My Lady Series Bundle (46 page)

"Nia!"

Nia went limp over Radford's sweat-soaked chest, feeling the muscular expanse of it raise and fall with hard caught breathing that matched her own. She could feel his seed deep inside her with the large bulk of his manhood slowly receding. Her mind was passion-spent in a way she had never experienced before. There were important thoughts that should concern her, yet she could only purr softly on the lingering vestiges of pleasure flowing through her.

Suddenly, seeming to come out of nowhere, Radford's hands were on the sides of her face, lifting her head, until his firm lips turned warmly over her lips with deep and sensual, kisses. "Nia," he murmured huskily over her lips. "Nia."

The affection, and then yes, the tender love of the action, filled her slowly and completely.

C
rack . . .

They both stiffened together at the sound of a branch cracking near them. Nia felt rather than saw Radford turning his gaze toward where Jake lay. Then from one second to the next, Radford had his jacket pulled off and draped around her. "He is starting to wake," Radford said, at the same moment he was pushing her arms through the sleeves of his jacket.

Radford's words sent some strength to her limbs and she stiffened at the same time Radford's tall body shifted and he began to stand, lifting her to stand with him. She swayed, but he held her to his chest and she felt his ripped pants hanging about his hips. They were both in plundered dishabille.

"I carry and extra set of clothes in my saddle bags, cherie. Can you stand steady here a moment?"

She nodded against his chest, though not certain. Then she thought to brace her hand against the trunk of the tree. He stepped away slowly, adjusting his torn pants somewhat higher on his hips. Nia realized that her hair was in wild disarray as she lifted two large tangles of it out of her face, while peering at Radford. His white shirt was torn and scuffed on the back, barely managing to hang on his broad shoulders as he stopped over Jake.

Radford shoved his boot into Jake's side, but Jake did not move. Then, Radford's head came up and he scanned the area of forest around them. Nia found herself doing the same, following his gaze. Then, when Radford seemed satisfied, he walked toward her again. "Stay still, cherie. My horse is beyond those vines," he murmured as he passed her.

Nia watched him, until he disappeared, trying to regain her thoughts and stiffen her spine. She had never been so completely wrung mindless before, yet her wits were returning. A few moments later, Radford returned to her, carrying a bundle of clothing.

"I will take the shirt, and you take the pants and my jacket, cherie, then I will take you safely to my estate." Nia blinked at Radford trying to register his words as he leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss that pushed her backward slightly. "I am going to go tie that blighter up for the sheriff, while you get dressed," he said, then he moved back to Jake.

His estate?
Sheriff? Nia backed up toward the vines, where Radford's horse was. "I would get dressed behind those vines, Radford," she said. Then, she turned and scrambled behind the foliage.
Oh what was she thinking.

Nia stumbled as she hastily began to pull Radford's pants on, trying as best she may to hold them up around her waist. "Oh, I am so sorry, m-my love," she whispered, reaching for the reins to Radford's stallion.

The sleek and proud black stallion did not enjoy having and unknown rider trying to hoist clumsily up onto its back. However, she managed to climb up on the stallion and grasp the reins steadying the horse with Radford's pants trying to slip down her hips. The first touch of her inner thighs and deeper into the saddle brought a small wince to her lips. This was the tender and abrading aftereffects of her and Radford's abandoned joining. She knew that she would feel the lingering presence of their wilderness mating for some time to come.

She lost the battle with the waistband of his pants, because she had to use both of her hands on the reins of the stallion and the pants ended up falling down further around her hips as she turned the horse. She paid the price on her tender sex, when she pranced Radford's horse from behind the vines.

Radford looked up as she turned the stallion in a high-stepping circle, and she exclaimed. "I must go! I beg you not to follow me!" The stallion snorted as she turned him into the motion of kicking him into a gallop. "Please, your grace, I am safe now! I will return your stallion!"

Nia held her breath as she galloped forward and away from Radford. A cry with some of the pain that she was feeling bodily, and in her heart, escaped her as the stallion sprinted away. She prayed fiercely that Radford would not follow her as she looked back over her shoulder and saw him standing tall and still as a statue, while he stared intently at her leaving.

"Damnation!" Radford swore under his breath, yet he tensely held his body still, waiting the first moment Nia would disappear from his view. It was a lush view of her bare ass bouncing on the seat of his prized black stallion. If she thought that he was going to trust her safety by remaining here, while she rushed headlong, as was becoming usual, off through this large forested countryside unescorted . . . she was exactly the mad cap minx that she portrayed herself. Just then, Nia's fulsome and rousingly naked buttocks jiggled from his view and he sprang into action, while muttering about foolish, eccentric, beyond the pale women, who made love like wicked Goddesses of Fire.

Without time to spare, Radford simply tugged the thief's boots off, then he leaped aboard the bastard's horse, grabbing the reins and wheeling the horse around. He kicked the livery horse into a gallop, and then he realized that he was nearly naked with only pieces of his shirt still attached and flapping behind him, while his britches gaped open.
Good Christ
, they were a pair, Radford thought, as he began to laugh, while chasing after Nia.

He tossed the bastard thief's boots off into the forest at some point, but he still held onto his fresh shirt as he followed Nia's trail, finding her, yet keeping back to just follow her unseen. He could be a fool that was losing his cunning edge in lust. However, some emotion inside him, that he was at a loss to name, held Nia's desire for continued anonymity as though he were her noble protector. She was foolish, headlong, vexing, beautiful and the most exciting woman that he'd ever met. Perhaps, he was indeed relishing the game she played and he wanted to continue to be a participant. His cunning edge agreed that he'd never been so ensnared or titillated. Moreover, he was certain that the game was not played out yet and she would be returning to his side for more sexual antics.

What amazed him the most was that when he'd put his outrageous betting scheme into play, he'd certainly expected the ladies to produce escapades. However, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined the play becoming so highly skilled, or for that matter, considered that he might be very affected. Somehow, he thought his sophisticated aloofness to be unshakeable. He had certainly assumed that some of the ladies would at least peak his interest in some manner or other. Yet, he'd never envisioned this headlong vaulting that sorely felt like it was snatching at the hidden wealth of passion inside him.

Which brought him squarely to a sudden and newly arising sore point in his life, he thought, as he watched Nia cantering his stallion to the very back stable at the Boars Head Inn. What the hell was he supposed to do with all the women, who must at this very moment be arriving at his country estate, not five miles down the road from the Boars Head Inn?

He decided as he watched Nia that he would have to credit her for her choice of a base for her operations, as it were. The establishment was respectable, discreet, and within easy striking distance of his estate. It appeared that she must have one of the stable boys in her employ because she was able to leave his stallion and scramble inside the back entrance to the inn without being seen in her curious dress. He knew the Boars Head Inn well, and better yet, he knew intimately that little used and hidden back entrance.

Radford pursed his lips as he put the fresh shirt on that he carried and he tied his pants beneath it. Then, he trotted his horse around the front of the quaint and well-maintained inn. Nia's actions spoke clearly of proper prior planning, which were the three P's in any good plan, and he had to give her another nod of admiration. As he approached the front stable, he kept a clear eye outward toward running into any of the ladies that might be traveling to his estate, who had stopped for refreshment. He did note one, overly gilded coach, that fit that description distastefully, but thankfully it appeared the occupants were inside. He knew that he would have to make quick work of his intentions, but he had history with several informants inside the inn and outside in the stables.

Nia's industrious stable boy for one, he thought, with an inward smile. So it was, that only a short time later, he had the information that he wanted and at the same time he was not caught in the process. He did not take the main road, for the same reasons of not wanting to be seen, but he was also forced to return to his coach. He needed fresh attire and the means to arrive at his estate properly, and his present state would cause quite a scandal. Besides, all of the servants in his employ were well trained and even trained to the fact of the unusual events that might occur in his life. The life of a spy appearing quite out of the ordinary so his coachman would be waiting dutifully on the road for his return. Where any other coachman, under the circumstances, might have harried off by now.

As he rode, much more slowly than he had advanced in the opposite direction not long ago, he mused over the information that he had garnered on Nia. He knew her exact room location, how many servants she had with her, which were none. He did not care for that fact at all. A lady unescorted all alone in a roadside inn. He was daft for feeling that way, he was certain, because the lady had, on her very own, brought herself into the company of ruffian thieves. That jewel of information was an unexpected tidbit that Jim, one of the stable boys had to offer. It seemed the two thieves had drunk at the Inn the night before with one of them alluding to getting a pay day shortly.

It appeared that Lady Nia O'Shea had used her proper name to book the room for two nights. If it was her real name? And she traveled alone with no one else staying at the Inn with her. It was meager information about the still completely and mysterious lady. However, he could surmise, with the two night booking of the Inn that within the next twenty-four hours he would be in the company of his Lady Fire once again.

N
ia shut the door to her room at the Boars Head Inn and she wobbled to the bed, falling face down upon it. She would order a hot bath and food, she thought dismally, surely that would help? Then, she burst into tears, immediately disgusted that she had any left to shed, which upset her even more.

"Oh, you kissed him," she mumbled tearily, wadding part of the bed quilt beneath her face. "Never! Never, kiss them!" And, she'd done it twice now, with both kisses combined more like a thousand kisses between them. She was blubbering and completely avoiding the real reasons she was crying, by using small distracting excuses. "Kissing is the least of your offense, you daft girl." Nia hiccupped. "I will
never
get paid," she sobbed, burying her face into the quilt. She knew it was much worse than getting paid. Much, much worse than that. She'd never felt like this before. It nearly frightened her.
It did frighten her.
"Oh, you blimey idiot. You've gone and fallen in love with him, you
fool
."

Her weeping was pathetic and a small part of her mind was annoyed with her weakness. She had not cried this much since her parents were lost at sea, three short years ago, when she was but twenty. She'd cried then for nearly a full day. Yet, her younger siblings had needed her strength so badly that she'd forced herself to stop. She had not cried since, until her near rape, and now this.

"Radford!" Nia pounded the bed with her fists a few good times as though she could somehow pound him out of her system. It wouldn't work. Love was love. She rolled over onto her back staring at the bed canopy overhead, with a blurry gaze through her tears. "What will I do now?" There was no one to answer her. There had not been for a long time, she thought, curling her fingers into fists. She hiccupped, "You must just pick yourself up and go on," she announced bravely. "Get about the proper business you are
going
to be paid for."

Oh, but she felt so badly about that. Being paid. Love should not be so tainted! "Oh blimey, you're
a
whore. That's bloody worse!" A sob caught her throat along with a hiccup.

A Duke and a whore! It was nearly laughable. But the passion still lingered on her body and in her mind. The ardor and the flame. She could smell Radford on her, and she never wanted to wash. Extraordinary things had occurred in his arms. Things she could never imagine. Her passions had become wholly unbound and completely consumed. Just the thought of him now made her ravenous with desires and deep hopeful longings.
Oh lord, she loved him.
She had no clue, how it could have happened so quickly. Yet each time they met, their bodies wildly spoke of it, even if their minds had not spoken the reason yet.

"What will I do?"

Nia sat upright looking about the room in an abysmal manner, seeking answers that were hiding fearfully in her heart. Love or money? She could never be with a Duke such as Radford was, once he found out. She'd already made the impossibly hard choice between love and money once before. She loved her brothers and sisters. She needed them and they needed her. All she'd wanted to do was cling to them, and yet she'd had to set that aside for practical reasons. She'd never regretted it, because what she was doing was born of love. Just a different way of giving it, and she'd also sworn to herself that she would never be ashamed. She liked men, they liked her. It was fun, until now. Now it hurt and it had the chance of making her feel shame.