If she wasn’t careful, she might just fall for the man.
And now that she knew she was most likely carrying Davies’s child, she couldn’t fall in love with him. But she did want him. And did it matter if she and Simon had intercourse? He already knew she suspected she was with child so she couldn’t try to pass Davies’s child as Simon’s. Not that she would ever do such a thing.
Once she arrived back at the stables, she walked up to Cupid’s fountain and sat on the edge. The gurgling water should have eased her frustration but it only seemed to make her feel more anxious. Being with Simon would not solve anything. She couldn’t marry him. He didn’t seem to want her as a mistress.
So the only reason to be with him was pure selfish pleasure.
She looked across the field as the sound of horses galloping brought her out of her musing. Her heart started to pound in her chest as she saw Simon ride his black gelding. The man was magnificent in form. The horses slowed to a stop. Simon jumped down and instead of giving the reins to a stable boy, he walked Mars into the stable.
When he walked back out over thirty minutes had passed. He’d removed his jacket and the white linen of his shirt was like a beacon. She couldn’t take her eyes from him as he came closer.
“What are you doing out here so late? I assumed you were already tucked in your bed fast asleep.” He sat down on the edge of the fountain next to her.
Her senses seemed overwhelmed with him. A hint of leather, horses, and his spicy soap intoxicated her. The heat of his body radiated to her, warming her as the night cooled. She glanced over at him and had such an urge to kiss him. His molded lips were in a thin line as if he were in serious thought, his gray eyes stared back at her in such an erotic way it astounded her. It all brought back images of what they’d done in the study.
“Mia?”
She shook the images from her mind. “I couldn’t sleep until you returned safely.”
A slight smile lit his face. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Caring enough to want me safe,” he whispered.
Who could not want this wonderful man safe? After all he’d done tonight and the past ten days for her. “Simon,” she said and then stopped.
“What is it?”
“I want you,” she whispered. “Now.”
Chapter 13
Simon felt as if the air had been completely sucked out of him. He’d waited for so many years to hear those words from her. But common sense dictated that he refuse her. Even as his cock hardened.
“Mia, we have been through this. I won’t dishonor you with an arrangement.”
“What if I want to become your mistress?” she whispered so quietly he almost didn’t hear.
“What?”
“At least until I get too heavy with child. Then we would have to stop until after the baby is born.”
Simon shook his head. Everything he’d wanted for the past twelve years was in his grasp. All he had to do was say yes. “No, Mia. It wouldn’t be right. You need the next nine months to focus on this child.”
She ripped her hand out of his grip and stood up. “I don’t want to focus on this baby. I don’t want this baby. Allan was a fiend and now I’m having a fiend’s child. God only knows what this baby will turn out like. I don’t want it.”
“But becoming my mistress won’t change the fact that you are with child.”
“I know that, but it will give me some happiness in the midst of all this agony,” she whispered. “Being with you in the study the other day was unlike anything I have ever experienced with another man and we didn’t even have intercourse. I can only imagine what that would be like. Actually, that’s all I do is imagine what it would feel like to have you inside me. Thick and long and hard.”
Simon barely swallowed. His cock pressed painfully against his trousers. “Please don’t talk like that,” he bit out.
“Why? Because a woman shouldn’t speak of enjoying sexual congress? For a woman it should only be about conception, not about pleasure?”
Simon rose to his feet in an instant. He pulled her against him until she gasped from the thickness between them. “No,” he said roughly. “Because I am so goddamn hard for you right now I am about ready to come.”
“Make love to me, Simon. Right now. Right here.”
He closed his eyes against the images of taking her here on the ledge of the fountain. Her legs straddling his as he sat down. Her hips rising and falling against his rigid shaft. “We can’t,” he finally said in a strangled voice. “People would see us.”
“I understand.” She pushed him away and walked toward the library doors.
“Mia, wait. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
Instead of waiting or even hesitating, she opened the door and walked into the library. Simon ran after her. When he reached the library, the door to the corridor was shut. He glanced around and saw Mia standing near the fireplace, slowly removing the pins from her hair.
“Close the curtains, Simon.”
Without a thought, he did as she commanded. At this point, he would do anything to have her at least once. When he turned around, she turned her back to him.
“Can you help me with the buttons?”
Unable to utter one coherent word, he silently approached her, unbuttoned each of her buttons, and then waited to see what she would request next.
“Thank you. Now the stays.”
“Loosened or completely off?”
“Whichever you prefer,” she replied in a husky voice.
He wanted her completely naked. He wanted to see her full breasts, the curves of her flat stomach and the flare of her hips. He needed to see her brown curly hair at the junction of her slim thighs. “Off,” he finally answered.
He unlaced her stays until they pooled at her feet with the blue muslin. All that stood between him and her was a thin piece of muslin. Slowly, he turned her in his arms and kissed her soundly. Pulling away, he stared at the dusky circle of her areolas and her protruding nipples. He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples causing them to tighten even more.
“Simon,” she moaned as he moved his mouth to her muslin-covered nipple.
Drawing back, he could see her entire breast from the wet cloth. “Mia,” he said with a sigh.
“Simon, make love to me now,” she demanded.
“No.” He moved his mouth to her other nipple and suckled her until she writhed and moaned. He pulled away and grabbed her hand, placing it on the bulging shaft under his trousers.
“Oh,” she said. She slid her hands under his linen shirt. Her hand scorched his skin as she paused to rub her thumbs against his flat nipples. She dragged the shirt over his hand and replaced her hand with her mouth on his nipple.
Waves of pleasure coursed through his body and she drew his nipple into her warm mouth. “Mia,” he moaned.
She worked the buttons on his trousers and kissed a hot trail down his stomach. After struggling with his trousers, she slipped them over his hips. With the breeches caught around his boots, he moved away to the chair and yanked off his boots and trousers. Completely naked, he sat back against the chair, and held out his hand for her.
“Come here, Mia.”
She cocked a brow at him and slowly raised the hem of her cotton shift upward, exposing her perfectly shaped thighs. Once she reached her waist, her attention moved away from the shift to her drawers. Exposing small bits of pale skin, she lowered the drawers over her hips until they landed at her feet.
“Dear God, you are driving me mad,” he whispered. Unconsciously, his hand reached for his cock and rubbed the hard shaft as he watched her. “Come here now.”
She gave him a seductive smile that almost put him over the edge. Her slim hips swayed as she ambled toward him. She took his hand and he pulled her down on top of him. The thin muslin of her shift bunched up as she straddled his hips. The heat of her surrounded his shaft as she settled on top of him. He wanted to plunge deep inside her and stay there
forever. But not yet. First, he wanted her so ready for him that when he did that, she would reach her climax quickly.
“Shall we get rid of this?” she asked, staring down at her shift. “After all, you are already naked.”
Simon skimmed his hands up her thighs and gathered the material in his fists. He slipped her shift up and over her head, baring her to his lascivious gaze. He was so glad that she was not some innocent miss that needed encouragement to find her passionate side. He didn’t have to go slowly with Mia, if he didn’t want to, and right now, he wanted only to lose himself inside her.
Mia stared at Simon as he drew a finger down the length of her breasts until he reached her tight nipple. He moved forward and replaced his finger with his hot mouth. Her head dropped backward as tingles turned to fire as he suckled her. He pressed his hands down her bare back, pulling her closer to the hard planes of his body.
Neither Paul nor Allan had been built like this man. Simon evoked power with his well-muscled body and the position he held. Yet, he had never been anything but gentle with her. Even now when her body craved his, he was being gentle. But she didn’t want gentle.
She wanted Simon.
Now.
She slipped her hand between them until she reached his hard penis. A smile grew on his face as he rested his head back against the chair and let her seduce him with her hands. She rocked her hips slightly so she could rub him against her clitoris. For a long moment, she closed her eyes as the fiery sensations increased.
“Mia,” he moaned softly.
She loved to hear him call her name in passion. She wanted to hear it forever. Higher her passion climbed until she felt she might shatter. Unwilling to let that happen without him being deep inside her, she lifted her hips and slowly slid his cock into her. Inch by inch he filled her body until she could take no more.
Before moving on him, she gave her body time to adjust to his size and enjoyed the feeling of him in her. But already she could feel her body throbbing against him. She needed him now. Slowly she raised herself off him and slid back down.
They both gasped at the pleasure that brought them.
He seemed to let her have control for a few moments until he placed his hands on her hips and increased the speed of their thrusting. “Simon,” she moaned as she lost the last vestiges of control she had left. Her body drew tightly around him as waves of pleasure crashed over her.
As her orgasm waned, he breathed in deeply and thrust into her a few more times before his body went rigid and his head fell back against the chair. “Mia,” he cried out.
They rested a few moments before sneaking up to his bedchamber where they made love again. Mia had never imagined making love with a man she’d known practically all her life could feel so exciting. Simon rolled off her and pulled her close.
“I’ve waited so long for this moment,” he whispered so softly she almost didn’t hear him.
He had?
Mia rested her head on his shoulder and wondered at his words. She had thought his marriage proposal and now this was nothing more than a spontaneous whim, not something he’d had in his mind for a while. Was it possible he’d desired her for longer than she realized?
It seemed like a mad idea indeed.
And such a lovely thought, it made her heart beat wildly in her chest. To have the love of a man like Simon would be heaven. Far more than a poor wise woman deserved. But something she wanted right now. Even if she could never become his wife, she could have his love and affection.
Until he married.
The thought crashed upon her. He was an earl and must marry at some point to have an heir. He certainly couldn’t marry a woman who had been with two other men and had a bastard from one of them. Marrying below his station was dreadful enough in the eyes of the ton. Marrying her? That was an abomination.
She eased up and then looked down at him. A slight smile tilted his lips upward and with his eyes still closed, he looked like a very satisfied man. And she had done that to him.
“Whatever you’re thinking, just stop,” he said and pulled her down on him.
“Who said I was thinking about anything?” she lied.
“Of course you were.” He wrapped his warm arms around her. “Let me guess. I believe it went something like this: How could I have done this with him? What was I thinking? What must he think of me?”
She giggled. “No, that wasn’t in my thoughts.”
“Indeed? I’m very glad to hear that.” He rolled her over until he was atop her. “So,” he said, and then kissed her nose, “If not those thoughts, then what?”
She stared up at his sparkling gray eyes and was lost. “Nothing important.”
“And yet, I am starting to distinguish your lies from the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you lie to me, you look to the side and you touch your left wrist.”
“What?” she asked with a laugh. “I do not touch my wrist.”
“Only your left wrist. I noticed this evening when you were telling me about the fabulous book you left on the table.”
“I never knew that,” she admitted.
“Few people notice what they do when they lie. But almost everyone does some small action.”
“What do you do?”
He laughed softly. “I have learned to cover mine. I spent too much time in the gaming hells with Middleton when I was young. If you want to win at gambling, you must know your tell.”
“You were a gambler?”
He slid off her and laid on his side next to her. “I did for a while.”
“I’m glad you stopped.” The last thing he needed was to lose more money by gambling what little he had left.
“I’ve been thinking about taking the practice up again. I might be able to help fill the estate coffers.”
“Or you might lose everything.”
He laughed again. “You have no faith in me, do you?”
“Yes, but I know that most gamblers lose,” she said and then turned on her side to face him. “I will not let you do that.”
He leaned in and kissed her softly. “You won’t let me?”
“No.”
“Since I’m not allowed inside any of the decent gaming hells, I believe you have nothing to worry about.”
She stared at his face and saw unspoken pain. “Why aren’t you allowed in the hells?”
“Nothing,” he said nonchalantly as he rolled on his back. “I suppose I won too much money from them.”
Mia doubted that was the reason he wasn’t allowed inside. There was something else keeping him from gambling. She wanted to press him for more information but knew he wasn’t going to speak of it tonight. At some point, he would.
She wondered if this reason had something to do with him staying at Hartsfield Park so much of the time. He rarely left the estate and when he did she was usually told it was to visit family. It seemed strange that he didn’t even attend Parliament unless there was a very important vote he needed to be there for.
He hardly seemed shy to her. But perhaps he preferred to be here instead of around crowds of people. She’d heard some people are so terrified of being around crowds that they hide away in their homes most of their lives. How sad if that was the cause of him remaining here.
She watched him for a long time as he slept deeply. After a few minutes, she rested her head on his chest. His arms instinctively wrapped around her. Nestled in his warmth and protection, she drifted to sleep praying that someone would find Davies soon.
Chapter 14
Simon awoke the next morning with tendrils of brown hair tickling his nose. He smiled as he brushed away Mia’s hair from his face. Her head still rested on his shoulder and her breathing remained even as if still asleep. The desire to remain in this room all day making love to her consumed him. He couldn’t do that with Mr. Tanner arriving today. But he could have her one more time before tonight.
Slowly, he eased her on her back and kissed her full pink
lips. She moaned slightly as she woke and then returned his kisses with a passion that took his breath away. She pulled away and smiled at him.
“Good morning to you,” she said and then frowned.
“Good morning. Is everything all right?” He kissed her furrowed brow.
“I am not sure.” She scrambled off the bed and behind the dressing screen.
Simon lay back against the pillows and waited for her morning sickness to strike. Was this how every morning would be until the sickness ended?
“Oh thank God,” she said excitedly from behind the screen.
“Are you all right?”
She peeked her head out from behind the screen. “Everything is wonderful.”
“Will you tell me why?”
“My monthlies started. I’m not having that bastard’s child!”
Relief spread through him. She was free to marry him now. The woman he’d wanted for so long would be his wife as soon as he could arrange for the special license. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. I need to call Lucy to bring up some rags.”
“I’ll do it.”
“You cannot!” Her cheeks turned as red as the screen she tried to hide her body behind. “They will know what we did.”
“Does it really matter?” He rose and pulled the coverlet around his waist. He walked over to her and kissed her softly.
“I am in your bedchamber and everyone will talk.”
He laughed. “I do believe they will figure it out when the maid comes in to make up the bed.”
Her cheeks turned a darker shade of scarlet. “Oh no.”
“If you remember, we did have an agreement. I met your conditions and now we know you are not with child. I will see about the special license today.”
“Why waste the money on that? We can have the banns called or a common license will do just fine.”
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