Could he truly love her?
Bianca slowly lifted her eyelids and gasped.
“Oh, Pierce. It’s breathtaking.”
He’d done this for her? After her cruelty this morning?
Tears welled, but not from sadness. Joy caused the moisture.
The terrace, the gardens, and even the pond glowed with scores of candles.
He gently squeezed her shoulders. “Elsie said you wanted to see Vauxhall or Convent Gardens at night. It’s not as magnificent, to be sure, but this was the best I could do in a short time with so few staff. I vow you shall visit both with me someday.”
Blinking back a torrent of tears, she muttered, “Elsie babbles too much.”
Where he had come by so many candles and lanterns she couldn’t guess. The help must have spent hours preparing this. Likely the entire time she and Pierce were in Northhollow. Even after she refused his proposal, he’d conspired to please her.
“I’m truly, truly touched, Pierce.” She put a knuckle to the corner of one eye. “Thank you.”
An odd sound, between a caterwauling feline and an unoiled carriage wheel wafted to them from somewhere on the greens or gardens.
“What in Hades—?” She stood onto her tiptoes, peering into the orderly beds. Then scanned the lawns until her gaze came to rest upon the gazebo’s domed top. A light reflected from within the arches.
“That would be Digby. Before he and his wife became domestics, they led a colorful life in the theatre.” A particularly spine-tingling screeching note rent the calm, and Pierce hugged her from behind, chuckling. The thick wall of his chest resounded with his amusement. “Now I understand why he left the profession.”
“I’d say he hadn’t practiced in a goodly while.” The strings squawked again, and Bianca twittered into her closed hand. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d giggled. Angling her head, she glanced up at Pierce. “Do you know, Mrs. Digby had me fairly shaking in my shoes, lest I do anything remotely improper? I thought, perhaps, that she is a person of strong faith, given the cross she wears at her neck.”
He rotated Bianca so they faced each other.
The moon illuminated half of his face, but the rest of his features remained hidden in the night’s shifting shadows. “There’s truth to that. According to Mrs. Digby, she and her husband realized the error of their ways, turned their lives over to God, and set their minds to leading respectable lives. They’ve been trying to reform me since I hired them. Which is one reason I haven’t been here in nearly five years, much to their chagrin.”
Could rakes be redeemed?
Truly reformed? Did it matter?
Pierce had already beguiled her despite her efforts not to succumb.
She must know.
“Would that be so bad, Pierce?”
He cupped one side of her face with his powerful hand, running his thumb across her cheekbone, and she was powerless to move, much less resist.
“If you’d asked me that a month ago, my love, I would’ve laughed and called you every kind of fool. But now…” He drew her near until his hard thighs pressed into hers through her gown and only an inch separated their torsos. “With the right woman by my side, I suspect there might be something to all that respectability rot. I would have you be that woman, Bianca.”
This time, it was she who rose up on her toes and brushed his mouth with hers.
I’ve lost.
Pierce had won.
The victory brought him no joy, but Bianca’s sweetly offered kisses did.
He hesitated for a fraction of an instant, before groaning and capturing her willing lips. Whereas their first kiss was tender and tentative, this meshing of mouths was a wild mating, hungry and sensual.
Bianca twined her arms around his neck and sagged into him.
He cupped her buttocks with one hand, pressing her into the hardness of his groin. Blissful torture. Plunging his other hand into her hair, he pulled the pins loose until the auburn cloud tumbled onto her shoulders and back.
The kiss went on and on, drawing him into a new dimension of yearning.
He suspected passion slumbered within her, but hadn’t expected this inferno of desire. She met each thrust of his tongue with her own, awkward at first, but quickly acquiring the skill and learning the rhythm.
Did love make the pleasure so much more sensuous? Intense? Overwhelming and consuming?
Oh God, he did love the minx.
She whimpered and squirmed against him, her breath coming in hungry little pants.
Pierce clasped Bianca’s shoulders and pulled his mouth away. Resting his forehead against hers, he rasped, “I must stop. I promised myself I’d be the perfect gentleman with you. You’re too apt a pupil, my sweet, and I forget myself.” Body trembling with need, he pulled in a shuddering breath, and whispered, “I would not have you loathe me for seducing you.”
“I don’t want you to be a gentleman. I know what this means. Elmswood is lost to me, but I don’t care if it means I can stay with you.” Eyes shining, Bianca caressed his cheek. “I don’t want to leave you. Will you let me stay?”
Hope bloomed anew. Could she have changed her mind since this morning? Was it possible? For Pierce swore she bore the expression of a woman in love.
A woman in love with him.
His soul soared to think such a thing was possible. That this unique, precious, and unpredictable woman might adore him as much as he cherished her.
With his forefinger, he touched her cheek, afraid to say the words again. He would know though. “Then you will marry me?”
A radiant smile blossomed across her face. “Tonight, if you wish.”
Hugging her to him, Pierce laughed and lifted Bianca in the air, twirling her around and around. “Dear heart, I’m overjoyed. I meant to keep wooing you, to convince you that I love you.”
Her hands braced upon his shoulders, she peered down at him, her smile gentle yet fragile. “I can hardly grasp that you really love me.”
He let her slide to the ground as he whispered in her ear. “I do. I do. I don’t know when you inveigled your way into my heart. It might have been that first night when you pleaded with me across the room to help you.”
“You understood that?” Awe colored her voice and widened her eyes.
He nestled her into the crook of his arm and clasped one of her hands within his. “I did. And so I did the only thing I could think of to make sure you were safe.”
She tilted her head and gazed up at him. “I wanted to hate you, but I couldn’t. Somehow, especially after we arrived here at Halverstone, and you treated me so wonderfully, I knew the things I’d heard about you weren’t true. Even this morning when I spoke those hateful words to you, I didn’t really believe them. I was afraid. Afraid to love you. That I’d end up a broken woman like my mother.”
“I know, my sweet, and I know about your mother, too. Know the secret you’ve kept hidden for so long.”
“You know she…?” Bianca swallowed audibly but forged on, the brave darling. “She sold her body?”
He nodded, his chin brushing the top of her head. “I vow I’ll never leave you. Until the last breath leaves my body, I shall stay by your side.”
Now wasn’t the time to share the rest of the ugly tale about her parents, not when their love was so tender and new. Not when all Pierce wanted to do was worship Bianca, tell her all the things that had played through his mind in recent weeks. She did need to know about Fairfax though, and so he told her.
“Honestly, Pierce, I find it sad and pathetic. He was toxic, spreading misery wherever he went. He couldn’t have been happy, and his life seems such a waste.” She sighed and cuddled closer, staring at the flickering candles, now burning low. “He was the last in his line, you know. The barony died with him.”
“But don’t you inherit everything as last of kin? If you wish, we can petition the king and ask him to appoint you the title.” He searched her glowing face.
Bianca shook her head,
the sultry cloud swishing about her shoulders. “No, I’m perfectly content to be your wife.” She cut him a saucy glance. “Besides, a countess outranks a baroness.”
“You’ll also be a duchess one day.”
That startled her, and she jerked her gaze to meet his. “Oh dear, I’m not sure I can do duchess. Countess pushed the mark for this country bumpkin.”
“With me at your side, we can do anything together, my darling.”
“What happens with the guardianship now?” she asked, a slight shadow darkening her features? “Can we marry if I don’t have an official guardian to grant permission?”
He hugged her tight. “Well, it just so happens, I’ve been appointed your temporary guardian.”
She chuckled against his chest, a musical burble of laughter.
He glanced downward, curving his mouth at the humor cavorting in her eyes. “Pray tell, what do you find so amusing?”
“I’m envisioning your sisters’ reactions.” She fingered his lapel and shook her head. “We cannot elope, you know. They would be devastated.”
Pierce laughed then, too, and wrapped Bianca in his embrace once more. “My sisters would never forgive me if I denied them a wedding. Should we return to London on the morrow and make the announcement?”
“I think we must.” She looked to the right and then to the left before grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the house.
“But first, I want a sample of the much more you mentioned in the carriage.”
5 September 1817
Viscount and Viscountess Timberlys’, London
Pierce cradled Bianca’s elbow as he and his glowing wife of two hours wended their way through the well-wishers crowded into Lenora’s entrance and spilling out onto the stoop. The trio, their husbands, and a passel of noisy offspring chatted and beamed on one side, the wicked earls, Vic, Coventry and his countess, and their graces the Duke and Duchess of Dandridge, the other.
The women and children smothered Bianca in hugs and kisses as the men shook Pierce’s hand, patted his shoulders, and congratulated him.
“I won’t say I told you so.” Coventry winked, then cast an appraising glance at the other unshackled club members. “Who’s next, do you suppose?”
Pierce chuckled and rubbed the side of his nose. “I’m sure you know that better than I, and have already put your scheme into motion.”
Lenora touched his forearm, then offered him a watery smile and a peck upon his cheek. “I knew from the instant I set my eyes upon your Bianca, she was a perfect match for you, Percy.”
Rebecca embraced him next. “I think she’ll keep you well in hand, brother dearest. Be happy Pierce,” she whispered in his ear.
“How can I not?” he whispered in hers.
He turned to Amanda, her pregnancy evident now. He winked and gathered her near. “I think you should name this one after me, Mandy.”
She shoved his shoulder playfully. “I cannot in good conscience name my daughter Rogue or Scoundrel.”
Amidst a flurry of last minute advice, tearful good-byes, and one or two slightly improper innuendos, Pierce swept Bianca into his arms.
Releasing a low laugh at her startled squeal, he carried her down the stairs, even daring a reverent kiss upon her peach tinted lips. He signaled to Burroughs, then deposited her in the coach for their short journey to the London Docks. There, they would board a passenger ship bound for India for their wedding trip.
Once inside the carriage, Bianca untied her bonnet and removed her gloves. Giving him what could only be described as a seductress’s glance, she proceeded to pull the shades as the equipage jolted forward
“What are you about, my sweet?”
Rucking up her ice-blue gown, she straddled Pierce’s legs.
He inhaled a great gulp of air as her woman’s softness settled atop his hardening manhood.
“Remember when you said you could make me beg for you to take me in the landau?” she asked. “I’ve not been able to get that image of us coupling on the seat out of my mind.”
“Vixen.” He groaned as she rocked against him.
These past weeks, she’d learned the much more skills far too well. Not that he minded. Each time they joined, incomprehensible, sizzling passion consumed him.
Ironically, it was he who’d suggested they refrain from carnal pleasure for the past fortnight and damned himself for a fool every night since.
She hoisted her skirts higher, exposing her milky thighs and a tantalizing glimpse of moist, copper-tinted curls at their juncture.
A blast of lust slammed into him, and he reached to unfasten his pantaloons,
Bianca seized his hand. “Not yet.”
So she wanted to control this joining, their first as man and wife. He could deny her nothing.
“Don’t tarry too long. I’m already nigh onto bursting, my love. And I’m loath to embarrass myself and deny us both mutual pleasure after our bout with celibacy.”
“Shh.”
She licked his lower lip, then settled her honeyed mouth atop his and sighed when he brushed his fingers across her womanhood. Already damp, she opened to his gentle probing. A few more practiced sweeps of his fingers, and she moaned into his mouth.
“I concede, Pierce,” she said, her voice quavering. “Take me. Now.”
“I’m only too happy to oblige, countess.” He nipped her lower lip whilst freeing himself.
Grasping his length, Bianca levered upward, balancing above him. Her gaze tangled with Pierce’s, and she slowly lowered herself onto him.
He gritted his teeth, struggling against his burgeoning release. Too close. He cupped her plump buttocks, surging upward into her tight, welcoming warmth. Her muscles clenched around him, and Bianca cried out against his neck, plummeting him over the abyss into ecstasy.
Several minutes passed before he husbanded the strength to move or form an articulate word. “Point to you, my sweet.”
Giggling, she slid off him. Her beautiful face still flushed from their joining, she righted her garments then looped her arm through his and laid her head on his shoulder while he adjusted his clothing.
“I love you, Pierce.”
He draped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the crown of her head. “I adore you too, my sweet. Best wager I ever placed.”
“What would you have done if you hadn’t won the game, Pierce?” she asked, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.
Shrugging, he stretched out his legs. “Abducted you, I suppose.”
Though well before noon, the day promised to be warm. He opened the blinds and cracked the windows, allowing fresh air into the stuffy conveyance and also signaling the driver.
The carriage turned, and Pierce hid a grin against her hair.
Good chap, Burroughs.
Now they were indeed headed in the docks’ direction.
Bianca need never know Burroughs had driven round Hyde Park whilst Pierce and his bride dallied inside the coach.
“I finally read the rest of Uncle Sylvester’s diary last night,” Bianca said. “He knew Mama had been forced to resort to prostitution, and he’s the one who sent us money. Aunt Florencia never knew he did.” Bianca brushed her fingers up and down Pierce’s thigh. “She never forgave Mum for eloping with Papa, and hated him for taking Mum from her. I suppose that’s why Mum refused to return to Elmswood.”
“I pity the lot.” Pierce tilted her face upward, searching her umber eyes. They still appeared slightly glassy from her passion, and perhaps just a hint of sadness lingered there, too. “How are you faring? I know you didn’t want to read your uncle’s journal at first, but you needed to know the truth.”
“Honestly, Pierce, I’m absolutely livid with them. Is that wrong?”
He made a soft sound of comfort. “No. They wronged you. Greatly.”
“They’re dead and buried, yet I’ve berated them in my head over and over for the suffering they caused Mum and me. My poor mum prostituted herself. They caused that and her death when
they could’ve prevented both.” She sighed, then in a small voice said, “It will be a long while before I am able to forgive them.”
“Give yourself time to come to terms with their perfidy, darling.” He nuzzled her ear, gratified when she gave a little gasp. “I speak from experience. Harboring hatred and refusing to forgive only leads to bitterness.”
“That’s so true.” She nestled closer, wrapping an arm around his waist. “I was surprised to discover that Salisbury is actually the viscountcy title and not my father’s surname, Buchanan. He wasn’t the heir, so I don’t know why Papa chose to use that name. I’ll never know, I suppose.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No, not really.” Bianca gazed out the window as the coach rumbled toward the wharf. Ship’s masts lined the horizon. “I decided that today was going to be wonderfully happy, so nothing more I discovered could be that awful. I’m most appalled that Aunt and Uncle didn’t tell Mum that Papa had been thrown from his horse after he secretly went to see them. I don’t know if Uncle felt guilty, or if maybe he suspected Aunt Florencia had something to do with the accident. She always did act peculiar whenever Papa was mentioned.”
“At least you know for certain what happened to your father.” Pierce grazed his thumb across the back of her hand.
“It does change how I feel about my aunt and uncle, though,” Bianca murmured. “And I don’t ever want to set foot at Elmswood Parke again.”
He gave her shoulder a small squeeze. “I’ll sell the place then.”
“Pierce?” She bit her lower lip.
What made her so uncertain?
“What, my love? You can ask me anything.” He grinned and tweaked her nose. “You know I can deny you nothing, sweeting.”
“Can we donate the proceeds to helping women like my mother?” Sorrow thickened her voice. “Perhaps establish a home of some sort for them? If you hadn’t rescued me, I might have become one of those unfortunate women.”
He rubbed her spine with long, soothing strokes. “Consider it done. I think it’s a brilliant plan, truth to tell. I only held on to Elmswood for you.”
Earl of Wainthorpe Page 15
