Part 14 (2/2)
She grinned wickedly. ”Now you know how I feel about my imperfections. Are you willing to forgo mutual nakedness?”
”I am not,” he said firmly. ”It's worth revealing my bony carca.s.s to see your much more pleasing form.”
”Ah, well,” she said philosophically. ”If only beautiful people mated, the human race would have died out long since. We must accept each other's deficiencies.”
She was opening his s.h.i.+rt when he parted her bodice and chemise, laying bare her lovely b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Feeling stronger by the moment, he lapped her nipple with his tongue.
She sucked in her breath, eyes widening. ”You intend more than looking?”
”I'm not sure how much more,” he admitted. ”I may not have recovered enough for what I would dearly like to do.” He rolled her other nipple between thumb and forefinger. ”Shall we see how far I can go? I promise you won't be left unsatisfied.”
”By all means continue,” she breathed. ”But undressing will be easier if we stand.”
”You are a natural leader who always has excellent ideas.” He slid from the bed and took the opportunity to toss more fuel on the fire and kick off his shoes. Then he offered his hand with a courtly gesture. ”Join me, my lady, in the prelude to seduction?”
She grasped his hand and alighted from the bed with a smile that made her seem decades younger than her appearance, even younger than he knew her to be. ”I look forward to removing your garments one by one, my Lord Wyndham.”
She started with his coat, then attacked his s.h.i.+rt. He knew he was showing too many bones, but there was admiration in her eyes and sensuality in her touch as she skimmed her palm over his bare chest.
”My turn now,” he said with a catch in his breath as she pressed her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat. ”That gray gown must go.”
”Resist the temptation to burn it,” she warned. ”It's all I have till I return to London.”
He tugged the coa.r.s.e garment over her head, making a silent vow to buy her silk in the city. She emerged from the gray folds laughing and luscious in her stays and chemise. The more she removed, the lovelier she became.
Garment by garment, they peeled off each other's clothing with kisses and laughter. When he removed the worn white chemise, leaving her bare and golden in the late afternoon light, he said huskily, ”You are even more beautiful than I realized.”
She tugged his drawers down from his hips with a pa.s.sing caress that temporarily paralyzed his simple male brain. ”l.u.s.t is warping your judgment.” Wistfully she added, ”Though it's a lovely lie to hear.”
”I can't deny the l.u.s.t, but it's not warping my judgment.” He removed his drawers entirely. ”At least, not about how desirable you are.”
”I'm boringly average,” she protested.
”Not average. Quintessential.” He cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in his hands, caressing the warm weight. He moved his hands in a slow circle, feeling her nipples harden against his palms. ”Every part of you is exactly right. Your b.r.e.a.s.t.s are neither too large nor too small, but a perfect handful.”
He kissed the shadowed cleft between them. ”Your skin is remarkable. Smooth and almost luminescent, like a sun-touched marble statue by Michelangelo.”
”You ... look ... better than you claimed, also. Too thin, but such splendid shoulders!” She ran her hands across them to demonstrate.
She was being kind. He knew his ribs were showing and he'd picked up some ugly scars after his capture in Paris. He wished they'd met when he was young and at his best, but as she said, one didn't have to be perfect to mate. Fortunately.
”You really are perfect,” he said as he skimmed his palms over her hips and thighs. ”Like Botticelli's Venus born of the sea, your proportions are exactly right. Slim but round in all the right places. Beautifully fit and strong.” He kissed his way down the gentle curve of her belly, becoming more aroused than he would have thought possible. She was deliciously feminine and edible.
She gasped as he swirled his tongue around her navel. ”Time to go from vertical to horizontal,” he said in a thick voice. Catching her up in his arms, he laid her onto the bed and came down beside her, resuming his kisses down toward the tantalizing mysteries between her thighs.
She cried out and her fingernails bit into his shoulders hard enough to draw blood when his lips and tongue reached her most sensitive, secret places. Her responsiveness was intoxicating, sending fire through his blood.
She shattered around him, her ecstasy driving him to urgent need. He moved between her legs and joined their bodies, merging them so they were as close as man and woman could be. She gasped. ”I see you've recovered fully, my lord.”
”You are better than any surgeon for healing, my sweet vixen,” he said breathlessly as he rocked into her.
Laughing, she drew him down as they moved together into bliss. This was even better than his first fierce coupling when he was mad for the solace of her female flesh. This was a joining of spirit as well as bodies beyond anything he'd ever known. ”Ca.s.sandra,” he gasped. ”Catherine ...”
Perfection.
Even though that evening's dinner was in the small family dining room, it was the most watchful meal Ca.s.sie had ever consumed. Lady Agnes, General Rawlings, and Miss Emily watched Wyndham, the two women also watched Ca.s.sie, and Kirkland watched everyone. Grey was worth watching. Golden haired and with the ability to make his borrowed clothing look custom tailored, he was the model of an English gentleman. He spoke little but was effortlessly magnetic.
No one watched Regine, who'd slipped into the dining room and was resting under the table with her muzzle on Grey's foot. As long as no one took official notice of the dog, she didn't have to be ejected. She'd fattened up noticeably since they found her.
The tightness around Grey's eyes made it clear that he wasn't comfortable with all the attention, but he bore up under it well. Ca.s.sie thought she deserved some credit for having relaxed him so thoroughly that afternoon. Her gaze dropped to the braised beef at the thought. If she'd relaxed him, he'd made her feel desirable.
At the end of the meal, Lady Agnes rose. ”Miss Fox, Emily, let us withdraw to the morning room and leave the gentlemen to their port.”
Seeing Ca.s.sie's expression, Lady Agnes said, ”You're surprised that I'm so conventional?”
”Yes,” Ca.s.sie admitted as she got to her feet. ”I thought you only conform to customs when they suit you.”
Lady Agnes grinned. ”You're very perceptive. Sometimes it suits me to withdraw, and when I do, I have a decanter of the same excellent Ballard port in the morning room.”
Ca.s.sie glanced at Grey. He looked wary but resigned to being left with the general and Kirkland. After he gave her a small nod of rea.s.surance, she left with the two older women. Closing the morning room door behind her, she said, ”I'd like some of that port to support me in the upcoming interrogation, please.”
Lady Agnes poured three gla.s.ses of tawny port and distributed them. ”I want to know more about Wyndham's captivity and rescue. If I ask him directly, he'll get all stiff and stoic and claim that all is well.”
”Perhaps,” Emily Cantwell said thoughtfully. ”But he was always better at speaking his mind than most of our boys.”
”Then, yes,” Lady Agnes agreed. ”But he was in reserved English gentleman mode this evening.” She fixed Ca.s.sie with a gimlet gaze. ”I won't ask you to violate his privacy, but”-her face tightened-”will he ever ... be himself again?”
”He is himself, though it's a self formed by traveling an unexpected path,” Ca.s.sie said gently. ”He will become more relaxed in society, I'm sure. But he will never be that uncomplicated golden boy again.”
Lady Agnes exhaled. ”I knew that, of course, but it helps to hear it from the woman who knows him best. Of course he's been changed by his experiences. But I pray that in time he'll be whole and happy.”
”I always thought he'd be a wonderful father,” Miss Emily said. ”He was so patient with the younger boys.” Both women turned a.s.sessing gazes on Ca.s.sie.
”Are you planning on giving me the lecture about not developing expectations of Wyndham?” she asked with acid sweetness. ”No need, Kirkland has already done so.”
Lady Agnes winced. ”I didn't intend a lecture. You're a woman of the world and you understand the situation. But I do want to thank you for all you've done. For rescuing him, for being there as he recovers from all he's endured. I suspect the price for you will be high.”
”As you say, I am a woman of the world. I have no illusions.” Ca.s.sie sipped the excellent port, thinking that Lady Agnes's comment was another oblique reference to Grey's general lovability. ”Since we are hinting around the subject of Wyndham's future, I will give you my private opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if he never marries. Or if he does, it would be far in the future.”
Miss Emily's brows arched. ”You can't convince me that he has lost his appreciation of women!”
No one knew better than Ca.s.sie how much Grey liked women, but this conversation had crystallized an insight. ”He likes women very well, but after ten years behind bars, he hates being trapped by society, by responsibility, by other people's expectations. He will not s.h.i.+rk those responsibilities, but I think that he will see marriage as one set of bars that he can avoid.”
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