“All this time together and I’ve been talking about myself,” she said. “What do you think will happen with Ponsley?”
“Ponsley is a man of honor above all things. I think he only needs to prove a point to save face with Warren. He can’t just let his daughter be stolen away in the same week his chaperone was found to be having an affair with Leo.”
“Warren…” It suddenly dawned on her that he might not be in London any longer. “Do you expect he’ll be at the challenge?”
“Couldn’t say.” Hayden shrugged as he curled a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “But we’ll find out soon enough.”
Chapter 21
Word of a duel between two prominent houses has come my way. Will it be Montague or Capulet who wins this time? Or will the old man step in to divert disaster among the young lovers vying for one lady’s heart? Who knew she was worth the trouble they’ve gotten themselves into? Perhaps her dowry is cushioned far more than I previously imagined, not that either gentleman needs the treasures attached to Lady C——’s name.
Mayfair Chronicles, August 1846
The sky had darkened significantly with the threat of an oncoming rainstorm by the time their train pulled into Birmingham Station. While the hour was still too early for bed, they couldn’t risk riding out to Hayden’s estate in the dark, so they sought lodgings at a reputable inn instead.
Hayden stepped up to the reservation counter. “Two rooms, adjoining doors, if you have them.”
“We have no adjoining rooms available. The storm brewing outside has brought in stragglers that might not otherwise worry about lodgings.” The woman looked down at her ledger, her mobcap the only thing Jessica and Hayden saw for some minutes before she looked at them with her wrinkled face and gray eyes. “And we certainly don’t have any rooms grand enough for your wife—”
“One room will be fine,” Jessica said, stepping forward.
Hayden turned to Jessica, his look full of astonishment, but she only shrugged in response. There was no reason they couldn’t share a room. Even though they’d shared a bed before, this felt … different.
“We’ll make do, Hayden.” She smiled innocently.
When Hayden turned back to the proprietor the woman asked, “Your name for the books, fine sir?”
He hesitated only a brief moment. “Lord and Lady Duchene of Lancashire.”
Since Jessica wanted a proper engagement, it did make perfect sense to make up a married name for them. Especially since they had already shared a room prior to marriage. While they’d been intimate already, he didn’t assume they would be again this evening.
He rubbed a hand over his eyes. It could prove to be a very long night.
“Would you like a tray brought up, my lord?”
“Yes,” he said, threading Jessica’s arm through his. “Can you have someone carry up our cases, too?”
The woman snapped her fingers and a young man came forward and led them to their suite for the evening. He opened the door for them and brought their bags in behind.
“What’s your latest post out in the evening?” Hayden asked.
“Monday through Thursdays by five. If it’s for London it should be there in two days’ time. Otherwise it depends.”
“And what about special posts?”
“We’ve a rider for local deliveries, my lord.”
Hayden gave him a few coins for his services. “The maid can collect the letter with the food tray. I’ll need the letter to arrive before midnight, and it won’t take your rider far from Birmingham, maybe two hours each way if he makes it ahead of the rain and rides swiftly.”
“Of course, my lord.” The young man bowed, then shut the door on his way out.
“Where do you need to post a letter to? Surely Tristan knows you are on your way?” Jessica asked.
“I need to get a letter to my estate. They’ll bring horses down for us to ride the rest of the way.”
“I don’t know that I should go with you to Tristan’s just yet. We’ve a few days before the duel actually happens.”
“Did you want to stay on at my estate alone?”
“I think that’s best. I don’t want to distract Tristan with our news when he needs all his focus for Ponsley.”
“And you don’t think his new wife is distracting enough?” he asked, one eyebrow quirked.
Jessica tossed her shawl at him playfully. “I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that your mind is focused there, when we happen to be sharing a room.”
“I make no presumptions, Jess. Besides, the sofa looks comfortable enough.” He glanced over at the short settee, which lacked pillows. It didn’t look the least bit suitable to sit on, let alone sleep on, but if need be he could make it work.
She reached for his hand and threaded her fingers through his. “It’s not as though we haven’t shared a bed before.”
He brought her knuckles up to his lips and kissed them. “And look at where that led us.”
Hayden pulled her slowly into his arms. His timing couldn’t have been worse. A knock sounded at the door. He released her reluctantly to answer it.
A young kitchen maid carried a silver tray laden with soup dishes and sandwiches. He motioned for her to come in, and she placed the service on the table in front of the sofa.
“If you’ll wait a minute, I have a letter I’d like to write for delivery this evening,” he said.
The girl curtsied. “Yes, my lord. Will you require a response?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Walking over to the desk in the room, he took the hotel stationery and wrote a note for his butler—instructions for his needs. He handed it to the maid along with some coins. “Thank you for taking care of this so promptly.”
“It’s not a bother,” she replied before she closed the door behind her, leaving him and Jess alone again.
What did you say to the woman who was to be your wife? Not only did they know everything there was to know about each other, they’d also been more intimate than most couples ever had the opportunity to be before their wedding day, yet he didn’t know quite how to approach sharing a room and possibly a bed with his wife-to-be.
Jessica sat on the settee in front of the service of food that had been placed on the table. She lifted the first lid and leaned over the steaming broth to smell the contents and sighed. “A most delightful-smelling vegetable broth.” She turned to him, a spoon in hand. “Would you like to join me? There are ham sandwiches, too. Though I think I’ll stick to the soup after the dinner we indulged in on the train.”
“Enjoy the soup. I’m not hungry.” Not for food, anyway.
While she delicately sipped at her soup he unpacked his bag, hanging up his clothes for the morning ride to his estate and washing his face with a damp cloth from the basin.
Jessica watched him as he walked around the room readying for the night ahead.
“I do hope you know I’ll need your assistance?” She reached the spot between her shoulder blades, where a delicate row of buttons lined up like little soldiers guarding what lay beneath.
He sucked in a breath.
“Why are you staring at me with that expression?”
“What expression?”
She put down her spoon and joined him in the middle of the room. Only a handspan separated them. “As though you’re starved for something other than food.”
“Perhaps I am.” He grabbed her, pulling the lower half of her body against his hardness, and he kissed her.
She pulled her head slightly away, her lips damp. “I have a question for you before this carries on any further.”
He was tempted to lean into her neck and inhale the soft scent of her floral perfume that always got his blood pumping and his body needing more. “Your question, my dearest lady.”
“The time you slept in my bed, you pulled away from me before we could…” She filled the sudden silence with her hands. As though that explained what was in her head. She cleared her throat in a very dainty, ladylike
fashion. “Before we finished what was started. You could have taken full advantage of the situation to the point you could have pressed your suit for marriage then and there. Instead you stopped.”
“Yet we’ve been intimate since then,” he pointed out.
She blushed a deep scarlet. “Our passions were high and we acted in the moment without thought to the consequences.”
He took a deep breath. There hadn’t been much thought in pulling away from her, other than preserving the last shred of his decency. When they’d been in bed together, so close to consummating something he’d wanted to do for nearly a decade, he had realized he couldn’t fulfill that desire unless Jessica was fully cognizant of what she was allowing and what their joining would mean. And though he knew she’d eventually come around, he would never have forced her into marriage before her realization that they were the perfect match.
“You weren’t willing to accept the consequences of a union between us. And there was no sense in rushing things along when you knew deep down that I’d already won you over.”
She took another step toward him and grasped the lapels of his jacket. “And what about earlier today? You didn’t press your suit when things got carried away with our actions.”
He rubbed the back of his hand down the side of her face. “I’ve known you long enough to know that you won’t do something until you’re damn well ready to do it. I will not be the hand that forces you to do anything you are unsure of.”
Jessica slid her hands over his strong shoulders and tangled her hands in his hair to hold him still as she looked him in the eye. “You’re right in that regard. I’ll never go back on my decision now. I feel like a fool, not having realized sooner how well suited we are.”
“When I’ve wanted something, I’ve always taken it. You know this about me, Jess. But with you … it’s been different.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.” He paused, letting those words sink in. “Not merely as a friend and as your confidant all these years, but because I have always wanted you to be mine and mine alone.”
His arm slid around her lower back, holding her close.
“You hid your feelings so well, Hayden. I should have known sooner how you felt, but I was blind for so long when married to Fallon.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Put the past out of that pretty head of yours. You see me now, Jess, and that’s all that matters.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone else in my life but you, Hayden. I want you to be with me tonight.” He took a few steps away from her, closer to the bed. So much for sleeping on the sofa as a gentleman would do. But then again, wouldn’t a gentleman argue for separate rooms? Something inside of him had rejoiced at her insistence on one room.
He sat on the edge of the mattress, pulling Jessica down to straddle his hips in such a provocative fashion that he groaned and thrust his pelvis up into hers.
“There’s no going back from this. If we continue in this fashion, we may not be able to wait for the banns.” His hands grasped her hips, holding her still, and then skimmed higher to hold her around her small, cinched waist.
“I wouldn’t dare dream of stopping this. So long as I have you by my side, I can face anything, Hayden, even censure from the ton.”
He rolled them so their positions were reversed, she on the bottom, he on the top, with his hands free to start removing her many layers. He took his time revealing the underclothes beneath her day dress while she traced invisible lines over his sleeve.
Hayden kissed her neck and nibbled delicately at her chin before claiming her mouth with another deep kiss.
“Stand up for a moment.” He pulled her to her feet and shed each of her outer layers, tossing them on the floor, slowly revealing the delicate linens that she wore closest to her bare skin.
She yanked his shirt free from his trousers and over his head before pressing a kiss above his heart. The material slipped from her hands and fell at their feet with the rest of her clothes.
Threading his fingers through her pinned hair, he turned her head enough that her cheek was pressed to his chest and embraced her tightly in his arms. Soon her arms wrapped around his waist, her hands tracing over the muscles in his back. The pins were easily pulled from her hair, and he dropped them to the floor around them.
When her hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders she gazed up at him with an unreadable expression. She stretched her hands tentatively toward his face, her finger tracing his lips.
“The whole night is ours. Make love to me, Hayden.”
Lowering his head, he kissed her gently as he reached around her back to loosen the strings cinching her waist. The corset eased open and the weight of the whalebone contraption sagged enough that she could release the hooks on the busk. Jessica took the heavy material off, folded it, and placed it at the foot edge of the bed.
With her back to him, Hayden wrapped his arms around her. Her head turned enough that he could claim her lips with his own.
His free hand brushed over her breast, skimming the distended tip of her nipple. “I could live like this forever.”
There was a perfect harmony about them embracing intimately. There wasn’t a day that had gone by that he didn’t want her, and now that he had her he didn’t ever want to let her go.
“Will it always be like it was earlier with us? It felt right. Perfect. I know it was fleeting last time because we were both afraid of being caught.”
Hayden turned her around so they were chest to breast. “I should be embarrassed by my earlier display of need.”
She reached for him, her fingers grasping his face as she stepped up on the tips of her toes to kiss him again. “I liked every stolen moment.”
“I can show you so much more, give you so much more.”
They fell back on the bed, him atop her, her legs spreading to accommodate the fit of his body against her. He was careful not to crush her but allowed enough of his weight to press his hardness firmly against her core.
He pulled away from their kiss so he could look her in the eye. “If we start this now, promise me you’ll kick me out of bed in the morning to fulfill my obligations with Tristan. Otherwise I may never leave your side again.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Completely.”
She nibbled her bottom lip in contemplation. “I will personally kick you out of our shared bed should you find it difficult to stop yourself from laying in all morning.” She laughed her sultry laugh, and it had him hardening further in the already tight confines of his trousers. “Though I don’t understand how you could stay here all morning once you’ve fulfilled yourself.”
“You’ll not want to leave this bed in the morning, either. That much I can promise.” Once could never be enough with Jessica. Forever and always was more likely.
Her look was skeptical.
She reached down between them and ran the palm of her hand over his cock.
He had to close his eyes and swallow against the desire to claim her properly.
The worst thing he could do was rush this. He left his trousers on, knowing that was the only deterrent he had from finishing this off as quickly as he had this morning. Pulling her chemise up to her waist, Hayden found the ties keeping her pantalettes in place. They were delicate satin ribbons and he pulled the dangling string with his teeth, licking at the flesh he revealed bit by bit at her waist.
When he ran out of string and new skin to bite and nibble at he pulled up to say, “Sit on the edge of the bed, so I can remove these.”
He skimmed his hands over the bare skin of her hips, pushing the material down over her buttocks and halfway down her thighs by the time she did his bidding. Hayden knelt on the carpeted floor in front of her and slowly stripped her of the first layer of her underclothes. Placing his head in her lap, he inhaled deeply. For how long had he wanted her? For how long had he dreamed of doing just this?
“Jessica,” he whispered, kissing first her kne
es and then her thighs as he pushed the chemise higher and higher, revealing every sweet inch of pale, porcelain skin.
The higher he kissed, the more she edged forward on the mattress, closer to him, until finally she slid off the bed and onto his lap.
“We’ve come this far, Hayden. Don’t tease me. There’s time for exploration later.”
He clasped her head in his hands and rubbed the tips of their noses together. “There is no such thing as taking this too slow, Jess. I’ve wanted you for as long as I’ve known you. This time we’ll cherish and remember every moment of tonight and not our bumbling first attempt that we’ll laugh about later.”
She bit his bottom lip, sucking it into her mouth before tracing it with her tongue. “I didn’t find it laugh worthy.”
“Just let me love you my way.” He shut her up with a kiss that locked their tongues together.
When he broke away she was panting a little as her eyes sparked with mischief.
He held either cheek of her buttocks in his hands and lifted them both from the floor. He tossed her gently on the bed and followed her down. Jessica leaned back on her arms with her hair tumbling around her shoulders provocatively.
“You’re a minx. My mischievous, teasing minx. I’ll teach you a few new uses for that smart mouth of yours.”
She swallowed visibly, but her smile turned to something more alluring and sultry as she slid her legs open for his perusal. “I think I can teach you a few uses for both of our mouths.”
“Is that a dare?”
“It might be.”
He sat on his knees beside her and pulled her chemise right over her head, tossing it to the end of the bed with the rest of their clothes.
Naked and set out before him like a feast for the taking, she was the most beautiful sight he’d ever beheld. Her breasts were full, the areolas the lightest of pinks, the nipples red. He took a moment to appreciate the perfectness of her form, tracing the back of his hand over the plumpness of her breasts, along her delicate rib cage and waist, and ending at her hip, squeezing it lightly. He leaned over her, forcing her to relax against the small stack of feather pillows.
The Scandalous Duke Takes a Bride Page 25
