The Pursuit Of Marriage (26 page)

“What?”

A hand clamped over his mouth and a supple body pressed him against the door.

“Shh,” Cassie whispered. “Do be quiet.” She removed her hand slowly. “I don’t want Leo to know you’re in my room.”

“That would be something of a problem,” he murmured. Even this close, she was scarcely more than a dark silhouette.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to speak with you. Alone.”

“Why were you in Leo’s room?”

“I thought it was yours.”

She stifled a laugh. “It must have been most amusing to find out you were wrong.”

“Amusing is not quite the word for it.”

At once he was aware of the frail nature of her nightclothes and the heat of her body pressing against his.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“Us.” Almost of their own accord, his arms wrapped around her, the thin fabric of her gown barely more than a suggestion beneath his fingers. “However, I see now it was ill advised.”

“Why?” Her whispered voice was decidedly sultry and definitely inviting.

“Because simply being here is dangerous. Scandalous.” He could scarcely believe his own words. This was precisely what he had wanted. What he wanted still.

“And highly improper?” She slid her hands slowly up his chest.

“Most certainly.” He swallowed hard and caught her hands. “You should not be doing that.” Perhaps it was simply that the encounter with her brother had quenched his ardor.

“No?” She shook her hands free and wrapped them around his neck. “What should I be doing?”

“Retiring for the night,” he said without thinking.

“Excellent suggestion.” Her fingers toyed with the hair at the back of his neck and he shivered. She should really not be doing that.

“That’s not what I meant.” Or perhaps this clandestine, whispered encounter in the middle of the night was little better than a tumble beneath the rosebushes. Not right for her—or rather, not right for them.

“Cassandra, this isn’t—”

“Oh, I think it is.” She fairly purred the words, and his stomach clenched.

“It’s not a good idea.” He drew a deep, calming breath.

“It’s an excellent idea.”

“I should leave at once. You have scarcely any clothes on.”

“And you have far too many.” She brushed her lips across his. He tried again. “I am not a man given to restraint.”

“Yes, I know.” She flicked her tongue between his lips. “I find it wonderfully uncivilized of you.”

“This is a dangerous game, Cassandra.” He steeled himself against her touch even as his hands caressed the small of her back.

“I know that as well.” She caught his bottom lip with her teeth.

“You have no idea what you’re doing.” His hands drifted lower, to the firm swell of her derrière.

“Oh, I have some idea.” She deftly loosened his cravat, then pulled it free and tossed it aside. “And you can certainly assist me with anything else.” She opened the collar of his shirt and pressed her lips against the hollow of his throat. “After all,” she murmured against his skin, “you’re the infamous Lord Berkley. You have had your way with countless numbers of women.”

He shuddered at her touch and tried not to think about the way her hips pushed against his growing erection. “Perhaps not countless…”

“But enough.” Her words were barely more than a sigh in the night.

“Cassandra, I don’t think…” He forced his thoughts away from the manner in which her breasts pressed against his chest.

She reached up and nibbled at the lobe of his ear. “Don’t you wish to have your way with me as well?”

Or how the heat of her body engulfed him and lured him and sapped any resistance he still desperately clung to.

“Yes…well…”

Her fingers drifted over his chest. “I warn you, Reggie, I am extremely weak willed.” And lower to trace idle patterns on his stomach. “I doubt I can stand firm against your advances.” And lower still until they hovered, teasing, near the hard bulge in his trousers. “For more than a moment or two.”

He bit back a groan and surrendered. He’d never been good at self-denial. Besides, he fully intended to marry her. And, in truth, this was her idea. One could even say she was seducing him.

Up until now.

He pulled her tight against him with one hand, crushed his lips hard against hers, and reached behind him to turn the key in the lock, the faint click echoing in the still room. She drew her head away, and he could hear the smile in her whispered voice. “Your reputation is obviously well deserved.”

“One can only hope.” He kissed her again and reveled in the sweet promise of her eager lips against his.

“I should hate to disappoint you.”

“I can’t imagine such a thing.” She turned and started for the bed, nothing more than the largest shadow in a room of shadows.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he said in a low voice and pulled her back against him. He splayed one hand across the flat of her stomach and held her, her back resting against his chest, her buttocks rubbing against his erection, straining at the fabric of his trousers. He found the ribbon at the neckline of her gown, deftly pulled it free, then pushed the gown down over her shoulder. He bent to taste the curve between her neck and her shoulder, and delighted in the way her head dropped forward and she shivered beneath his lips. He shifted to lean his back against the door and settled her closer against him, the cheeks of her buttocks cradling his arousal, the heat of her body searing his own. His hands roamed over her stomach and wandered upward to gently brush the undersides of her breasts. She gasped and arced forward, thrusting her breasts against his hands. Her nipples were hard and tight, and he rolled them between his fingers. She moaned and shifted her hips against his.

It was all he could do to keep from taking her right now. Turning her around and taking her here, standing, against the door. He forced himself to breathe slowly, deeply. This was not how he wanted their first time together, but fate in the form of a highly enthusiastic Cassandra and his own relentless desire dictated otherwise. Even so, he wanted to give her as much pleasure as he knew she would give him.

If he could survive that long.

He ran his hand down her leg, gathered up the fabric of her gown, and drifted his fingers in a teasing manner up the long length of her leg. Over skin warm and smooth as fine silk. Between her legs to the sensitive soft skin of her inner thighs. She caught her breath and he held her tighter against him. His fingers slipped upward past already dampened curls. She was wet and slick with need, and he rocked his hips slowly against her.

He slid his fingers over the delicate folds of flesh and found the hard, hot nub that was the center of her pleasure. She gasped and caught her breath.

“Quiet,” he whispered and feathered kisses along the side of her neck. He caressed her slowly, deliberately, his fingers sliding back and forth in an easy manner, and relished the way her body stiffened against his. Her breathing was labored, short and gasping. He knew she existed only in the touch of his hands and the pleasure of his caress and knew the power of being able to do this to her. It was as heady and exciting as her body rubbing against his. He shifted to nudge her legs open with his knee and he cupped her, sliding his fingers further to slip one gently into the tight fire of her. She shuddered and clenched around him. He slid another finger into her and rubbed the heel of his hand against her. He slid his fingers in and out and rocked his hand in an ever increasing rhythm. She whimpered, and he could feel her throb against his hand. He sensed as much as felt her body tensing like a spring tightly wound and ready to break free.

“Reggie.” The word was nothing more than a faint gasp. “I…I…”

“I know.” He breathed against her ear, held her firmly, and stroked her harder and faster. She sucked in a sharp breath and arched her back, and her body exploded against him in long, shuddering tremors that swept from her body through his until she sagged against him, spent and struggling for breath.

“Good Lord, Reggie.” Awe sounded in her voice. “I never…that is, Delia said, but…and this wasn’t…

even…” She twisted free and turned to press herself against him and fling her arms around his neck. She pulled his lips to hers and murmured against them. “Now.”

She was everything he’d ever wanted, everything he’d ever needed, and he needed her. Now. Desire, swift and unrelenting and frantic, gripped him. He struggled to shrug off his coat while keeping his mouth firmly pressed to hers, scooped her into his arms, and started toward the bed shrouded in deeper shadows on the far side of the room.

Toward heaven. Toward paradise. Toward forever.

His foot tangled in his coat. He struggled to keep his balance and stumbled doggedly forward. Toward heaven. Toward paradise. Toward forever.

Surely a mere article of clothing would not keep him from bliss? Surely, fate would not deny him at this point?

The treacherous coat refused to release him. He lurched forward in the dark, flinging her onto the bed, from which she promptly tumbled with a rustling of covers and sheets and landed with a soft yelp and a hard thud on the floor.

“Good God.” He groped for her in the dark and found a limb. “Cassandra? Are you—”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” she said in an urgent whisper. “Do you think anyone heard that?”

He listened for a moment. “I don’t think so.”

“Good,” she said with a sigh and pulled him to her to topple together in a tangle of sheets and blankets and arms and legs.

He pushed her gown up to her neck and cupped her breasts in his hands. A knock sounded softly in the back of his mind.

He circled her nipple with his tongue and wondered how quickly he could tear his clothes off. Cassandra caught her breath. “Did you hear that?”

“No,” he murmured and teased her nipple with his teeth.

The knock sounded again, a shade louder and a bit more insistent. She pushed him away and struggled to sit up. “There’s someone at the door. What do we do?”

“Ignore them?” he whispered hopefully.

“Don’t be absurd. They’ll simply keep knocking. Just be quiet and pretend you’re not here.” She scrambled to her feet and adopted a muffled, sleepy voice. “Who is it?”

“Leo.”

“It’s Leo,” she whispered.

“I know, I heard. Besides, it couldn’t possibly be anyone else,” he muttered.

“Cass?” Effington’s tone was a bit more demanding.

“One moment,” she called softly, then lowered her voice back to a whisper. “What are we going to do?”

Reggie shrugged. “I don’t see that there’s much we can do save confess all.”

It wouldn’t be all that bad really. Oh, there might be a certain amount of yelling and threatening and an awkward moment or two, but the repercussions weren’t particularly dire. Cassandra’s brothers would demand an immediate marriage, and nothing would suit Reggie better.

“Are you mad?” Disbelief rang in her voice. “We’ll do nothing of the sort.”

“Cass?” Effington’s voice rose. The door handle shook. “The door is locked.”

“Of course the door is locked,” she snapped. “I’ll be there in a moment. I have to…find my robe. Exceedingly difficult in the dark.” She dropped her voice again. “You’re going to have to hide.”

“That’s absurd, Cassandra, we should just face—”

“Hide!”

“Where?”

“Under here.” She pushed him toward the bed.

“Absolutely not.” He scrambled to his feet. “Everyone hides under the bed. It’s the first place he’d look.”

“Out the window then.”

“To do what? Cling to the side of the building?”

“I don’t know.” Panic underlaid her voice. “You think of something. You’re the infamous one. You’ve probably done this sort of thing dozens of times.”

“You’d be surprised,” he muttered. “Let me think.”

“You have no time to think!”

“It’s dark. Maybe…I know, behind the door.”

“Hah! That’s scarcely better than under the bed.”

Effington pounded on the door. “Cassandra!”

“Coming!”

Reggie grabbed her hand, and they stumbled to the door. He couldn’t resist a quick, foolish kiss, then flattened himself behind the door. She fumbled for the key, turned it in the lock, and yanked the door open. “Whatever do you want? You’re waking the entire house.”

“Why didn’t you answer the door?” Effington demanded.

“Why did you wake me up?” she snapped.

“I heard a noise and thought something might have happened to you.” He paused. “Are you alone?”

“Leo!” She gasped as if horrified by the very idea. “Of course I’m alone. And I’m shocked that you would ask such a thing. I can’t believe, if you’re truly concerned that something might have happened to me, that you’d ask if I’m alone before you’d ask if I’m all right. It’s most distressing and more than a little insulting.”

“Of course. My apologies.” His voice brightened. “Are you all right?”

“Fine! Thank you for asking.” Her tone was firm. “And what you heard was nothing more than my being unused to this particular bed. I feel quite foolish, but I, well, I rolled off it. I shall be a bit sore in the morning, but I did go back to sleep immediately—that is, until you woke me.”

Reggie grinned behind the door. She was good.

“You took a long time to get to the door,” Effington said suspiciously.

“Heavens, Leo. This is an unfamiliar room. I don’t have a lamp lit. It’s very dark, and I can’t seem to find my robe.” She huffed in indignation. “All in all I think I was rather prompt.”

Effington was silent, as if considering her explanation. “Then you are alone.”

“Leo!”

“I’m sorry, Cass, but Berkley came into my room tonight.”

“Really?” Surprise colored her voice. She was very good. “Why on earth would he do that?”

“He thought it was your room.”

“My room? How very shocking. And how presumptuous of him. I can assure you, Leo, if Berkley or any other gentleman were to appear in my room uninvited you would certainly hear a great deal more than a mere thump.”

Reggie winced.

“What?”

“Why, I would scream of course,” she said in a lofty manner.

“Of course.” Effington blew a long breath. “In truth, Cass, I don’t think his intentions were dishonorable even if his actions were inappropriate. He wished to talk to you about…well…it’s none of my business, really.”

“That’s never stopped you before,” she said wryly.

“You can’t blame me for being concerned. Especially given our discussion on how just such a situation would force a man to marriage.”

Force a man to marriage?

“And I told you I’d never do such a thing, remember?” she said quickly.

“Well, yes, I—”

“I said it was vile, reprehensible, despicable—”

“I don’t remember that,” Effington murmured.

“I meant it nonetheless.” She heaved an impatient sigh. “If we are to continue this discussion, I suggest we adjourn to your room rather than continue in the hall.”

“Do be serious, Cass.” Effington yawned. “It’s late and between you and Berkley, I’ve had quite enough for one evening, so I will bid you good night. Again.” Reggie heard him start down the hall.

“Thank you for your concern,” Cassandra called softly after her brother. “I do appreciate it, you know.”

Effington mumbled something Reggie didn’t catch.

Cassandra stood in the doorway for a few moments, then finally closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

Reggie pulled her into his arms. “You were very good.”

“I thought so.” There was a definite smile in her voice. She wrapped her arms around him. “As much as I would prefer that you stay—”

“I should go.” Regret sounded in his voice. “I fear this evening was ill-fated from the start.”

“There is always…tomorrow.”

“Indeed there is.” He kissed her firmly and for far longer than he’d planned, then released her and wondered if he would always feel this reluctance to let her go.

“I’ll make certain there is no one about.” She started to open the door, and he stopped her.

“Did you mean what you said? About not forcing a man into marriage because he had compromised you?”

“Most certainly.” Her voice was firm. “I would never marry any man simply to avoid scandal. And I would never force a man to marry me who didn’t wish to do so.”

“I see,” he said with a grin he knew she probably couldn’t see and might not understand at any rate.

“Do you?” she said softly, then opened the door and checked the hall. He murmured a farewell, slipped past her, and started toward his own room. It was a good moment or two before he realized he was grinning like a madman. A grin that matched the lightness in his step and echoed the optimism in his heart.

For a man who had just failed to accomplish a seduction, he was in remarkably good spirits. Of course, he was also a man who had just discovered the woman he loved, the woman who had always professed an interest in marriage, was not willing to go to any lengths to achieve that goal. However, she was willing to share his bed without promise of marriage. He knew her well enough to know what standards of propriety she had had to overcome to reach that point. This was not a woman who could be swayed by mere lust, or at least not mere lust alone. And he knew, or at least hoped, exactly what that meant.