Wedding Night With the Earl (30 page)

“Lord Rudyard,” Adam said, and held the cane out to him. “Would you mind taking care of this for Miss Wright?”

“Ah, ah, of course not, but she needs this to walk.”

Adam held out his hand to Katherine. “Not anymore.”

Katherine placed her hand in Adam’s and he escorted her toward the dance floor. He walked slowly and his grip was firm. Her practice had paid off. She knew her limp wasn’t pronounced, and her knee and hip moved with more freedom than ever before.

When Katherine and Adam reached the dance floor, the other dancers parted, making way for them. Katherine heard whispers, gasps, and knew every eye in the room was on them. Her body trembled.

“Don’t worry if you stumble or if I step on your toe. We will keep going. We won’t stop. Understand?”

She nodded again, but said, “Everyone is looking at us.”

“I want you to relax and enjoy your first dance.”

He placed one hand to her back and pulled her into his embrace. That gave her all the confidence she needed.

“Let’s show them how to waltz.”

The music started, and on the right downbeat Adam stepped forward and Katherine stepped back. Their toes never touched as they moved across the floor. Katherine’s chest swelled and her heart felt as if it might beat out of her chest. She was dancing at a ball with the most handsome gentleman in all of London. She was hardly breathing as she concentrated on her steps. She realized it was actually easier to follow Adam and to dance with the music playing.

Katherine knew she wasn’t as graceful as the other ladies, but she didn’t care. She felt as if she were. Just as in her dreams, she was dancing, flowing across the floor with Lord Greyhawke. The crowds blurred as she sailed from side to side in time with the music.

When the dance ended, the crowd erupted in applause. Only then did Katherine realized they were the only two on the floor. Her aunt and uncles were standing in the front row, clapping louder than anyone. She heard shouts and cries of “Bravo!” “Well done!” and “Splendid!”

She smiled at Adam, feeling as if she would burst with love and gratitude.

“Give them a curtsy, Katherine,” Adam said. “They want a curtsy from you.”

Adam continued to hold her hand. She held her dress out with the other and curtsied as the applause continued. All of a sudden, Adam dropped to one knee in front of her. The clapping stopped. The cheers from the crowd fell silent. There wasn’t a cough, a sigh, or a whisper.

“Miss Katherine Wright, will you marry me and be my wife?”

Gasps sounded all around the room again, but none was louder than hers. Katherine questioned him with her expression. Her heart felt so full, she could hardly speak. “You know I can’t,” she whispered thickly.

“Let me rephrase what I asked. Will you marry me and give me sons?”

She was stunned into silence again.

“I accept your terms,” he said. “The thought of you having a babe scares the hell out of me, but I will find a way to cope with that. We will have all the children you want.” He smiled. “Besides, the thought of another man touching you scares me more.”

Her heart leaped to her throat. “I don’t believe you.”

“I wouldn’t be on my knees in front of two hundred people right now if it wasn’t true, my love.”

“I don’t understand. You aren’t making any sense, because last time I saw you, you were so adamant.”

“I think you knew I wouldn’t let anyone else have you. That I’d be back for you.”

“No, I didn’t know. How could I? I don’t understand. What made you change your mind?”

“You mean other than my love for you and mad, raging jealousy at the thought of anyone else touching you? It’s a long story and best told in front of a fire on a cold night when you’re wrapped in my arms. Marry me, Katherine. Say you will be mine. We will have as many children as you want.”

“Say yes,” someone from the crowd called.

“After that proposal, she had better say yes,” another person yelled.

“How romantic,” still another commented.

“I love you, Katherine. Say yes.”

Katherine looked down into his eyes. “Yes. A hundred times yes.”

He rose and stepped closer to Katherine. “Some have called me a beast, and they will surely think so after I do this. But your acceptance needs to be sealed with a kiss.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips.

But far from cries of beast, scoundrel, and rake, there were shouts of laughter and cries of hooray.

Chapter 29

I was won …

With the first glance …

—Troilus and Cressida,
act 3, scene 2

Pale moonlight shone through the parted draperies. A bedside lamp bathed the room in a golden glow, and a low-burning fire warmed it. Katherine sat at her dressing table brushing her hair, waiting for Adam, feeling jubilant but a little anxious, too.

The wedding had been a quiet affair at the duke’s home at half-past two. His dinner guests started arriving by half-past four. Though Katherine and Adam had tried to discourage it, her uncle had insisted upon a five-course dinner with dancing afterward to celebrate her long-awaited marriage.

Aunt Leola had told Katherine she had personally inspected the china and as there was no chip in any of it, there would be no reason for them to exchange plates. The Duke of Quillsbury was intent on marrying her off in a grand style. They’d had to stay at the celebration far longer than either of them had anticipated or wanted.

At last the bedchamber door opened and Adam walked in. An expectant rush shivered through her.

He shut the door behind him and turned the key. Katherine rose from her dressing stool and faced him. For a moment she felt wary, but then their eyes met across the room and held for what seemed like forever. Her love for him seemed to swell in her chest and overflow around her, calming her.

“Is Dixon asleep?” she asked.

“By the time his head hit the pillow,” Adam answered, taking off his coat and throwing it onto the stool she’d just vacated.

Katherine smiled. “It was a busy day for him, too. It meant a lot to him that you wanted him included in the wedding festivities.”

Keeping his gaze locked on hers, he walked toward her, removing his collar and neckcloth. “I don’t think your aunt or your uncles were too happy about that. I think their brows were raised more than once at having a child at the dinner table, but as you so sweetly reminded them, Dixon is part of our family.”

“They are old and set in tradition and manners.”

Adam threw his neckcloth on top of his coat as he stopped in front of her. “Do you realize how inviting you are dressed in that white sleeveless gown standing in my bedchamber?” He paused and chuckled under his breath. “Of course you don’t.”

“I do know that pleasing you makes me happy.”

“I am deliriously happy, but I’m thinking we have been married seven hours now and I’ve yet to give you a proper kiss, Lady Greyhawke.”

“You mean like a first kiss?”

“That’s your favorite kind, isn’t it?” He slipped his warm, strong hand around to the back of her neck, pulled her gently to him, and brushed his lips across hers in a soft, brief kiss.

Her brow wrinkled, but she laughed. He knew she wanted long, deep kisses, not the mere touching of lips to lips. “There should never be more than one first kiss.”

“I agree.” Adam, pulled her close and gave her a long, passionate kiss that thrilled her all the way down to her toes, and contentment settled over her.

He raised his head and looked lovingly at her. “I love your hair flowing around your shoulders like this.”

“And I enjoy seeing you dressed casually like this, without your coat and neckcloth.” She ran her hands up his firm, muscular forearms and across his shoulders.

Adam seemed to study over what she’d said. “I like your hair down. You like me without my coat. Yet neither is a proper way to be seen in Society. What should we do about that?”

She pondered for a moment and started unbuttoning his waistcoat. “Perhaps we should spend a lot of time in our bedchamber.”

“My thoughts exactly.” He unfastened the last two buttons for her, shrugged out of his waistcoat, and sent it the way of his other clothing. “You danced beautifully tonight.”

“It was better than a week ago when you proposed to me.”

“Tonight is a night I will always cherish. You surprised everyone but me. I knew you could do it.”

One day she would try to explain to him just how much it had meant to her, too. Not only the dancing that she had long dreamed about, but that he had come to her and bent his knee in front of everyone, asked her to be his wife. He’d kissed her soundly on the lips. Someday, she would find the words to let him know how much she treasured that expression of his love and devotion.

Adam looked around the room. “Where is your cane?”

“I have no need of it in here. I left it at the top of the stairs.”

A smile broke across his face. Adam pulled Katherine back into his arms and kissed her hungrily again before stepping back.

“If I continue doing that, my love I will never make it to get undressed.” He tugged on his shirt, pulling it from the waistband of his trousers.

Katherine helped him pull it over his head and toss it aside. She gazed at his strong, beautiful body. With an open palm, she reached up and caressed his shoulders and across his chest. She ran her hands tantalizingly slowly down his rippled ribs to the top of his trousers and back up again. His skin was smooth, firm, and warm. She could feel the rapid beat of his heart as her hand skimmed over it.

“You are a big, magnificent man, Adam. I have no fear of you or of one day having your child.”

He looked deeply into her eyes. “I will have plenty of fear for both of us, Katherine, make no mistake about that. But it will not control me.” He reached down and caught her up in his arms, then carried her to the bed and laid her on it.

With fascination, she watched as he stepped out of his shoes, unbuttoned his trousers, and slipped them down his legs before crawling in beside her. Katherine turned willingly toward him. He reached for the hem of her gown and slowly lifted it up and over her head and then flung it away.

She lay on the bed completely unclothed for him. She watched his gaze sweep down her face to her breasts, her stomach, and lower, before scanning back up to her face. Appreciation shone in his eyes.

“You are beautiful, my love.”

Katherine took in his fine, masculine body with the same loving tenderness. “And so are you,” she answered.

When his bare skin touched her breasts, a thrill of excitement and expectancy spiraled through her. The heat from his body immediately warmed her against the coolness of the air. His hardness rubbed against the soft, womanly part of her, and she welcomed it.

Their lips met in a tender kiss. Her lips parted, and with her tongue she entered his mouth and tasted him. Adam moaned his approval. Their tongues explored and played together. He lightly ran his hand first over one breast and then the other, his fingers teasing her with feather-light caresses. He cupped one breast and squeezed it gently, softly, torturously slowly, causing her abdomen to contract in sweet pain.

“I like the fullness of your soft breasts,” he whispered as he covered one nipple with his mouth. She gasped with pleasure and arched her back. Shivers of delight spiraled in all directions throughout her body and amazed her with sensation.

He lifted, stroked, and molded her breast with his hands. He sought and found her nipples with his mouth, with his fingers, causing her to gasp with delight as a soaring hunger gripped her. She spread her hands over his wide shoulders, strong back, and down to the flat firmness of his stomach, loving the feel, the firm texture, of his bare skin.

Their bodies entwined, they kissed and touched sweetly, lingeringly, for a long time, and each time enjoying the taste and touch of the other as passion and desire mingled and mounted inside them. They kissed fiercely. Their hands stroked endlessly from spine to waist, over hips and down thighs, sending chills of expectancy pulsing through them.

He kissed her sweetly, longingly, letting his lips leave hers and kiss their way down her chin, along the column of her throat to the valley between her breasts. His tongue traced a hot, moist trail from behind her ear down to her nipple, where he caught it up in his mouth and sucked gently again.

With loving hands, Adam caressed each breast before moving his hand down to her waist, over her stomach, down to her inner thigh, and over the most womanly part of her. She sucked in a deep but choppy breath at the new, glorious experience. He let his hand linger while they both enjoyed his touch.

She didn’t know how long they kissed and touched, becoming familiar with each other, soothing each other, enticing each other with their caresses and murmured words of endearment. There were no inhibitions or hesitations between them.

Katherine moaned and sighed as waves of pleasure tightened her lower abdomen and between her legs. Something deep and wanton stirred restlessly inside her. Her hands left the broad sprawl of his shoulders to the small of his back and lower, to the firmness of his buttocks, and she kneaded his flesh.

She smiled when he moaned his approval.

Adam rolled her onto her back and moved on top of her, letting his body stretch the length of hers. His lower body settled between her legs, and he fitted his hardness against her. A delicious, languorous warmth spread through her, and she lifted her hips toward his. With a gentle push and a bit of pain, he entered her and she became his.

He started an easy rocking motion that was pure pleasure. She joined his movement, her arms circling his back and pressing him closer, harder, and deeper into her.

Their hips moved slowly at first, and as their passions mounted and mingled, so did their movements. Suddenly Katherine’s body exploded into a sensation of pleasure that was beyond all comprehension.

“Adam,” she whispered.

“Katherine,” he answered as their bodies released and melded together as husband and wife.

Moments later Adam whispered, “I love you,” as he snuggled his nose into the warmth of her neck.