by Darcy Burke
Every emotion from the long day drained from him at her cry; anger, fury, desperation, longing, and hurt—he could not grasp and hold onto a single one. His resolve shook, barely holding together.
“What your father says means naught to us,” he soothed, running his hand down her back before pulling her close. “I have a plan—with the help of your friends.”
“What? We will just run off to Gretna Green and be wed in disgrace?” She cringed at the word, knowing she’d brought the term down on his head. “My father will likely expect that move and send a group of servants to catch us before we reach the border.”
“There are other ways.” His mind swirled, trying to land on another option for them, but he could only think of Lucianna in his arms—and keeping her there. “We will find another way.”
“Or mayhap it would be best to return to my chambers and await my father’s decree that will solidify my future.” She pulled away slightly as if to do just that.
But Roderick had her in his embrace, and it would take far more than the Marquis of Camden to take the woman he loved from him.
He stiffened.
The woman he loved?
Blast it all, but he did love her.
It had been many years since he’d experienced anything resembling love, and never a love like this. Yes, he’d loved and adored his mother. He’d respected and loved his father.
But never had he dreamt of loving a woman, especially a female as deserving of love as Lady Lucianna.
There would be no compromise. She belonged to him, as his heart belonged to her.
Never again would he allow her to entertain the notion that she might be forced to wed Abercorn.
“Lucianna, I love you,” he said as he kissed her forehead.
“Love makes wise people do foolish things.” She pulled back to look up at him.
Her eyes were clouded with confusion, yet Roderick didn’t feel confused at all. He set his hands against her cold cheeks. “And it makes a foolish person do wise things. Like finding the woman they love and holding on, no matter what consequences lay ahead.”
“Can it be so simple?” she asked.
A shiver ran through her, and her teeth chattered.
Roderick hadn’t thought about how chilled the evening had grown, especially with Lucianna gowned in nothing but a thin nightshift. “Let us return inside, and I will show you.”
In her chambers, he would have all night to convince her that finding love and holding onto it was just that simple, as long as she felt the same.
But first, he needs must share with her the rest of his sordid past. She needed to know everything before she decided to thwart her father.
Even Roderick had enough integrity to discourage allowing a woman to fall in love with him until she knew the whole truth.
Taking her hand, Roderick turned toward her open veranda door and the warmth that certainly lay within. Surprisingly, she followed without resistance. If she hadn’t, he’d been prepared to sweep her off her feet and carry her back to the heated bedchambers.
Chapter 18
Lucianna allowed Roderick to guide her back into her bedchambers as she walked on shaky legs. She still held out hope that her father cared about what she wanted for her own future, but when Roderick—with all her friends in tow—had shown up below her veranda, she more than suspected that her father had chosen Abercorn to be her husband.
She’d been mastered, conquered, and bested by the one man who should care most for her. To know the man she’d grown up trying to impress, the man Luci currently did her best to emulate, didn’t care a whit for her…hurt. Her father didn’t bother himself with grandiose thoughts of love, devotion, commitment, and friendship.
Her head spun when she lowered her chin to hide her feelings.
The Marquis of Camden did not have those things in his marriage, and so, he did not think it of value to his daughter.
Well, the marquis was gravely wrong.
Those were the qualities Luci searched for in not only her future husband but also her friends.
She and Roderick stood before her hearth, facing the flames, their fingers entwined; everything and everyone receding as she could only see him.
This was exactly how Luci saw herself with her husband: at peace, trusting one another, and forever entwined.
She wanted not only their fingers intertwined but also their minds, bodies, and souls.
So fused together people around them wondered how had they achieved such elevated love.
It would never be about one dominating the other—not with she and Roderick. Never would they make the other feel insignificant, unheard, or unwanted.
“Roderick,” she gulped. When he looked down at her, his normally intense blue eyes were a meadow of blue blossoms, welcoming and inviting. “I am ready to see what simple looks like. Show me?”
He needed no other encouragement. Roderick swept her into his arms and crossed the room to her lilac fabric-covered bed and pushed aside the white, eyelet drapes.
The feeling of her of bed coverlet against her back had never been so soft or welcoming. In fact, she’d always seen the room as childish, but with Roderick’s dark presence in the small space, the room took on an entirely new feel. The lilac and deep violet were exotic hues—begging for the couple’s weight.
Roderick paused above her, fanning her dark hair out around her on the bed before pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I have long wondered how beautiful you would be with your hair spread across my bed. I’ll compromise for your bed, just this once.”
“Your Grace!” Luci’s cheeks heated at the meaning behind his words, only to flame further with his final words. He planned to take her to his bed soon. “What if someone enters my chambers?”
“Let them,” he mumbled, placing tiny kisses along her cheek, down to her jaw, and over to her ear.
He was unafraid of the scene they’d cause if caught tonight in her chambers, and neither was she concerned. Luci and her friends had spent years whispering about what happened behind closed bedchamber doors…and Roderick was the perfect—the only—man to show her, teach her.
Her body melted into the contours of the bed at the confidence in his words.
Roderick placed several kisses on her neck before pushing back and balancing on his hands above her.
“There is something I need to tell you before we continue,” he sighed.
He was going to tell her he loved her again.
And by all that was holy, Luci would have to admit she loved him too or risk seeing him leave her and pull away for good.
And it would be what she deserved. To love someone meant to trust them implicitly. Luci wondered how long love could last when trust was unspoken…
“I am bankrupt, without funds beyond those necessary to keep my lands and tenants’ homes out of disrepair.” He lowered his head, their foreheads touching. “When my father died, I found out that he’d willingly given over all of my family’s money to a corrupt gambling hell ring. No paperwork, no names, no way of finding what rightly belongs to me and mine.”
She gasped, and he instantly pulled back further, sliding his body off hers to lie beside her.
Love was not about money or belongings.
It was about belonging to someone who loved you more than money.
The void above her made her long to cry out, demand he return and lay his body atop hers once more.
“And the woman at the opera?” It was Luci’s one reservation about Roderick. He’d been more than clear and honest about Lady Daphne—he had no feelings for her, but what of the woman she’d spied him with that night months ago? “Do you love her?”
“Love her?” Roderick gave a deep, twisted chuckle, and Luci’s chest seized.
Would she be able to accept his current words of love and put out of mind his past love?
“I told you, Lady Cavendish is my father’s best friend’s widow.” He stared into her eyes intently. “She also lost everything
when her husband died, and she found out he’d promised it all to this underground gambling hell, as well—including her widow’s settlement. She had found a lead, and I was meeting with her to discover what she knew. The woman had no funds to hire a Bow Street runner to track down her inheritance, but, because I was fated to marry Lady Daphne and have use of her dowry, I figured I could investigate what she found further.”
“And I ruined that for you…”
“No,” he said, shaking his head and placing a kiss on her forehead to ease her frown. “You may have slowed me down and made it impossible to discover the lead Lady Cavendish discovered, but with Lucian’s help, I have continued searching.”
“You did not learn what she knew at the opera?”
“She was fearful of bringing the documentation she’d discovered to such a public place in case we were discovered. I was to meet with her the following day in a secluded area of Regent’s Park.”
“But the Mayfair Confidential article wrecked that plan?”
“Yes, Lady Cavendish did not show up for our appointment,” he admitted. “Her townhouse is vacant. There is no one at her country estate. She has disappeared from society, just as she’d planned to do after she gave me the information I needed.” Roderick sighed, averting his eyes and taking in the room for the first time. “I suppose Abercorn is not looking all too unsuitable now, huh?”
“Even if we were made to live on the streets of London, and I was forced to push an orange cart outside Vauxhall, I would still favor you over Lord Abercorn.” Lucianna pushed from her back and slung her leg over Roderick, forcing him to lay flat. “There are many things in this world I question, but that, I do not.”
It was her turn to lean down, halting an inch before their lips touched. “I am eternally sorry.” She placed a kiss against his lips when he tried to silence her. “There is not a day I would choose another.”
“Even if your father demands it?” he asked hesitantly.
Was he scared of what her answer would be?
Suddenly, Luci was terrified to say the words because once said, she could not take them back. Her course would be set. Although, her path had been unalterable since she’d bested Roderick at Bentley’s only several days earlier.
So little time had passed, yet everything had changed for her. She’d never thought to wed after what Tilda had gone through. Yes, a spark of hope had started when Edith met Torrington and fell madly and deeply in love, but that spark had turned to a flame when Luci had stumbled upon Roderick. Even now, it pooled in her belly—and lower—growing with intensity by the minute as she stared down into the eyes of the man she’d never dreamt of loving.
With her hair falling on both sides of his face, she bent down and placed her lips to his. There was no better way to give her answer than to show him.
Luci had no need to fight for control where Roderick was concerned. He allowed her to explore at her leisure, her lips trailing across his cheek and to his neck; however, she kept going until her mouth met his ear. She flicked her tongue out and drew the lobe between her lips, gently sucking.
Tendrils of need coursed through her, and she released his flesh.
His whimper told her he wanted her to continue, but she had many other places to explore. Sights she’d never seen.
Roderick’s hands caressed her backside, traveling lower to rest on her rounded bottom. The feel of his strong hands through her nightshift was unmistakable. The heat coursing through the thin fabric warmed her.
Gently, she rotated her hips and rubbed against the flap of his trousers, surprised at his manhood’s hardening. The desire rolling through her had Luci pulling back and sitting straight, enabling her to push her most delicate place closer to his hard length.
She was the hellion she’d always been accused of being, but this—everything about her and Roderick—was right. Her pulse fluttered with her weakness for him, at the same moment her heart soared with empowerment.
His hands left her backside, caressing up her sides to cup her breasts, his thumbs circling her nipples through her shift. He set a slow pace as he stared up at her, and his movements sent her heart thundering as she continued to move against him.
Her yearning intensified until Luci feared she would burst into flames and perish from desire, taking Roderick with her.
“You are beautiful, Lucianna,” he mumbled as if drunk off the sight of her above him.
And he never took his stare from hers as his hands halted and he drew down the front of her shift, exposing her breasts.
For the measure of a heartbeat, she moved to cover herself, but he stopped her when he took hold of her hands, placing them on his chest. She couldn’t keep them still as she massaged the muscles along his chest and shoulders, sculpted from years holding a foil.
His breath hitched as she untied his cravat and moved to unbutton his shirt and expose him as much as she was visible to him.
Finally, she spread his shirt wide and smoothed her hands over his chest, sprinkled with fine, black hair. Luci shouldn’t be shocked by the striking look of her white hands moving across his tanned skin. The contrast was erotic, and Luci was helpless to look away. His skin was as smooth and unblemished as her hands. His tan led down his chest…disappearing into his waistband.
How did the sun’s rays touch every inch of his body?
She almost asked, but Roderick shifted below her, pushing up onto his elbows.
She flung her head back when he took her hardened nipple into his mouth, his tongue playing in circles, mimicking the motion she’d inflicted on his earlobe.
Ecstasy.
Pure, scorching hot desire flowed from her head to her toes.
Her core pulsed, demanding no clothes separate them, their bodies needing to be skin to skin.
“What is the bloody meaning of this?” her father’s voice thundered, bouncing off her walls and rattling the windowpanes at the same time the latch burst on her door. “Lucianna, what have you done?”
Roderick pulled back, releasing her nipple and returning her shift to cover her exposed breasts.
“Father…I…” She fumbled to refasten the buttons on Roderick’s shirt, but her fingers shook, and he pushed her hands away. Thankfully, her long, black hair shielded them from sight. “Do give us a moment.”
“Give you a moment?” The marquis fumed. Luci heard rather than saw him stalk into the room. Roderick lifted her from him and set her on the side of the bed before finishing with his shirt. “So you can continue to sully what is mine? In this ruined state, you are worthless to me. I fear I will have to pay—and pay handsomely—just to be rid of you.”
Luci realized her father thought her utterly compromised and beyond saving.
She opened her mouth to correct him but clamped it shut again, not bothering to hide her grin.
Chapter 19
Roderick stared into Lucianna’s face, expecting all color to drain as panic set in…instead, a coy grin had settled on her, and her shoulders straightened as she scooted to the edge of the bed and stood.
The pristine white nightshift billowed around her legs, covering her naked calves and teasing her bare feet.
The tilt of her chin and narrowed stare had Roderick thinking she was almost happy to face her father’s rage. Brushing her long hair over her shoulder, she slowly walked across the room toward her father.
When Roderick sensed his desire had subsided enough, he moved from her bed and trailed in her wake until he stood directly behind her. He set his hands on both of her shoulders.
“Lord Camd—“
She held up her hand, cutting off his words.
He watched Camden’s face redden, and his nostrils flare in anger, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. The man had every right to be furious, but not with Lucianna. If retribution were owed, it would be claimed from Roderick.
Roderick had been in the wrong. He’d known his course when he entered Lucianna’s bedchambers, though he never would have acknowledged it before.<
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“Father.” Her tone was laced with steel and conviction, as still and confident as the set of her shoulders. “You are too late. I am ruined. Solidly, unequivocally tarnished.”
Her chin only lifted farther when Camden narrowed his stare on her. “You have been trouble since the day your mother gave birth to you. I always imagined you doing something foolish to scandalize this family.”
Camden shook his head, feigning sympathy for Lucianna.
Roderick wanted to curse the man, tell him his daughter had lost nothing being caught in his embrace. If anything, she’d gained the world.
His world and everything he possessed.
Which wasn’t much, but his love was worth more than riches.
“You will leave this house immediately. You have brought disgrace upon your mother, your siblings, and me.” Camden pivoted and started toward the door, halting before he crossed the threshold. “And, Montrose, you can see your way out the same way you got in.”
Without another word, the marquis stepped into the hall and shouted for the family butler.
A shiver ran down Lucianna’s spine, and Roderick stilled himself from wrapping her in his arms, dispelling the chill that had settled along her arms.
Lucianna turned toward him, her shoulders stooping and tears threatening to fall.
Remorse weakened him for his part in her ruination.
“McMahon!” the marquis shouted as hurried footsteps sounded down the hall outside Lucianna’s bedchambers. “See that my daughter leaves this house at once. She is to take nothing but a jacket to hide her damaged person.”
“Yes, my lord.” Reluctance was clear in the servant’s voice.
“I will fix this, Lucianna. I swear to it.” He stared down at her as she brushed away her unshed tears.
“There is nothing to fix.” She shook her head, leaning into him. “This is what I wanted, exactly what I’d hoped for.”
“But, your father…” Roderick sputtered, attempting to understand what she meant about it being exactly what she’d hoped for. “You’ve been cast out by your father…with nothing.”
