An Earl to Save Her Reputation

by Laura Martin

‘How about if I kissed you here?’ he suggested, moving his lips down to the base of her neck.

  Anna heard the sigh leave her mouth before she was even aware of it. Harry grinned and edged her a step closer to the bed.

  ‘Or how about if I kissed you here.’ His lips trailed ever lower, dancing across the skin of her chest, pushing against the material of her dress.

  Feeling the edge of the bed behind her Anna sank down, looking up at Harry towering over her. Despite his physical advantage in size and strength she felt completely safe with him. Even after thinking she would never trust a man again, it was impossible not to trust Harry.

  Holding out her hand, she waited until he’d taken it and pulled him to sit beside her. As soon as he was back on her level his lips found hers again, kissing her so deeply, so passionately, that Anna felt her head begin to spin. Her hands were on his body, her palms caressing his torso through the layers of his eveningwear, and suddenly Anna realised that she had to feel more of him, to touch his bare skin, to run her fingers over the firm muscles of his back.

  Pulling away slightly, she took his cravat and untied it in one swift movement, then moved on to his jacket, pulling it from his shoulders.

  ‘My turn,’ Harry said, lifting Anna to her feet and quickly spinning her so he could unfasten her dress. His fingers worked quickly and, before she could compose herself, Anna’s dress was pooling around her ankles.

  Harry whispered, ‘What are you doing to me?’ He motioned to the white stockings she wore under her dress. Anna glanced down. She’d put them on to keep out the chill of the cool evening, not as a seduction technique.

  While he was distracted Anna quickly untucked his shirt, pulling it off and pausing to lay her hands on his chest. His skin was soft, but the muscles underneath firm and solid, and Anna knew that before the evening was over she would feel her own body pressed against those very muscles.

  ‘Lie down,’ Harry said and as Anna fell back on to the bed he gripped the top of one stocking and slowly started to pull the material down her leg. His fingers grazed her skin, sending wonderful sensations all through her body, and soon Anna was offering up the other leg quite shamelessly for him to divest of her stocking.

  Soon she was clad only in her chemise, the thin white cotton barely any protection from Harry’s burning gaze.

  ‘Do you want me to stop?’ Harry asked as he gripped the hem of her chemise. The strained expression on his face hinted at how hard he would find it if she said yes, but Anna knew he wouldn’t continue without her agreeing completely. There was no way of hiding from the fact that she wanted this as much as him.

  ‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered.

  It was enough. Within seconds he’d whipped her last piece of clothing off over her head and was regarding her naked body. Anna didn’t feel ashamed or self-conscious—this was Harry, he could put even the most timid mouse at ease.

  While Harry began to caress her body, Anna reached up and unfastened his trousers, gripping the waistband and pushing them down as far as she could reach.

  ‘I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time,’ he said as he dipped his head and caught one of her nipples between his teeth. ‘You’ve bewitched me, enchanted me, and now I can’t stop thinking about you.’

  Anna was too overwhelmed by the wonderful sensations coming from where his mouth met her skin to answer coherently.

  ‘I fall asleep every night wondering how you would taste, how you would feel. Imagining touching you here...’ he grazed his fingers across her abdomen ‘...and here...’ he moved lower with his feather-light touch ‘...and here.’

  Anna gasped as his fingers sent little jolts of pleasure through her body as he caressed her. Never had she been touched like this, never had she been made to moan in pleasure involuntarily.

  ‘I’ve even imagined kissing you,’ he said, causing Anna to pause. Surely he was kissing her already? As he pushed himself down the bed Anna’s eyes widened and she struggled up on to her elbows, only to fall back with a soft whimper as his lips brushed against her most sensitive spot.

  ‘Harry,’ she moaned as he kissed and caressed her, her hand bunching the sheets beneath her, holding on tight to try to anchor herself to the bed. Every second that passed made her feel like she would float away on a cloud of pleasure, until something burst deep inside her, consuming every inch of her body.

  As she opened her eyes and looked up she saw Harry moving up towards her, looking like some Greek god with bronzed skin and hardened muscles. She gripped his arms, pulling him towards her, and gently he slipped inside her.

  He kissed her as their bodies came together and they moved as if one, rising and falling on the soft bed until Anna felt the pleasure building and building before the wonderful release. As she clung tight to Harry’s back he stiffened and then collapsed on top of her.

  Anna felt herself come drifting back down to earth as Harry raised himself on his arms and looked down at her. She couldn’t help but smile, a dreamy, faraway smile. In a few minutes they would have to return to reality and discuss the future, but right now she just wanted to revel in the warm sensation of feeling completely and utterly cherished.

  * * *

  Harry stretched out beside Anna, pulling her body closer in to his and resting his hand on her hip. He knew they should move, knew a rather respectable dinner party was just about to start directly below them, but he couldn’t find it in himself to spoil this moment.

  He’d known what would happen the moment he’d locked the door behind him on entering Anna’s room. If he was honest with himself, he’d known what would happen long before that. Ever since his realisation that he could not marry Miss Wright, or anyone like her, and Lydia’s frank words trying to make him see he wasn’t anything like their father, that he could marry for love and be happy, he’d known it was only a matter of time before he and Anna fell into each other’s arms.

  ‘Marry me,’ Harry murmured, saying the words into the soft skin of Anna’s neck.

  ‘We’re already...’ she started to say.

  ‘I mean for real. Marry me. Be my wife.’

  Anna turned to face him, her eyes searching his. For once the cool greyness that normally hid all her emotions was alive with hope and worry and disbelief.

  ‘I...’ Before she could answer there was a quick rap on the door, followed by a low hiss that sounded like muffled words through the thick wood.

  Anna sprung up from the bed and began to struggle back into her dress. There was another knock, this one louder and more insistent.

  ‘Anna, open up. Now.’

  With a quick glance at Harry, Anna rushed over to the door and opened it a crack. Beatrice hurriedly pushed inside, closing the door behind her. Anna’s cousin’s eyes widened as she took in the scene. Harry had just had time to pull the bedcovers over himself, but there was no hiding what had just occurred in this bedroom.

  ‘Father sent me to fetch you. All the guests have arrived.’

  Harry looked at Anna’s completely dishevelled hair, her delightfully pink cheeks and her crumpled dress she’d only managed to get halfway on.

  ‘Tell your father Anna has a headache, a bad one. She won’t be able to attend the dinner party.’

  Beatrice nodded, glancing at Harry out of the corner of her eye, but not able to bring herself to look at him directly.

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Does your father know I arrived?’

  Beatrice shrugged.

  ‘Only one of the footmen saw me come up. I don’t think anyone else knows I’m here.’

  Harry wrapped the sheet around his lower body, not wanting to embarrass Anna’s cousin any further. Quickly he crossed to Anna’s small writing desk and took a sheet of paper, penning a quick note of apology.

  ‘Give this to the tall footman, the one with white-blond hair. Ask him to deliver it to your father as if
it were just dropped off.’ Harry handed her the note of apology along with a couple of shiny coins to ensure the footman’s silence.

  ‘And what will you do?’ Beatrice asked, then shook her head, holding up her hands. ‘Forget I asked, I don’t want to know.’

  With a backwards glance at her cousin, Beatrice left the room and Anna hurriedly locked the door behind her.

  ‘We’ll never get away with it,’ she whispered.

  Harry shrugged. It didn’t much matter either way. If they were found together in Anna’s bedroom they would just have to marry sooner and that would suit him just fine. Now he’d made up his mind to follow his heart and not his head he was rather eager to make everything legal.

  ‘Everyone will know and then they’ll really have something to gossip about.’

  ‘Hush,’ Harry said, crossing the room and taking her in his arms. ‘What does it matter?’

  Anna looked up at him as though he’d grown a second head.

  ‘Of course it matters. Your reputation will be ruined completely and by association your sister will be subject to further rumour and scandal.’

  ‘What is it you always say?’ Harry asked. ‘There are worse things than a little gossip.’

  This at least got a smile from her. A little upturning of the corners of her mouth, but a smile all the same.

  ‘Marry me, Anna,’ Harry said again, ‘and it won’t matter.’

  ‘You don’t want to marry me.’

  He kissed her, a slow, gentle kiss full of passion and promise, then pulled away and cupped her face in his hands.

  ‘I’ve been trying to tell myself I don’t want to marry you for six weeks,’ he said, dropping a kiss on the end of her nose. ‘I can’t pretend any more.’

  He waited, watching the emotions flit across her normally inscrutable face. It was unsurprising that she was hesitating, after her last disastrous marriage she had every right to be cautious, but Harry knew she cared for him and surely that was more important than her worries.

  ‘It’s not that I don’t care for you, Harry,’ Anna said, biting her lip. ‘I care for you rather a lot.’

  ‘I love you,’ Harry blurted out, unsure where the words had come from, but realising they were true all the same. He did love Anna and he would make damn sure they spent their lives together.

  Anna glided towards him, her eyes locked on his. ‘I think I might love you, too, Harry,’ she said, but there was a hint of sadness in her voice. Harry chose to ignore it and pushed forward.

  ‘Then that’s settled. We’ll marry as soon as possible.’

  Anna shook her head. ‘I’m not sure...’

  ‘I love you, you love me. What else is there to consider?’

  ‘I need to think about this. I need some time.’

  Harry sank to his knees in front of her and took both hands in his own. ‘I promise to cherish you, to protect you, to allow you to flourish.’

  ‘I need time, Harry.’

  It wasn’t an outright ‘no’ and with a little work Harry was sure he could turn it into a ‘yes’. She was just cautious and rightly so after the abuse she’d had to endure from her last husband. All he had to do was show her he was different, show her how their lives could be together.

  With a gentle squeeze of her hand he backed away.

  ‘I can give you time, Anna. I don’t want to rush you. Just know that I love you and I want us to be together.’

  ‘You said you wanted to marry someone you would never fall in love with.’

  ‘I was a fool, too preoccupied trying to avoid the harm my parents caused each other, too blind to see what they shared couldn’t have been love. I could never hurt you like my father hurt my mother, could never set out to make you cry or make you want to hide in shame. I want to cherish you, protect you, show you how much I love you every single day,’ Harry said.

  ‘And your mother? She will not approve.’

  ‘My mother is consumed by her nerves, I’m not sure she’d approve of anything. But I will break the news to her gently and she will come around.’

  Anna fell silent, all her protestations answered for a little while.

  ‘Just consider my proposal, Anna. That’s all I ask. Think of the life we could have together. Think of the happiness.’

  ‘I might not be able to have children,’ Anna said quietly, glancing up at Harry for a second as she spoke. ‘Three husbands and not one pregnancy does not bode well.’

  He took her hand in his own and kissed her knuckles. ‘Then we don’t have children.’

  ‘You’d make a wonderful father.’

  ‘And you would make a wonderful mother, but sometimes these things are just not meant to be.’

  ‘I will consider it,’ Anna said, a little frown on her face. Harry knew the war that was waging inside her, knew enough about her character and her past to piece together the internal argument that was raging in her head. Part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and say yes to becoming his wife. She loved him, he loved her, and the carefree romantic was telling her that things would be different this time. The other part of her was much more cautious. She’d been hurt, irreparably so, and didn’t want to ever put herself in a position where anyone had power over her again. He just hoped the positive side won.

  ‘I shall call on you tomorrow,’ he said.

  ‘I might need more time than that.’

  ‘Then I shall call on you the next day as well.’

  ‘Harry...’

  He held his hands up. ‘I’m not pressuring you, take all the time you need. We can be engaged for another six months if we so desire. I just don’t want to go too long without seeing you.’

  ‘I’ve got the accounts to go over tomorrow. Perhaps you could call on me at the Shipping Company Office and we could go for a stroll in the late afternoon.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to it already,’ Harry said, pulling her in closer and kissing her deeply.

  * * *

  Humming to himself as he slipped out the back door, Harry skirted around the side of the house, quietly opened and shut the gate behind him, and was back on the street without anyone seeing him. All in all it had been a successful evening. He had never planned to seduce Anna, although he had been fantasising about tumbling into bed with her for weeks. And he had never planned on proposing, at least not right then.

  Ever since his talk with his sister when he’d realised she was right, he knew he could never hurt Anna the way his father had hurt his mother. He’d been consumed with the idea that he and Anna could have a future. A future where they strolled through his country estate arm in arm, spent long, lazy mornings in bed together, and sat side by side while she worked on her shipping company accounts and he those for running the estate.

  For so long he’d been focusing on the wrong things, thinking a dull, amiable wife would stop him from spending the rest of his life miserable, when the exact opposite was the truth.

  So here he was, just a man in love with a woman, trying to persuade her to marry him. Harry knew he had a huge grin on his face, he probably looked like a lunatic escaped from an asylum, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Anna would come round, if he didn’t press her too much, and she’d realise by herself how they were meant to be together.

  He was just crossing the street when a movement in a carriage fifty feet away caught his eye. Pausing for just a second, Harry glanced at it, trying not to let on he’d noticed. Sure enough there was a shadow inside, someone shifting behind the curtain, trying not to be seen.

  Nonchalantly he continued walking, his natural path taking him past the carriage. As he drew closer he could see the curtains were drawn tightly together and there were no identifying markings on the exterior, no family crests or coats of arms, just plain black paintwork.

  He debated whether to fling open the door and expose whoever was sittin
g inside, but his impeccable manners and good upbringing prevailed. This coach might have nothing to do with Anna or the mysterious packages she’d been receiving. It might simply be two lovers out for a secret assignation who’d chosen this street to stop in at random. Harry rounded the corner, ducked behind the wrought-iron fence so he was hidden by the thick bushes and looked back. The carriage hadn’t moved. The coachman was sitting holding on to the reins with a drooped head and Harry wondered if he was dozing. Perhaps he would be able to sneak back and...

  Before he could finish the thought he saw the coachman jerk awake and gather the reins tighter. Whoever was inside the carriage was evidently ready to leave. Looking about him, he searched for another carriage, something he could follow in at a discreet distance. There was nothing. Anna’s uncle lived in a respectable residential street where many people would have carriages of their own. No need for a hired conveyance to be touting for business.

  Cursing, Harry sprang into action. They knew whoever was tormenting Anna was watching her closely. The last package had just contained a list of dates and times and locations where she’d been. This could be his best chance at finding out once and for all who was behind the packages.

  He ran at a full sprint down the pavement, throwing himself at the carriage door just as the coachman urged the horses forward. Clinging on to the handle, Harry pulled, opening the door as the carriage started moving. He was balancing on the footplate of a rapidly accelerating carriage and he knew a fall could cause him to have at least a few broken bones. Gritting his teeth, he pushed the door open a little further and threw himself inside.

  As he landed on his face inside the carriage he felt the driver pull on the reins to slow the horses, shouting in surprise at his new passenger.

  ‘Mr Maltravers,’ Harry said, greeting Anna’s business rival. ‘What a surprise to see you here.’

  ‘What is the meaning of this...this...intrusion?’ Mr Maltravers spluttered, his face rapidly turning crimson.

  ‘I could ask you the same thing.’

  ‘Stop talking in riddles, man, and tell me why you’ve thrown yourself into my carriage.’