by Alice Kirks
Chapter 30
Lord Geoffrey was finally having the first peaceful, dreamless sleep he’d had in a very long time when he was suddenly awoken by a soft knocking on his bedroom door. He sleepily opened his eyes and let out an audible grumble. He figured that the person behind the door was Miles coming to get some other sort of revenge against him, and he was furious that his brother was disturbing such a heavenly sleep.
Geoffrey decided to ignore the knocking and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head. He tried to force himself to go back to sleep, but seconds later there was another knock. Geoffrey grabbed the spare pillow beside him and put it over his head in a final attempt to drown out the knocking sound, but when he heard the pounding for a third time he knew there was no point in trying to go on with ignoring it.
And so Geoffrey threw back the covers, yanked himself out of bed, plodded over to the door as he angrily rubbed his eyes, and whispered, “Miles, I should have you strung up by your toes for bothering me this late at night, you scoundrel!” Geoffrey finally reached the door, kicked the clothes that were blocking it out of the way, pulled it open and...
Lady Bridget was standing in front of him, looking positively radiant. “I should hope that you would not refer to me as ‘Miles’ when I come to visit you like this, Lord Geoffrey,” Lady Bridget said seductively.
Geoffrey’s eyes widened. Bridget was leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed in front of her chest. She wore a sly smile on her face, and looked very proud of herself. She had every reason to be: she was standing in front of Lord Geoffrey wearing nothing more than her undergarments.
Geoffrey could feel his heart beginning to race at the sight of her. “L...Lady Bridget, what an unexpected p...pleasure,” Geoffrey stuttered. He cursed his mouth for betraying his startled feelings, and stepped back to allow her into his room. “I did not think you would want to see me after the disagreement that we had the other day.”
Bridget strode into the room and did not look at Geoffrey. She went over and sat on the side of his bed, and when she did, the skirt of her chemise came up dangerously high on her leg. Geoffrey concentrated very hard on Bridget’s face so that he did not look down at what he so desperately wanted to see, for he knew how improper that would be.
But would it really be all that improper if Bridget was coming to visit him in his room dressed like this, this late as night? Geoffrey shook his head to get that idea out of his mind. No matter what Bridget showed up wearing or how late it was, it was not up to Geoffrey to decide what Bridget’s intentions were. He was going to be respectful and gentleman-like no matter what she was clothed in.
Bridget smiled mischievously at Geoffrey. “To tell you the truth,” she cooed, “I did not want to come and see you at all tonight. But then I was lying in my bed, thinking about you, and I decided that I needed to come here to... see about something.”
Geoffrey felt his palms becoming moist, and so he nonchalantly rubbed them along his thighs. “You did?” he asked naively. What exactly did you decide you needed to see me about?”
Bridget leaned forwards and put her elbows on her knees and looked innocently up at Lord Geoffrey. It took all of the willpower that Geoffrey had to not look down at Bridget’s heaving chest, which was dangling enticingly right before his very eyes.
He reminded himself of who he was, what he stood for, and that he was not going to do anything to Bridget that she did not explicitly say she wanted him to do. “You haven’t been able to guess anything from what I decided to wear this evening?” Bridget asked. “I thought that my thin chemise and my short bodice might have... suggested something to you.”
Geoffrey took a deep breath and brought a chair to sit in right across from Bridget. “I thought that you had perhaps had an accident on your way over to my estate that required you to remove your gown,” he explained, trying to avoid Bridget’s temptation. “I did not want to assume anything until you told me exactly why you had come...” Geoffrey trailed off, and then looked out of the window.
Bridget’s carriage was not sitting outside his front door as far as he could see, and there was no horse hitched that she could have ridden over. “By the way, however did you come to be here this evening?” he asked. “I cannot see what you rode over on.”
Suddenly Bridget’s hand was on Geoffrey’s cheek, and she pulled his face towards her. “You do not need to concern yourself with that, my darling,” she purred, and as Geoffrey gazed upon her gorgeous face he found himself becoming increasingly distracted by her breathtaking beauty. “The only thing that I’d like to be riding tonight is certainly not a horse,” she finished.
Something stirred inside of Geoffrey when she said that, and he knew that he needed to move away from her so that his arousal did not become... obvious. “I can’t imagine what you could mean, Lady Bridget,” Geoffrey said, evading her insinuating remark. He got up and moved towards the window, where he could have his back to her but still look as though he was paying attention to her. When he got standing in front of it, he relaxed slightly. Now Bridget would not be able to see the effect that her words had on him.
Then, Geoffrey heard Bridget get up from the bed and walk softly across the carpet towards him. He felt her front pressing up against his back, and when he felt her warmth upon him, his knees very nearly buckled. He was not sure what had got into Bridget tonight, but he was certainly happy that she was here.
Bridget wrapped her hands around Geoffrey’s mid-section and said, “I’m sure that if you set your imagination run free, you might understand my meaning slightly better...” Bridget let one of her hands skim down the front of Geoffrey’s lower abdomen, until it was resting right below his belly button. Geoffrey tried to resist Bridget, but he knew that if she touched him right where he wanted her to then it would take everything in his power not to throw her onto the bed and make love to her.
“Bridget...” Geoffrey whispered breathlessly, still facing the window, “You know that I want you, and I know that you want me, but shouldn’t we wait until-”
“Shhhhhh,” Bridget interrupted Geoffrey, putting her finger to his lips. “We do not have to wait for anything or anyone... unless you don’t want to?” Bridget withdrew her hands from around Geoffrey’s abdomen and walked away from him.
Geoffrey’s thoughts raced. He whipped around and faced Bridget, who had her arms crossed in front of her chest and was looking very displeased with him. “Bridget...” he began, “yes, I want you to stay, and yes, of course I want to... but I also know that it would be a bad idea for the both of us if we were to do it.”
Bridget arched an eyebrow at Geoffrey and took a few steps towards him. “And what would be so bad about it?” she asked.
As Geoffrey tried to answer, Bridget put her lips against his neck and began slowly kissing him. The feeling of her lips on him was almost too much for Geoffrey to handle. He tried to force his thoughts to the forefront of his mind, but all he could focus on was Bridget’s tongue which was now tracing patterns up and down his neck. “Well...” Geoffrey tried to begin, “I think that it is a bad... bad idea because... think of what we’ve had to go through so far together... making love to you right now would only make things... make things...”
“Better?” Bridget finished for him as she gazed up at him. “Because the more you tell me what a bad idea this would be, the more I want to do it.” Bridget had finished teasing Geoffrey by kissing his neck, and was now trying to undo the buttons of his night shirt.
He looked down at her and watched as she struggled for a few moments. Then, when she’d got three buttons undone, Geoffrey pulled away from her and turned his back on her. “Bridget, this really is not a good idea for us,” Geoffrey tried to explain once more, but his thoughts felt so clouded by his desire for her that he could barely think straight. He turned back around to her, and saw to his surprise that she had started undoing the lacing on her bodice. It seemed that she had given up on trying to undress him, and was now just going to undr
ess herself in front of him.
When Bridget looked up from what she was doing and saw Geoffrey’s eyes on her, she gave him a wicked smile. “I know, I know. I have thought of every ramification that might come about if we were to do this, and I have decided that I am fine with all of them,” she said decidedly.
By this time, Bridget had got her bodice almost completely undone and the way that it was hanging off her almost allowed Geoffrey to see her breasts. He allowed his eyes to wander downwards for a moment, but then remembered himself and looked back up into Bridget’s eyes. When she noticed him looking, she pulled the lacing a bit more and the bodice fell to the ground. Bridget was now standing almost completely exposed to Geoffrey.
He could feel his breathing becoming heavier, and his brow was moist with sweat. Geoffrey knew that his desires would not allow him to deny Bridget for much longer, and so he knew he had to make a decision. If Bridget stayed, they were most certainly going to make love. If Geoffrey got Bridget to leave, they would not make love.
He began thinking about all of the reasons why they shouldn’t be joined together like this, and there were many. If word of this got out, this kind of a scandal would be the end of both of their families’ good reputations. Plus, if he and Bridget were to make love, news of that in addition to his family’s previous thieving scandal would be... disastrous.
However, Bridget was the woman that Geoffrey wanted to marry, in spite of the disagreement they’d had the other night. They could simply make love now, and then become engaged quickly, and no one would be the wiser.
That sounded like a very enticing option for Geoffrey, because it gave him both of what he wanted: Lady Bridget’s body right now, and Lady Bridget’s love for the rest of his life. He decided to proposition this and see what Bridget thought.
“Lady Bridget,” Geoffrey began, taking a few slow steps towards her.
“Yes?” Bridget asked innocently, batting her eyelids at him.
“If we were to... be together...” he said.
“I like the sounds of this train of thought,” Bridget encouraged him.
“And then we were to make things right so that we could be together for the foreseeable future...” Geoffrey continued, his voice shaking slightly when he said ‘be together’.
“I would certainly be agreeable to that,” Lady Bridget said confidently.
Geoffrey stopped walking and stared at her. “You... you would?” he asked, dumbfounded.
Any slyness or mischievousness had disappeared from Bridget’s face entirely, and she was now looking upon Geoffrey with genuine adoration. “Yes,” Bridget said, “of course I would. Why do you think I came here tonight? I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I don’t want to waste another minute waiting for the rest of my life to start!”
Geoffrey was overcome with emotion, and so he took two big strides towards Bridget, swept her into his arms, and kissed her passionately. Bridget kissed him back and with as much enthusiasm. She wrapped her arms around his neck and Geoffrey squeezed her tightly around her midsection as their lips met over and over. Her mouth was so invitingly soft and warm that Geoffrey could have kissed her for the rest of his life.
With Bridget still in his arms, Geoffrey walked over to the side of the bed. He slowly lowered her down onto it, and when he pulled away and saw her lying there with her nearly sheer chemise askew on her, her hair splayed out romantically on the bed and her mouth upturned in a delightfully wicked smile, Geoffrey knew that he had made the right decision.
“Now, my lady.... will you allow me to make love to you?” Geoffrey asked Bridget. She nodded emphatically, and Geoffrey finally allowed himself to fully take in Bridget’s body. Through her chemise, he could see the gentle slope of her breasts and the beautiful redness of her nipples that were poking up at the fabric. He looked further down her body, and saw that her chemise had fallen in such a way that all Geoffrey would have had to do was move it ever so slightly up and it would reveal the area of Bridget that Geoffrey so longed to plunge into.
They kissed again, and Geoffrey crawled on top of Bridget and ran one hand under her chemise. He did not touch her in the spot that he so longed to, though, for he was waiting until he drew back the fabric in order to see it. Bridget let out a quiet moan, and Geoffrey knew that it was time for him to act.
He pulled away from Bridget’s lips, looked down at her and asked, “Could I remove your chemise?” Bridget nodded once again, and just as Geoffrey reached down to pull up her thin covering...
He woke up.
Geoffrey was lying in his bed once more, and blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the bright morning light that was fighting its way through the curtains. He looked around, and tried to discern what had just happened. Had he dreamed that whole encounter? Had Bridget come to see him at all last night? Had they discussed being together in more ways than one?
Geoffrey checked to see if the chair that he thought he had pulled up in front of his bed to talk to Bridget was in the place he remembered it being, but saw that it was sitting in its normal position in front of his desk. He looked down at the carpet and saw that it had not been ruffled in any way since he had gone to bed last night, and his clothes from yesterday still lay in front of the door, which meant that it hadn’t been opened.
Geoffrey sat up and sighed. “I must have dreamed it all,” he said out loud to himself disappointedly. The most unsatisfactory part of his dream, of course, was that it had ended right when they were about to do what he and Bridget both wanted. This meant that he had woken up with a problem between his legs that required a solution... and quickly.
As soon as Geoffrey had taken care of the problem himself, there was a knock at the door. Geoffrey scrambled to make himself presentable and called, “Yes?”
“Sorry to interrupt your slumber, My Lord,” came the voice of one of his servants from the hall, “but there is an invitation here from a Lady Deborah.”
Geoffrey’s eyes widened with delight. “Yes, coming!” he said, rushing out of bed and over to the door. He yanked it open just wide enough so that he could grab the invitation off the platter the servant had, and then shut it quickly again. “Thank you, Percival, you are excused.”
“Very good, My Lord,” Percival said, and then Geoffrey heard the gentleman retreating down the hall.
Geoffrey looked down at the invitation he held in his hands. It was a white slip of parchment with beautiful writing on it. It read: “You are cordially invited to a summer picnic at the Stanhope Estate on Thursday, the fifth of June. Please wear attire appropriate for outdoor games and dancing.”
Geoffrey smiled to himself. This was the perfect excuse to see Bridget again and apologise for the cruel things he had said to her the other night. He was determined to make things right between them, and make his dream from last night come true.
Chapter 31
One afternoon not too long after Bridget and Lord Alymer had had their discussion together, she was sitting outside in the garden reading a new book. The sun was slightly hidden by some clouds, which was a welcome relief to Bridget who burned very, very easily.
She had been excited to escape into her new book all week, and had finally found an afternoon that was free of any obligations. As she sat on the side of one of the fountains and read, Bridget thought to herself how grateful she was that she was able to partake in an afternoon as lovely as this one.
However, only a few minutes after Bridget had really settled into reading, Deborah came racing out of the house waving eagerly to her younger sister.
“Bridget!” Deborah said excitedly as she hurried over to her. “I have just had the most wonderful idea!”
Bridget let out a silent sigh, bade farewell to the rest of her uninterrupted afternoon and looked over to Deborah. She lay down the book that she was reading and looked up at her sister, smiling. “Whatever could it be, sister?” she asked. She was, of course, disappointed that she would no longer get to read her book, but she was
utterly delighted to see Deborah so happy.
Deborah finally came and sat down beside her, and put her hands on her sister’s knees. “What do you think about inviting the Nott brothers here to have a picnic with us?” Deborah asked.
