The Virgin Huntress (The Devil DeVere #2)(23)

While he may have been able to explain away one night in the same room with her, due to the influence of the narcotic, two nights meant she was thoroughly compromised. He knew now that he had been kicking against the pricks. He would do the honorable thing and wed her, but he refused to give her the satisfaction of that knowledge. Not yet.

“All right,” he agreed. “You under the counterpane and me on top of it.”





CHAPTER TEN




When Hew awoke, Vesta was atop the counterpane, curled against his side with an arm slung across his chest and a thigh thrown over his, her warm, soft flesh caressing his raging erection. He didn’t know if it was the lingering effects of the drug, the alcohol he’d drunk, or just exhaustion—likely a combination of all three—but he’d slept like the dead for the first time in four years. But now he was brutally awake and acutely conscious of the woman in his bed, for as much as he’d tried to ignore the fact, Vesta was indeed a woman grown, at least in the physical sense. And all his senses were physically alert to her. The violet fragrance had dissipated with the salt air, yet she still maintained that mysterious and slightly musky and flowery scent.

He slanted a gaze at her face, wondering how he would extricate himself from this entanglement of limbs without waking her, but then she opened her eyes. “Good morning, Hew.” She smiled into his. “Did you sleep well?”

“What the devil are you doing on top of the counterpane?” He glowered.

“I had to get up in the night to use the necessary, and when I returned, you had taken up most of the bed. I could not get back under the covers, so I had no choice but to curl up where I could.

“And now it appears you are curled around me.”

She grinned. “So it does. I find it rather pleasant, don’t you?”

“Pleasant is not quite the word that comes to mind,” he replied tersely.

She shifted against him, and his cock jumped. “Oh.” She gasped, suddenly aware. “Does this happen regularly then?”

“Yes. It is common for a man to awaken thus.”

“May I touch it?” she asked.

“Bloody hell!” he cried. “No! You may not touch it!”

“But I know how. I saw you only yesterday. Is that what you do to make it go away?”

“It is one of several methods,” he replied. “Another is just to ignore it.”

“But it is so large and swollen. Is it painful?

“No, just uncomfortable. Now, may we stop discussing my...” The appropriate word for feminine ears failed him.

“Phallus?” she offered. “That is what the grooms call it.”

“Why are you eavesdropping on grooms?”

“I used to watch the stallions mounting the mares.”

“You what!” Hew almost choked.

“Well, how else is a girl with no mother supposed to get any education? Although I doubt Mama would have told me very much. So there’s really no reason to be timid, Hew. I already know all about the mating process. And to the best of my knowledge, the stallions never ignored it until it went away. Please feel free to relieve yourself of it. I would even help you if you would like. I’m not the least afraid for I have seen much larger ones.”

Dear God in heaven.

Hew raised his hands in surrender. “That’s it. You can stop torturing me now, Vesta. You have won. I can no longer swim against the tide. We will return immediately to London where I will procure a special license with all dispatch, and we will wed.”

“You think that’s what all I wanted?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No! It is not. I wanted you to declare yourself.”

“Declare what?” he echoed.

“I need to know what you feel for me, Hew.”

“Vesta, my feelings regarding you may best be described in two categories—mildly amused at some times and maddeningly infuriated all the rest.”

“But that is no basis for a marriage,” she protested.

“I agree.”

“Then why do you want me?”

“Because you have forced my hand.”

“Well, you shan’t force mine,” she said. “For I won’t have you.”

“We have been two nights together. The choice is no longer yours.”

“Two nights in the same room means nothing!”

“Two nights in the same bed means everything. We will wed.”

“No, we won’t! I will have a man who loves me, or I will have no one!”

“As I said, the choice is no longer yours.”

“It is my choice.” She beat his chest with a tiny fist. “If I can’t have your undying love, I won’t take you. You will not force me to marry you, and I will make you swear to it.”

“That I shall never do,” Hew replied. “You have not only compromised your virtue, but your actions call my honor into question. I can’t allow that, Vesta. You have made your own bed, and now you must lie in it.”

“We’ll just see about that!” Vesta leaped from said bed and darted out the door.

“Where the devil are you going? You can’t run about in your shift, damn it!” She neither answered nor returned, forcing him to snatch his breeches on and follow her up on deck.