Part 18 (2/2)
And she needed, so much.
The more Tanner suckled on her, the more she sensed that he was taking her somewhere she had never been, yet longed to travel to with him. She could no more be pa.s.sive than she could stop breathing.
Pressing her heels against the earth, she lifted herself to him, began to move in concert with him, sealing herself against him as his tongue searched her, found the center of her yearning, a white hot center that begged for his touch and then rewarded them both by gathering up all of the sensation in the world and releasing it in rhythmic explosions.
Even before she could realize that she was flying, soaring, Tanner covered her, plunged inside her, so that her body convulsed around him, drawing the seed from him, taking it deep into her womb.
Planting the seed that would grow from their love...
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
TANNER SMILED AS HE SET Lydia's silly, veiled hat on her head at a slightly more rakish angle than she had done, and then handed her the pins to secure it in place.
They'd had the devil of a time finding those pins-needles in the haystack of the long gra.s.ses they'd flattened beneath their bodies not that long ago.
”I'm sure that can't be right,” she said as she secured the last pin.
”I like it,” he told her, touching the tip of her nose with his fingertip. ”I like that, and I like this...” he drew his finger across her bottom lip, swollen from his kisses. ”And I like this,” he pursued, running his finger down her throat, to the small hollow at the base of it, where he could watch her heart beating.
”They'll be sending out a search party soon, Tanner,” she said reasonably, ”sure one of us has fallen from our horse and the other is afraid to leave him.”
”Him? Then I've been cast in the role of the unhorsed?”
She reached to stroke his cheek. ”Oh, yes. I'm much too careful to ever fall. I hold your love, and I promise always to be careful to protect it. I only ask that you do the same.”
He turned his face into her palm. ”Always. I know what I want now. Your love, and Malvern, and our life together. A quiet life, filled with love.”
She smiled. ”And if another great man came along with another bold and glorious cause born of ambition?”
”Another Alexander? Another Bonaparte? No, Lydia, I've fought enough battles. I'll protect my own, you know that. But I've no more need to search for glory. Not when it stands in front of me.”
”I love you, Tanner. No one has ever loved anyone more than I love you,” she whispered, and he realized she hadn't said that before now. He knew she loved him. Of course he knew that. But hearing her say the words shook him.
He nodded, emotion tightening his chest. ”Charlotte wanted us to wed at Ashurst, but that might take some of the bloom from Nicole and Lucas.”
She nodded, her easy acceptance of what had been his rather abrupt proposal just like her. Lydia, the calm. Lydia, the practical. Lydia...the fire in his arms.
”That is true. Two weddings, and with a baby perhaps arriving in the middle of all that ceremony? It is quite a lot all at once. And you and Charlotte and Rafe have already planned all of this between you?”
Lydia was never fl.u.s.tered, so he couldn't tell if his words had pleased her or upset her. ”I wouldn't say planned. Discussed? Still, if it's all right you, we'll marry here quietly, in the Malvern chapel, and then travel to Ashurst to watch your sister arrive at the church on horseback or whatever it is she's planning.”
”On horseback, yes. With a gaggle of little girls dressed in long white dresses and streamers in their hair tossing rose petals in front of her.”
G.o.d. Was he being selfish? Denying Lydia all the pomp and ceremony? ”If you want-”
”No, thank you. I'm much more interested in being your wife than I am in being a bride.”
Tanner relaxed. ”After gaining Rafe's blessing, I managed to secure a Special License before we left London. Being a duke does have its influence. We...we could be married as early as tomorrow.”
”Tomorrow?”
”I know, I'm rus.h.i.+ng you. But I don't think I can wait a day longer.”
Her sweet smile banished his fears, while the hint of mischief in her lovely blue eyes reminded him that she was not without spirit. She put a hand to his jacket and then held up a bit of gra.s.s they'd missed while brus.h.i.+ng off their clothes. ”I don't think we've waited all that much.”
His smile grew into a wide grin. ”True. And after tonight, we'll never be apart again. Why, you may even grow sick of me.”
”Yes, I probably will,” she agreed, the corners of her lovely mouth twitching as she suppressed another smile. ”In fifty or sixty years.”
”I'll hold you to that.” He took her hand and led her over to Daisy, and then cupped his hands for her to use them as a sort of mounting block as he lightly tossed her up and into the saddle.
He mounted his own horse, debated for a moment asking Lydia to ride the rest of the way across country, up and over the hill they'd crested on foot, and then down toward Malvern, but in the end he thought it would be best if they kept the lane.
She hadn't complained, but he knew she must be at least slightly sore from his lovemaking. As soon as they arrived he would order a hip bath brought to her chamber.
He led the way, for the lane was really not much more than a track worn into the hillside. They descended slowly, the lane switching back on itself several times, sometimes taking them through a canopy of trees, sometimes giving them new, closer views of Malvern.
As they neared the newly scythed expanse of lawn, once again shaded beneath a canopy of trees, his mount began to sidestep nervously, snorting through its nose as if it had perhaps caught a scent. ”Anxious, are you? Almost home, boy,” he said, patting the horse's neck. But the stallion continued to dance, jerking against the bit in its mouth.
Instantly worried for Lydia, Tanner looked about in the underbrush, half expecting to see the tusks of a wild boar, even though there hadn't been one seen in the area for years, thanks to the careful husbandry of his foresters.
But what he saw wasn't a boar ready to charge. What he saw didn't move at all. In the s.p.a.ce of a heartbeat he considered pretending he hadn't seen what he'd seen, urging Lydia ahead of him as he kept his mount between the trees and the path, and then discarded both ideas as she called to him.
”Is something wrong, Tanner? Your horse seems agitated.”
He turned his mount and blocked the path. ”I think there's been an accident,” he told her, dismounting. ”Someone's lying just off there, in the underbrush. Please, stay where you are.”
”Is it Justin?” Lydia asked, worry evident in her voice. ”He came this way, didn't he?”
Tanner had already dismounted, and tied the reins to a branch to keep his mount from bolting. ”No, it's not Justin. I would have recognized his clothing even at a distance.”
”Wait, let me come with you.”
He shook his head. ”No. Whoever it is-he's not moving.”
”Oh, G.o.d.” Lydia closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she nodded. ”I'll do as you say. Please hurry.”
But there was no reason for hurry, Tanner realized after only taking a few steps into the undergrowth to see Thomas Harburton, his eyes wide open and staring at nothing. He was lying on his back amid weeds turned dark with his life's blood, his throat neatly sliced from ear to ear. No wonder his mount had gotten so agitated; it had been the smell of all this blood.
”Tanner? Who is it? Shall I ride for help?”
Tanner stood his ground, keeping himself in between the body and the path. ”It's uh, it's one of my workers. He's beyond our help, Lydia, but please ride and tell Justin to come up here.”
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