Sin and Sensibility (38 page)

“Well, Father Michael did speak rather strongly against sin. And when I asked him about how quickly he could marry us, he said if I was that desperate, Gretna Green was an alternative I might consider.”

“‘Consider’. That means ‘think about,’ not ‘rush headlong into’.”

He grinned. “Yes, but as I said, this way it has the added attraction of being an adventure.”

Sin and Sensibility / 333

“I didn’t think you ever meant to marry, Valentine.

What about all of your lovers and paramours who keep you from boredom? Isn’t that all you want?”

“I haven’t touched another woman since I kissed you, Eleanor. My butler’s ready to call in a physician. He’s convinced I’m ill.” Valentine paused. “I think I am ill. And there’s no cure.” Swallowing, he sat up straighter. “I like this sickness, Eleanor.”

“But I said that I’d used you,” she said slowly, holding her bound hands out to him again.

He was going to have to release her sooner or later.

With a frown he untied the bonds, careful not to scratch or bruise her soft skin. “I don’t think you used me, Eleanor,” he returned. “And the only thing I kept from you was that Melbourne asked me to keep an eye on you.

After that first night, I would have done it, regardless.”

Slowly she reached out to touch his cheek. “I just wish I could rely on this being the real Valentine Corbett. I like this man, but sometimes I can’t find him at all.”

“He’s new to this,” he replied, leaning forward to touch his lips to hers. His pulse sped as her mouth softened to his embrace. “But he’s trying. And he does have three days to convince you. Will you give him a chance?”

Rising, he moved to sit beside her, drawing her arms up over his shoulders as he took her mouth again. God, he could kiss her forever. The thought of not being able to see her whenever he wished, of not being able to chat with her and hear her warmer view of the world, had driven him into a near panic. He’d only been half serious when he’d spoken to Father Michael, but hell, if a priest thought it was a good plan, who was he to argue? Besides, it seemed the very best idea he’d had in three decades and two years of life.

334 / Suzanne Enoch

She moaned softly against his mouth, and he went hard. True, she hadn’t agreed to marry him, but she hadn’t said no, either. And he had nothing against doing some convincing—especially if it involved being inside her again.

“You’re truly going to ruin me,” she said quietly, a small tremor shaking her voice.

“I am. That way you’ll have to marry me.”

“I won’t, if I don’t want to. Melbourne could probably still convince Tracey.”

“I’ll convince you, first,” he murmured, pulling her onto his lap so he could kiss her more deeply.

“Or I could enter a convent,” Eleanor suggested, licking his ear.

“Not now,” he said with a soft chuckle. “You’d never be able to stand going a lifetime without feeling a man’s touch again.” He slowly ran his hand up her leg, pulling her thin shift up as he went from her ankle to her thigh.

Immediately he realized that he’d said something wrong, because she lifted her head away from his throat to look at him. “What about you going a lifetime without feeling another woman’s touch?
You
, Valentine. Because if you think I’ll tolerate you having mistresses, you can—”

He ignored the “tolerate” part of her sentence, feeling a small tremor run through him at the jealousy in her voice. “All I have is my word, which probably isn’t worth much. But I…don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

“This is all very nice, but it’s also convenient.”

“‘Convenient’? You think it was convenient for me to arrange all this? To break into your house and kidnap you?”

“Convenient that you only decided to do this after Melbourne told you to stay away from me, and after he summoned John Tracey.”

Sin and Sensibility / 335

That definitely had something to do with it; he was in a weak position, and he knew it. “Before that, I’d thought we—I—would have more time to figure out why you make me feel this way. Cobb-Harding’s idiocy slammed that door.” He gave a short grin. “So I broke in through the window.”

“Is this for me or for you, then, Valentine?”

“Can’t it be for both of us?”

“You—”

“I don’t know how to be proper, Eleanor,” he breathed, kissing her again, feeling her melt against him in response,

“and I don’t suppose I’m capable of doing something completely against my own self-interest. If I could, I still wouldn’t let you marry Tracey.”

She sighed. “I don’t think you would,” she agreed slowly, tangling her fingers through his hair. “But are you better for me than he would be?”

He smiled against her mouth. “Much better. Consider this: Since you don’t want to be proper, perhaps we’ll make a good match.”

She took a ragged breath. “This is all well and good, for you to seduce me while I’m in a night shift and completely reliant on you for protection and for my reputation. But what about tomorrow?”

Part of what Valentine enjoyed so much about Eleanor was the way she looked at the world, and the way she spoke her mind. Tonight, though, he would have accepted her quiet acquiescence without complaint. With a last smoldering kiss that had him pointing the way to Gretna Green, he set her back on the opposite seat.

“What I know is that you have no feelings for John Tracey, or you would have leaped out of the coach by now, moving or not. But you’re right. I can’t convince you

336 / Suzanne Enoch

to trust me, and you don’t have to believe that I would never do anything to hurt you. I could try to bribe you, tell you that I’ll build you a private bathing pool if you’d like, and that I’ll never try to stop you from riding astride or speaking to whomever you please. And I would do those things, if you wanted them.”

“Val—”

“But I’m just going to tell you what you already know,”

he continued, “that you and I are good together. We have fun, and we understand one another. Hell, you understand me better than I do, and I think I can say the same about you.” Valentine brushed a finger along her cheek because he needed to touch her. “But that’s just words, and you need to think. So I’ll be over here, napping, if you should make up your mind tonight.”

He settled back into the corner, closing his eyes and trying to convince his nether regions that the delay was for a good cause. He wanted her, more than he’d ever wanted anything in his entire life. More than he would want anything ever again. But neither did he want to be a haphazard decision that she made in a last effort to thwart Melbourne.

Good God.
He was closing his eyes
. He never closed his eyes in the company of a female—but it wasn’t the first time he’d done so with Eleanor. That gesture on his part spoke more to him than all of the rationalizations and protestations he could make. He trusted her. Not just with his physical well-being, but with his heart—which apparently meant that he had one.

As the silence lengthened, he opened one eye. She was sitting in the opposite corner, her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze steady on him. Valentine frowned.

Sin and Sensibility / 337

“Are you cold?”

“A little.”

“Why the devil didn’t you say something?” he asked, shrugging out of his greatcoat and standing to wrap it around her shoulders.

“I’m not familiar with the rules for a kidnapping,” she returned, tucking her chin into the heavy coat.

He let the comment go, considering that he’d half expected an all-out battle. “So had you decided to marry Tracey?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. He’s certainly the least offensive of the candidates Melbourne and I discussed.”

“He discussed candidates with you? That’s surprise. I expected a sweeping pronouncement immediately followed by a special marriage license.”

“So did I, at first. He did make it clear that I was to stop carousing about London and marry, both for my own safety and for the good of the family.”

“‘Carousing’? Is that what he called it?”

“Yes. What would you call it?”

“Having a bit of fun,” he returned. “Exploring. Deciding the course of your life.”

Eleanor smiled a little. “You do understand.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, my dear. And that brings up something else which bears mentioning.

I’m good at sex.”

“I assumed that, after—”

“But I’ve never been as good as when I’m with you.”

Valentine drew a breath, willing her to understand what he was trying to say. “And I don’t think you’ll find anyone else who makes you feel the way I can, Eleanor.”

“Oh, my.” Her color deepening, she sat forward. The 338 / Suzanne Enoch

coat sagged from her shoulders. “Tomorrow will you still be this Valentine Corbett?”

He was only just discovering that there
was
another Valentine Corbett, and that aside from the insanity, he didn’t seem to be a bad fellow. “You hate the other one—and for good reason.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t. And I’m beginning to realize that they’re both you. You’ve done some awful things, but in the past few weeks, I’ve discovered that you can be…frightfully insightful.”

“You’re making me blush.”

“Valentine, I’m trying to be serious. You know, I remember meeting your father. I think Melbourne had dragged the family to Scotland, and we stopped by Deverill Park overnight.”

He nodded. He wasn’t particularly proud of anything in his past, but since he’d kidnapped Eleanor, he supposed he owed her a discussion of it—even if that meant more damned self-reflection on his part. In some ways, and to his surprise, he’d actually been able to figure some things out lately. “I remember. You were what, seven?” He glanced down at his hands. “My father was raving by then. You probably didn’t know, or don’t remember, but Melbourne had planned to stay for a fortnight. My father got it into his head that the lot of you were his illegitimate children, trying to take his fortune. He actually attacked Sebastian.”

“What was wrong with him?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard all the gory details by now, Eleanor.”

“Rumors galore, yes, but I’d prefer the truth.”

So this was the talk about his bloodline. He supposed she deserved to know that, as well. “Syphilis.”

Sin and Sensibility / 339

“That must have been awful for you, Valentine.”

“By then I just wanted him to hurry up and die, and leave me in peace.” He cleared his throat. “Christ. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before. My apologies.”

“For being honest?” Eleanor shrugged the rest of the way out of his coat and leaned across the open space of the carriage to put her hands on his knees. “You know, I have to admit that the entire time I was chatting with John Tracey, I knew precisely what he would reply to everything I said. I could have held the conversation all by myself.”

Valentine stopped breathing. “That does save time,” he drawled, supremely conscious of her fingers creeping up his thighs.

“I suppose so, if one’s dream is to never have any surprises, or even a good discussion about something.” She leaned in closer, her lips feather-light running up his throat, along his jaw, and up to his mouth. At the same time, her hands went to work on the fastenings of his trousers.

“And who would want that?” he murmured, shifting to run his hands down her rib cage, drawing her closer into him.

“Exactly,” she returned in a whisper, tugging his trousers down and freeing him. “What self-respecting chit would want anything unexpected to occur?”

Swallowing, his eyes closing at the exquisite sensation of her hand closing around him, Valentine slid her shift up past her thighs and around her hips. “It would seem to get in the way of an ordinary life,” he agreed, lifting her up and then guiding her down to slowly impale her on his cock. God, he loved the feel of her, of every tight, hot inch engulfing him.

She threw back her head, gasping, as she sank down to

340 / Suzanne Enoch

take him fully. “Oh, God, Valentine,” she moaned, writhing against his hips.

He nearly came right then. “Eleanor, kiss me.”

Hot and openmouthed, they kissed, tongues teasing.

Putting both hands on her hips, Valentine rocked her forward. Immediately she took up the rhythm he’d begun.

In and out, back and forth, the rolling of the carriage running through them with every movement. Their gazes locked as she moved on him, and he thrust up to her, a moan ripping from his chest.

He felt her come, heard her shuddering sigh. Speeding his own movements, he joined her, clasping her to his chest as she sank bonelessly against him.

Valentine lifted her chin in her fingers, kissing her lips softly. “Now you have to marry me,” he whispered.

“No, I don’t,” she returned. “But I’ll consider it.”

“Didn’t you steal anything demure?” Eleanor asked, twisting to look over her shoulder at Valentine as he fastened the back of her silk azure gown.

“Why would I do that?” he returned, the soft grin he’d worn for most of the morning deepening. “Besides, it was dark, and you were trying to castrate me.”

Thankful she hadn’t managed that, Eleanor leaned forward to dig into her portmanteau. They’d stopped the coach only once, and only long enough to move her lug-gage into the passenger compartment so she could dress.

“There’s not a thing here suited for less than a ball. I think you chose every Madame Costanza gown I own, and nothing else.”

“You can hardly fault me for that, my dear.”

“But what about breakfast? Do you expect me to wear this?”

Sin and Sensibility / 341

“You don’t have to wear anything, as far as I’m concerned.”

“I’m certain all the innkeepers will appreciate that.”

“I would, and that’s what counts.” He pushed open the curtain, glancing out at the passing countryside for a moment. “We won’t be lingering anywhere too long, anyway.”

“Are you afraid I’ll change my mind?” She’d told him the truth before; she might be inescapably ruined now, but if the match wasn’t to Melbourne’s liking, he could still send her away from London, never to return, and never to marry at all. Valentine had narrowed her options considerably, but as she’d dozed against his shoulder through dawn, she couldn’t be angry with him.