In The Prince's Bed (34 page)

She swallowed. “I-I don’t know if I want you to see me well. I’m so thin and freckled, and my hair is too… red.”

“I don’t believe that.” He might not have her blasted poet friend’s gift for pretty words, but he could surely reassure her. “Come on, let me see you.”

Sitting up, she dragged her chemise off over her head, then lay back down on the bed, looking so vulnerable it made him ache. “There, look your fill.”

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His breath quickened at the sight of her smooth alabaster skin. “My God, Katherine, you’re perfect, absolutely perfect,” he said in a husky voice.

With a frown, she reached for her chemise again. “You can’t look at me if you’re going to make fun.”

Snatching it from her, he tossed it on the floor. “Have you no idea how beautiful you are?”

She eyed him askance. “You’re the first to think it.”

“Then the rest of them are blind.” Climbing back onto the bed, he lay down beside her, then kissed her mass of curls spread out over the coverlet. “How could they not notice how lovely your hair is?”

“It’s
red
, Alec.”

“I know. It reminds me of the sea.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “The last time I checked, the sea was green or blue. Decidedly not red.”

“Except when the sun rises or sets.” He twisted a curl around his finger. “On the Suffolk coast, it rises over the water. As a boy on holiday there, I used to watch it turn the sea to fire. And the fire ended in foam at the water’s edge.” He combed her tangled curls with his fingers. “Like your hair, all wild and tumbling.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “And you claim you can’t use pretty words like the poets.”

“That’s what you do to me—turn me into a poet.” Her chuckle became a sigh when he trailed his hand down the side of her face to her jaw, then traced a line along the smattering of freckles on her upper chest. “And you know what they say about freckles—that they’re fairy love bites.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Who says that?”

He grinned. “Somebody must. Isn’t that what they look like?”

A laugh bubbled out of her. “I don’t know. What’s a love bite?”

Bending his head, he sucked the skin low on her shoulder, then rubbed the red spot with his thumb.

“That’s a love bite.”

“Oh,” she whispered as she stared down at it.

“You see?” he said, kissing her freckles. “Fairy love bites everywhere.” Then he pressed more kisses down the slope of her breast. “And as for being thin… believe me, you have the right amount of flesh in all the right places. Like here.”

She moaned as he circled her nipple with his tongue. He sucked her breast until her nipple stood to attention, a sweet pearl he could lick and nibble all day. He lingered for a moment before dragging his open mouth down to her belly to dart his tongue inside her navel.

“And here.” He planted a wet kiss to her belly. “Just enough flesh to make you soft, the way a woman should be.”

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As she stroked his hair, he slid lower until his mouth hovered over the patch of fiery curls that barely covered her silky petals. But when he pressed an open-mouthed kiss there between her legs, she gasped and tried to pull him away. “Alec… my goodness… what are you doing?”

He lifted his head to smile at her. “Breaking the rules.”

Her eyes widened. “Ohh… so
that’s
what’s happening in the picture.”

“What picture?”

Turning crimson, she stammered, “N-never mind.”

“It’s that blasted book again, isn’t it? Now you’ve got me curious about it. Is there actually a picture of people doing this?”

“Well… yes… but I couldn’t figure out why a man would—”

He scraped the rigid bit of her flesh with his teeth, and she arched into his mouth with another gasp.

“So…
that’s
… why…”

“Do you want more?”

He licked at her lightly. Though she blushed, she grasped his head and pressed it toward her cunny. He needed no more invitation to suck at her swollen bud, then thrust his tongue inside her. The scent of her musk drove him mad, made him want to please her all the more. He reveled in how she writhed beneath him, uttering soft little cries that spurred him on. He’d give her this at least, this pleasure to remember after she discovered all his lies.

The more frenzied she grew, the more his cock stiffened until he thought he’d explode before she found her release under his mouth. But just as he feared he’d embarrass himself at any minute, her release hit her, making her shudder and convulse beneath him.

He gave her no time to come down. He couldn’t—he wanted her too badly. Raising himself over her, he parted her thighs wide and drove into her damp warmth, sheathing himself inside her hot welcome with one deep thrust.

She caught at his shoulders with a cry. “Yes… like that… yes—”

Her long legs wrapped about his waist, sucking him deeper in, and he groaned. “By God, sweetheart…

you’re… incredible…”

“And you’re definitely… Alexander the Great…”

A laugh tore out of him even as he pounded into her, losing himself, striving to conquer her so thoroughly she would never regret choosing him. And when his release neared, he held it ruthlessly back until he felt her shudder beneath him again, her body straining against him as she cried his name. Only then did he let himself come, spilling himself inside her, fiercely determined to bind her to him for life, sure they could make a future together despite all his deceptions.
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But as he collapsed atop her, drained and sated yet still wanting her, she whispered, “I love you, Alec.”

And he knew he couldn’t lie to her anymore.

Chapter Twenty-five

Beware of scheming Mamas—
they will

throw all your plans into disarray.

—Anonymous,
A Rake’s Rhetorick

Katherine hadn’t meant to say those words, hadn’t even realized she’d felt them until that moment. But she’d said them, and she didn’t regret it.

Until he drew back to stare at her in clear horror. “You told me you didn’t believe in love.”

She blinked at him, her heart sinking. “I changed my mind.”

“You can’t. You shouldn’t.”

This wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. “Why not?” she whispered, her contentment at their joining slowly draining away.

With a groan, he rolled off her to he on his back staring up at the ceiling that showed through the canopy frame missing a canopy.

Feeling suddenly exposed, she sat up and reached for the extra blanket that lay folded at the foot of the bed, covering them both with it as she turned on her side to look at him. “What is it, Alec? What’s wrong?”

“You can’t love me.” The harsh words pummeled her tender heart. “You must not love me.”

“It’s not something I can turn on or off. It’s how I feel.” She swallowed down the fear rising in her throat. “But if you don’t feel that way—”

“How I feel has nothing to do with it.” He finally looked at her, and she saw a struggle in his eyes. “My God, how you’re going to hate me.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said, her fear growing. “How could I hate you when I just said I love you?”

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“It won’t be hard, trust me. There’s something I—”

Before he could say more, someone tried the door, then pounded on it.

“Go away!” Alec called out as Katherine tensed up.

“I’m ill!”

When a moment of silence passed, she relaxed… until she heard the lock being turned. Someone had found the key she’d thrust under the door.

Katherine dragged the covers up to her chin just as the door was flung open, and her mother stood there, looking surprisingly fierce.

With a curse, Alec sat up. “Hello, Mrs. Merivale.”

“Don’t you hello me, you… you fiend!”

“He’s not a fiend!” Katherine protested.

Mama’s furious gaze shifted to her daughter as she rounded the bed on Katherine’s side. “You silly fool!” Mama snapped. “For a woman who prides herself on her clever mind, you can be amazingly stupid sometimes.”

Alec glared at her mother. “Don’t blame her for this— it’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”

“Believe me, I know it,” Mama retorted. “You made sure she had to marry you, didn’t you? She might still have caught Sir Sydney, but you had to ruin her, you… you devil!”

Katherine grew more confused by the moment. Why was Mama bent on Sydney all of a sudden? She sat up, dragging the cover tightly about her breasts. “I
want
to marry Alec, Mama. You know that. We were going to marry in a day or two anyway, so I don’t see why you’re so angry.”

“You don’t see— My word, how can you be so blind?” Her mother hadn’t looked this furious since she’d caught Papa in the stables with one of the dairy maids. “If I’d thought you would be up here with him doing this… I swear I would never have left you alone with him for one minute.”

“Oh, please,” Katherine said with a snort, “you’ve been trying to arrange my doing this ever since we met the man.”

“Not after we got here, and I realized he must be a fortune hunter.”

“Don’t be silly, Alec isn’t a—” She broke off, realizing that he wasn’t leaping to defend himself. She turned to look at him, her blood chilling as she saw the alarm in his face. “Tell her, Alec. Tell her you didn’t know about my fortune.”

“I can explain, Katherine—”

“He has no money, and you expect a fortune upon your marriage,” her mother interrupted. “Do you think that’s just coincidence?”

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“Perhaps,” she whispered, though she began to see her mother’s point. Especially when Alec was looking at her with such dread. “But you said you didn’t tell anyone, Mama. So how could he have found out?”

“Oh, I don’t know, girl,” her mother said impatiently. “Perhaps he spoke to your father’s solicitor or one of his creditors or—”

“Mr. Byrne.” As the light dawned, Katherine’s heart sank. She remembered when Alec had spoken privately to Mr. Byrne in the hall—could the man have explained then?

“Yes!” her mother cried. “Come to think of it, that night we were at Lady Jenner’s ball, I saw him speaking to the man. I assumed it was one of those conversations gentlemen have about cricket and war and nonsense.”

“You knew him even then?” Katherine asked Alec. This grew worse and worse. If Alec had known Mr. Byrne from the night he’d first met her— “You knew him even before you met him at our house and pretended
not
to know him?”

He winced. “Yes.”

She thought she might be sick. All of his sweet words and courting had been for money?
Her
money?

“So… so you and Mr. Byrne plotted this from the beginning? Oh, of course you did.” And she was every bit the fool Mama said. “He wanted his money; you needed a fortune. It was an alliance made in heaven.”

“It wasn’t like that,” he protested.

“Oh?” Her hopes crumbled around her more with his every word. “You didn’t court me for my fortune?”

“No! Not exactly. It was a factor, but—”

“I thought so,” she whispered.

Dragging the blanket off him, she wrapped it around her and started to leave the bed, but he rose up on his knees, thoroughly naked, to catch her by the arm.

“Wait—”he began.

Mama’s shriek cut him off. “My lord, please!” she protested as she covered her eyes. He shot her a baleful glance. “Get out. I wish to speak to your daughter alone.”

“Now see here—” Mama began, peeking at him from between her fingers.

“Out! Now! Or I swear I’ll throw you out myself!”

“I’m going, I’m going.” Mama’s face was a mottled shade of red, though Katherine noticed she took one last glance at Alec naked before she vanished.

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A hysterical laugh boiled out of her. Leave it to Mama to notice
that
about him, when she’d ignored the rest for so long.

She herself should have paid better attention. How blind she’d been. She’d guessed he was deceiving her, but she’d been so busy worrying about his fidelity that she hadn’t considered any other reason for deception.

But now certain things came back to her—his gifts, the private box at Astley’s, and the nice carriage, probably rented. He’d had no reason to pretend to be rich… except that he had to allay her suspicions. Because he knew she had a fortune, and he didn’t want her to know he knew. Oh, Lord, how would she bear it? This wasn’t Sydney, whom she’d only thought she loved. This was Alec,
her
Alec. A fortune hunter, a deceiver, a man with no heart. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she dashed them away.
I should brain him with the sculpture again,
curse him
.

“Katherine—” he began.

“Why me?”

“What?”

As she gripped the blanket to her chest, she slid off the bed and turned to him, choking down the lump of raw hurt in her throat. “Why choose me? Surely there were other prettier heiresses.”

His eyes blazed. “I wanted you. When I first saw you—”

“You thought, ‘I can learn to tolerate the red hair and the lack of curves as long as she has a fortune.’ ”

“Blast it, it wasn’t like that!” he roared as he slid off the bed after her. “Yes, Byrne suggested you, and yes, I needed your fortune, but it was your conversation with Sydney that made me want you. You were so… so…”

“Pathetic?” she whispered, mortified to the depths of her soul.

“Intriguing,” he said fiercely. “Passionate and interesting and… full of life. I liked that you spoke your mind, that you were clever enough to see past Lovelace’s evasions, that you were
real
when no one else in society was—”

“Especially you.”

Pain slashed over his face. “Please believe me, sweetheart. Except for lying about knowing Byrne and deceiving you about my financial situation and my knowledge of your fortune, I did my best not to lie to you about anything else. The rest of it was the absolute truth. I wanted you from the moment I saw you.”