Her eyes crinkled as she grinned up at him. "With a promise like that what can a lady do but acquiesce?"
He smiled back and then leaned over and gently placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. When he pulled back, they gazed longingly into each other's eyes. He wondered for a moment if they would make it to the hotel still half dressed. Then Mary laughed in her sexy throaty way and abruptly sat away from him.
"Well, Lord Hamstone, let's see what kind of valet you make."
Chapter 12
Mary wanted the memories they were going to create this morning. Desperately. She needed them for the lonely years ahead of her. Because she had realized a number of things during the last twenty-four hours. The first was that she was still desperately in love with Rodney. And the second, devastating thing, was that they could never be together as anything more than occasional lovers.
She would destroy his well-ordered life. And she had a feeling he was going to ask her to marry him. It was the same feeling she had had eight years ago. Right before his father had come to see hers.
Mary had always been the volatile one in their relationship. Even as a small child she had nearly destroyed his life. He, on the other hand, was the calm that had kept her from going too far. And despite her resolve to become a more respectable person she knew if she tried to keep him in her life, she would destroy his. Just as his father had once predicted.
But she could have this moment. These memories. And she would treasure them for the rest of her life.
"We'll slip in through the servant's entrance. As I recall the servant's stairs are just a few feet from my rooms," he said, pulling her back to the moment.
They had driven to the front of the hotel but even at this early hour people were beginning to mill around. Two "drunk lords returning from a night of carousing" wouldn't be too unusual. But it would have drawn unwanted attention neither one of them wanted. So, Rodney rapped on the roof and ordered the driver to take them to the rear entrance. It wouldn't be less busy. In fact, it would probably be busier. Which they were counting on.
"Have you done this kind of thing before?" she asked. Ironically, it was something she had done before. On several occasions in fact. But she was surprised her straight-laced Kenny would think of it.
"Not normally," he replied. "But last year I was involved in a bit of an adventure with Lord Hastmann and his wife while we were in Tripoli. And I learned how to get around a hostile city without being seen.
Mary grinned at him and stroked his cheek. The morning's stubble tickled her fingers and sent a wave of longing to her heart.
"Someday you'll have to tell me about your little adventure with them," she said. An emptiness of longing washed over her. This might be her last night with him so he might never get the chance to tell her about his adventures. Then again maybe in years to come they would meet again and he could tell her all about his life without her.
"Someday," he agreed. "But not now."
When the hackney stopped a second time, he quickly flung open the door and stepped down. In a surprisingly good imitation of a drunkard he thanked the driver and tossed him several coins. "Come along, Arthur," he called back into her. "One more drink and then I'm for bed."
Mary hid her smile as she too stumbled out the door and clung to him as two drunken lords might do as they steadied each other. Together they pulled their hats low over their faces and turned up the collars of their coats and staggered toward the servant's entrance.
Not surprisingly no one stopped them as they chattered loudly and amicably as two men in their cups would do. In short order they reached his door and with more ambidexterity than any drunk would show, he unlocked the door and pulled her inside.
"I don't ever want to do that again," he breathed as he slumped back against the door.
A volatile chill racked Mary. She couldn't stay with him. She had known it before. But his comment fortified what she already knew. After tonight she would quietly slip out of his life as she had done eight years before and begin a new life. One that did not endanger his.
Taking a step forward she cupped his face and gazed up at him with all the love she had for him. "I promise you, you will never have to do anything like this again."
Rising up she brushed her lips against his. He hesitated a moment and then finally responded. Mary savored the taste of him for a second and then leaned back and smiled as beguilingly as she could through her breaking heart. "Kenny," she breathed. And reached for his lips again. It was all the encouragement he needed as he crushed her to him.
An uneasiness wafted through Rodney. Something about the way she had just said he would never have to go through something like tonight again felt wrong. But before he could gather his thoughts, she caressed his cheek and then kissed him. For a moment he hung onto the nagging voice that said something was wrong. Then she gazed at him in such a way that all his worries fled.
Plunging into her mouth with his tongue, he gave into the desire he had been fighting all night. She tasted sweet and a bit tart. The essence of the brandy she had sipped all night lingered on her lips. He suckled it and savored the taste as if she was the finest French brandy he had ever had.
Suddenly her hands slipped down and began tugging on the lapels of his coat. It took him a second to realize what she wanted. When she did, he pushed away from the door and began pushing at her own coat. Their arms entangled in cross purposes as they each tried desperately to divest the other of their clothes.
After several seconds of fighting one another they both stopped and stared into each other's eyes. Her green eyes danced with merriment and a laugh bubbled up from deep inside him and exploded as she gave into her own hilarity. They laughed for several minutes as Rodney unwound from the events of the night. It had been one hell of a night. One he was not anxious to repeat. But one he wouldn't have missed for the world. And one that had shown him just how much he needed Mary in his stoic life. He needed her to remind him how to live life and not just go on in it.
As their laughter died down a more serious, sensuous gleam entered her eyes. Rodney knew it was reflected in his as well. Without looking away they began a slow, seductive stripping of their own clothes.
He devoured every tantalizing inch of her luscious body as she revealed it to him. Her breasts rose and fell faster and faster as their clothes disappeared. Rodney became agonizingly fixated on the creamy mounds of her breasts as she slowly unwound the white cloth that had bound them. His breathing was so rapid that it was becoming painful. And he could feel his heart pounding so powerfully in his chest that he feared it might explode at any second.
The last piece of the cloth came loose and she held it protectively in front of her, shielding her breasts from his view. Rodney glanced up to see a smoldering look of adoration on her face. And then in an instant it transformed into a look he had seen hundreds of times before. A look of daring. Of challenge.
He told her, "If you had looked at me like that in our youth, I would have made you mine and to hell with my father and polite society's expectations."
She dropped the cloth and his breath caught in his throat. "Kenny, I was forever looking at you this way." She took a step toward him and laid her hand against his pounding heart. "Everyone saw it but you."
"Everyone?" he asked as his hand rose and he cupped her breast. Her eyes closed in ecstasy and her head fell backward.
Her breasts rose on a deep inhale. When she spoke it was laced with longing and regret. And maybe a bit of anger. "Your father saw it the last time he saw us together. My father had warned me repeatedly about it. My sisters were forever teasing me mercilessly about it. Nearly everyone in Hamstoneshire knew I was in love with you. Everyone except you, of course."
His hand fell away as his body grew cold. She was right. "I did see it, Mary," he defended weakly. "Eventually."
Her head cocked to the side. "When? The week before I ran away from home?"
He closed his eyes and hung his head. His cock withered along with h
is hopes. "The beginning of that summer, Mary." He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She deserved the truth about his stupidity. "I came home from Oxford that summer excited to see my old friend. I wanted to share everything I had learned in school. Just like all the times before."
He paused and took a step towards her. He wanted her to understand how he had changed that last year at the university. He entreated, "I had decided to defy my father and pursue my dreams and not follow his."
Her eyes popped open and she stared disbelievingly up at him. After a moment she whispered, "You were going to buy your farm."
Rodney wasn't surprised she remembered his dream. They had talked about it on countless nights. But he was going to do more than just buy the farm. He was also going to propose to the woman he loved as well. But he had procrastinated, waiting for the perfect moment to propose to her. Then the day he had decided to ask her, he had gone to her father's cottage and been told that she had run off to marry a man from the next village. It had destroyed all his dreams and changed the course of his life.
"Actually, I had already bought the farm. It wasn't much. Still isn't. Fifty acres. But it was mine free and clear." His eyes locked on hers. "And I was going to ask you to share it with me. Just like we had always talked about."
In a very thin voice, one he barely heard, "I know. That's why I had to leave when I did."
Everything in Rodney froze. Nausea swept through him and tightened his stomach. "Why?” It was the only word he could squeeze through the boulder in his throat.
A tear trickled down her cheek. He was sure she wasn't going to answer when she looked off in the distant and began speaking.
"The night before I left, the Earl came to visit my father. He told him that you and I had been caught in a compromising situation and that you intended to do the honorable thing and offer to marry me. He told my father that he would not allow the marriage and that if we went against his wishes that he would disinherit you. He also threatened to destroy my father and make sure he never worked as a vicar anywhere in England ever again." She turned her tear drenched eyes on him. "He threatened to ruin my sisters as well. But if I left that night, he would ensure that my dream of becoming an actress came true."
Rodney staggered back a step. "He paid for you to go to London. Didn't he?"
Mary nodded. "And used his contacts to get Johnny a position with the navy too."
"That son-of-a-bitch!" Rodney snarled.
Mary reached over and laid a hand softly on his bare arm. "Kenny, don't be too hard on him. He's the real reason I never had to take a lover in order to survive like so many of the other girls."
"What?" Rodney asked incredulous.
"He not only paid our way to London but he sent me a small annuity every quarter. At least until he died last year. And by then I no longer needed it." She visibly grimaced. "And he also bought me the townhouse Leslie and I are living in."
He just stared at her stupefied for several minutes. His heart pounded in his ears and his head whirled with what he had just learned. "That dastard," he said under his breath. He couldn't believe he had felt bad for what Binsby had done to him.
Mary touched his face, startling him back to the moment. "Kenny, he wasn't a bad man. He loved you very much. And . . . and he knew I would be bad for you. So, he did what he thought he had to in order to protect you."
"You. Weren't. Bad. For me," he said. "You were the best thing that ever happened to me. And he took that away from me."
"That's not how he saw it," she said. Rodney started to say more but she touched his lips and quieted him. "Kenny, everyone thought the same thing. I was wild and ungovernable. And I was forever getting you into trouble. Just as I did tonight.
He raised his own hand and cupped her face. "Mary, you were the best thing that ever happened to me." He knew she was about to argue, so he cupped her face with his other hand and pulled her towards his. "Mary. Irma. Cumpston. You were the only thing that kept me from being a complete and total bore. Without you I was nothing but a reflection of my father. You were the spark that gave me life."
He laughed and snorted a little. "A little too much life sometimes. But I loved you for it. And I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you."
Her face contorted and she trembled beneath his fingers. "I would have ruined your life," she insisted.
"No, you wouldn't have," he said and sealed her lips with his. After her trembling eased, he released her and stared into her eyes. He could still see the lingering doubts. "Mary, you would not have ruined my life."
Rodney could feel the tension in her body and knew she still wasn't convinced. So, he lowered his lips to hers and set about convincing her.
Chapter 13
Mary felt as if her heart was being ripped in two. She knew he wanted her to stay with him. Not just for the night but for the rest of their lives. As a naïve young woman, it had been her dream to become Mrs. Rodney Hamling. Over the years she had never been able to completely rid herself of the dream. And it was the real reason she had never allowed any of the men who had offered her their companionship over the years into her bed. But how could she accept what he was offering without destroying the serene life he had built for himself over the years? The life he deserved?
His tongue slipped into her mouth and mated with hers. Her thoughts fragmented as his strong, powerful arms pulled her against the rock-hard wall of his chest. This was her dream. The one she had created as a seventeen-year-old girl. The one she had taken to her lonely bed for the last eight years. But not today. Today she was going to live her dream and worry about tomorrow when it came.
Suddenly he pulled away and Mary moaned and tried to pull his head back. But instead he bent lower and burned a path down her neck to the base of her shoulder. He nibbled and kissed her there, sending tremors shooting down to the apex of her legs. Mary’s knees quivered and she tightened her arms around his neck as she hung on with all her might.
Then his mouth moved lower still, kissing and licking her feverish skin until he reached the valley between her breasts. His hot, calloused fingers trailed upward until they supported the weight of her breasts. Only then did she realize how full and heavy they were. Before she could marvel at the changes in her body, he raised her breast to his mouth and brushed his lips across the hypersensitive tip. Mary's knees buckled, and she found herself suspended in air by his powerful arms.
Rodney felt Mary trembling. And then he took her nipple into his mouth and she shuddered and collapsed in his arms. He tasted the rose and lilac on her skin and the essence that was her uniqueness. It seemed he had waited a life time to taste her. And even longer to make her his.
Bending down he slipped his arms beneath her legs and gathered her to him as he stood back up. He heard her squeal slightly as she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her naked breasts into his bare chest. An electric shock flashed through him and jolted his already painful erection. And then she began to laugh. The sound reverberated through his chest and into his soul.
He quickly strolled through the sitting room and into the bedroom. A fire burned in the hearth and warmed the room with a soft orange glow. Her laughter died and she began kissing her way up his neck towards his lips.
Rodney shifted her and bent down to meet her half way. They met in open mouth desperation as he feasted on her softness. Their tongues mated and dueled as he continued blindly across the room.
Suddenly his legs struck the edge of the bed and they tumbled headlong onto the blankets. They landed with a bounce. Rodney braced his fall and was able to keep most of his weight from landing on top of her. Breathlessly they stared at each other and then in unison they burst into another pall of laughter.
Moments later the laughter quieted and they just gazed at each other for long seconds. He devoured the sight of her half naked body amongst the rumpled sheets of his bed. Her face was aglow with happiness and desire. Her own eyes flickered over his bare chest, seeming to catalog every inch of him. An
d when she finally looked back up at his face he watched as her tongue darted out and moistened her lips made puffy and red from their passionate kisses.
With his heart slamming in his chest, Rodney pushed himself up to stand by the side of the bed. Slowly, as if he was on stage, he reached down and freed the top most button on his packet. Her eyes followed the movement and held on his fingers as they hovered just above the next button in line. And then the silly grin on her face dissolved into something much more sensual as she looked up and into his eyes.
Mary wasn't sure why Rodney seemed to be hesitating. She devoured the sight of his muscular chest on display for her. He was even more beautiful than she had imagined in her fantasies. As children they had swam in the lake on his family's estate and she had seen him bare chested before. But he had been a skinny boy back then. Now he was a man with sinewy muscles and dark hair dusting his body.
A nagging sense of dread coursed through her. She knew he wanted her. And she had done everything she knew to convince him that she wanted this as much as he did. But still he hesitated. Instinctively she knew the answer. Once their pantaloons were gone there would be no turning back. For either one of them.
Rolling over she stood up on the opposite side of the bed and reached down and popped free the same top button on her pantaloons that he had on his. Her hand hovered over the next button and waited for him.
His eyes had followed the movement just as hers had done a moment before. When they rose back up to her eyes they stared at each other for several agonizing heartbeats. The brown of his eyes turned to molten lava as he silently asked if she was sure.
Unwilling to speak for fear of breaking the spell encompassing them she lowered her hand and grasped the next button on her packet. His body suddenly relaxed as if he had been holding his breath. A beguiling smile lit up his face as his hand reached down and grabbed the next button as well.
The Earl's Night of Being Wild (The Fallen Angels NOVELLA series Book 3) Page 9
