliss’s hasty description to recommend him as His Lordship. But Bliss had been in near hysteria when she’d described what she’d done, so Noelle took everything she said with a bit of skepticism.

  Indeed, this man was tall, as the young woman had described, but he didn’t favor the pale skin of his fellow members of the gentry. His sculpted torso was a golden bronze as if he’d spent all his time shirtless in the sun. His hair was light brown and streaked through by the same sunlight that darkened his flesh.

  A pair of shadowed eyes peered at her from beneath a few strands of loose hair as he stalked toward her slowly and with a savage grace that wobbled her knees. In her mind he was an oddity, seemingly out of place in her world, yet she knew the earl was a well-respected member of the Ton and a noble; a picture that didn’t fit the untamed beauty of the man before her.

  Her heart flipped as she drifted her eyes to his firm mouth, the same mouth that moments ago had kissed her breathless. She backed up as he approached her, his confidence evident in the carriage of his perfect male form.

  Just then she understood what it meant when her sister Eva explained the sensual feelings her husband, His Grace, invoked in her when he held her in his arms. Noelle had felt something for this man while sprawled beneath him on the bed and hadn’t quite understood the feeling. It was a sensual pull toward a faceless stranger.

  Sensual pull?

  In that moment, a plan took root in her mind. If she could find a way to distract the earl, she could escape. And there was only one way for a woman to distract a man fully and completely. That much she’d gleaned from spending time around courtesans. So she stopped backing up and waited until he was close enough to reach out and touch.

  Noelle settled what she hoped was a seductive smile on her lips, then lifted her hand and placed it on his chest. He twitched beneath her fingers. She had to remind herself to keep breathing as she stared at his mouth.

  “I am not a thief, My Lord Seabrook.” Noelle flicked her lashes and widened her eyes. “You mistake my intentions.”

  “Indeed?” He looked down at her cl
othing and reached to tug at the black fabric at her waist. The effort brought her a half step closer. “You are certainly dressed as such, Milady.”

  The dark clothes were difficult to explain. She had to redirect his attention. Quickly.

  Slowly, Noelle drew her hand down his chest and the supple skin trembled beneath her touch. Curiosity and anonymity and fear of hanging led her to boldness. He was magnificent. She wondered if his skin tasted as exotic as it smelled. A virginal flush burned her cheeks and drifted all the way down to her boot-covered toes.

  “I’ve heard you are casting about for a new courtesan, and I’ve taken these desperate measures to be the first to offer my services.” She touched the tip of her tongue to her bottom lip. “I find you very, very desirable.”

  The last was not a lie and slid easily off her tongue.

  A pair of brows shot up. A slow grin passed over his face, and yet, he didn’t speak. Instead, he turned his attention to her hair, where golden strands had escaped the braid during her treacherous climb. He examined his find with a grin.

  “I shall enjoy seeing it unbound.”

  The cool air of the room tingled across her skin. Noelle looked down to see he’d loosened her shirt while she was fondling his chest and pushed it up with his hands in an effort to expose her torso. Her lacy chemise kept her covered and safe from his perusal of her breasts. Barely.

  Noelle forced herself to remain calm when he shoved up the shirt further to cup her full and thinly veiled breasts. Her nipples budded beneath his palms. A wicked smile tugged his lips and her mouth felt filled with sand. She ached to kiss him again with reckless abandon; to again taste his tongue mating with hers.

  In this moment, with this man, she wasn’t the proper and soon-to-be spinster Lady Seymour, but the reckless adventuress who climbed a trellis and into a window in the middle of the night, to return a necklace and kiss a handsome stranger with rigorous abandon.

  “How desirable do you find me?” he said softly and tugged at a nipple through the thin cloth with his fingertips. She squelched a moan. Her legs threatened collapse and a warning chime sounded in her head.

  There was something strange about this man that had nothing to do with his sensual appeal or the scandalous liberties she’d allowed him to take to save her hide. Yet, she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what roused her suspicions, no matter how hard she tried to focus.

  She leaned against him to stop the fondling and peered into his red-rimmed blue eyes. It was then she realized he’d had more than a few drinks this evening; enough to explain why he sounded and appeared slightly off to her. Not drunk enough to wobble or topple over, but enough for her to use to her advantage and extricate herself from the situation.

  Noelle grinned. She’d found her opening. “The first time I saw your face in Hyde Park, I knew I had to have you, My Lord,” she lied. She pressed lightly on his chest with both hands, and he shuffled slowly backward toward the bed. He cupped her hips and they walked in a bumbling synchronization, locked together.

  “When I discovered through gossip that your courtesan had flown your nest, I knew I had to get to you before the other women discovered her flight.” Noelle spoke in a hopeful, breathless tone. He stared down at her breasts and groaned. “Tonight, I plan to give you a taste of my many talents. Then tomorrow we shall come to an arrangement.”

  Her seductive smile drew his eyes. He stared hungrily at her mouth and grinned. “I shall need to see everything.”

  “Of course, My Lord,” she purred. This adventuress relied solely on instinct and snippets of conversations she’d overheard from Bliss and the other courtesans on how to please men. Now was not the time to show her inexperience. He had to believe she was who she said she was. Her life depended on her acting skills.

  Thankfully, the man was not a warty toad.

  The back of his knees hit the end of the bed and he stopped. He slid his hands from her hips to cup her buttocks. “Where would you like to start, Milady? We have all night.” He leaned to press his lips against her neck, and whiskers tickled her skin.

  Noelle sighed seductively. “Here?” She lowered her hand to cup the large erection beneath his trousers and her face flamed at her boldness. She suspected he would be considered well endowed and required no padding to make it so.

  Her innocent virgin sensibilities were replaced by more open curiosity as she caressed the bulge. What did an erect male member look like up close? Did it hurt the first time a man put it inside a woman? Would she eventually become used to having such a large thing inside her?

  The earl’s second groan was deeper than his first. He nibbled along the curve of her jaw and his warm breath sent tingles across her skin. “Thus far, you have moved to the top of my list of potential mistresses.”

  The flush on her face was a clear indication of her innocence, but she hoped he was too deep in his cups to notice.

  “I have learned my craft well, My Lord.” A courtesan would not flush while enticing a man with her hand. Her shocking curiosity led her onward. With anonymity a perfect mask to hide behind, Noelle felt positively wicked, truly scandalous.

  She would do anything to save herself from Newgate—even fondle the earl if it kept him from summoning the Runners. His lids drooped and for the first time he wavered on his bare feet. He pressed a kiss at the corner of her mouth and it was all she could do to not turn her face to accept his kiss. It was proving hard enough to keep him upright.

  Noelle bit back a smirk and splayed both hands on his chest. She pushed gently and he fell limply back on the bed. She’d waste no time waiting for his drunken snores to make her escape. The necklace was on the vanity and he couldn’t place the missing piece in her hand. Even if he saw her at a social function, he wouldn’t match the proper Lady with the courtesan. The dim light and shadows, mixed with his inebriation, would keep him from putting Lady Seymour and the thief-courtesan together as one person.

  “Good night, My Lord,” she said softly with one last look at his handsome face and hard chest as his lids began to droop over unfocused eyes. She shivered with regret.

  And then she was gone.