Chloe sighed as the house came into view, with a man dismounting from a horse – probably Mr Ramsbottom – and a maidservant beating a rug at the side of the house. It was all over now, at least. All pretentions to a happy ending were over, and now all she could do was put the thought of Sir Moses Wandorne behind her, and try to resume normal life.
She almost laughed aloud. What was normal life when you had shared something so intimate with someone that you would never see again?
And then, as the carriage started to slow, the natural philosopher in her welled up. Why should she not go back, and talk with him? Though her heart ached now, would it not be better to find out the truth? Not because she cared for him any longer, she told herself as the carriage came to a complete stop. But as a natural philosopher, was the truth not a worthy aim?
The carriage door was opened by a footman and startled Chloe out of her thoughts.
“After you, my dear,” smiled Lady Kathryn.
Chloe was overwhelmed with a sense of love and compassion for her companion. Lady Kathryn evidently cared for her, and it was impossible to ignore how concerned she had been for her welfare.
“Thank you,” Chloe murmured. Taking the proffered hand of the footman, she stepped from the carriage – and the man who had just dismounted from the horse turned around to look at her.
It was Sir Moses Wandorne.
9
Moses saw Chloe’s lips part in a gasp of surprise, and his blood started to heat at the mere sight of her. Oh, that he could have explained in his own home, at Wandorne, where he had always felt safe.
“Oh!” She had stopped dead in her tracks, hand to her mouth, and Moses saw another fine and beautiful woman emerge out of the carriage.
Without thinking, without considering what all those around him were thinking, Moses took a hesitant step forward, and then another.
The startled look increased in Chloe’s eyes as he watched her.
“It – it is you!”
Moses tried to hear positive and joyful recognition in those tones, but his heart sank as he saw a little crease appear between her brows.
His voice felt hoarse, but he managed, “Yes, it is me.”
“Who is “me”?” The woman said staring between him and Chloe. “Miss Vaughn, who is this gentleman?”
But as Moses stepped towards the woman that he now knew he loved, he kept the gaze between them, and neither looked away. The panting of his horse, having galloped at twenty miles an hour, seemed to drift into a hazy background.
Instead, all he could hear was Chloe’s murmur, “You … you are here.”
And now he was standing before her, and he nodded slowly. “For the first time in a year, I have left the grounds of Wandorne. To see you.”
If Chloe had been going to reply to that, Moses would never know. She opened her mouth but was interrupted by a woman that he was sure now was Lady Kathryn.
“My good man, who are you?” She said brightly with a smile, but Moses was not entirely fooled. She stepped slightly ahead of Chloe, as if to shelter her with her body. “And how are you acquainted with Miss Vaughn?”
Moses swallowed. He could do this the complicated way; the way that society would prefer him to, with many polite niceties that would be adored by this Lady Kathryn but would take forever.
Or there was the simple way.
“I must apologise, my lady,” he said brusquely, “but I need a private word with Miss Vaughn as a matter of urgency. I am sure that you will forgive me.”
Without waiting to hear if Lady Kathryn approved of his words, for he was entirely sure that she would not, Moses took the unresisting hand of Chloe Vaughn and started to walk away from the carriage.
She did not resist, Moses thought darkly, but she hardly seemed willing. Her feet seemed to drag, and it was all he could do not to tug at her arm too hard. But no one seemed to care that he, a stranger to the house and to the family, was pulling away a guest of the house towards a grove of silver birches.
As he stepped under their dappled shade, they seemed to calm him and bring him back to his senses. The hurried ride, made as swiftly as he could, had not given him much time to prepare any sort of speech or declaration. His heart thumped painfully as he dropped Chloe’s arm and turned to face her.
Was this a good idea? Could he ever explain himself to Chloe? Even when the misunderstanding about Lady Olivia was resolved, could she ever trust him again? How could he live alone again in that house, knowing what it was like to experience passion with Chloe Vaughn?
The same Chloe Vaughn was glaring at him, her back to a tall and thick silver birch tree. “And what do you want?”
Moses’ eyes took in her tangled hair, the gown that he had loaned her, and the flush of her cheeks. Anger, passion, fury, confusion?
“I hardly know,” he muttered in a low voice. “Even now I am unsure whether following you here was a clever idea. All I knew was that I would never be able to live with myself without knowing exactly what Chloe Vaughn thought of me.”
She blanched at the sound her of her name on his lips, and her eyes flickered across his face as though attempting to discern a secret meaning.
A song thrush started warbling above them, and a light breeze ruffled the leaves around them, sounding like waves on a lake.
Moses swallowed. “This reminds me of the lake at Wandorne. There you were, beached on my shores, looking for shelter.”
“I have no wish to speak with you,” she said fiercely. “Why do you not go back to your fiancée Lady Olivia, Sir Moses. I am sure she is confused about where you are.”
“To hell with Olivia,” Moses growled, taking a step towards her. She attempted to mirror him by taking a step back, but she was stopped short by the silver birch tree behind her.
“You … you are frightening me, Sir Moses.”
“Good,” snapped Moses, but he softened slightly as he beheld her. “Because I am frightened too. But I would rather be frightened with you by my side than without you, at any price.”
She was so beautiful, and yet she was so fiery. Despite her fear, confusion, and anger, she had not run away from him. She did not cower under his fierce gaze, but she met it, determined to face him.
“I had thought,” Moses said softly, “that it would be possible to spend more than a few hours with someone without falling in love with them. How hard could it be? People do it all the time, and yet for myself, that just did not seem possible.”
Chloe’s beautiful grey green eyes widened, and her jaw dropped slightly. “In – in love with them? But Sir Moses, I never intended to disturb you. It was the rain, otherwise I would not have disturbed – ”
“I wanted to be disturbed,” Moses said, cutting across her and reaching out to take her hand, which Chloe resolutely placed behind her back. With a wry smile, he continued, “Chloe, I needed to be disturbed – I needed to be shocked back into life! Without you, my life would have just … continued. Existed, without anything of interest.”
Astonishment covered her features, but Chloe seemed determined to cling onto any residual anger that she could. “Then you may thank me and allow me to return to the house. Lady Kathryn will undoubtedly be looking for me, and – ”
Her voice was haughty, and she took a step back towards the house, but Moses was too quick for her. His hand reached her shoulder before she was able to take another step, and he pushed her back to lean against the tree, and as she gasped Moses felt a shiver of pleasure in taking control of the situation … and of Miss Chloe Vaughn.
“You have brought back my appetite for living,” he growled, “and given me an appetite for you.”
Bending down, he kissed her passionately, his hands on her hips keeping her pushed up against the tree. Her lips were warm and wet, and though her hands initially pushed against his shoulders, resisting him at first, as soon as he slipped his tongue into her welcoming mouth, she melted under his touch.
Her hands, now wrapped around his neck and keeping him
close, were driving Moses wild as they scratched against his skin, desperate for more pleasure, and it was all he could do to stop himself pushing himself up against her, pinned deliciously against the tree as she was.
Chloe moaned in his mouth, and Moses broke the kiss, panting slightly but keeping his head lowered to hers.
“I-I love you,” Chloe managed in soft but panting breaths. “With such a passion – oh, Moses, I did not even believe such devotion was possible!”
Moses stroked her cheek with a finger. “And I love you, Chloe. More than I have loved before, more than should be possible in such a short time. Hell, twenty four hours ago I did not know you, and yet I would lay down my life for you should it be necessary. Where is the sense in that?”
He dipped down once more and this time met her hungry and welcoming lips with his own, his hands now clutching her bottom and tightening his grip with every moment.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Chloe managed as they broke apart once more. “You are an engaged man, Moses, engaged to that woman, and it hurts me immeasurably to think that you cannot feel for me what you feel for her. Why are you here?”
Moses smiled gently at the concern and jealously tinging her cheeks pink. “Olivia and Anthony – that is, the Count of Stratham – are childhood friends of mine, Chloe. I have known the Strathams since we were babes, and it has been a jest of our parents that one day we would wed.”
Chloe’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as she tried to take in his words. “Childhood friends?”
He nodded. “It would be as disgusting as considering one’s own sister if I thought of Olivia in that way. We have never truly thought that marriage would be the end of our friendship. In fact, the very reason of their visit was to inform me of her betrothal – and you gave me no chance to explain before you tore yourself away from me.”
Moses searched her eyes for understanding, and saw it dawn there, saw the realisation that he was hers and no one else’s.
“Then … you did not lie to me?”
Moses kissed her deeply before answering. “No. I only have eyes for you.”
It had not been planned, and looking back, he could never exactly pinpoint the moment when the decision had been made. All Moses knew that as he looked into the eyes of Chloe Vaughn, glittering and sparkling with the joy of knowing that she had secured his affection, she and no one else, he knew what he wanted to do.
Moses dropped to one knee on the cool green grass, not taking his eyes from the woman before him whose eyes, if possible, grew larger. “Miss Chloe Vaughn. This last day has been the most joy filled and pleasure filled of my existence, and you are the reason for it. I do not wish to pass another day of my life without you. Would you do me the greatest honour, and give me the greatest gift, by promising to become my wife?”
There was a pause, and to Moses’ discomfort, the pause continued. Chloe was smiling at him but had not said a word. Time passed, so slowly that his heartbeat seemed to beat the minutes.
“What keeps your tongue?” He said eventually, a little desperately. “If ‘tis so difficult to consent to be my wife, damnit, then perhaps you had better not accept!”
Chloe smiled, and it was a wicked one. She took his hand and pulled him upright. “Just testing to see how long it would take for you to crack and say something to me.”
Moses groaned, and dropped his head onto her shoulder as Chloe burst into giggles. “Are you always going to be running experiments on me, Chloe?”
“Probably,” she said kissing his cheek as he raised his head. “And now, I only agree on three conditions.”
“Conditions!” Burst Moses.
His beautiful wife-to-be nodded her head. “Firstly, on the condition that you will always allow me to have my own way.”
Moses shook his head slowly and pinned her to the trunk of the tree with his hands on her hips. “What have I let myself in for? And the second condition?”
“Secondly,” said Chloe, as she dreamily wound her hands around his neck, “that we have as many children as possible.”
He had to laugh at that one, as he nuzzled her neck. “I do not think you will hear any complaints from me on that score. And the last?”
It was starting to get difficult to concentrate now, for she was arching her back and pushing her firm breasts into his chest, and her hips were gently thrusting into him as she spoke.
“Thirdly,” she whispered in his ear, “that they will all receive an outstanding education. Boys and girls.”
Moses smiled as he growled and kissed her harshly on the lips. “Done, done, and done,” he said darkly. “And now you will stand here as I do you.”
He had not planned this just as he had not planned the proposal, but it was a chance too good to miss; the wind was blowing from the house so no one would hear them, and there was little to no chance that anyone would come looking for them for the next ten minutes.
Moses bit her lip gently as he kissed her, teasing out that delicate balance of pain and pleasure, as he moved his right hand away from Chloe’s hip and gathered up her skirts.
“What – what are – ?”
But he would not allow her to speak: this was her chance to receive unadulterated pleasure from him, and he was not going to let her get in her own way.
“Trust me,” he murmured into her lips as he possessed them once more with his own. Her back was arching again, but this time due to uncontrolled passion, not teasing playfulness, and Moses felt the painful stir in his breeches as his body tried to respond – but no. This was about her pleasure today. He would have plenty of time to sink himself into her in the years to come.
His searching hand finally found the sweet flesh underneath the skirts, and as his fingers raked her thigh, Cloe moaned in his mouth.
It was everything Moses could do not to throw her down onto the ground and take her right there and then, but he was going to be patient; this was going to be done right.
Slowly, painstakingly slowly, as his lips and tongue wound up the tension in her, his hand moved slowly along her thigh to her secret place – and at the same time that he touched her inner folds lightly with his fingertips, his other hand moved to the back of her gown and pulled once more at that ever-so-obliging ribbon.
Chloe cried out in pleasure as his lips moved to her exposed breasts, bouncing erotically in their new-found freedom, at the same time that her most secret place felt the heat of his fingers.
“Oh, what are you – oh, this is more than I can take!”
His entire body throbbed with pent up desire, but he was determined: this was to be Chloe’s pleasure. The softly moving fingertips underneath her skirt started to become more firm, more determined as they grew wet from her desire and Moses groaned into her body as his tongue scraped her nipple.
Her hands were in his hair and her legs were turned to jelly, but his left hand held her steady as she started to lose herself to the rising sensuality of the moment.
“Yes, deeper,” she moaned, “deeper, oh yes!”
Encouraged by her words, Moses gently inserted two of his fingers into her tight folds, and almost wept to feel how ready she was for him, how wet, how hot, but she was not ready to reach her climax yet. Slowly, slowly the rhythm started to build, and he matched it with his tongue on her breasts, fondling them, teasing first one nipple and then the other, driving her wild and knowing that she would give him a sign when she was ready to capitulate to her building desire.
And there it was.
“Oh Moses!” Chloe cried out his name in a jagged cry that almost caused him to climax himself.
His fingers now worked, curling inside her to touch that special place deep within her that he knew would push her over the edge, and his head lifted to capture her lips in his own as his other hand took up the charge of budding and twisting her nipple as she shuddered against him and the tree, unable to think, barely able to stand, and she cried out his name in his mouth as she climaxed around his fingers in heady waves of pleasure.
Moses took deep breaths as she fell against his chest, his fingers still deep within her, glorifying in the aftershocks of her ecstasy.
“And next time,” he said jerkily in her ear, “I will do that with my mouth.”
Chloe laughed raggedly, and lifted her desire-hazed eyes to his eyes. “Next time?”
Moses felt a surge of carnality wash over him, and wondered how long it would be until a search party would be sent out to look for them. “I will give you five minutes to recover, and then we begin again.”
His laughter mingled with hers as their lips met for another fiery kiss.
10
When the kiss broke there was applause.
“Let’s hear three cheers for the happy couple!” Sir Kyle shouted. “Hip hip!”
“Huzzah!” Came the answering cry, and Chloe looked out across the churchyard at the people who meant the most to her – save for the man whose loving arms, now adorned with a gold wedding band, were around her.
“Is it possible to feel this happy?” She whispered to him, as cheers for their love echoed in the afternoon sunlight.
“I think it must do,” he murmured back with a smile. “Otherwise I am dreaming, and I never wish to wake.”
Chloe smiled and beamed at the wedding guests who had just seen them vow to spend the rest of their lives loving and caring for each other. It was too much, all too much, and yet it was not her own happiness that gave her the most contentment, but that of Moses.
He had not stopped smiling since she had accepted his proposal of marriage, and now just six weeks later, here they stood, man and wife.
As merry chatter broke out amongst their wedding guests, Moses squeezed her hand. “You know, I think it is only right that we go and greet our friends.”
Chloe sighed. “If only it could just be the two of us.”
A pair of dark eyes twinkled. “Within a few hours, it will be. And then I am going to – ”
“Hush!” Chloe blushed, but only slightly, as her husband grinned down at her, his wide shoulders offering that love and strength that she had never known she had been without until she had stumbled into his home. “Look, there is Rebecca!”
Beached with a Baronet Page 8
