The Study of Seduction (Sinful Suitors, #2)(82)

That was amazing. She was amazing. And he couldn’t believe he’d finally made her his. Thank God it hadn’t taken a year; he never would have lasted that long. He’d have had to go live with monks for a while.

He nuzzled her hair, which had tumbled down rather spectacularly in the midst of their frenzy. It smelled of lilacs and lavender. So very sweet.

“It’s getting dark outside,” Clarissa murmured.

She was in a position to see out the window behind him. Fortunately, none of the servants went into the garden at this time of the day. They were too busy preparing for dinner.

Still . . . “It won’t be long before we can be seen easily from the garden. Unless one of us gets up to blow out the candle.”

She drew back to flash him a sultry smile. “Is that a hint that I should move? Am I too heavy for you?”

“Hardly.” He lifted her off of him. “Though you’re heavier than I would have expected for such a small woman.” When she laughed, he realized that he probably shouldn’t have been quite that honest. “I mean . . .”

“Don’t mince words with me,” she said as he rose. “You’re probably the only man I know who would have been as understanding of my . . . difficulties as you were. Besides, I’ll take your bluntness any day over a lot of insincere compliments.”

“Glad to hear it. Because clearly I am very bad at them.”

She chuckled. Curling up into a ball on the window seat, she watched as he went over to the desk fully naked. “You’re a very handsome man, Lord Blakeborough. And I am being utterly sincere.”

He snuffed the candle. “Keep saying things like that, Lady Blakeborough, and I’ll be wanting to ravish you again.”

She fell quiet. As he realized what he’d said, he shot her a concerned glance, but she wore a dreamy look. “It’s a pity it wasn’t you seducing me in that orangery years ago.”

It certainly was. How different their lives would have been. But . . . “It would never have been me.” He tugged on his drawers. “Gentlemen do not seduce young ladies. They court them, they secure their affections, and then they propose.”

A sudden gleam in her eye was all the warning he got before she rose to amble toward him with a most seductive walk. “So you don’t think I could have tempted you to seduce me?”

His throat went dry at the sight of her so rumpled and lovely. “Tempted? Yes.” He pulled her into his arms for a thorough kiss, then drew back to stare into her face. “But I would never have acted upon it.”

Her smile faltered. “Are you quite sure it doesn’t bother you that I . . . am not . . .”

“It doesn’t.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m very happy with my choice of wife.”

She eyed him askance. “Even though I’m reckless and impudent and always getting into trouble?”

“I’ll take you any way I can get you, minx—reckless, impudent, and all.” Even skittish and wary. As long as he could kiss the fear from her from time to time.

A sudden knock at the door made them both jump.

“Milord, milady? Dinner is served.”

“Thank you, John!” he called out. “We’ll be there presently.”

“We can’t go to dinner yet,” she hissed. “I’m naked!”

“And you do look very fetching that way, too.”

With a roll of her eyes, she hurried to don her shirt. Or rather, his old shirt.

He followed her. “We have a choice, minx. We can go to dinner late, with you dressed in breeches and me thinking the entire time how I want to get you out of them. Or we can ask for a tray upstairs and head up to my bedchamber or yours. Either way, we scandalize the servants, so—”

“We might as well go upstairs,” she said in a throaty voice as she approached to place her hand on his bare chest. “I’d rather enjoy seeing how the woman-on-the-top thing works in a bed.”

When she ran her finger down his chest and strolled away, he got dressed so fast, it was a miracle he didn’t injure something. At last, they were having their wedding night. And he didn’t intend to miss one minute.





Twenty-Two


A week later, Clarissa headed to London in the carriage with her husband and wondered where the time had gone. Days of easy camaraderie had bled into nights of passion. No nightmares. No fear. No horrible reminders of the past.

Well, she still couldn’t lie beneath him without panicking, but he didn’t seem to mind that she was always on top. At least she hoped he didn’t mind. She had certainly come to enjoy their way of swiving. She liked arousing him. Making him lose control. Watching him fall apart beneath her. It was wonderful. They were together in every respect, and she’d never dreamed that could happen.

And if sometimes she wished she could try making love the other way, she shoved that from her mind. Because better that they do it the way they did, than not do it at all. It certainly did keep him in a far pleasanter mood than he’d been in during the first week of their marriage.

But not today. Staring over at him now, she could see how withdrawn he was from her, how pensive and subdued. Fortunately, she’d begun to understand that it was his way of dealing with things that worried him. He had to pull into himself to mull things over from every angle.