by Debra Glass
Ralph’s eyes blazed in the dimly lit coach. “I saw you. I saw you. Do not lie to me.”
Sophia gulped. “I…I went out to get some air. I may have spoken to him in passing. Really, darling, I…I don’t know why you’re so upset.”
“Why I’m so upset?” he mocked her as he returned to his seat. He snorted. “You have thoroughly disgraced me. Everyone in England knows I’m marrying damaged goods. You’re not fit to be my wife any longer. You’re not fit to be any man’s wife.”
Sophia trembled with anger and fear. “Then, why…why are you marrying me?”
“Are you really that stupid?” he sneered.
Sophia remained silent.
Ralph laughed and the mirthless sound of it chilled Sophia to the core. “Your dowry,” he said as if she were a fool.
His words stung but she refused to give him the satisfaction of watching a single tear fall. A confession of the whole incident with Jack threatened to gush forth but she kept her tongue in check. It wouldn’t lessen her plight to sully Jack’s engagement.
“After I told you what a lothario he was, you still rushed to steal a moment alone with him,” Ralph chided. “Did a taste of forbidden fruit turn you into such a whore that you cannot see fit to wait until our wedding night?”
Sophia shrank with the realization that in one week she would be wedded to this cruel man. He would want to do the things with her that Jack had done.
Her stomach churned and she gagged.
“Is the thought of fucking me that reprehensible to you?” he asked.
She didn’t answer.
“Fear not. Once I get an heir on you, I’ll seek my pleasure elsewhere,” he continued.
So will I, Sophia thought dismally as the coach rolled to a stop outside her home. Outside, the footman scurried to pull down the steps. Sophia started to move toward the door but Ralph seized her wrist and squeezed so hard she winced despite the satisfaction she knew her discomfort gave him. “If you ever embarrass me again, I will kill you,” he seethed.
Sophia jerked her arm away from him and alighted from the coach. Shaking from head to toe, she hurried into the door a servant held open for her. She didn’t look back as she heard Ralph’s driver kiss to the horses. Her heart pounded as she gathered up her hem and raced up the stairs. How dare he!
She wanted to throw something. She wanted to cry. How could she ever go through with this marriage? She couldn’t bear the thought of that man doing to her the same things Jack had done.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped and leaned against the wall of the dimly lit hallway. No one was still up. The house was deathly quiet. But even in the stillness of the silence, Sophia felt hopelessly trapped.
Despite her circumstances, a shard of longing passed through her. What if Jack weren’t engaged? What if he wanted to marry her?
She was merely being foolish. That would never happen. Why would a man give up an engagement to a countess for a minor viscount’s daughter?
Forcing her feet to move again, she shuffled to her room. She dreaded ringing for her maid to come and undress her. The hour was so late and she hated to awaken Trixie, but Sophia saw no way to get out of her dress and corset without her.
She twisted the knob and stole inside intent on tugging the bell pull.
“Good evening,” a voice called from the shadows.
Sophia gasped. Her hand flew to her heart. “Jack!” she cried. “What are—”
He was across the room in an instant. “Hush,” he said as he crushed her in his arms.
His mouth sought hers, his lips prying, tasting, nipping. Sophia melted, clinging to his shoulders as he kissed her. Was this a dream? If it was, she never wanted to awaken. Her heart soared only to come crumbling back down around her. She pushed at the hard wall of his chest, finally breaking free.
“How did you get in here?” she asked breathlessly.
A rakish smile played on his lips. “Evidently your father doesn’t pay his staff well enough. They are not immune to bribery.”
“You’re awful,” she hissed, struggling to recall all the reasons she could not give in to her desires—to him. “Who do you think you are that you sneak into my very bedroom and…and—”
“Strip you naked and fuck you?”
At the seductive sound of his voice, her resolve wilted.
“That’s it, love,” Jack told her, stepping closer so that he could gaze into her eyes. His thumb grazed the line of her jaw. “Allow me this.”
She swallowed. Her body screamed at her to allow him anything he wanted. She couldn’t think. Everything that had happened tonight closed in on her. “W-why?” she managed to stammer.
“Why?” he asked, unfastening her gown. “Because I can’t get you out of my thoughts. Because the idea of spending another minute without you naked and in my arms is unthinkable to me.”
Her gown opened, revealing her corset and petticoat. She held her breath as the fine silk whispered down her shoulders. She made no move to stop him as he traced the lace-trimmed top edge of her corset with the tip of his finger. His eyes followed wherever he touched her. “Because I can’t let the sun rise before I taste your beautiful nipples or bury my cock in your luscious little—”
“Stop,” she protested. She needed to distance herself. The scent of him, his heat, his voice all combined to intoxicate her. “You’re engaged.”
“As are you,” he said, reaching behind her to deftly unlace her corset. The confining fabric discarded, he began untying the bow that held up her wide panniers.
Sophia didn’t need to be reminded of her engagement. Not now. This was foolish and risky but she could no longer stop herself. Her panniers fell down her legs as Jack claimed her mouth again.
Furiously, they pulled laces and tugged and unbuttoned until finally, Jack lifted her out of the pile of her clothes and carried her to the bed. Her body quivered as his naked form moved over her.
“Just once,” he said. “Just let me sate this desire and I’ll pleasure you until the sun comes up, Sophia.”
And then, before she could take her next breath, he was between her legs and inside her and Sophia thought she would die from the sheer heaven of completion. She buried her nails in his back and entwined her legs around his, rising beneath him to meet his deliberate thrusts. She couldn’t believe she was doing this in her own house, in her own bed. Jack was here and she was once more in his arms.
She dragged her knees up. The bed groaned as Jack’s groin smacked hers over and over until his face contorted and he withdrew, taking his cock in his hand. A ribbon of liquid unfurled, stretching all the way up to her shoulder as he finished with his hand.
Breathless, he collapsed beside her on the mattress. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She twisted onto her side and touched his face, raking her fingertips over the bristly stubble on his jaw. “Why?”
“I lose all control with you,” he said languidly. “I promise I will make it up to you.” He reached between her legs.
She caught his hand in hers “It’s all right. There’s time for that. Right now, I just want to feel your arms around me.”
Without hesitation, he enveloped her in an embrace. Sophia let out the breath she’d been holding.
“I wish this moment would never end,” she whispered against his skin.
He hugged her tighter in response.
“What’s happening between us?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“I don’t even know you and yet…I can’t stop thinking about you, about being with you,” she confessed.
“You do know that I would never have taken advantage of you had I not thought you were someone else,” he said.
She stared. He’d told her as much. She wanted to believe him. “You thought I was Lady Huntingdon.”
“Yes. For that I humbly apologize,” he said and laughed. “I met her at a masque last year and…that was about the time my father died.”<
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Sophia listened. She wished she’d known him then—before her engagement to Ralph. Before Jack’s to Hilda von Kesselring.
He continued. “I was rather reckless before I inherited the earldom.”
“You’re still reckless,” she said, tracing circles on his chest with her fingertip.
“Agreeing to dress up like a highwayman and abduct a woman out from under her husband’s nose was to be my last hurrah before marriage,” he said, chagrined. “You must have thought I was mad.”
“I suppose I did,” Sophia told him. “But I didn’t care. I, too, wanted to be reckless. Just that once.”
“Once, it appears, was not enough,” he said and smiled.
Sophia’s stomach turned a somersault. A million times would never be enough for me.
He sighed. “Now I find myself tediously managing my estate and dreading returning to the House of Lords.”
“What about the countess? Are you looking forward to the marriage?” Sophia couldn’t help but ask.
“I’ve never even seen her,” he said. “In fact, I’m not certain she even speaks English. My German is furchtbar at best.”
Sophia laughed. “It’s not horrible.”
He snorted. “I just can’t imagine listening to someone speaking German in the throes of passion.”
Sophia didn’t want to imagine Jack in the throes of passion with anyone else. “Do you ever think it’s terribly unfair that we, as aristocrats, are made to marry for position and title?”
“I’ve never questioned it,” Jack said.
“I hadn’t either—until that day on Hounslow Road.”
He pinned her with a stare as if he were gauging her veracity.
“You asked me if I wanted to marry Ralph,” she said. “You must have at least considered the possibility.”
“I was wrong to ask you that.”
“Why did you?” she prodded, dying to hear that he loved her, that he wanted her instead of his German countess.
“Sophia, you are engaged to a duke. Do you realize that you will be a duchess? That your children could one day be in line for the throne?” he asked.
“Is that the delicate way of saying I’m meant to be nothing more than a brood mare?” Renewed anger at the lack of control she had over her situation roiled.
“I haven’t considered it that way,” he said. “I suppose the trade is a life of comfort and leisure.”
Sophia shot up on one elbow and looked down at him. “Comfort? I’d rather be a happy farmer’s wife than be married to Lord Wisbech.”
Jack grimaced. “Oh, I forgot about him. He appears as if he pays more attention to fashion than most women but as far as faces go, he doesn’t look too ungainly.”
“That’s just it. He cares for no one but himself.”
Jack threaded his fingers into the thick hair at her temple. “As you said earlier, it is your duty to marry him.”
Sophia stared for a moment before she rested her head on his chest. “Why did you ask me if I wanted to marry him?” she inquired again, her voice muffled by his skin.
His chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “Ride me, love.”
“Answer my question.”
“I’ve already compromised you,” he said.
“Why, Jack?” She was adamant.
He flipped her onto her back and branded her neck and collarbone with kisses that threatened her very sanity.
“Stop,” she said unconvincingly. “Talk to me.”
Her hands wound into his thick hair as he moved to her breasts. He laved one nipple while he tugged the other one with possessive intent. Sophia arched into his touch. “Please answer me,” she mewled.
But his kisses were traveling farther down, across the sensitive plane of her stomach and lower to where he nudged his shoulders in between her thighs. Sophia’s protests died on her lips as his head descended and his tongue found her treasures.
The pleasure was too much to bear. She drew her knees up, allowing him to push them wide open until the muscles strained and burned. No place was sacred. He licked and suckled and prodded with his tongue until Sophia was a writhing mass willing to allow him anything he wanted.
Bliss crept closer, lurking just outside her reach. Moaning his name, she tugged his hair, holding his head captive where she wanted him the most. “Oh yes,” she gasped. “There. Don’t stop.”
His mouth latched onto her clitoris. His tongue vibrated over the keen little bud, bringing her closer and closer. A finger pushed its way into her channel to arouse her even further. Finding some magical spot, he tickled and teased and Sophia exploded.
Glorious vibrations undulated, glimmering from her center to the tips of her toes and fingers like a storm-driven tide. Still floating, she became vaguely aware of his kisses moving back up her body until he was inside her again. Thrusting. Holding. Kissing.
Senseless, Sophia clung. Still whirling, she realized he’d pulled out of her and pushed her hand down to where she gripped him to milk every last drop of his essence onto her stomach.
Awareness didn’t return until she felt his mouth at her ear. “I asked you if you wanted to marry him because I want you with me.”
Immense joy flooded Sophia. Her eyes flew open and she pushed at his shoulders until he lifted himself far enough up to look into her eyes. “You what?”
“When I thought you were Lady Huntingdon, I resigned myself to a life of clandestine meetings but when I discovered you were not yet married, I realized that we could be together,” he said.
Her heart soared. He wanted to marry her? “But how will I get out the contract with Lord Wisbech?” she asked.
“I will come forth. I will announce that I’ve compromised you.”
“My parents would be mortified,” she said, imagining their reactions.
“There’s no other way,” he said.
Sophia sighed. “My father worked so hard to get Ralph to uphold the contract after…after you abducted me. Papa even increased the dowry. Perhaps you could offer to accept a lesser dowry.”
Jack suddenly appeared stricken. His smile faded. “Oh, Sophia…I’ve misled you.”
A cold chill swept over her heart. She swallowed. “Misled me?”
“I…I wasn’t speaking of marriage. I’m contracted to Countess Hilda,” he said. “I was asking you to become my…my mistress.”
Hot tears pricked her eyes. A hard lump welled in her throat. Jack wasn’t asking her to marry him. Not at all. He was asking her to give up a lofty title to be his…whore.
She sucked in a faltering breath.
“I’m terribly sorry,” he said and tried to kiss her.
Sophia twisted her head away from him. “Leave.”
“Sophia?”
“Leave. Get out. It’s almost dawn. Someone will see you here,” she said, refusing to look at him.
For what seemed an eternity, he remained motionless but finally, the bed shook as he climbed out of it. Sophia turned onto her stomach and held her breath as he dressed and then disappeared through the servant entrance to her room.
Only when she was certain that he was gone, did she allow herself to give in to the tears. Although she’d been crushed by Jack’s declaration that he wanted her only for a mistress, a part of her had wanted to accept even that little part of life with him. The more reasonable part of her knew she could never bear sharing him with another woman—especially one that he would call his wife.
Marrying Ralph and tolerating his cruelty would be less of a punishment.
* * * * *
Jack found Armageddon where he’d left him tethered to a tree. After untying the reins, he swung into the saddle and dug his heels in. The horse galloped into the darkness.
It seemed every time he left Sophia he felt more and more an ass. Why did she seem to bring out the worst in him?
The sun crept up over the horizon, back lighting the woods and casting them in an eerie glow to which Jack was all but oblivious. He’d had no right to make su
ch a request of her. She was engaged to marry a duke. She wasn’t some shepherd’s daughter or even a lesser or impoverished aristocrat. She was a woman with a future—a future he’d nearly destroyed.
Did he not have any more self control than to slip into the bed chamber of an unmarried woman and ravage her?
She was right to order him out.
He’d tried to keep his mouth shut. He hadn’t wanted to tell her but right there with his spent cock still pulsating between them, the words had bubbled up out of his throat before he’d been able to stop himself.
His mistress.
He wanted to kick himself. Hard.
He hardly knew the woman. It wasn’t as if they were in love. Hell, he’d never been in love. But he knew well enough to realize that this was an infatuation. Perhaps after they were both married and had produced heirs, he would resume his seduction of Sophia.
But until then, he knew he had to do his damnedest to stay away from her.
Since the first time he’d kissed her on Hounslow Road, he’d been addicted to her, poisoned by her. No woman had ever consumed his thoughts or dictated his fantasies the way Sophia reigned over them.
He’d wanted to turn her over his knee, to dominate her into submission until she agreed to willingly become his mistress. He wanted to tie her hands, to spank her. God, how she loved that! No other woman had ever responded to him the way she did. It was as if she were as obsessed with him as he was with her.
Even now, he wanted to spin his horse around and ride straight back but he knew he couldn’t do that. As duty-bound as she was to marry Lord Wisbech, he was evenly obligated to Lady Hilda. Neither of them could shirk their commitments without severe repercussions.
As Armageddon trotted along, Jack hung his head. Sophia had thought he wanted to marry her. At the time, he hadn’t known that was what caused the look of joy in her eyes but…it had been genuine joy. She’d seemed truly thrilled at the prospect of becoming his wife.
“Well,” he mused aloud. “She’s young. She has a lot to learn. Lust does not a happy marriage make.”
But it never hurt.
Amidst all Jack’s other confusion there was one thing he knew for certain. He must forget all about Sophia Astley, for in a week’s time she would be married to another man.
