White Lace and Promises (32 page)

“He’s been so ill.” Her throat seized up and she had to swallow. “Grey, the doctor said he was
bleeding
under his skull. He could have died.”

“I’ll make it up to him. Later. But for tonight I have to go.” He walked to her, touched her shoulder and lowered his head.

She stood there, her heart aching. His firm mouth briefly pressed hers. She accepted it numbly. He lifted his head and caressed her arms through the long sleeves of her velvet evening gown. His silver gaze searched hers. “Don’t be this way, Beth—please try to understand my position.”

Her aching heart rose into her throat. “Have you considered taking him with you to Philadelphia?”

His hands stilled on her and his face closed off. “We shall speak later.”

“Later?”

“Yes, in your chamber. I shall find a way to leave early.” He squeezed her arms and dropped a kiss on her forehead. A casual, affectionate gesture wholly out of tune with the mood of the moment.

He released her and she watched as he made a hurried departure, leaving her alone amid the stark, masculine decor.

Chapter Nineteen

It seemed an eternity since the clock on the night table had chimed one in the morning. With a jerk of her head, Beth glanced at it again. One twenty-two. On an exaggerated sigh, she sat up. No use—she couldn’t sleep. He had promised to come home early. She propped her pillow against the mahogany headboard and gave it a punch. What was she angrier about now? His high-handed treatment of Ruth? His neglect of Jan? The slew of broken promises and lonely hours trailing from their wedding day to this moment?

Perhaps she ought to have some claret. Several glasses, until she forgot all of this and drifted off to sleep. But no—she wanted to remain angry. For her whole life, she’d been treated as though she didn’t matter. Kept in the attic with the servants when she’d been a member of the family. She wouldn’t keep that place here in her own husband’s house. Not any longer.

The sound of boots in the hallway made her heart catch. However, they passed, soon followed by the click of a door. A fresh, heated anger ignited within her. He hadn’t kept his promise. Not one fucking part of it.

She leapt out of bed and, not even bothering to don her wrapper, she left her chamber and went to his.

He stood in the middle of the chamber in his stockinged feet, the glow from the banked coals turning his shirtsleeves pale orange. He turned, staggering a bit, then stared for a moment. He grinned. “Have you come to visit me, my love?”

He approached her and touched her hair. “You have never come to me in my bed.”

He came closer, leaning down as if to kiss her. Whisky fumes overwhelmed her. Nausea rose, only to be chased away by a surge of energy born of pure ire.

She put up her hands and slapped his chest. “You are stinking, reeling drunk!”

She had never seen him like this.

“There were so many toasts, my Beth—so much to discuss. How to best handle the blockades to come. What should be done politically. And there’s always a new investor. And he always wants to share in a friendly drink. I can never refuse, or else I’ll seem rude and lose an investor. Without investors, I cannot expand without cost to my personal fortune and that would hurt Jan and you. Sexton Shipping must expand to survive. Those who stand still shall be swallowed whole by predators.” He bent towards her again.

She took several steps back. “Well, I’ll speak to you in the morning.”

He followed her, smiling at her. “You think I am too drunk… You think I shall disappoint you?”

“I think you’re an ass and I am sick at the sight of you.”

“Oh, my love, don’t be that way.” His eyes burnt like silver fire.

She backed up several more steps. Her bottom hit the wall. “Grey, you promised you’d come home. You promised we could talk.”

He cupped her face. “I know, my darling, I know. But this meeting was important. However, there was never a moment when I wasn’t wishing I could be here with you.”

He leant over her, his whisky-laden breath blowing over her face. But she was more used to the odour now. It mingled with his spice cologne and tobacco-tinged, masculine scent. An inexplicably enticing tang.

His mouth came down on hers with soft intensity, his hand cupped along the angle of her jaw and his body pressed to hers. Hell’s bells. He spoke the truth. He wasn’t too drunk. His cock pressed into her, huge and hard as iron. His tongue slipped into her mouth and the taste of whisky suddenly became alluring. Delicious. Intoxicating.

How was she supposed to stay angry with him at a moment like this?

Her body went weak and she sagged against him, reaching up to clasp his shoulders. Wetness gushed between her legs. She wanted one thing—his cock in her cunt. And she wanted it now.

No.

She would not allow this. She took her hands from his shoulders, pushed at him and tore her mouth from his.

He stared down with hooded eyes. “Beth?”

God, she wanted nothing more than his mouth on hers. His body pressing hers. The intensity of her need, her seething anger, demanded expression. She slapped his chest with her hands. Hard, this time.

He frowned. “What the devil?”

“I waited up for you, you lying jackass,” she hissed.

He grinned. “You say that now but I know how to make my kitten purr.”

His slurring voice added a layer of lazy sensuality as he cupped her breast and squeezed.

Tenderness radiated through her, turning into pain. Mother of God. She winced and cried out.

He released her instantly.

She arced her hand again, prepared to strike his handsome face.

He caught her wrist and thrust her hand down and scowled. “What the devil?”

She crossed her arms over her breasts. “You don’t have to grope me like some ape-handed tar.”

His eyes frosted over. “Have you been groped by many of them, Beth?”

“Shut up and let me return to my own bed. Alone.”

“What the devil, Beth?” he repeated. “I barely touched you.”

She drew her spine straight. “I shall speak with you in the morning.”

His lip curled up. “Oh, so this is how it shall be. The least infraction and her highness shall not grant the favours of her body.”

She backed away from him, reaching behind herself for the door. “I am done with you this night.”

“If you aren’t happy in this marriage, you should know I can afford a divorce.” His cold, flat tone settled like a hard lump in her stomach. Then the meaning of his words broke through to her sense and her fingertips went all tingly and her head seemed to go floating above her.

He had never spoken thus to her.

She gaped at him.

He lifted his chin, his angular, handsome features taking on that closed, arrogant look that sent hot, infuriated blood rushing through her veins. It grounded her. Brought her head back to her body and the chamber stopped wavering. He intended to stand there so calmly and tell her he would put her from his life?

She let out a long gush of air then ran at him and grasped his open shirt collar. “You will not put
me
aside. You will not.”

“You seem to be begging for it, Beth.”

“I don’t know what kind of milksop Juliana was, but I
will not
be put aside.”

He stared down his narrow, straight nose. Still with that touch of arrogance, that distance. “And I don’t know why you’d fight to stay in this house, by my side. You are not happy here and you find even less pleasure in my company.”

“I find myself in your company so rarely, I scarcely can judge how I feel anymore.”

She hadn’t intended it but her words landed like a challenge between them. She could feel the moment his arrogant mask cracked. The charge of his suddenly uncapped emotions snapped in the air. Flutters swirled around her navel.

“Shall I remind you?” He grasped her shoulders, bent his head and took her mouth, roughly this time. His tongue was like a blade of flame, consuming her.

Did he really think he could put her aside? Forget her and move on with his life? Oh, she’d show him. She’d imprint herself so indelibly on his senses, he’d never forget her—never have a moment when he couldn’t feel her touch, smell her scent, taste her tongue upon his own. She put all of her anger, all of her fear, all of her passion into the kiss. Without unlocking their mouths, they were already fumbling with each other’s clothing.

Their naked bodies touched, his body hair brushing her smooth skin with electric effect. She pressed herself into his hard, muscled frame. He groaned, and her feet left the floor as he swept her up into his arms. He carried her and laid her upon the bed. The dark green velvet spread on his bed was cool to her skin. He moved over her in an instant, his erection hot and throbbing against her belly. He brought his mouth down on hers and she kissed him back, open-mouthed, with every bit of her heart and soul. She clutched his shoulders, insensible words escaping her lips.

He shifted position and thrust into her. She dug her nails into his upper back and she arched her pelvis up and wrapped her legs about his waist, straining to make their connection as deep as possible. He took her in a vigorous, almost bruising rhythm, his cock banging against the opening to her womb, his lower stomach pounding her sensitive nub. All of it again and again. It was like all those frantic, impassioned couplings of their short courtship. The contractions of her cunt, swift and hard, swept her away in a torrent of bliss.

The deep ticking inside her ebbed as he lay still, panting against her ear. A brief rest and then he began again, fucking her with fire and fierceness. Their bodies met in slick friction over and over. Her release came, taking her breath away and far too brief. He withdrew and rolled her onto her stomach. He stroked his hand over her buttocks, then he slapped her flesh. Desire sparked straight to her nub. Twice, thrice he repeated the motion. He traced from the base of her spine to where her buttocks parted and moved deeper to flirt about the edge of her anus, never quite touching. A fresh surge wetted her cunt and she arched into the bed, trying to rub her aching, erect nub. His finger delved lower, sliding into her channel. Stroking her deep. She arched all the more and mewling sounds forced themselves past her lips.

“Damn, Beth, damn.” His voice sounded stressed. He withdrew his fingers and left her.

“Grey?” Her voice sounded thready, pleading. She writhed against the bed.

He returned to the bed, so quickly, so determined, that the bed rocked with his sudden weight. With the head of his cock, he touched her anus, slick and circling her rosette.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

She writhed more than ever.

He grasped her hips with one hand. “Be still, you vixen.”

His growled words sent a shiver through her. He pressed gently, insistently, his hands gripping her hips. The pressure there grew so intense she trembled with the excitement of it. He broke through, stretching her…stretching her. A low, savage groan issued from him and echoed in the chamber. Wetness flowed down the inside her thighs, an uncontrolled deluge. She pressed her face into the pillow as a scream forced its way up from deep in her belly.

He rocked against her. He filled her so full it was almost too much. Her cunt clenched and pleasure rocked through her. She was so close to coming she wasn’t quite sure if she
was
coming until the sensation ebbed away. She moaned and arched backwards against him.

“God, you are tight.” He reached beneath their joined bodies and touched her mons, cupping it, squeezing her outer lips together. “This is mine, isn’t it, Beth?”

Hadn’t he proved it well enough already? Everything she possessed was his. His to do with as he pleased, to tease and torment and love.

For now, it suited him to torment her, his fingers tracing over her mons with leisurely motions. He rocked against her, sending sensation through her. She cried out.

“Answer me, Beth.”

“Yes, yes, oh God
yes
.”

He opened her nether lips and slipped two fingers deep, deep and deeper into her. The sensation of fullness, the pleasure of it, made her sob. He moved his hips, this time pulling back and thrusting into her. Again. And again. Deepening and lengthening his strokes each time. His movements were controlled, sure and skilled. She hadn’t known—dear God, she hadn’t
known
. This way of making love was a whole other world of sensation. Her inner walls clamped down hard and pleasure erupted through her.

He was tireless after that, giving her one climax after another, with his hand in her cunt and his cock in her ass.

Finally, she lay panting, clutching the pillow, her whole body limp. “Grey, please…”

He withdrew from her, still hard. “I’ve had far too much to drink.” He placed a kiss on her forehead before leaving the bed.

With her eyes closed, she listened to him cleaning up. She was so exhausted. She didn’t want to think.

He returned, lying beside her, pulling her close.

It was warm and safe there in his arms. The world drifted away.

* * * *