Joan smiled her brightest smile. “I’m sure I saw her there, Mother.”
“Hmm.” Her mother was trying not to smirk, Joan thought. “And if you instead saw her heading toward the house, especially if she were with her husband, you wouldn’t tell your aunt a lie, would you?”
“Mother,” said Joan indignantly, “I cannot possibly answer that question.”
Lady Bennet sighed, and then she laughed. Joan grinned, linked her arm through her mother’s and led her off, away from the house, with only a tiny conspiratorial glance behind her.
They reached the upstairs without meeting anyone. It was very fortunate the weather was so lovely, for it meant everyone was out in the garden, including most of the servants. No one saw them slip into her bedroom, or heard him turn the key in the lock.
Mariah laughed and pulled the wreath of flowers from her hair. “You don’t need anyone’s permission to be alone with me now.”
Harry grinned, tossing the key in the direction of the dressing table. “I don’t need anyone interrupting, either. Come here, wife.”
She flung her arms around his neck, burying her face in his crisp white cravat. “How I love the sound of that word. It seemed like this day would never come.”
“Two months never passed so slowly.” He lifted her chin and kissed her mouth. “Right up until the bishop concluded the ceremony, I feared your father would stand and put a stop to things, and take me aside for one last interrogation.”
Mariah laughed, letting her head fall back as his lips moved down her neck. “He wouldn’t have…”
“There was hardly anything left for him to ask. It’s been two long months of examination, my dear, as he tried to make sure I was worthy of you.” He was dragging up her heavy, embroidered skirt. Mariah pressed against him, her breath coming faster. It had been two long months. Her father had given Harry permission to court her, but then he and her mother had watched over them like a hawk: no more midnight visits, and barely a handful of stolen kisses. She was as desperate as Harry for this moment, which was why she had told Joan to distract her mother so they could steal away even before the wedding breakfast was over.
“And are you worthy?” She tugged the end of his cravat free and wound it around her finger.
Her new husband grinned, that slow, wicked grin that made her heart trip over itself. “Must I prove it to you, too?”
She just raised her eyebrows coyly.
With a growl, he swung her around in his arms, then pushed her back against the wall. He kissed her again, hard, as he twisted up the elegant fabric of her skirts and petticoats between them, and then his hands were under her skirt, inside her pantalets, touching her—so perfectly—there…Mariah moaned, opening her legs, gasping with want as he slid one hand under her knee and pulled it up to his waist.
“How shall I prove myself worthy?” His whisper warmed her ear. Mariah slid down a little, her supporting leg wobbling as his fingers slid along the already wet folds of flesh there, oh there…“How shall I please my lady wife?” He slid one, then two fingers inside her, stretching and stroking. She choked for air, overcome by the desire raging through her. It had been two very long months, she thought dazedly.
And then it was Harry’s turn to suck in his breath, as she pulled loose the buttons on his trousers and reached inside to cup him in her hands, one hand around his ballocks and one gliding the length of his erection. “If you want to please me,” she whispered, “stop talking.”
“As you wish,” he managed to say, and then he was inside her. Mariah raised up onto her toes and tilted her hips, meeting his every hungry thrust. Harry—her darling Harry—cupped her bottom in one hand and stroked her into climax with the other, and when he jerked and shouted in his own release, she truly felt they were one. She had never been so happy in all her life, and the warm light in his eyes indicated he felt much the same.
“I think—I think that will serve,” she said breathlessly. “For now.”
Harry exhaled, resting his forehead against hers. “I’m not certain I shall ever feel worthy of you, love.”
“Why not?” She stretched and smiled, running her hands over his back.
“For the way you trusted me when I told you nothing about myself. For the courage you showed in inviting me to run off with you.”
“That was a good plan,” she told him. “I had everything worked out.”
He laughed. “Yes, but this…I do believe this is better.”
Mariah held him closer and laid her head on his shoulder. Yes, this was much better. Now her parents approved—rather grudgingly, but without any misconceptions about the man she loved. Her father had taken Harry as his protégé, in a way, although Harry’s progressive ideas were already making Papa glower at him. Even Mama was beginning to succumb to Harry’s charm.
“This is everything I dreamed of,” she murmured, “that first night we spoke on the balcony.” Harry lifted his head and gave her a surprised look. Mariah nodded. “I did not know a thing about you, except that you were interesting. And that night, I wished—hoped—that perhaps you would be the man for me, the man I longed to meet and fall in love with.”
“That was my plan as well,” he said, making her laugh.
“I didn’t quite envision how it would proceed, of course.”
He brushed the hair from her face and studied her. “You are a rare woman, Mariah. I doubt any other lady in London would have suffered my scandalous visits, or my secrecy, or my impertinence…”
Mariah pulled him close again. “But I loved it all. And that is why we deserve each other. Forever and ever.”
About the Author
CAROLINE LINDEN knew from an early age she was a reader, but not a writer. Despite an addiction to Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew, she studied physics and dreamed of being an astronaut. She earned a math degree from Harvard College and then wrote software for a financial services firm, all the while reading everything in sight but especially romance. Only after she had children, and found herself with only picture books to read, did she begin to make up a story of her own. To her immense surprise, it turned out to be an entire novel—and it was much more fun than writing computer code. Now the author of five books, she lives with her family in New England. Please visit her online at www.carolinelinden.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Books by Caroline Linden
Love in the Time of Scandal
It Takes a Scandal
Love and Other Scandals
The Way to a Duke's Heart
Blame It on Bath
One Night in London
I Love the Earl
You Only Love Once
For Your Arms Only
A View to a Kiss
A Rake's Guide to Seduction
What a Rogue Desires
What a Gentleman Wants
What a Woman Needs
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A VIEW TO A KISS. Copyright © 2009 by P. F. Belsley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition DECEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061984877
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