‘I’m certainly not marrying you naked, you wolf,’ she murmured as he slid her down his rigidly eager body and made sure she knew he wanted her so urgently the days ahead already felt like an eternity.
‘You can wed me in a suit of armour if you want to, just make sure you do.’
‘I will,’ she promised and kissed him boldly on the mouth in front of Ben’s grooms and anyone else who happened to be looking because this was the man she loved and the world would just have to get used to it.
Chapter Eighteen
Wulf neatly turned Ben’s curricle into a lane that looked as if it didn’t go anywhere very much. Isabella wondered if the wheels would ever be the same again and how they would get up and down this road in the winter. Right now the prospect of being marooned here with her new husband seemed very appealing, so she supposed they were right about there being a silver lining to every cloud.
‘A fine catch I am, bringing you home in another man’s carriage,’ Wulf said as if he was still worrying about the differences in their respective fortunes and how she would feel about being isolated by mud and perhaps even snow up here come winter. She thought she’d managed to convince him money didn’t matter to her as long as they were together, but she would manage it in the end now they had proved to one another that love could overcome far bigger odds than they had set it so far.
‘You’re my fish and I’m proud of you,’ she joked but wondered fleetingly if Ben’s gleaming paintwork could survive wide hedges and a narrow lane unscathed much longer, despite Wulf’s skill with such a dashing equipage. The lane began to climb more steeply and the tiger Ben insisted on sending along looked as if he had doubts about maintaining his dignity if he fell off the back of his master’s fine carriage.
A short way up and the road improved and widened a little to welcome visitors brave enough to get this far. Isabella was a countrywoman at heart, so it certainly didn’t frighten her to be this far away from other people. She wondered how Wulf’s devoted manservant and his mother would rub along with Heloise, though, and was surprised the woman agreed to stay now Isabella Haile was determined to be as unfashionable as possible most of the time.
‘Oh, now I see why you love this place so much,’ Isabella exclaimed with a gasp at the wide expanse of open heath and woodland spread out in front of them like one of the most beautiful landscape paintings she could ever imagine seeing. ‘You feel you could set out to explore the whole world from up here and why wouldn’t you love it?’ she murmured.
‘Welcome to my home, then, ours now, until you find us one that suits you better,’ Wulf said and helped Isabella down before leading her towards the back of the substantial cottage, leaving the tiger and Jem Caudle, the manservant, to deal with the horses and luggage. ‘Once upon a time I came here to get away from people, but since I met you, any time we spent apart felt lonely. For more than half a year now I’ve longed to have you here where nobody much even knows there is a house at all and we can be private together.’
‘You spent a goodly proportion of that time sailing the oceans to get as far away from me as possible,’ she said coolly.
‘What else could I do when you were going to be Magnus’s wife?’
‘Stay here and convince me not to be so silly, I suppose.’
‘He’s my brother.’
‘True, but I’m your wife,’ Isabella argued and the sound of that word, so new and precious she wanted to dance and do all sorts of other things not nearly as suitable for the outdoors at this time of year, made her forget to be angry with him for leaving.
‘I know,’ he said huskily.
‘And you’re my husband.’
‘You talk too much, Wife,’ he whispered against her lips.
‘Silence me, then.’
‘No, I like you noisy,’ he said with a wolfish grin.
He tugged her closer and kissed her until her eyes crossed and her head was spinning as if he’d realigned the planets and even gravity couldn’t be relied on any more. One of his hands was running over her neat derrière as if it had every right to be there. It did now and she didn’t want it to stop. She wanted to be inside as fast as possible so that they could do all sorts of lovely things to each other as soon as possible behind closed doors.
‘I love you, Wulf,’ she said dreamily and the future she had secretly longed for looked back at her from his extraordinary silver-blue eyes, making her feel truly beautiful for the first time in her life.
‘And I love you, Isabella,’ he said as if they were making another set of vows. His voice had gone even more husky as she made a wickedly inquisitive exploration of his leanly muscular torso and it reminded her of the hot summer night when she met her fate on a shadowed terrace and nearly forgot herself in so many ways she ought to blush.
‘Will it be dark soon?’ she asked, the feeling she might melt from the inside out if they couldn’t love one another making her long for the night ahead.
‘Not soon enough,’ he said, ‘but you did say you were tired of lurking in the shadows with me, didn’t you?’
‘I did,’ she whispered. ‘I think it might rain,’ she lied with a rapid glance at the clear blue sky.
‘And it would never do for us to get wet on the first day of our honeymoon, would it?’
Isabella could feel shivers of pure need running through him as if he was a greyhound ready for the chase. He shaped her waist with broad, strong hands, bringing her hard up against his eager body, and she felt all her senses bloom and seek out every facet of him they could discover with all these finely made, wretchedly inconvenient clothes on. He felt hot and heady and totally male under her exploring hands and her knees were being unreliable again. She wanted these hotly passionate kisses more than ever, but the lovely, feverish delight of waiting for tonight, anticipating how it might feel or where they might go together before the night was done was something to savour, to feel her way through with his eager assistance because it mattered so much it shouldn’t be rushed, especially on their wedding night.
‘You’re such a calm and peaceable man we’ll never quarrel,’ she lied with a witchy, knowing smile that invited him to share the joke as they hurried through the almost wild gardens towards the front door somebody had left invitingly open before tactfully disappearing.
‘If you wanted one of those, you’d be on your way up the Great North Road with my brother bound for Gretna instead of married to me.’
‘He’s a true gentleman, but I do believe we can be silly and besotted and smug about each other without his help right now.’
‘I wasn’t raised to be such a gentleman as my brother, though, Isabella. I’ll try to be better in future, but it’s probably too late for gentility to take.’
‘I love you as you are and you look like a perfect gentleman to me.’
‘Then try behaving a bit more like a lady at least until we get upstairs,’ he reproached her playfully, trying to put a little space between them so they didn’t end up making love for the first time on the stairs.
‘And I do like doing things I shouldn’t with you,’ she murmured provocatively as they had to stop and kiss each other again before they remembered to go up another step.
‘We’re married now,’ he said sternly and he looked so manly and ruffled and trying not to be the wild lover under all that gentlemanly restraint that she laughed, causing him to look deeply offended and let her go.
‘Then it’s our duty to do all the things we weren’t supposed to on the night we met, but with extra naughtiness added for interest. We can be lovers even if we are married, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll just pretend we’re not.’
‘Everything works with you,’ he said shortly. ‘A bit too well,’ he added and she giggled because she was free to express all the emotions she’d had to keep bottled up for far too long. With him she could be the woman she was always meant to be, the one wh
o’d stepped out from behind Miss Alstone’s elegantly restrained protective cover the night they met and goaded her with wild fantasies of Wulf FitzDevelin as her lover from that moment on.
‘Oh, my Wulf, you’re such a good man, but could you stop being stern and gentlemanly and protective now and remember I’m your very willing wife?’
‘Isn’t that all the more reason to be most of those things now I’m your husband?’ he said and the heat and hunger she could feel coming off him echoed the heat and hope inside her.
‘No, not here and not now,’ she said and shaped his tense jaw with tender urgency, hoping he’d lose that formidable control of his very soon and ravish her so thoroughly she forgot her own name and where she was.
‘I am far less of gentleman than your husband ought to be,’ he said far too seriously.
‘You’re the only one I want,’ she said and stood on tiptoe against him so he could tell how much she did.
‘You don’t hold back when you give your everything, do you?’
‘No, but I love you and you love me—that’s the promise of a lifetime I believed I wasn’t worthy of until I met you.’
‘And you think I’m a wonder for you? What do you think you are for a mongrel wolf like me, love?’
‘Oh, Wulf, I do love you,’ she responded fatuously, but luckily he seemed to like it because he looked down at her and grinned as if he couldn’t help himself.
‘You do, don’t you?’ he said as if he’d only just let it truly sink in.
‘I do; you are handsome and clever and creative and daring and I love you so much it almost hurts.’
‘You are a dream I didn’t dare dream and now I’ve got you chained to me for life I’m never going to stop having it, night after night.’
‘Good, don’t! And I think you’re very good with words.’
‘Words are the last thing on my mind right now,’ he told her gruffly and gave up on getting her to their bedroom the usual way, lifting her off her feet, then impressing her mightily by running up the remainder of the stairs and into the charming old room she caught a glimpse of before he dropped her on the bed and joined her without even taking his elegant and gentlemanly wedding shoes off his feet.
‘You’ll get blacking on the sheets and Mrs Caudle will never forgive us.’
Wulf said something rude and toed the shoes off even as he did something very hasty to Isabella’s elegant spencer jacket and let her up long enough to shrug that off before starting work on her fine silk gown himself.
‘Careful, it’s my wedding dress,’ she chided breathlessly. ‘Let me,’ she urged and pushed his hands aside to undo the laces herself and push the fine fabric over her shoulders without ripping it because she knew she would treasure this gown all her life and she didn’t want it damaged even though she wanted it gone as much as he did.
‘Do I have to feel the same way about all this starch and silliness, love?’
‘Not if you don’t want to, but you look quite magnificent to me,’ she said as she sat back on the wide old bed and admired him as he struggled with buttons and ties and she watched and appreciated the show from under heavy-lidded eyes.
‘Did you know they make you wear a corset to get the right waist to fit this ridiculous nip-waisted coat and the right sort of trousers? The tailors call it a vest, but the damned thing has bones in it.’
‘Now you know how we women feel, but it’s all right; I can see from here you don’t need one, so there’s no need to convince me there isn’t a spare inch on you anywhere, my Wulf. Thank you for enduring it for my sake, but we looked wonderful on our wedding day, didn’t we?’
‘We did, Belle, and now it’s time for the best part of the whole day,’ he told her huskily and ripped off the soft cravat that went with his fashionable finery before he knelt on the bed next to her and put all his best sensual efforts into getting her out of the rest of hers in the least possible time.
‘It’s a good job I didn’t want to wear my underpinnings again,’ she chided as he watched her with hungry, warm eyes and now it was her turn to feel a fine tremor run through her like wildfire.
‘Your nether garments were quite charming, Mrs Haile, but right now I prefer you naked.’
‘How are yours, Wulf?’ she countered and tugged at the ties of his shirt to find out for herself.
‘I’m not as pretty,’ he told her.
‘Let me see,’ she said as she worried at the hem of his shirt until he gave in and pulled the thing over his head with a ragged sigh. ‘More,’ she ordered implacably and the silly, unnecessary ‘vest’ was soon gone and they were on to his undershirt. ‘I preferred it when gentlemen like you wore those sleek cutaway coats and tight pantaloons, but I suppose it got ladies who couldn’t have the likes of you in their beds too excited, so they invented trousers and nipped-in coats to stop them fainting with frustration.’
‘You talk too much,’ he murmured and she realised he could be right.
‘That’s because I want you too much,’ she countered and then she was silenced and greedy and eager all in one incoherent package at the sight of him, all muscles and smooth male skin and tension. ‘You’re magnificent,’ she said at last and breathed out because she was going to faint if she didn’t.
‘And you’re simply breathtaking, my love,’ he countered and took a ragged breath of his own as he ran his ravenous gaze over her softer curves and eagerly voluptuous breasts announcing she really did want him desperately with almost painful need.
‘Touch me, Wulf. Kiss me,’ she urged because she needed him to do something about this merciless hunger before it burnt her up completely.
‘How can I not? I’ll break if I don’t have you now, my darling,’ he breathed and now his hands were fire and power and gentle reverence all at once, and his mouth? Oh, as for his mouth... Isabella ran out of words and sank into a world of instinct and feeling and love with a delicious, delighted sigh.
* * *
‘If I’d known love was like this, I would have tracked you down and badgered you to teach me everything about it a great deal sooner,’ Isabella murmured as she lay back against her husband’s shoulder, still learning every detail of him under her skin where it kissed against his and giving a delighted little wriggle at the idea of her best adventure yet.
‘Be still, you wanton. We really ought to thank Magnus for getting me to Haile Carr and close enough to meet you for the first time. I wasn’t exactly welcome in the best drawing rooms of the ton then, so we might never have met at all if not for him.’
‘I hope you’re not planning to lurk in the dark waiting for immodest ladies to fall on you like a she-wolf ever again,’ she teased him, relishing how stunningly new and wondrous it felt to be his wife in every way. All the glorious days and weeks and years of learning even more about wedded bliss ahead of them left her utterly speechless and transported by sensual wonder, already anticipating the next time they could fly somewhere stunning and wordless together.
‘Not unless it’s with you,’ he said and the intent heat in his ice-blue eyes said that could be arranged.
‘Good,’ she said militantly and rolled over to prop herself up on her elbows and stare down at him because why wouldn’t she now she had the right to and he was so much worth the looking at. ‘I hope you’re not expecting any offspring of ours to be pattern cards because you’re sure to be disappointed.’
‘We’re not exactly those ourselves, so it would be asking far too much,’ he murmured and stopped her reply with fierce, joyous desire, then sat up and shifted in the wild nest they’d made out of the once-immaculate sheets and blankets. ‘For the rest of tonight we’ll have to pretend to be, though,’ he added dourly and leapt out of bed to put more wood on the fire as if that was the only way he could keep his hands off her.
‘Why?’ she said as he leapt back into their joint warmth because this was April and
an English spring and he was a human and not a wolf after all. She turned up her face for another kiss because whatever he was she loved him almost as desperately as she had before he showed her how much more there was to loving than she’d ever suspected.
‘I want you...’ he began, then raised his head.
She tried not to be disappointed he wasn’t demonstrating how much at this very minute. She was greedy for her first and only lover now she’d finally got him into bed. ‘I know,’ she said smugly.
‘Behave yourself, Mrs Haile. I’m not making love to you again tonight.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it will hurt. No, stop that; you’re not getting your own way this time.’
‘I can’t believe you’re being so stuffy, and to think I believed you were so dark and dangerous when we first met and now you’re being such a fine gentleman I could spit.’
‘Put it this way, if we make love now, you won’t want to do it again for days. Contain yourself and there’s always tomorrow.’
‘I suppose we could just cuddle, if it wasn’t so cold.’
‘Princess,’ he accused her, then got out of bed again to snatch a shawl for her to wrap herself in. Isabella was glad Heloise had been over here to unpack her most treasured possessions before the maid enjoyed a nice little holiday at Develin House, ruthlessly reorganising the Haile ladies’ wardrobes.
‘With a body like that you can call me what you like, my Wulf,’ she said with everything she wasn’t supposed to want explicit in her heavy-lidded eyes as he slipped back into the warm nest of bedclothes beside her.
‘And there I was, thinking you loved me for my mind,’ he said easily and pulled her back into his arms, holding her wrapped in soft cashmere next to him to shield her from the arousal that had made her realise what a truly gentle man she’d married.
‘I do, but it’s not my fault if you come with added manliness, spice and sensuality. All that just makes me a very lucky woman, I suppose.’
A Wedding for the Scandalous Heiress Page 21
