A Lady And Her Magic (19 page)

Sophia let him jerk her close, harsh and unyielding in his need for her. A laugh escaped her throat as he bent his head and nuzzled his stubbly jaw into the sensitive skin at her throat. Winding her arms around his neck, she threaded her fingers into the hair at the base of his skull and tugged gently, forcing his head up so she could look at him. Instead, he pressed his forehead against hers, gulping in large breaths of air, his eyes tightly shut as though he was in pain.

“I thought you’d never arrive,” he whispered, his words harsh enough to shatter glass yet soft enough to rub over her skin like a caress.

She touched her mouth to his quickly and tried to pull her head back so she could talk to him, but his fingers threaded through hers, locking her in his grasp with her arms behind her back as his lips chased hers in her retreat.

“You knew I would come for Ronald,” she said against his lips. But it was nearly impossible to think with him kissing her in such a manner, much less speak.

Suddenly, he jerked his head back from her. “Tell me you’re not here just for Ronald,” he growled, looking at her face as though he’d never seen her before.

Sophia forced herself to take a deep breath before she said, “No. I’m here for us, too.”

“For how long?” he ground out. His breaths heaved from him in huge, gasping bursts.

“For tonight.” It nearly broke her heart to say it. But it must be said.

“I’ll have tonight to change your mind,” he whispered, almost reverently.

“You can try,” was all she could offer.

He laughed softly, raising her hands to put them back around his neck, and then his fingertips slid down her arms until she was caught within his grasp, her belly against the hardness of him. “Oh, dear,” she whispered, unable to say more.

“I need you,” he said, raising trembling fingers to brush her hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear. His eyes lingered on the pointy tip of her ear. He stopped short and stared at it.

“This is the first time you’ve noticed it.” She tilted her head to look at him, watching for his reaction as he studied her ear. “It’s always been like that.”

“How could I have missed seeing that?”

“You were more concerned with other parts of my body?” she asked, feeling particularly wicked.

“What else do you have?” he suddenly blurted out.

“Beg your pardon?”

“What else marks you as… what are you, exactly?”

“I doubt you want to know all the details.” She tried to laugh, but it was nearly impossible.

“I want to know everything about you,” he said, his lips touching hers again, softly this time.

“I am fae,” she said, taking a deep breath to bolster herself. She disentangled herself from his arms and stepped back from him. “I can’t think when you touch me like that,” she admitted. He nodded and crossed to the sideboard to pour himself a drink.

“Would you like one?” he asked and then raised his glass to his lips for a quick swallow. She nodded and stepped toward him, but before he could pour a glass for her, she took his from his hand and raised it to her own lips. He made a noise in his throat when her lips touched the place where his had been.

“Thank you,” she said, passing it back. The liquor traced a fiery path down her throat, nearly stealing her breath. He raised it back to his own mouth and took a swallow, regarding her over the rim of the glass as he drained it dry.

“Where is the land of the fae?” he asked.

“Somewhere you’ve never heard of.”

“Again with the cryptic comments?” he groaned as he dropped into an overstuffed chair. He crooked a finger at her, and she went without even deciding to do so. He tugged her so that he could lace his fingers with hers. “Don’t lie to me, Sophie. I deserve more than that.”

“You saw what I did in the village.”

“I’m not certain what I saw,” he said, laying his head back against the chair to regard her from beneath heavy-lidded lashes. He pulled her down to sit on his lap and jostled her lightly with a bump of his knees. “Explain it to me.”

She brushed a wayward lock of hair from his forehead. “Please know that it’s forbidden.”

“Ballocks, Sophie,” he said quietly, his hand resting on her hip, his thumb drawing tiny circles that threatened to disarm her.

“I can’t think when you touch me,” she scolded.

He chuckled. “Yet, I can’t seem to be able to stop.”

“I have this final night,” she began. But her voice cracked and she forced herself to stop. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly for a moment, then opened them and looked directly into his. “I have this final night. Then I must catch the rising-dawn wind in the morning.”

“Must you?” he whispered.

She nodded. “I must.”

He stood up and swept her into his arms. He tossed her for a firmer hold and she squealed. “What are you doing?”

“If I have you for one night, I want to spend it in my bedchamber.” He started for the door.

***

“Wait!” she cried as he started down the corridor. He didn’t even stop to look down at her, afraid he would see rejection on her face. Ashley didn’t stop walking until he reached his chambers. He stomped past one flustered maid who plastered herself against the wall in fear, closing her eyes tightly as he passed, as though by doing so, she could erase the idea of where they were going. Because it was quite obvious he was taking Sophia to his bed.

When he entered his rooms, he dropped her feet and let her slide slowly down his body until she hit the floor. “Wait,” she muttered against his lips as he bent his head with the sole purpose of devouring her. But she giggled into his mouth at the same time and didn’t act like she wanted him to stop at all. So, he didn’t. But then her hands smacked playfully against his chest. “A moment, Ashley,” she finally said, lifting her lips from his.

Some little part of her hesitance must have finally seeped into his brain because he realized she wasn’t nearly as amorously involved as he was. Damn his eyes. He forced himself to lift his hands from her body and walked across the room, then dropped onto the bench beside his pianoforte.

“Will you play for me?” she asked tentatively.

He harrumphed. “Isn’t that what I have been doing since I met you?”

Her eyes narrowed and she regarded him stoically for a moment. “Is it?” she asked. “I certainly wasn’t playing.”

“Never?” he asked. He probably sounded like an untried adolescent.

“Not even once,” she replied, her voice crisp enough to cut through the air like a knife. “How dare you diminish the feelings I have for you by accusing me of toying with you?” Her cheeks flushed scarlet and a blush crept up her neck. He’d never seen her angry. She was quite lovely. And a force to be reckoned with when she was truly in a temper, he’d wager. But in this case, he would bet he’d hurt her feelings more than angered her. And that made his heart ache.

“You have feelings for me?” He studied her face while he asked the question.

“Would I be here if I didn’t?”

“I was holding Ronald for ransom.”

She crossed to sit beside him on the bench. “I’d have come here even if you weren’t.”

He took her hand in his. “I want to marry you.”

She shook her head, negating his words as soon as they left his lips. “I can’t live in your world. I can visit it from time to time, but that’s all.”

“Do you plan to do that?” He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed the backs of them.

“Now that I have parents here, and they remember me, I suppose I’ll visit. But it won’t be enough to suit either you or me.” She shrugged. “It simply cannot be managed.”

“Tell me your secrets,” he prompted.

She laughed. “You tell me yours.”

He nudged her knee with his. “A compromise? I’ll trade you one of my secrets for one of yours.”

She looked at him askance, her gaze skeptical. But slowly she nodded.

“Why did you come to me that first night?”

Her face softened. “You think it was a plan, don’t you? To seduce you?”

He didn’t answer. He just watched her.

“It wasn’t. I was completely drawn to you.”

Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

“I know now that it was my mother’s fae machinations that drew me to you.” She grimaced. “That’s probably going to get too close for comfort, if we discuss it, however. May we move on to the next subject?”

He shook his head. “No. Let’s finish this one.”

“Her spell was for me to recognize the song of someone who loved me. To be drawn by it so I could find her. But in her spell-casting, she neglected to think that someone else may love me, as well.”

Ashley felt like hiding his head. He hadn’t even known how he felt until recently. How on earth could she know?

“It’s all right. You needn’t tell me.” She squeezed his hand. “I already know.” She tipped his face up to hers and touched her lips lightly to his. “And the feeling is mutual.”

“Your mother’s spell…” he began.

But she cut him off. “My mother’s spell drew me to you. It didn’t make me fall in love with you.” She laughed, a self-deprecating sound. “You did that all on your own.”

Ashley’s head spun with the news.

“My turn,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Did you love your wife?”

“Don’t you want to know if I killed her?”

“No.” She batted those dark lashes at him. “Not yet.”

He sighed heavily, taking a breath to bolster himself. “Did I love her?” He thought for a moment. “No. I never did.”

“Not ever?”

“No. She and I had nothing in common. We married to suit our families. She was frail from the day I met her. And only came to my bed because she was obligated to give me an heir.”

She tilted her head and listened to him. He’d never spoken of this to anyone. Ever.

“She was relieved when she found out she was expecting.”

“I would have been ecstatic,” she whispered softly.

“She was relieved because she no longer had to share my bed, you see. For nine months, she would be free of my affections. And, if we conceived a boy, she could be free of me forever.”

“You wanted more.” She didn’t ask a question. She just knew he’d always dreamed of more.

“I wanted a wife I could touch and talk to when I wanted, and not just when she was breeding. I wanted a wife I could tell my secrets to. Someone who would hold them dear.” Ashley shook his head. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized what was going on with her.”

“What was it?” Sophia’s brows drew together.

“She loathed my touch so much that she became ill whenever I was around. She got so weak that she took to a wheeled chair, so she could get about. She never left her bed unless someone forced her to do so.” He crossed to the sideboard to pour a drink. “I tried to be intimate with her. I tried to tell her things. I tried to talk to her. I spoke with her about my business ventures. About the investments I made. I would leave home to take care of business matters and always returned to her. She was so frail that I didn’t stay away for long, you see.”

“I do see…” she began. “You felt obligated to her care. Of course, you would.”

“She played me for a fool.”

“What do you mean?”

“There was a gentleman. A peer who approached me. He’d done quite well, and he often invested in schemes I was invested in. He was also seen in the company of my wife on occasion. I began to get suspicious. I planted some false information with my duchess to see if it would get back to him. It did. Every bit of it. He lost his shirt in the deal. And his stockings. And everything else.”

“He came to see me. Accused me of all sorts of foul things. Tried to blackmail me into paying him when he realized what I’d done. I refused. He threatened to harm my wife if I didn’t pay him. I never expected him to follow through.”

“Where is he now?”

Ashley finally looked up from his glass. “In Parliament. He serves his duties as though he’s not penniless and homicidal.” He shrugged. “I never could prove he did it. But I’m certain of it. I would bet my fortune and my family on it.”

“You didn’t kill her.”

***

Ashley looked wounded at her question. He chuckled, a sound without any mirth at all as he drained the last swallow of his drink. “Oh, I wanted to kill her. On more than one occasion. When I found out she’d been sharing a bed with this gentleman throughout most of our marriage. When I learned that she’d shared my business secrets with him. When I found out her illness was all a ruse to keep me from her bed. When he tried to blackmail me. I wanted to kill her. And I may as well have.”

“That’s why you never disavowed it.” She pressed her fingertips to her lips. “Because you felt guilty.”

“If I’d done as he asked, he wouldn’t have carried through with his threat. I thought he loved her a little.” He made that chuckling sound again. “I was quite wrong.

“The dangerous Duke of Robinsworth did cause his wife’s death,” he said with a grimace. “But not in a way anyone would have ever expected.”

“You are not to blame for her folly.”

“I may as well have tossed her from the tower myself.”

“That’s not true,” she started. But he just shook his head.

“Enough with my secret. I’ll have another of yours now.”

She tapped her chin for a moment, trying to figure out what to tell him next. She may as well show him. She turned her back to him and pulled her hair over her shoulder. “Would you unfasten my gown for me, please?”

He gulped and stared at her for a moment. But not for long. He rose and began to work the fastenings on the back of her gown. When her gown was loose, he stepped back and away from her, and ran a hand quickly through his hair. “Don’t worry,” she teased. “I simply want to show you something.”

“Show me everything,” he groaned as a grin stole across his face.

She pointed to a nearby chair. “Sit,” she commanded.

He did so with no hesitation, aside from sweeping a hand down over his mouth, as though he wanted to wipe the silly grin from his face. It didn’t work. He regarded her closely, leaning forward with his elbows upon his knees.

“Would you close your eyes for a moment?” she asked.

He groaned, his grin growing even wider. “Must I?”