“My lovely Lynette,” he said, his words little more than a whisper upon her skin as he dipped his head and drew one of her breasts into the hot, sweltering cavern of his mouth. “How long I have waited to do this.”
Nearly driven to the point of madness by his slow, endless assault on her sensitive flesh, Lynette writhed beneath him as he slowly moved to her other breast while his hand made a steady descent down, down, down to the source of the pressure building steadily inside of her.
The first brush of his hand against her dark, wet curls caused her hips to jolt straight off the mattress and she felt more than heard his soft, amused chuckle.
“Like that, do you?”
“Very – very much so,” she gasped, only to gasp again when he steadily slid one finger into her tight, clenching sheath.
Stretching up the length of her trembling body, he continued to softly stroke her with his finger, readying her entrance to accept his hard, hot length in its entirety.
As she mentally prepared herself with what was to come Lynette could not help but tense, but with gentle, soothing words and light, suckling kisses Nathaniel eased her back to a state of languid tranquility before he withdrew his hand and began to slide his cock inside of her.
He groaned, hands sinking into the mattress on either side of her head as he struggled to control his ardor. The effort it took caused a sheen of perspiration to gleam high on his temple, and in an attempt to soothe him as he’d soothed her she gently pushed his hair to the side, her face filled with wonderment and only the smallest twinge of pain as he sheathed himself to the hilt.
“God, you are so damn tight,” he moaned against her neck.
Beneath him Lynette remained perfectly still as she wondered if this was it…until he began to move, gliding in and out of her body in a sinuous dance as old as time itself.
“Oh.” Her eyes widened as her hands went to his back, nails curling into muscle and sinew. “Oh my.”
When he’d first filled her, Lynette had felt a distinct uncomfortableness. Not pain, precisely, but nor had it been pleasure. But as he slowly slid in and out, an unknown pressure began to build inside of her…one that crested higher and higher and higher still as she began to meet him thrust for thrust, tentatively at first and then with more confidence when he growled her name and threw his head down, back bowing beneath her hands.
Their lips met, tongues gliding in and out in tandem with their bodies as they raced together towards an invisible peak.
With a muffled cry Lynette reached it first. Her arms convulsed around Nathaniel, drawing him tightly against her breasts as her core tightened and quivered as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her.
Quick to follow her spiraling ascent, her husband arched above her as he came, his green eyes as bright as she’d ever seen them.
When it was done he tended to her body, making her blush all different shades of pink and red as he drew her a bath and gently washed the remnants of their lovemaking from her sensitive flesh.
“There,” he said gruffly, wrapping her an oversized towel that dwarfed her tiny frame. “How do you feel?”
“Wonderful,” Lynette sighed. “Absolutely wonderful.” Smiling up at her husband with stars in her eyes and love on the tip of her tongue, she opened her mouth to tell him all of her previous doubts about their relationship had been completely erased, but before she could do so she somehow found herself across the hall and back in her own chambers.
“You – you do not wish to stay with me?” she asked in bewilderment when he made as though to step through the door. How could he touch her so gently, make love to her so passionately, treat her so kindly, and still walk away as though she meant nothing to him?
His expression inscrutable, he glanced at her over his shoulder and gave a curt shake of his head. “I sleep best alone. Goodnight, Lynette.”
“Goodnight,” she echoed softly, although it was a long, long while before she slept.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Four Weeks Later
As the days passed and the leaves turned from green to red to gold, Lynette was content as Nathaniel’s wife. But as she was slowly coming to discover, contentment was not the same as happiness.
She had everything she could have ever asked for and even more than that. A beautiful estate in the country. More dresses and gowns than she could have ever possibly worn. Enough jewelry to satisfy a queen. And yet...and yet she couldn’t help feeling as though something was missing. Something that couldn’t be bought. Something that had to be given freely.
The love of a husband.
She knew Nathaniel cared for her in his own way. How could he make passionate love to her every night and not feel anything? They said with their bodies what they were both afraid to say with their words, but Lynette was tired of being one person under the cold silvery light of the moon and another beneath the warm glow of the autumn sun.
Every morning when she awoke in her bed and found the pillow empty beside her, the place inside of her heart that should have been filled with love and hope grew a little more hollow.
She loved Nathaniel. There was no use denying it any longer. There had been sparks between them from the very beginning, and she suspected that a part of her had fallen in love with him the first time they’d kissed.
Even when she’d disliked him she’d love him, and she was now ready to admit – to herself, if not to him – that she had fallen in love with her husband beyond reason. Beyond expectation. Beyond even her wildest dreams.
But to love and not be loved in return…
It was, she mused as she slowly drew an ivory comb through her long, tangled curls, the worst type of starvation.
Her body may have been well fed, but her soul...her soul was slowly withering.
A sudden knock at the door turned her head and caused a flutter of anticipation inside of her chest. “Come in,” she said, hoping against hope it would be her husband standing on the other side of the heavy wooden door…
“Are you ready to go yet?” Already fully clothed in a lovely blue muslin morning dress with tiny white roses embroidered on the skirt, Temperance sashayed into the room. “Delilah is downstairs in the parlor with her nose in a book, but she is ready to - what is wrong?” Possessing a sister’s intuition that told her something was amiss despite Lynette’s forced smile, Temperance’s mouth darted into a frown as she closed the door firmly behind her. “Well?”
“Nothing.” Hastily blinking back the tears that had begun to creep through her lashes, Lynette set her comb down and stood up. “Absolutely nothing.”
A short lock of hair tumbled into Temperance’s eyes as her head canted to the side. “Why is it I do not believe you?”
“I haven’t any idea.” Using a green silk ribbon that matched her dress, Lynette twisted her curls into a tidy bun at the nape of her neck. “There,” she said with feigned brightness. “I am ready.”
There was a fair at the local village today, complete with acrobats and trick riders and vendors selling off their wares before the ton abandoned the tranquil countryside for the social whirlwind of a London season.
“Is it Nathaniel?” Stubbornly refusing to let the matter drop until she had a satisfactory answer, Temperance held her ground when Lynette would have gone straight for the door. “Has he done something? Are you quarreling?”
“No.” Lynette shook her head. “We are not quarreling.”
“Then what is it?”
She averted her gaze to the side. “Delilah and Annabel are waiting for us downstairs.”
“Delilah is so absorbed in her book she does not even know what day it is and Annabel is walking that damned dog. Honestly, if I did not know any better I would think that beast was a hellhound! It got into my stocking drawer again and dragged them all about the bedroom and down the hall. They’re completely ruined. Look!” Lifting the hem of her dress, she revealed tidy brown ankle boots and white stockings with tiny puncture marks in them. “It never bothers with D
elilah’s things.”
A reluctant smile curved Lynette’s mouth. “Most likely because Delilah does not refer to Mr. Humphrey as an ‘it’.”
“Yes well if it doesn’t start minding his manners soon it is going to have a rude awakening!”
Knowing Temperance’s vehement dislike for Delilah’s beloved pet – for he was now more Delilah’s than he ever had been hers - was all bluster, Lynette said, “If Mr. Humphrey was drowning in the pond you would be the first one to jump in and save him. You are not fooling anyone, Temperance, least of all me.”
Her sister made a face. “Maybe not, but you are not fooling me either. What is it, Nettie? When I came in you looked so excited at first, and then so very disappointment when you saw it was me. You were hoping it was Nathaniel knocking on your door, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” Lynette admitted in a whisper. “Yes, I was. Oh, Temperance.” Fighting back a wave of fresh tears, she hugged her arms around herself and sat down on the edge of her bed. “I’ve done it. I’ve fallen completely and irrevocably in love with my husband. And he does not feel the same way about me. This marriage…” She pulled blindly at a stray quilt thread. “This marriage was a mistake.”
“I know this is not the right thing to say at a moment like this, but I’ve neither your subtlety nor Delilah’s charm so I am going to say it.” She waited a beat. “I told you so.”
Mustering a watery laugh, Lynette dabbed at the corners of her eyes. “You did, didn’t you? And I should have listened.”
“No.” Sitting down beside her, Temperance wrapped her arm around Lynette’s back and squeezed. “You did the right thing, Nettie. Accepting Nathaniel’s proposal, bringing us here, marrying him...it was the right thing to do.”
“Then why does it feel so wrong?” Two tears rolled slowly down her cheeks as she rested her head on Temperance’s supportive shoulder. “It hurts, Temperance. Loving someone who doesn’t love you in return...it hurts.”
“I imagine it does. Fortunately, you are married to someone who does love you.”
“Nathaniel doesn’t love me,” she said in a small, muffled voice.
“Of course he does,” Temperance scoffed. “He merely doesn’t have the good sense God gave him to tell you so, but it is written all over his face every time he looks at you. You’re simply too blind to notice.”
Blinking at the insult, Lynette lifted her head. “I am not blind,” she said defensively. “I - I see the way he looks at me, but it is not what you are thinking. He...he enjoys my company in bed, but out of it...out of it he treats me will all the cordiality one would a stranger.”
“And how do you treat him? Exactly the same,” Temperance said before Lynette could answer. “You are two peas in the same pod and one of you is going to have to hop out if you have any hope at finding what you are looking for.”
“Do you mean tell him how I feel?”
“Tell him how you feel? No.” Looking aghast at the very idea, Temperance pushed off the mattress and stood up as a flicker of irritation passed over her countenance. “Haven’t you been listening to a word I have said?”
“I have, but-”
“If you want Nathaniel to appreciate what he has, you need to show him what he stands to lose. You need to leave him,” she clarified when Lynette stared at her in mute bewilderment. “You need to leave your husband.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lynette walked through the village fair in a cloudy daze. Although she saw the acrobats and the bareback riders and the vendors hawking everything from beautiful floral arrangements to wriggling piglets, her mind was elsewhere.
Thankfully, neither Delilah nor Annabel seemed to notice. Running to and fro with a child’s delight, they devoured sugary treats by the handful and purchased anything they could carry, no matter how unnecessary or nonsensical it was.
“Look at this!” Holding up a silk fan, Delilah popped it open and waved it enthusiastically in Lynette’s face. “There are ducks on it.”
“I see that, dear.” Gently pushing the fan away from her nose, Lynette forced herself to smile, refusing to let her lingering melancholy ruin the festive mood. “What a wonderful find. Annabel, what do you have?”
“It is called a look behind.” Nathaniel’s sister proudly held up a rectangular piece of glass that had a string dangling from the top of it as though it were some sort of ornate necklace. “They’re all the rage, you know. I just got the last one!”
“How...lovely. Do you wear it?”
“Wear it?” Annabel giggled. “No, of course not! It goes in your carriage.”
“Where did you get that?” Coming up beside Lynette, Temperance pointed at the mirror dangling from Annabel’s right hand. “And who sold it to you?” she demanded as her eyes flashed an ominous shade of bronze.
Oblivious to the sudden tension radiating from Temperance’s body, Annabel pointed cheerfully over her shoulder at a long line of colorful tents. “Over there. The blue one in the middle. The man who sold it to me was quite nice.” She grinned. “Handsome, too. And an American!”
“I will be right back,” Temperance said abruptly before she stormed away in the direction of the tents, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
“What was that about?” Lynette asked with a blink.
“I suspect it has something to do with Mr. Jacobson,” said Delilah cheerfully. Refolding her duck fan, she tucked it inside her reticule before she shaded her eyes against the sun and peered at a nearby table filled with an assortment of pies, scones, and sweet breads. “Are you hungry? Because I am starving.”
“Me too!” Annabel exclaimed.
Distracted by Temperance’s peculiar behavior, Lynette frowned. “Mr. Jacobson...Mr. Jacobson…” The name sounded so familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Mr. Jacobson was the one who brought Temperance and I home,” Delilah supplied helpfully.
Yes, that was it. But it did not explain why Temperance had marched over to his booth with fire in her eyes! “Delilah, did something happen between your sister and Mr. Jacobson that I do not know about?”
“Happen?” Delilah wrinkled her nose in thought. “I do not believe so.”
“Well...do you think I should go after her? She appeared rather upset.”
“After who? Tempy? No,” said Delilah when Lynette nodded. “I think whatever she has to say to Mr. Jacobson would be best spoken in private. Oh!” she squealed suddenly, clapping her hands together.
“What?” Lynette asked in alarm. “What is it?”
“They have pudding!”
When the village fair was finally over and done, Lynette’s mood had done little to improve, Delilah was filled to the gills with sweets and complaining about a stomachache, and Temperance had stormed off to her room the second they’d returned to Dunhill without so much as a word of explanation.
Knowing better than to try to get an explanation out of Temperance when she was in such an agitated state, Lynette focused instead on poor Delilah. “Here sweetling,” she said, holding out a glass of water which her sister readily accepted. “Drink this. It will help dilute some of the sugar. You shouldn’t have eaten so much, you know.”
Drinking the water in three thirsty gulps, Delilah set the glass down on her bedside table before she collapsed onto her pillow and threw an arm across her face. The last lingering rays of sunlight danced across her cheeks, highlighting her freckles. “I know,” she moaned miserably. “But it all tasted so good.”
“Sometimes the worst ideas seem like the best at the time,” Lynette said cryptically as she thought of Nathaniel. Picking up the empty glass, she held it in both hands against her chest as her gaze flicked to the window. “Would you like me to close the curtains?”
“No, leave them open.” Delilah struggled to sit up on her elbows. “I like to watch the sun as it sets.”
“Very well. Is there anything else you need? More water?”
Delilah shook her head. “No thank you.”
�
��Then I will leave you alone so you can rest.” Bending down, she pressed a chaste kiss to her sister’s forehead. “Sleep well, little duck.”
“Nettie,” Delilah called out when Lynette was nearly at the door.
“Yes?” she asked, turning halfway around.
“Are you going to see him?”
“See who, sweetling?”
“Nathaniel.”
How was it, Lynette wondered, that her sister’s seemed to always know what she was about to do even before she did? “Yes, I am.”
“I like him very much, but he is not like us, is he?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Delilah said, drawing the word out, “he’s a bit more closed off, isn’t it? There is a word for it but I cannot quite… Guarded!” She snapped her fingers together. “Nathaniel is guarded. Do you think it is because of his brother? The one who ruined your reputation?”
“Adam?” Lynette’s brow furrowed. “Why would Nathaniel be guarded because of Adam?”
“Oh, I do not now,” Delilah shrugged. “It was simply something I have been thinking about. But now I am too tired to think at all. Good night, Nettie. I love you.”
“I love you as well,” Lynette repeated automatically even as she pondered her sister’s words. “Good night.”
After a quick search of the manor, Lynette found Nathaniel downstairs in his study. He looked up briefly when she entered, but did not stop tallying a long list of numbers. Giving the list a passing glance as she walked in front of his oversized desk, Lynette crossed to one of the many windows overlooking the side lawn, her expression solemn as she gazed out through the spotless glass. For a few moments the only sound to fill the study was quill scratching against parchment until, with a heavy sigh, Nathaniel pushed his work away.
“Can I help you with something?” he asked.
So polite, Lynette thought in despair. We are always so polite to one another, but we never say what we are truly thinking.
For the Love of Lynette Page 17
