The Rake's Unveiling of Lady Belle (25 page)

Phillip shook his head in mock sorrow. ‘Ever the hoyden. Now, ma belle, if we sit and chat for long enough to let Lady L's carriage be brought around, so they leave, and let Ben and Clarissa make their getaway across the lawns, I know someone else who is about to be taken on a tour of discovery,' he said softly. ‘In some ways quite similar, in others not at all. Shall we, ma belle?'

There was a clatter from outside the front of the houses, voices raised and chatter heard, and then the noise gradually died away to silence.

He stood and bowed over Belinda's hand, before he kissed the palm and curled her fingers over the spot as he was wont to do.

Belinda swallowed, and tried to ignore the butterflies that danced in her tummy.
This is it—at last.

‘I, er, yes. If we can?'
Lud, how pathetic
. However, she was loath to go upstairs and let all the household know what was about to happen.

‘Oh we can. Let's go this way.' Phillip took her hand in his and led the way to the floor-to-ceiling windows, which opened onto the terrace. ‘If we go through here and head around the lawn and through the rose garden to the stables, there is less likelihood of being spotted.'

Belinda blinked. The stables? Not to a bedroom? ‘In my wedding gown?'

‘If you don't mind. I'll take it off so it doesn't get spoiled, of course.'

Her muscles clenched as she thought of all the likely, and unlikely scenarios that might soon happen. Her skin heated and her mouth went dry. ‘The stables? Why?' Surely they weren't going to make love on the back of a horse?
Not for the first time.
That thought made her want to giggle. On a horse? Was it possible? That was not something she was prepared to enquire about, not yet, but the images it put in her mind were more than intriguing.

‘Wait and see.'

Wait and see what? Oh Lord, I wasn't paying attention.
Nevertheless, what else could she do? ‘Lead on.'

Belinda admitted to herself that she was ready to do almost anything that would help her be his. ‘Where are we, er…' She waved her free hand in the air. Seriously, it was getting ridiculous. Er, um and ah seemed to be the bulk of her vocabulary. ‘Going.' She finished, not able to actually say bedding, or making love or even spending the next however long together.

‘Like I said, wait and see.' Phillip walked swiftly towards the stable yard. ‘It won't take us long.' He began to whistle.

Belinda could have said something scathing—if only she had any breath to spare. At the pace Phillip was going she had to almost run to keep up. How could he keep up such a fast pace
and
whistle at the same time?

He cut straight across the cobbles and headed towards the barn at the other side of the stable buildings. Set a few hundred yards away, it was, Belinda thought, if her memory served her right, used for…

Storing hay.

The yard was tidy and empty and the few horses with their heads over the half doors seemed to doze in the mid-afternoon air, creating a somnambulant atmosphere. Above a skylark sang and a few bees bumbled around the rambling roses that grew up the sides of the walls. The steady drip of water from the pump into a horse trough was loud in the otherwise silent yard.

If she was fanciful, Belinda could have said the air was waiting for something special to happen. As she tried not to be, she decided it was just a perfect summer afternoon.

‘Where is everyone?'

Phillip grinned as he eased open the door to the hay barn and pulled Belinda in behind him. It was swept smooth with little in the way of goods or grain to show what the building was used for. ‘They have the day off to celebrate our wedding, and are banned from here until evening feed time. I thought it fitting we end one era and start the next in a place like this. There's even a ladder at the ready.' He indicated the sturdy ladder with its thick wooden rungs that leaned against the opening, which led to the loft. ‘After you.'

Belinda sniggered. He had such imaginative and excellent ideas. ‘You just want to see my ankles again.'

‘True. And the rest of you. Which before many minutes I intend to. Up you go.' Phillip patted her bottom, and she swore for one brief second his fingers clenched the flesh. Even over her skirts it was arousing, exciting and made her all the more eager for what she hoped was to follow.

With a cheeky look at him over her shoulder, Belinda made her way to the ladder. She lifted the hem of her gown—her now less than pristine ivory gown—up a few inches, waggled her sandal-clad foot in a circle and placed it carefully on the bottom rung. Not only to tease him, but also to enable her to climb the ladder without tripping and ending up at the bottom, on her arse. That would be ignominy in all its glory.

‘It can go even higher now.' Phillip stood by the door and watched her every movement. ‘Now we are wed, it is perfectly acceptable.' The
‘I dare you'
was in his voice even if he left it unsaid.

‘To show my knees in public?' Belinda edged her skirt up to just above her knees, but below her garters. Some things were better hinted at. ‘Surely not?'

‘But, ma belle, this is not public. This is for your husband's eyes only, and he likes what he sees so far.'

His voice was silky. As smooth as her morning chocolate tinged with spice. It rolled over and around her, like a warm, arousing cloud of desire. Belinda gulped and let her instincts take over. She ran her tongue around her lips and watched as he straightened and his pego stood out long and hard against the fine material of his trousers.

‘You mean you would like more?' Belinda grasped the silk in her hand and waved it around a little. It wasn't easy as she still used one hand to steady herself on the ladder. ‘Well, I think…oops.' She wobbled and so did the ladder. Phillip slammed the door shut and ran across the barn to take hold of her and the ladder even before she realised how precarious her perch was. With her skirts in one hand, gathered tight round her lower legs, she held on to the sides of the ladder for grim death with the other.

‘Silly woman, you nigh on scared the life out of me. Do you want to kill yourself?' Phillip pressed tiny kisses up Belinda's leg. ‘The only death you need is the little one, and God willing and my wife agreeable, that will follow very soon.'

Belinda looked down on him. In the gloaming his teeth were white and his eyes twinkled as he stared at her.

‘Well if it does you better not be scared to death then, as you are the only one I want to give it to me.'

She saw the flash of his teeth in the half-light as he grinned at her. ‘Thank the Lord for that. Now, shall we go upward before thunder and lightning decide to get in on our act?'

It was getting gloomier by the minute. Without the slight illumination that reached the ground floor from upstairs it would be too dark to see what she was doing. ‘Ah yes.'

‘Then one rung at a time. Let me hold your skirts.'

Belinda laughed shakily. ‘So you can lift them higher?' She went up two rungs and paused to let Phillip catch her up.

‘Good idea, but that wasn't in my mind. I want us to get there in one piece. However…'

A little more of her legs felt a soft breeze on them. She fought and won not to look down and see exactly what was on show. After all she could do nothing to assist or hinder him, not when she was halfway up a ladder, which needed careful negotiating.

‘What have we here?' Phillip's voice was almost a purr. ‘Very nice. Garters, silk ribbon ones. What a delight. I'll enjoy playing with them…later.'

What was it Clarissa said? Oh yes, silk ribbons have a multitude of roles to play in a loving relationship.
Was she about to discover what they were?

‘Up you go, one, two, three.' Phillip's hand on her foot almost upended her again, but Belinda held on and slowly reached the top of the ladder and scrambled into the loft of the barn.

She looked around with interest as Phillip followed her.

The door where hay would be tossed down was ajar and the deep, clean, sweet-smelling sheaves were neatly piled into bales. Except for one area to one side of the open aperture, where something resembling a bed had been created. Along with, she noted with a nervous giggle, a sheet, a pillow and a folded blanket.

To one side, in a space cleared of anything that could upset it, was a bottle of champagne wrapped in cloths and buried under the last remnants of cubes of ice, glasses, and a platter of fruit and cheese.

Belinda stared at it and her body tingled with love and desire. ‘You arranged this earlier?'

Phillip inclined his head. ‘No one else knows, I promise. I brought this out and did what I felt was needed early this morning. All that Ben knows is to keep Clarissa well away. I believe they're off to create some memories of their own. I thought we needed special memories to start our life together. Ones that will wipe out Repellent Rosemary and make up for an afternoon in a rhododendron bush.'

Belinda giggled. ‘More than. It will even make up for my scar.' As if on cue the scar throbbed and she licked and sucked the area. ‘Mind you, Rosemary apart, that afternoon made me aware of someone I thought may well become important in my life, if I ever let him, of course.'

Phillip moved her hand away from her mouth and replaced it with his. The soft rasp of his tongue teased her skin, and her muff as well as her hand became damp. She pressed her legs together. If something so innocent set off those tingles and shivers, how would she cope if he touched her again as he had yesterday?

He lifted his head. ‘Now let me see if I can help you out of this beautiful dress. After all, I sneaked a sheet and pillow in here, so no errant stalk would stake its claim on your soft skin, and thus let you stretch our for me, without crushing your gown. It would be a pity to spoil it. I've spent the last few hours fantasising about how I'm going to do this.' Phillip reached for the ribbons that criss-crossed her breast and untied them slowly. He let them slide through the circles of silk that held them in place until the bodice gaped and showed the soft swell of her bosoms.

‘Such perfection. It can be increased by this though I think.' Unhurriedly, reverently, he stroked the soft swell of her breasts and further pushed aside the ivory silk that mimicked the colour of her flesh.

His touch left a line of searing heat across her skin and she gasped. His smile was one of a predator as he dipped his head, exposed one nipple, bent closer and sucked it into his mouth.

Belinda jumped, sobbed and pressed her breast harder against his lips. The graze of his teeth and the tug of his mouth were sweet torment, and she wanted more.

Very leisurely, one laved inch by inch, Phillip let go of her nipple with a plop, and turned his attention to the other one. Belinda's legs trembled, and she clutched his shoulder for balance.

He chuckled and the reverberations rumbled across her, down her body and into her quim, and channel. This time, the suck and graze to her nipple and breast was harder and stronger and she moaned at the sweet sting.

Phillip raised his head without removing his mouth, and his expression stunned her. Pride, love and desire vied with each other to be uppermost.

She smiled back at him, hoping her love showed as brightly as his did. ‘I…you…we…' she said breathlessly and stopped. How could she put into words what she felt at that moment? The wary look that then crossed his face made Belinda realise she had to try. ‘Ah Phillip, you make me want to discover everything. To make you feel as good as I do when you touch me. Will you show me how?'

He grinned and his expression changed once more.

‘It will be my pleasure, to give you pleasure, to show you how to give me pleasure, and thus create our joint pleasure.'

‘Thank goodness.' Belinda sniggered. ‘That's an awful lot of pleasure we could miss.'

Phillip grinned and swept her into his arms, then took the three steps necessary to set her down on the sheet-covered bed of hay. Before he did so, he lowered her carefully, and her body slid down his, touching, caressing and arousing. When, finally, her feet touched the hay, she swayed.

‘Careful.' Phillip held her steady with one hand and pulled on one of the ribbons that circled her body and held the two sides of the skirts of her gown together. It slipped off her body, and his sharp intake of breath as her nakedness was made apparent was music to her ears.

‘Sweet Lord, you're magnificent, ma belle.' His fingers trailed over her body, from her ear and down the nape of her neck to reach and caress each soft breast in turn. ‘No chemise or petticoats to block the view.'

Heat flooded her body and she knew that telltale blush of arousal would be marching across her body. For once Belinda couldn't care less. She wanted him with mind and body, so why shouldn't both parts of her show him that.

‘And no drawers to hinder us.'

There was no answer to that which wouldn't sound banal. Instead Belinda smiled in what she hoped was a sensual manner and didn't look like she was grimacing, or had tummy ache. Never before had she worried so much about facial expressions, sucking her stomach in, or how relieved she was never to have taken to the idea of drawers.

He moved his hand lower, and Belinda held her breath. Would he?

To her delight—she would likely have thrown her first tantrum in over twenty years if he hadn't, he did. She moaned as one finger played with the hairs that hid her nub, and another delved between them, and the soft silky folds of skin which shielded it, to seek out and find that little hard button. As the end of his digit scraped over the tip, she arched up into his hand with an unspoken plea. It wasn't enough.

‘You're still dressed. I need to see you.' She whispered the words and wondered if he heard her.

‘You have the answer, ma belle.' She felt the loss as Phillip stopped touching her whilst he shrugged out of his jacket and pulled his shirt out of his trousers. ‘I'm in your hands.'