Seducing His Lordship

by Brenda Williamson

  “He’ll not bite me?”

  “Indeed no, milady. His lordship would never…I mean, his cat would never do you harm.” That was very true, and Gabriel would have to remember to thank Silas for setting Carmody’s fears at rest with his calmness.

  She stroked his head several times. “You’re the reason there is so much hair on the settee.” Her fingers tickled as they glided down the back of his ear.

  “Lady Laramore, about your accounts,” Tavish whispered, as if he’d not be noticed.

  Gabriel let a low, menacing sound seethe through his teeth.

  “I said I’d settle it in a couple days.” She continued to stroke Gabriel’s fur. “Silas, would you show Mr. Tavish out?”

  “I told you…” Tavish tried to complain.

  Gabriel growled again, louder, longer, stepping closer to the debt collector to show him that while Carmody was safe, he was not.

  “I suggest you do as her ladyship has asked and leave, sir.” Silas motioned toward the door. “You’re upsetting the animal.”

  Tavish walked out and turned. “Hiding from your debts will not win you favors from other merchants, Lady Laramore!” he yelled, even though Silas shut the door in his face.

  “Silas, where is his lordship?” Carmody looked up the stairs.

  “I can’t rightly say, milady.”

  “When you see him, would you remind him of my dinner party, and that I don’t think our guests will take too kindly to having a tiger show up.”

  “I’ll tell him, milady. However, I don’t think you have to worry. He’ll be on his best behavior for you.”

  Gabriel watched Carmody head up the stairs. Something bothered her aside from discovering a tiger in the house and the mistaken debt. Once he heard a door close, he bounded up the stairs several at a time to hurry to his room and change.

  Chapter Eight

  Carmody waited in Gabriel’s room, hoping to clear the air of all her trickery. The debts didn’t trouble her as much as him not paying them. When his door opened, she turned from the window. The tiger filled the archway. He entered unescorted.

  “Silas? Silas, are you out there?” she nervously asked, moving around to the far side of the bed.

  The cat advanced, taking the same path she had around the footboard of the bed. His sleek body glided forward on thick, furry legs. Muscular shoulders dipped alternately with his steps. His paws thumbed against the wood floor. Carmody’s heart seemed to beat in time with his pace. She trembled uncontrollably, but managed to get on the bed to cross to the other side nearer the door. Then the tiger rose upright on his hind legs. Carmody rubbed her eyes in disbelief as the animal transformed into a very naked Gabriel. She tried to talk, but her voice stuck.

  “Carmody?” The illusion spoke, sounding like her husband.

  “Your tiger…you have a tiger.” She looked around the room. Not seeing the animal, she scooted off the mattress and visually searched the room, refusing to believe what she’d seen.

  “Carmody, you weren’t imagining things.” He came forward and reached for her hand.

  “No.” She shook her head, backing away. “It’s not possible. I was dreaming again.”

  ”You’re awake.”

  “Maybe not. I was tired. I laid down and took a nap.” She bit her bottom lip, staring at him standing naked. “We were in bed like before.”

  “We weren’t.” He shook his head, standing there naked as if there was another plausible reason.

  “I was. We must have been… You’ve made my head spin with your lust. It’s confusing me.”

  “You don’t believe that.” He moved quicker and caught her arm.

  “Well, I certainly do not believe you can turn yourself into an animal. That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard. And I do wish you’d put on some clothes. This is embarrassingly improper of you to walk around like that.”

  “Very well.” He let go and walked to the chair where his shirt lay.

  She watched him slip on the garment. A few buttons kept it closed, and the length covered his private parts.

  “How’s that?” He spun, asking her approval.

  “Hardly decent attire, milord.”

  “For my room, it’s suitable.” He caressed her cheek in a soothing manner. “Would you like me to show you?”

  “Show me what?”

  “That I can change into a tiger.”

  “Utter nonsense.” She pushed his hand away. “No one can change like that, and I don’t know why you’re trying to trick me into believing you can.”

  Gabriel pulled his shirt off over his head without unbuttoning it. There was no modesty to his actions. She stared at the contours of his hard frame, recalling the feel of his muscles against her palms. How truly blessed, she thought, to have such a handsome husband—until now, when he talked crazy.

  “Remember, I’ll not hurt you.” He grabbed her hands and leaned forward.

  She closed her eyes, savoring the tenderness of his kiss on her nose. Her jaw quivered with her whimper. She turned her head, letting the sensations he churned in her overpower all her apprehensions, as he nuzzled her face with more kisses.

  “Now watch.” He shuffled back several feet.

  The transformation was like a flash of lightning, brilliant, yet brief. His image lingered a second, a translucent apparition. When her focus dropped, she gazed at the same white tiger as before.

  “Gabriel,” she gasped, blinking as if she had something wrong with her eyesight. “Gabriel, I don’t like this game.”

  The animal neared.

  She climbed on the bed.

  The tiger leaped onto the mattress, making her fall back on the pillow. He stood over her, panting. His heated breath puffed against her face; drool hung from the corners of his partly opened mouth.

  “Gabriel, change back.” Her hand shook as she stretched her fingers to touch the white and silver pelt.

  He lifted his head, letting her pet the soft fur under his chin. His purr vibrated against her palm, startling her.

  “Gabriel, please.”

  His huge paws pressed her hips.

  Just as instantly as he had shifted into a jungle cat, he changed back. “Don’t look so frightened.” He hovered over her.

  “I don’t understand. Is it magic?”

  He brought her upright.

  “I guess that’s one way of describing it. A curse, an affliction, no one knows. I’ve been this way my entire life. From my father back through my ancestors, farther than anyone recalls, the firstborn male has had this ability. We live with it, never questioning why, just the same way a man never asks what made his hair black or his nose long.”

  “This is much different than hereditary traits, Gabriel.” She scooted around him and slid off the bed. “You turned into a wild animal right before my eyes. That’s not natural. It’s evil.”

  “It actually is hereditary, and there’s nothing demonic about me, Carmody. Other than this one unusual feat, I’m every bit the same as any man.”

  She watched him put on the clothing from a different perspective. “Can you change when you’re dressed?”

  “I could, if I want my clothing torn to shreds.” He laughed.

  “What else can you change into?” She paced the room, trying to comprehend such an unusual, incredibly unbelievable ability. “What do you call what you do? Is there a name for what you are?”

  She spun around and faced him. With his naked elegance concealed beneath his clothes again, he came toward her.

  “Stop.” She put her hands up to prevent him from touching her. “You have to tell me the truth. This isn’t all a hoax, is it? Something you’ve practiced for a parlor trick?”

  “And just how many parlors have I been in since you’ve known me, Carmody? You know very well I have not socialized with you or anyone, so what need would I have to concoct something as elaborate as this?” He hadn’t yet fastened his shirt, so he pulled it open. “Shall I show you again?”

  “No!
” Carmody went to the door. “I need time to think, and there is a party to get ready for, guests to impress.”

  “You don’t think we should discuss the tiger further right now?”

  “It’s just what I would expect from you, Lord Laramore. When everything was working out well between us, you throw a pebble into the pudding.” She wrung her hands together, unsure whether she was frightened of him or if it was wrong to still love him.

  “What pebble? What pudding?” His brow wrinkled.

  “You’ve managed to upset my whole affair with this news. Couldn’t you have at least kept your affliction a secret until after my party? Now I have to concern myself with whether my guests are safe from your growls.”

  “I can control my change, Carmody. No one will see the tiger.”

  “Oh, and you thought it wise to show yourself to Mr. Tavish?”

  “He was an obnoxious bore that needed putting in his place. I was just guarding my home; specifically, I was defending your honor. No man will speak to my wife with such disrespect.”

  Carmody hurried from the room, worried what would happen if anyone whispered in his ear about the affair that never happened. Her guests were in for a shock should Gabriel decide then to reveal his tiger.

  “Oh, what am I going to do?” She looked at him still in the room staring at her. “You have me a bundle of frazzled nerves. As if I didn’t have to contend with the ton seeing me for the first social with my husband, I have to worry over what someone might bring up in topic.”

  “Have you done something I should know about?” He advanced.

  Carmody rushed down the hallway. She couldn’t tell him the extent of her worries. The closeness she’d started to feel with him suddenly had a very large gap of deceit on both their parts.

  “Where are you going?” he called after her.

  “I have to get ready for this evening.” She opened her bedroom door, glanced at him, and waited for him to make her trust that nothing shocking would come out that night.

  His silent stare gave her no hope.

  In a way, it saddened her that he hadn’t tried harder to ease her concerns. Going into her room, she closed the door and bolted it.

  “A tiger.” She fanned her face with an open hand to keep her wits about her. “No time for worrying,” she said to her reflection in the mirror. “I’ll deal with everything else tomorrow when I have time to sort through this confusion. Gabriel did say he controlled the tiger. Then we’ll leave it at that.”

  When Gabriel came knocking at her door several hours later, she sent him away. The tiger was substantially a concern, but not a priority. Gabriel hadn’t paid all her debts, and it worried her that he’d think even less of her when he heard the rumor she’d spread about her pretend affair. She held Reginald at fault for letting her take the deception so far. She blamed him, and he wouldn’t even be there to rescue her from the consequences.

  When Silas knocked at her door a couple hours later, she opened it with great reluctance.

  “Lord Laramore is waiting for you in the foyer,” Silas informed her. “All of your guests have arrived.”

  “Yes, I suppose it would be bad manners of me to hide in my room all evening.” Her preoccupation with Gabriel becoming the tiger had slowed her. She looked one last time in the mirror. Her appearance was perfect: nothing flawed, nothing out of place. She took a deep, cleansing breath and patted her hand to her chest to console her rapid heartbeat.

  “How does he look?” she asked Silas as she walked ahead of him. “Is the viscount angry with me?”

  “I wouldn’t know, milady. His lordship doesn’t confide his feelings to me.”

  “No?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Yet you know of his condition.”

  “His condition, milady?” The man gave her a puzzled rise of his eyebrow, but there was nothing more in his expression.

  She stopped and faced him, determined to have someone corroborate that her sanity was intact. “Downstairs, when that man from Beaudrics was here and the tiger came in the room, I thought you referred to the animal as Lord Laramore. A meaningless slip of the tongue it was not. He’s shown me his transformation, Silas. How long have you known?”

  For Gabriel to trust his manservant with his secret, he had to believe the man would always be loyal.

  “Since before he was born, milady, I was aware of what he’d be capable of becoming one day. His father employed me, testing me to keep the family secret.”

  “How did his father know?”

  “I think it best you let his lordship explain.”

  “No, I want to hear what you know.” She turned her head to the sound of laughter below. Her guests were enjoying her party, and she hadn’t even made an appearance.

  “Lord Laramore will be at the foot of the stairs, waiting most impatiently.”

  “Let him wait. Tell me what you know.” Carmody sat on a chair alongside a table in the hallway. “Go on. I’m waiting.”

  Silas nodded in reluctance. “Let me say first, should you and the viscount be blessed with a son, I hope to continue to be of service in the upbringing of the youth.”

  “You’re stalling, Silas. You know I have a dinner party full of guests waiting for my entrance.”

  “The firstborn son of the Laramore line has always had the power to shift into a white tiger. That’s all I know.”

  “It’s more than I knew before he sprang that very information on me earlier. Lord Laramore should have divulged these facts before we married.”

  “If I may, milady, I think the viscount was hoping you’d never find out. Well, not for a long time.”

  Carmody smoothed over her dress. “Yes, I suppose he would, but there would come a time, when I had a baby, I’d have to know.”

  “A boy child, milady. And the tiger doesn’t emerge until the child has hit puberty.”

  “Gabriel said he grew up always knowing.”

  “Naturally, the boy is prepared by seeing his father in such a state as often as possible.”

  “Yet I might never have known.” She hated the idea Gabriel might have kept her in the dark if she hadn’t discovered the truth.

  “Gabriel will bring up a son with as much love as his father brought him up. And a child that loves, and is loved by his parents would never be able to keep secrets from either.”

  Carmody stood up and resumed walking down the hall. She stood at the top landing and looked at Gabriel waiting for her at the base of the stairs. Handsome beyond description, he made her insides ache to love him and gain his trust. The tiger had no bearing on her adoration of his finer qualities. Not even the possibility that their baby would be like him gave her reason to regret the desire to give him an heir if he didn’t think there was a problem with the condition.

  “Carmody, are you all right?” He took the steps two at a time, hurrying to meet her halfway as she descended.

  “Yes.” She took his arm, wishing they had time to be alone to talk.

  “When you locked yourself in your room, I was worried you’d not come out.”

  Was his distress for her or the baby he’d skillfully talked her into having for him during a simple conversation about family appearance within the ton?

  “Nonsense.” She laughed, masking her lingering fears he still might only want her around to give him an heir. “I have guests. How would it look if I didn’t show up to my own party?”

  “There you are, Carmody.” Dolly rushed up to her at the base of the staircase and took hold of her hands. “You must settle a dispute between my brother and Baron Scrimshaw.”

  “What sort of dispute?” She went with her friend and nodded a greeting to everyone she passed.

  “Baron Scrimshaw thinks a pheasant’s feathers are more beautiful than a peacock’s. Tell him how wrong he is.”

  “Now, Dolly, how can I when it’s not true?” Carmody said tactfully, hoping not to step on anyone’s feelings.

  “You are siding with him?” Dolly’s bottom lip curled out in a
pout.

  “No. What I’m saying is, if he was a pheasant and Lord Mitchell was a peacock, they would both have reason to believe their feathers are the most beautiful.”

  “Quite right you are, milady.” Gabriel’s hand slid beneath her elbow as he took his place alongside her. “A sensible answer that makes no one a winner and no one a loser. The perfect response.”

  “Lord Laramore!” Baron Scrimshaw declared. “We are surprised yet honored by your attendance. Since your marriage to the lovely lady, you’ve not graced us with your presence at any of the parties last season. Are we that boring?”

  “On the contrary, Baron. I am the dullest of guests. I didn’t wish to put a damper on my wife’s social engagements. This year, I dare say, shall be different. She needs some of my attention.”

  “Indeed, so I hear.” The baron continued to stare at Carmody with his spiteful expression. “There are rumors of her extravagance, and it’s only right you rein in her freedom.”

  “Bloody hell, Scrimshaw, that’s out of line.” Lord Mitchell stepped forward. “Lady Laramore’s reputation is impeccable.”

  Carmody tensed. All conversations in the room paused at the same time.

  “I was speaking of her debts. Though, there are stories that her virtuous character is in question.” The baron took a drink from the glass in his hand while still glaring at her.

  Carmody had rebuffed the baron’s affections on more than one occasion. If she’d known he was going to seek revenge for spurning him by tattling about her pretend affair, she would have taken her chances by not inviting the boorish man.

  “Baron,” Gabriel interrupted quietly. “My wife’s morals are riddled with honesty, and I have no worry in that respect. The rumors of her ‘extravagances,’ as you’ve referred to them, are true. Lady Laramore has a love of many things, including shopping, and I have no desire or financial need to ‘rein in her freedom’ as you say.”

  No desire? Carmody hid her frown. She had spent money as if there were an endless supply, hoping to get his attention, and all to no avail.

  “Excuse me, I should see to my other guests.” Carmody slipped away from the immediate group of people.