by Jilian Rouge
Held up against the wall as she was, Georgie was helpless to do no more than receive his thrusts. But she relished the way the head of his cock scraped at her sensitive inner flesh and delighted in his arousing strokes.
The sound of the studio door slamming open had Georgie shriek in surprise. Then a dear, familiar voice cried out in overtones of both disgust and amusement, “I say, can’t the two of you wait until you reach a bedchamber as most married couples are known to do?”
Whipping her head towards the voice, Georgie turned bright red at having been caught in flagrante delicto by her own brother. Upon the unexpected intrusion, Rafe instinctively grabbed Georgie and used his larger frame to shield her from view. Then, Rafe growled menacingly in Ernest’s direction, and barked, “Then get the hell out while my wife and I set ourselves to rights!”
Ernest humphed in affront, but he promptly left the room only to call out, “I will wait for you both in the drawing room, but please hurry. I have a message of an urgent nature for you both.”
Georgie glanced quizzically after her brother, but he had already left the room to make his way downstairs. Rafe caught her look and declared, “We will get our answers the sooner we can make ourselves presentable.” However, his Georgie looked deliciously mussed with her bodice askew and her gown now horribly wrinkled.
As she slapped down her skirts and tried to bring herself back to a semblance of order, she asked him, “Do I look alright?” Truthfully, she looked nothing like the neatly dressed lady when she had left her chamber this morning, but to Rafe, she looked disreputably adorable.
“Yes, love,” he assured her. “As well as you can look given what we had just been doing. I’m just sorry your brother might have gotten an eyeful more than he should have.”
Georgie wrinkled her nose in distaste. “While I’m very embarrassed to be caught by my own brother, he is never going to let me live this down.”
“If he maligns you—” Rafe purred dangerously.
Georgie interrupted, “But he won’t. He will just tease me behind everyone’s notice and there will be no end to his jests. Our mother believes me to be the very example of propriety, when Ernest and I both know I’m not.”
Flashing her a quick wink, Rafe patted her rump to shoo her out the door. “Then let’s not keep your brother waiting. I’ll make sure to warn him away from poking fun at you.”
Within moments, Rafe and Georgie reached the drawing room, where Godwin had just set down a full tea service in front of Ernest. After thanking Godwin, Georgie swept past the Lyonscar butler to take up a seat next to Ernest.
“What is so urgent that you come here unannounced?” Georgie demanded.
“Hello to you, too, dear sister,” Ernest quipped. “Perhaps, if I had not known you were receiving visitors, I would have been only slightly deterred from finding you.”
Rafe scowled and gritted out, “We were not expecting company, and thus, had our door knocker removed. A fact you had chosen to blatantly ignore.”
Turning to face Rafe, who stood off to the side, Ernest replied, “When it comes to you, old friend, one can’t presume that you would observe the ways of a gentleman. Regardless of your newfound title.” Georgie gasped at the insult her brother aimed at Rafe, and she promptly punched him across the face for it.
“You know better than that, Ernest Montagu! It wasn’t his fault that his father and brother had been taken in that tragic accident,” Georgie cried. Rafe had been about to castigate Ernest, but Georgie had beaten him to it with that one punch. He didn’t expect Georgie to think with a flying fist first, but she had surprised him with her defense of him. His heart swelled with pride as he observed Georgie’s dark scowl aimed at her brother, his former best friend. While he didn’t need Georgie to champion him, he appreciated the sentiment behind her actions all the same.
Rubbing at his sore jaw, Ernest said contritely, “I should never have shown you the proper way to punch someone. But that long-ago lesson was for the benefit of protecting yourself against undesirables.”
“And I thought it fitting since I am protecting Rafe’s feelings from your insensitive ones,” Georgie retorted hotly.
Casting both of his hands up in surrender, Ernest acceded, “Alright, alright. I’m a boar and you are right, as always.” To Rafe, he apologized, “Sorry, old man. It has been some time since I was last in a duke’s presence and forgotten my place.”
Rafe nodded his acceptance and offered an olive branch of his own. “I’m sorry, too old chap. Our old friendship notwithstanding would have seen us acting more civil to each other if it hadn’t been for the hurt I’ve caused everyone.”
Ernest sniffed slightly, “Well, judging by what I saw earlier in my sister’s studio, the two of you have more than made up. I’m inclined to be forgiving now that you’ve made amends with her.”
Looking less than comfortable with Ernest’s deduction, Georgie looked to Rafe, her eyes pleading. Understanding her look to mean that he not confess the real situation between them, Rafe nodded imperceptibly and addressed Ernest with an overbright smile. “Things between Georgie and I have been better than I could have hoped for. She has made me happy by agreeing to live with me as my wife once again.”
Nodding, Ernest agreed, “As long as she’s happy and at peace with what happened before, I can accept you as part of the family.” With a frown, he added, “But that doesn’t mean I’ve entirely forgotten how you’ve hurt her. If it happens again, it will be the last time you do so. Do I make myself clear?”
Not mistaking the menacing warning in Ernest’s voice, Rafe nodded once, not wanting to antagonize the very man he had considered a brother since the first day they’d met.
Content with Rafe’s acceptance of those terms, Ernest sat back against the cushioned sofa and amiably concluded, “Now that that business is settled. Let’s continue on to the real reason I’ve been sent here. Rafe, you may want to seat yourself for what I’m about to tell you.”
Rafe frowned, but he lowered himself in the chair opposite Ernest.
Ernest began, “If you haven’t already learned, our Georgie here has made a name for herself, discreetly of course, with her choice of subjects for her art.”
Rafe only nodded, while Georgie blushed hotly.
Continuing, Ernest turned to Georgie and said, “I had a potential client lined up for you, one who had approached me at my club, having learned of your services from a previous client, a friend of his. Lord Manning had pre-arranged to meet with me last night to inquire about a meeting with you, but he never showed.”
Georgie guessed, “Maybe he had a change of heart. After all, none of my paintings would be deemed proper amongst the ton.”
“Yes, dearest, but they have become increasingly popular despite their subject matter,” Ernest attested. “Do you know how many requests I have fielded for you, screened them with the utmost care, and ascertained their true intentions?”
Georgie only nodded wordlessly; she knew how careful Ernest was about her reputation and safety. Rafe wondered for the first time just how popular Georgie’s paintings have become. “And just how does this process of yours work, Ernest?” Rafe inquired curiously. “As far as my wife and her reputation is concerned, how does one commission Georgie for a painting of hers?”
“My membership at my ‘exclusive’ club in London precludes which members would be discreet enough to have my sister work with them. A series of appointments are conducted first to ascertain their suitability. Since they are willing to be captured on canvas in the most lascivious of poses, they pay handsomely for the effort and the discretion of the artist. You see, Georgie’s artwork belongs only in the most private of collections of the ton, and she has made a fortune off of keeping their secret desires in painted form.”
Once again, Rafe’s heart swelled with pride as he looked at his wife, his duchess. While he had been gone, she courageously followed her heart where her talents were fully appreciated and desired. And while her name wasn’t s
houted from rooftops for her art, he was certainly proud that she was successful in her own right. She couldn’t have been made more beautiful to him now that he had seen evidence of her confidence and strength.
“Yes, but we are forgetting about Lord Manning. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting him,” Georgie reminded Ernest, trying to dismiss the extolling of her virtues from her brother’s mouth.
“I was hoping to arrange a meeting between you both at our appointed meeting place and time, but I have every reason to believe that he has been kidnapped. Not to mention, our local magistrate has been frustrated with increasing complaints from families of missing family members. Only this time, a peer of the realm has been involved.”
Rafe’s blood ran cold at the memory of his own kidnapping, having no memory of how he came aboard a slave ship, only to endure suffering no human being should be subjected to. But most of all, anger flared hotly for the sins committed against him.
“Tell me everything,” Rafe said, deadpanned and deadly serious.
16
Georgie remained quiet while the men continued to discuss this new development. While she knew that Rafe could not forgive what had been done to him, she hadn’t known that Rafe had been actively hunting the person responsible for his abduction. He had been so busy seducing her into staying, and she marveled that he gave no sign of such pursuits other than his ducal duties.
At Rafe’s prompting, Ernest related all that had happened the night before. Witnesses had seen Lord Manning enter the Silver Eagle tavern, the very one from which Rafe had been abducted five years ago, yet it had also been reported that the man had been seen escorted by two men out of the tavern. Unfortunately, the scene of his exit looked very much like a drunk man being helped home by two friends; there was no reason to believe that Lord Manning was in any kind of distress.
Then, Rafe asked hotly, “Had anyone noticed where they had taken the man?”
“Not really,” Ernest replied. “Only that he had not come back to his lodgings, where his wife awaited his return. It was Lady Manning who had sought me at home, demanding her husband’s whereabouts. I could only tell her that we hadn’t met at our appointed time. I just assumed that he either had forgotten our appointment or that something more pressing had come up.”
Rafe hummed a sound of distraction, but it was clear that he was thinking very deeply. Something finally occurred to him, and Georgie could see that whatever idea had sprung to mind had him excited.
Turning to her, Rafe asked, “Georgie, could I ask you to head to my office? Atop my desk there is a pile of correspondence from the Naval and Military Offices. They are still sealed, but I have a hunch that they may have more intelligence that we can use here.”
Catching Rafe’s excitement at the hope of something they could do, Georgie rushed out of the drawing room to fetch said letters. It wasn’t hard to find what Rafe needed since both letters still bore the unbroken seals from the Naval and Military Offices, respectively. Snatching them up, she quickened her step, eager to know what could be done about Lord Manning’s disappearance.
Coming upon the drawing room, she overheard her name brought up in the conversation. Stopping to listen, she stayed hidden just outside the drawing room doorway.
“Georgie needs to know, man!” Ernest cried. “Do you know how much she’s suffered because of you?”
While she couldn’t see either man, she could hear the heat in Ernest’s voice and imagined that they had been discussing her at length.
Rafe angrily replied, “Don’t you think I know that? Think of how she’d feel if I told her what I’m about to do next.”
“Go after Belhaven? She would never believe that you genuinely want her after what you’ve just told me,” Ernest spat.
“Belhaven must pay for his hand in my abduction. If it weren’t for my sources, I would never have found out about his involvement in not just my kidnapping but several others in this area alone!”
“If you go after him, she’ll either believe you are eliminating him to make your path clear to her or that you’ve been using her to get closer to your revenge on him.”
Georgie held in a gasp, not believing what she was hearing. Nicholas involved with Rafe’s abduction? Could it possibly be true that Rafe had kept her close these past two weeks, planning to exact his revenge on Nicholas?
Rafe continued, “I needed Georgie close. I couldn’t have Belhaven knowing I was onto him without further proof of his misdeeds. As long as Belhaven believed that I had the woman he wanted, then I could flush out his accomplices behind the scenes.”
As Georgie heard Rafe confess his true reasons for keeping her here at Lyonscar, she felt ready to be sick, her chest heaving with the effort to draw oxygen into her lungs. She had truly thought that she and Rafe were re-connecting, re-discovering what their marriage should have been like. And perhaps, she had begun falling in love with him all over again.
And yet, he had been scheming behind her back once again, making her believe that he wanted her for only her. It was only moments before that they had been rutting in her studio, and she felt so ashamed to have fallen for his tricks once again! His revenge be damned! Anger surged through her veins, and yet her mind couldn’t be any more clear than it was then.
Rounding the corner to confront both men, both men stood at her entry. With her back ramrod stiff and her nose in the air, she handed Rafe the letters. “Here you are, my lord,” she said coldly, looking Rafe in the eye, mustering all of the disdain and disgust she had for him in that one look.
Rafe’s eyes rounded at what he saw there in her eyes, and Ernest only confirmed what he felt by saying, “Good God, man, she heard you.”
“You mean, us, you daft nob. We were both participating in this conversation,” Rafe said, lamely. To Georgie, he pleaded, “Georgina, what you heard, it’s not the whole story.”
“And I told you, that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt me again the way you hurt me all those years ago. And for you to do it again? I can’t bear it,” Georgie said, her voice tremulous and high. But she maintained her rigid stance, her gaze unwavering.
Rafe reached for her, but Georgie recoiled from his touch. Lowering his hand, Rafe explained, “I’m sorry that this has every appearance of a betrayal, but that’s not what’s happening. Yes, I wanted you to fall in love with me, with us, again, and yes, I’ve been hunting for the man responsible for my being sold into slavery. One doesn’t necessarily depend on the other!”
“Then tell me this: why would you keep me from Nicholas if not to gain your revenge on him?” Georgie cried.
Grabbing her firmly at her upper arms, Rafe desperately replied, “Because I wanted you for myself! Because I couldn’t stand the thought of another man having you when I wanted you so badly!”
As Georgie shook her head, Ernest stepped forward to try and extricate her from Rafe’s solid grip, but Rafe growled him away, “Now that this is all out in the open, let me finish this so she understands.”
Ernest held his hands up as if in surrender and stepped back some distance away.
Rafe continued, “While I had never forgotten you, I had also never forgotten my personal mission to bring down the men responsible for the disappearances of many, selling them into slavery. When it became known that Belhaven had paid those men to drug me then stow me away on that ship, I never knew the reason why. I had my suspicions then, but to oust him and his accomplices out of hiding, I believed I knew a way to get a rise out of him once again.”
Georgie spat, “Please don’t disgrace yourself further by telling me that reason was me. Nicholas wouldn’t have fallen for such melodramatic tactics.”
“But you forget how earnest he had been chasing you in our younger days. Or was that the other way around? It was fortunate for me that his family was on the verge of bankruptcy and his father needed him to marry into money. Before he could hone his money-grubbing gaze on you, his father arranged a hasty marriage for him with some other poor soul.”
“Then, know this: It was my marriage to you that spurred Nicholas to action. He wanted you first but was blocked at every turn. I believe his reasons for assisting in my abduction had everything to do with revenge against me.”
But Georgie didn’t want to hear anymore, wasn’t prepared to hear anything Rafe said. In her mind, she couldn’t move past the fact that she could never truly know Rafe’s real intentions. She couldn’t guard her heart against something she never saw coming, and her instincts screamed at her to flee from the potential threat that could have devastating effects.
“That’s not what has me upset!” Georgie said, her voice raised at a higher volume. Pushing Rafe away from her, she pointed at him accusatorily, and shouted, “Once again, you couldn’t be up front with me about your plans. If I had known from the beginning about Nicholas, then maybe I wouldn’t have assumed that you were being duplicitous.”
