Maud finished her task and approached the door, announcing that she was going down to inform Lord Gyles of the attack on his daughter. “ ’E won’t take kindly what’s been done up ’ere, m’liedy. I can almost ’ear ‘im bellowin’ now.”
“Perhaps it would be wise if you told him beforehand that I haven’t actually been harmed,” Adriana cautioned. “He’ll be less likely to fly into a rage and make a scene in front of the guests if he has been assured that I’m all right. But whatever you do, don’t say anything to Mama, or she’ll be flying up here in a near faint. For the time being, just say that I’m not feeling at all well and won’t be down to bid farewell to the guests. Do you understand?”
“Aye, m’liedy. If’n it’s all the same ta yu, I’ll be lettin’ yur pa do the tellin’. Yur ma ‘as a way o’ gettin’ more outa me ‘an I means ta tell.”
By the time Colton returned to the bedchamber, Maud had already left on her unenviable mission. Adriana was now perched on the edge of her bed with his handkerchief pressed over her mouth as she tried desperately to muffle her harsh sobs. In gentle compassion Colton rested a hand upon her coat-shrouded shoulder. “Are you going to be all right?”
Embarrassed at being caught weeping, Adriana hurriedly wiped at her tears. “I will be once the shock of Roger’s attack ebbs.” Her breath fluttered outward in a lengthy sigh as a violent shudder shook her. “I’ve never been more frightened in my life than when I had to fight off his attack.”
“I told Maud that she should have Charles escort your father into the library before she breaks the news. At least, if he lets out a bellow of rage in the library, none of the guests will be able to hear him.”
Self-consciously, Adriana rose to her feet. “That was wise, of course. My father does have a temper, in spite of his efforts to deny it.”
“I’d better leave so you can get some clothes on before he comes up,” Colton murmured thickly, unable to resist flicking a glance beneath his coat again. As much as he had been appalled by Roger’s aggression, he knew well enough the goading lusts that could drive a man, especially when such a sublime feast of womanly perfection was nigh at hand. What he saw was exceedingly more than he could bear without suffering the throbbing pains of pent-up desires. “Your father won’t take it kindly if he finds me ogling you, especially after you’ve nearly been ravished.”
As she stared up at him, wide-eyed and vulnerable, Colton lifted both hands to the lapels of his coat. For a long moment, it seemed as if he stood on the threshold of the rest of his life as he struggled with an overwhelming desire to kiss her. As much as he yearned to caress a silken breast and press his hand upward between her thighs and make her groan with longing, he knew it would be a foul, dastardly thing to do in light of what Roger had tried to take from her, virtually an impossible one with her father coming posthaste. Yet she seemed so trusting, so willing . . .
It may have been the hardest thing he had ever done, but with a halting sigh, Colton pulled the lapels of his coat together, denying himself the solace he craved. Looking embarrassed, Adriana murmured an apology, making a belated attempt to secure her modesty, as if she considered herself at fault for not having done so sooner. Her chagrin gave him cause to wonder if she actually thought he didn’t desire her. If she only knew the unrelenting passion he had been struggling to subdue since his return home, she’d banish that idea posthaste. Indeed, he could hardly think of anything but his yearning to take her in his arms and to penetrate her sweet, womanly moistness.
“Dearest Adriana, do you have any idea what a temptation you have been to me tonight?” he breathed as he laid an arm about her shoulders and lowered his face into her sweetly smelling hair. “I want to touch you, love you, and have you respond to my ardor with all the passion you’re capable of exhibiting, but you’ve suffered a horrible shock tonight, and ‘twill take time for you to forget what Roger tried to do to you. Whatever comes from our courtship, please be confident that I care for you.”
She turned her face upward to look into his. Once again, their eyes melded as they had earlier, and he felt as if his heart were being drawn out of the cage he had erected around it. The yearning to hold her close seemed far beyond his ken, and yet, of a sudden, his arms were crushing her against him as his mouth plummeted downward to ensnare her lips with a fierce, consuming ardor, demanding, ravishing as his tongue delved in the sweet moistness of her mouth. His hand found its way beneath his coat and slid over a bare buttock. It was a sweet, rapturous delight, but as enjoyable as it was and as much as he could lose himself in the ecstasy of it, Colton knew it couldn’t continue, not when her parent could walk in and find her all but naked in his arms.
“I must go before your father finds us and mistakes me for the culprit,” he muttered huskily as he lifted his head, yet he seemed unable to leave her even then. He kissed her again with all the passion he had been holding in check, slanting his face across hers and greedily plying his tongue through the honeyed depths. He felt a convulsive shiver go through her, whether from fear or desire he could not tell, but some sanity returned at the thought that she might be afraid.
“I shouldn’t be doing this after what you’ve just been through,” he whispered raggedly, lifting his head. His eyes caressed her face almost hungrily. “I must leave. . . .”
Setting her from him abruptly, he strode toward the door, already feeling the agony of unrequited passion. Somehow he’d have to cool the lust gnawing at his very being and try to forget how soft, sweet, and enticing she had felt in his arms.
Adriana gasped. “Colton, your coat. . . .”
He turned in time to catch the garment in midair, and the last glimpse of Venus arrayed in nothing more than a few shreds of cloth left an impression that would haunt him mercilessly for weeks on end, oftentimes bringing him up from the depths of slumber in the agony of inflamed lust.
Thirteen
* * *
A pensive sigh slipped from Colton Wyndham’s lips as he approached the wide expanse of mullioned windows that provided a view of the rolling, partially forested countryside typical of the vast acreage included within his holdings and that which surrounded his ancestral home. Normally he would have reveled in the variety of wildlife that could be seen from the windows, but this morning he hardly noticed the pair of deer grazing in a distant field, the rabbits scurrying in the grass beyond the gardens, or the small flock of birds flitting to and fro outside the windows and around the eaves of the manor. As in recent weeks, he found himself once again beset by visions of Adriana elegantly garbed or in all manner of disarray, laughing, crying, sleeping, or awake, but always paramount in his imagination, enslaving his thoughts with her melodious siren’s song. Like some puckish sprite with dark, luminous eyes, she flitted in and out through the shadowed fringes of his mind, vexing his concentration no matter how meager or great the task in which he tried to involve himself. Though he had once thought himself immune to the subtle ploys of women, he had begun to suspect that he would never be free of Adriana, no matter the depths or heights he’d traverse or the continent to which he’d flee in a quest to seek his independence. Yet, as much as she ensnared his thoughts, he found his dreams even more daunting to his manly pride, for within them he seemed more her slave than conqueror, as she led him into fantasies no virginal maid could even imagine, much less instigate.
A month earlier, he had traveled to London to deal with matters relating to his marquessate, and he had thought while there he’d seek easement for his goading passions with Pandora and thereby thrust the younger woman out of his mind. More fool he to think he could escape the dark-haired beauty so easily. So preoccupied had he been with Adriana and the quandary in which he had become entrapped that he couldn’t even rally enough enthusiasm to visit Pandora, much less imagine his ardor could be stirred to any degree by the actress. And yet, that very same night, his musings had drifted back to that moment wherein he had found Adriana lying asleep in his bath, and his desires had risen full mast in a thric
e of a moment, and no amount of pacing had been effective in alleviating his goading lusts.
Colton groaned inwardly, recognizing the taut rope upon which he balanced. He had lost count of the months that had passed since he had last made love to a woman, definitely the better part of a year. If he didn’t find relief fairly soon for his manly needs, the pain he was experiencing would leave him a damned eunuch! He was sure of it!
What had his father done to him?
He halted suddenly, startled by the blame he readily cast elsewhere. His sire wasn’t at fault; it was his own doing. He could have rejected his parent’s edict, paid the Suttons remuneration for his affront, and claimed the right to choose whomever he pleased for a wife. And yet, he had been loath to walk away from the opportunity to test the strong attraction that seemed to bind his heart and mind to Adriana. It was she who had set her gentle hooks into him, making him virtually useless to other women.
By providing an escort in the form of Samantha and Percy, he had thought to get through their courtship without pressing his suit beyond acceptable measures. Being chaperoned in such a manner certainly kept him from getting too carried away and compromising the lady’s innocence. Unfortunately, the presence of his kin also caused him enormous frustration. More times than he cared to recall, he had found himself trying to subdue a strengthening urge to find a secluded niche private enough to kiss and caress the beauty until she could not withstand his ardent besiegement any longer and would yield to his manly persuasions. Any dark, secretive alcove would have seen him lifting her skirts and having his way with her.
Try though he did, he couldn’t thrust from mind her eager response to his kiss or her acquiescence to the possessive claim his hand had made on her buttock after Roger’s attack. He knew well enough that if ever he began fondling her again, there’d be no turning back.
So much for standing firm against his father’s edict. He was nothing more than a bleating lamb skipping merrily along toward his own slaughter!
Only one month remained of their courtship, and he didn’t even know if he’d be able to keep his hands off the lady long enough to allow a big wedding to be planned. The more they were together, the more he could foresee the risk of her standing potbellied with child before a rector.
Thus far, he had exerted every measure of restraint he had been capable of rallying in an effort to quell the procreative instincts that could goad a man and, with equal urgency, to revive that small shred of pride compelling him to stay true to his resolve and remain his own man. Even the thought of that idea had now become rather laughable. To be sure, what Adriana had managed to do with his perseverance in the last several weeks was no less than criminal. To wit: While shaving recently, he had nearly sliced his own throat, albeit accidentally, when it suddenly dawned on him what had been flaring through his brain, Courtship, be damned! Get on with the wedding and let the bedding be done!
Had he lost his wits? Did musings of that sort seem even remotely akin to what he was capable of thinking? He had never met a woman he couldn’t thrust easily from mind . . . that is, until he had returned home and realized the girl he had rejected years ago had become a dazzling beauty. As adamantly as he had revolted against the idea of accepting his father’s choice before his departure, it didn’t placate his pride one iota to realize that Adriana was swiftly becoming his choice.
Frustrated, he was. Of that, he had no doubt. No one, especially the lady, had any notion how much control he had to maintain over himself to keep from absconding with her.
That event would certainly raise a few eyebrows!
So, what was he to do? Continue on as if his vitals hadn’t been knotted up so tightly in his stomach that he wanted to groan in pain? It seemed as if the previously invincible gutstrings of his self-control were playing an entirely different tune lately, and he was sure if he listened closely enough, he’d hear amid the chaotic rhythm presently vexing his manly mood the distant tolling of wedding bells, all because of a beautiful, charming, heroic young woman with whom he was falling deeply in love.
Lord Randwulf and the Burkes have arrived, my lady,” the butler announced after Maud had let him into his young mistress’s bedchamber. “They’re awaiting your presence in the vestibule. Shall I show them into the drawing room?”
“No need, Charles. Please inform them that I’ll be down directly. I won’t be but a moment more.” Adriana swept a hand toward the chaise where Maud had laid out her red velvet cloak. “Would you be so kind as to take my wrap down with you please, Charles?”
“Yes, my lady.” The servant smiled. Of the three Sutton siblings, only the Lady Adriana voiced her requests with such sweetly appealing pleas.
As the steward left and Maud busied herself with setting the chambers in order, Adriana rose from her dressing table and retrieved the Christmas present she had made for the elderly Samuel Gladstone. She had every hope the fleece-lined velvet stocking cap would be effective not only in keeping the old man warm during the cold nights ahead, but in warding off maladies that could very well weaken his valiant spirit and aging body. He was such a treasure to the people of the town and the area encompassing it that she had no doubt that he’d be sorely missed if he were to expire.
It wasn’t until Maud glanced around that Adriana realized she had heaved another troubled sigh. It seemed she had been doing that much too frequently of late, but as in the past, it failed to ease her pensive mood.
“Is all well wit’ yu, m’liedy?” the older woman inquired worriedly.
“Of course, Maud,” she replied, hoping to ease the servant’s concerns. Heartening herself, however, would be a different matter entirely. As much as Colton had escorted her to this or that affair during the past two months, it had always been in the company of others. It seemed a convenient way for him to provide evidence that he was doing nothing untoward during this three-month tenure. At its conclusion, she fully expected him to announce that he had paid his full due to his father’s edict and had decided he preferred freedom over marriage with her. The Burkes’ verification of his gentlemanly comportment would give him an easy, viable escape. That gloomy prospect weighed down her spirits perhaps as nothing else had ever done. What else could she believe except that Colton Wyndham wanted to be free of her forevermore?
Enough of this! Adriana mentally chided herself and gathered together the ragged shreds of her tenacity. If Colton dismissed her from his life, then surely she’d be better off without him, for she’d be loath to marry a man who didn’t want her. Getting over the hurt, however, would prove an horrendous ordeal, but given enough time, she’d eventually manage. She had certainly survived his first rebuff; she would endure the second. Still, she had never known how much her heart could be moved by a man until Colton had come back into her life. Their courtship had caused her moments of painful confusion, yet, just as often, pleasure that lightened her heart and made it soar. Merely being with her handsome courtier had done much to enlighten her as to the many delights to be found in a relationship between a man and a woman. Even small deeds seemed much more evocative when he performed them, such as when he pulled her arm through his and escorted her here or there. To see the smile that normally followed such services seemed to lift her whole being on airy wings.
Colton’s gallantry had been sweepingly evident even at the commencement of their courtship. The Sunday following the Autumn Ball, he had arrived at Wakefield Manor in the afternoon to formally initiate it. With a grin reminiscent of his boyish years, he had presented her with a lavish bouquet of flowers, admitting somewhat sheepishly that a servant had collected them from the conservatory, albeit with Philana’s permission. That unexpected awkwardness in so stalwart a man had touched her in ways she had never known possible.
Faced with the prospect of having every word he uttered in the manor being overheard by her parents, he had invited her to take a stroll with him through the gardens, which in late October had certainly not been at their best. Yet she had readily concurred, knowing
there’d be enough of a nip in the chilled breezes to redden her nose and cheeks and disguise the blushes that were wont to sweep into her cheeks whenever she recalled not only her lack of clothing when he had kissed her the night after Roger’s attack, but her yearning to have him hold and comfort her.
The lofty hedges surrounding Wakefield gardens had afforded them cozy places of privacy, and her tensions had begun to ease soon after he had engaged her in conversation. Until that moment, Adriana had never realized what a complex individual Colton had become. He had talked candidly about his experiences in the military, and, in subtle ways, confirmed his streak of independence. During his military career, he had had several unexpected confrontations with the enemy wherein he had been forced to improvise and make decisions contrary to orders he had been issued rather than see his men needlessly slain. No one after hearing his stories could doubt his self-sufficiency, and she had felt honored that he had revealed things about himself that he hadn’t been inclined to tell his own kin, much of which had had to do with the rift he had caused by his departure from home and the difficulty in coping with the horrendous emptiness of his loss and his separation from his family. After being sent to Africa, however, he had been too busy to think of home and what he had left behind, and much of his remorse had faded from conscious thought.
When he had recounted humorous incidents that had happened during his career as an officer, Adriana had found herself laughing beyond measure at his tales and, in every respect, enjoying their repartee. He had a relaxed, compelling manner about him, and what seemed even more admiring in her estimation was the fact that he was capable of laughing at himself and openly jesting about his idiosyncrasies. Those he mentioned seemed far more charming than vexing. In short, she found him a truly remarkable individual, the sort she’d have chosen to marry had she been given a chance to make the selection herself.
The Reluctant Suitor Page 36
