The Mistletoe Wager

by Christine Merrill

  ‘Then we shall not tell him until it is too late to matter.’

  His fingers travelled up, until they could go no further, and then gave a gentle caress that caused her to gasp in shock. She decided it was definitely the touch that was affecting her, for he had increased the speed of his stroking and was driving her mad with it. His fingers played in a gentle rhythm against her body, reaching places that she had never thought to touch, and creating a jumble of new sensations that made it much easier to feel than to think.

  She could barely hear him as he said, ‘Now that the roads are clear, it’s Gretna for us, my love. And then to bed.’

  ‘I have never…never…never been to Scotland,’ she gasped, and grabbed his shoulders for support, trying and failing to hold on to common sense as the feelings built in her.

  ‘Then it will be a day of firsts for you.’

  He held her in place against the wall, one hand tightening upon her breast and the other teasing between her legs. She was not sure what was happening, but she knew at any moment that she would have no choice but to say yes, most emphatically, to anything he might ask.

  So she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. With her last strength she whispered, ‘Show me Pompeii, Tremaine, and I am yours for ever.’ And then she gave herself over to him, and dissolved in pleasure at his touch, accepting his proposal repeatedly and with surprising enthusiasm.

  He laughed and kissed her throat. ‘Tomorrow, if you ask for it, I will give you the world. But tonight, Vesuvius is nothing compared to what you shall have.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elise had heard Nicholas’s body strike the wall with some considerable force. It had surprised her, for although she knew Harry was strong enough, he was not usually given to displays of brute strength. But now, as he turned back to face her, she began to wonder if she had ever known him at all.

  It was not yet noon, his clothing was a mess, and he smelled of brandy. His face had not seen a razor that morning, and a slight stubble emphasised the squared set of his jaw. Everything about him seemed larger, more intimidating than she remembered, and he was advancing on her in a way that might have seemed threatening if she hadn’t known that it was only Harry Pennyngton. But then he reached her, and before she quite knew what was happening he had taken her in his arms and crushed her body to his in a kiss she could almost describe as ruthless.

  ‘Harry, whatever are you doing?’

  ‘What I should have done months ago,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘We are going to settle what is between us once and for all.’

  ‘I thought it was settled,’ she said.

  ‘For you, perhaps. Since dear old Harry has allowed you to do whatever you want, in the vain hope that you will grow tired of wandering and come home. But I am done with patience.’

  ‘If you think that I am so easy to control as all that, you had best think again, Harry.’ She squirmed in his arms, expecting him to release her, but instead he held her tighter, until she gasped with pleasure.

  ‘Easy to control?’ He released her then, and she swayed against him. ‘You are more trouble than any two wives. I am sure that the sultans of Arabia do not have the challenges in dealing with an entire harem that I have with you.’

  ‘If I am so much trouble, you had best divorce me and save yourself the bother.’ She started towards the door.

  But he was past her in a flash, and pushed her back into the library ahead of him. Then he stepped in after her and slammed the door. ‘On the contrary, my dear. I have no intention of letting you go. Especially if you mean to throw Tremaine aside and take another lover.’

  She stopped and stared at him. ‘Whatever difference should it make to you, who I choose to be unfaithful with?’

  ‘I have always known, should you choose to leave me, that it would be for Tremaine. For you have wondered from the first if your decision in marrying me was a wise one. But now that you have had a chance to compare us, I hope that I appear more favourably in your mind.’

  ‘Harry,’ she groaned, ‘that is the most cold-blooded thing I have ever heard. If you are willing to stand aside and allow me a lover for purposes of comparison, then it proves you don’t love me in the slightest.’

  ‘Not a lover, Elise. Only Tremaine. He has been as regular a feature in our marriage as a dog, lying beside the fireplace. Lord knows, I have often had to kick the blighter out of the way to regain your attentions. But it is my good fortune that he has as much initiative as an old dog as well.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ she said indignantly. ‘Nicholas Tremaine is a notorious rake, with a very passionate nature.’

  Harry scoffed. ‘And no threat at all to our marriage. If he were half the man you claimed he’d never have let me take you away. Failing that, he’d have hounded you day and night, until you could no longer resist the temptation and allowed him into your bed. Instead, I have borne his half-hearted flirtation with you in good humour, knowing that it would lead to nothing. That in the end you went to him, and not the other way round, should tell you everything you need to know about his grand passion for you.’

  The words hit close to home, and she felt like a fool for not noticing earlier. But at least Harry did not seem jealous any more. And then, as though unable to resist, she taunted him again. ‘If what you say is true, and he does not have a burning desire for me, then I am sure there is someone who does.’

  Harry’s eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, Elise, I have no doubt of it. But if you think you will be allowed to seek any further than this room for such a man you are sorely mistaken.’

  He was finally angry enough to show her the truth that she wanted to see, and his words sent desire pulsing to the centre of her being. She pushed him again. ‘Seek in this room a man with sufficient passion to hold my attention? If you had sufficient passion, Harry, I would not be looking elsewhere.’

  If she had hoped for a reaction there was none apparent. His smile was the same vaguely placid one that he often wore. But there was a strange light in his eyes that had not been there when last she’d looked.

  ‘Very well, then. If you wish a demonstration of the depth of my feelings…’

  Before she realised what he had done, he’d locked the door behind her, torn the key from the hole and pitched it into the fireplace.

  She stared into the embers, and she thought she could see the metal as it heated to glowing. ‘Harry, what the devil are you doing?’

  ‘Making it impossible for you to leave the room before we have finished our discussion. I imagine the fire shall be almost out by the time I am finished with you, and then you will be able to retrieve the key and open the door.’ He said it in a way that made her think discussion was the last thing on his mind, and she felt another thrill go through her-one that she had been missing for over two months.

  ‘Now, let me describe to you how I am feeling.’

  And then she felt the desire start to fade, for it seemed they were only going to have another silly argument. ‘You are going to tell me now how you feel? After five years of nothing, you have told me more than enough of your feelings in the last few days. Must I hear more of them? For I have had quite enough.’ But when she looked at him, staring into his eyes, she wondered if that was true.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘You have made it quite clear that I have lost your trust. And I am sorry, Harry. I know I’ve given you cause to doubt me. But until recently I did not think it mattered to you how I behaved. I am sorry. There-I have said it. Though we did comfortably well together, proximity has not made us into lovers. You deserve more. As do I.’

  ‘More comfort than I have given you?’ he sneered. ‘My pockets are deep, Elise, but they are not bottomless.’

  She slapped at his shoulder. ‘I cannot make you understand, and I am tired of trying. I do not wish you to buy me a new dress, or a diamond, or even a larger residence, so that I can live in luxury without you. If you want, you can take it all back. Sell every last jewel an
d turn me out on the streets in my shift. I do not care a jot for any of it if I cannot have a marriage that is more than remuneration for services rendered.’

  ‘Am I to understand that you wish a meeting of hearts, and not just an equitable living arrangement.’ He smiled.

  ‘Exactly.’ She was relieved that at last he understood her. But she found it strangely disappointing that it might mean he’d let her go.

  ‘What utter nonsense.’

  ‘Harry, it is not nonsense at all. It is what I have longed for all my life.’ She reached out a hand to push his shoulder, to move him out of her way. But he caught it easily, sliding his palm over hers, wrapping his fingers around it and squeezing tightly, rubbing the ball of his thumb slowly over the pulse-point beating on her wrist.

  ‘But, Elise, what kind of a fool would I be to give my heart to you now, knowing that you have ignored it for so many years?’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘When I sought to court you, as smitten as any young buck in London, you all but ignored me. You struggled to hide your disappointment when you married me. Since that time, you have been everything a man could desire in a wife. I have had all I could want save one thing.’

  She thought of the children that should be gracing their home, and felt a moment’s pain.

  ‘You have not loved me.’

  She started.

  ‘And so I have kept my distance as well. For there is nothing more pathetic than a man so lost in love that his wife leads him like an ape on a string for the amusement of the ton. But now, after you have left me, you expect me to show you the depths of my feelings and risk ridicule or indifference?’

  It was as if he was throwing her own thoughts back at her, and she found she had no way to answer for them. There must be something she could say that would make it all right between them, but for the life of her she could not think of the words.

  When he realised that a response would not be forthcoming, he sighed. ‘Very well, then.’

  She feared that she had lost him with her hesitation.

  And then he kissed her.

  The strength of her reaction came as a shock, and she wondered how she had ever become convinced that he was taking her for granted with the casual affection he displayed. He seemed to put no effort into arousing her. But he had managed it all the same. Where Nicholas Tremaine’s kisses had been skilled enough, but not particularly passionate, Harry’s lacked grace in their eagerness to bring her pleasure. In the months they had spent apart he had forgotten none of what she enjoyed, and now he was using all of his accumulated knowledge against her, until she caught fire in his arms.

  He was kissing her with every last ounce of desire, his tongue sliding past her teeth and his lips devouring hers. And it no longer mattered what he had said, or not said, whether he loved her, hated her, or cared neither way. She could not help it that a small moan of pleasure escaped her lips, and then a somewhat louder moan of disappointment when he pulled away from her.

  His voice was low and husky when he spoke. ‘Do you still doubt the state of my heart after all we have been to each other?’

  He had brought her close to climax with the force of his kiss. So she gathered her breath and whispered, ‘The fact that you are a skilled lover does little to tell me your true feelings.’

  He allowed himself a satisfied grin. ‘So I am a skilled lover, am I?’

  She was near to panting with eagerness as she said, ‘I am sure there are many as talented as you, who care only for the pleasure to be gained from the act of love and not the woman they share it with.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Nicholas, for instance-’

  And his lips came down upon hers again, stopping her in mid-sentence. This kiss was rougher, and more demanding, and his hands held her tight to his body as he rubbed his hips against hers. He was hard and ready for her. When he felt her growing soft and weak in response, near ready to give in, he pulled away from her again.

  ‘There will be no more talk of Tremaine, Elise. For I do not care what he thinks when alone with a woman. I can speak only for myself when I say that it is much more pleasurable when one has the love of one’s partner. And if, after tonight, I have not gained yours, then there will be no point in our continuing. If you do not love me with your whole heart, then I do not want you back.’

  He would not take her back? She was struck by the shock of the idea. For she had believed for so long that he did not love her, it was a surprise to think he had feared the same.

  ‘You want my love?’ she asked softly.

  He buried his face in her neck, inhaling the scent of her. ‘As I have wanted it from the first day we met. I still remember the first time I saw you, standing in a doorway at some party or other. I cannot remember anything else about that night but you. You wore blue satin, and it matched the colour of your eyes. I had to force my way through a crowd of suitors to gain your hand for a dance.’

  ‘That was a long time ago,’ she murmured, trying to ignore the feeling of his lips on her throat so that she could hear his words over the singing in her blood.

  ‘Barely an instant. You are no less beautiful. You were so bright-glowing like a diamond.’

  She tried to remember the last time he had spoken to her thus, with anything more than polite approval. ‘I did not know you had noticed my appearance.’

  He raised his head to look into her eyes. ‘Every hour of every day. Just to look at you was a pleasure, and still is. But you belonged to someone else, and I thought there was no hope. Can you blame me, then, for using Tremaine’s downfall to my advantage?’

  She pulled away and looked at him in surprise. ‘And how did you do so? For we were parted before you offered.’

  For a moment the old Harry was back, hesitant, guarded, evasive. ‘The anonymous note you received? Telling of his perfidy? It was from me.’

  The shock of it shook her to her very core. ‘You lied to me?’

  ‘It was the truth. The girl involved was Rosalind. As much her fault as his. But he was not blameless, for it was his flirting that led her to disaster.’

  ‘Rosalind?’ And suddenly the pieces of Elise’s life began to fall together. The strange behaviour of her sister-in-law, and the even stranger behaviour of Tremaine.

  ‘I should have called the bastard out instead of keeping what he did a secret. But Morley wished the thing covered up, and rushed her back out of town. And then I saw my opportunity to hurt him, and to have you as well. I sent the note, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.’ He squared his jaw in defiance. ‘If you believe I won you through unfair means, then so be it. I would have done anything to part the two of you. That the man was too decent to dishonour my sister further and tell you the truth came as a great relief to me. For I realised too late that I had jeopardised her reputation further by hinting at the facts. But he was not honourable enough to marry her, and he deserved some punishment for it-not the reward of your love as well.’

  ‘You deliberately ruined my engagement?’ He had changed her life to suit his own desires, tricked her into his bed and pleasured her until she was helpless to resist. The thought should have enraged her. But the rush of emotion she felt was closer to lust than anger.

  ‘I was mad with wanting you.’ And then he added, as if it should mitigate what he had done, ‘You would not have suited. Tremaine is too shallow, and would not give you the safety and security of home that you desire. You would have discovered it yourself eventually, to your own regret, if I had not intervened.’ He frowned. ‘But if I had known that I would never be free of the man, and that you would still be pining for him five years later, perhaps I would not have bothered.’

  ‘I have not been pining for him,’ she snapped. ‘I have made every effort to be a good wife to you, just as you deserved.’

  He snorted. ‘I got what I deserved, all right. A woman beautiful, passionate, and in mourning for the man she had given up. But willing to do her duty to the husband she never wanted. I am n
ot sorry for what I did to get you. I would do it again to have even a day with you in my arms, though your heart was divided. But, believe me, I paid the price.’ He looked at her again, his eyes strange and sad. ‘For I will always wonder what it would have been like had you loved me first.’

  As he spoke, it sounded as though something was over. Which was strange, because perhaps nothing had ended at all.

  ‘I cannot tell you what might have been,’ she said. ‘I only know that my future does not lie with Tremaine, no matter the past.’

  Harry looked at her with a slow, hot smile that made her insides melt.

  ‘And what do you mean to do tomorrow?’ He pulled her a little closer, and her body shocked her with remembrance.

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘Yes, tomorrow. If you mean to leave both me and Tremaine, and find another lover, it will have to wait for morning. I have plans for you tonight.’

  ‘Harry, it is barely noon.’ Her breath came out in a little squeak. It surprised her, for it sounded almost as if she was frightened by her mild milquetoast of a husband.

  ‘I am well aware of the fact. For now, it is you and me and the library fire, my love. And, by God, if you go out through that door tomorrow morning, I will see to it that you remember what you have left.’ Then he pushed her back to the door and kissed her so hard that she thought her lips must bruise.

  ‘Harry,’ she gasped, when he allowed her a moment to breathe.

  ‘Indeed.’ He was after the hooks on her gown, pulling until she felt them give.

  ‘Stop it this instant. This is my best dress.’

  ‘I will buy you another.’ She heard the faint pop of seams and the rip of lace and silk as he pushed the dress down to her waist and ran his tongue along the tops of her breasts, where they peeked over her stays, before setting to work on the laces at her back.