Desire Me Always (6 page)

Amelia lowered her hand and grasped his erection through his trousers. She wished more than ever that he was naked. That he was laying claim to her body and making her scream her surrender.

Nick grabbed her hand and held it above her head. “You were in charge once; it's my turn.”

Amelia sucked in her lower lip. While it had felt good to have complete control over what they did, when Nick took charge, the things he showed her . . . taught her . . .

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

He rubbed his thumb down the center of her lips; she stuck out the tip of her tongue, tasting the salt on his skin. His hand cupped her neck, massaging her as he rubbed his lips over hers. He didn't kiss her, didn't flick his tongue out, just rubbed his mouth back and forth; the heat of their breaths mingled and grew impatient with desire. Amelia curled her fingers around his arms, the corded muscle flexing beneath her hold.

A rap on the door pulled them apart. Nick was standing before she even processed the absence of his weight. He tugged her to her feet so she could fix her peignoir; she did so hastily, out of breath, out of sorts and in need of his touch.

Answering the door, Nick let the maid set up the bath. Two other maids carried in hot water and, before long, they were again alone.

“Now what?” she asked.

Hand around her nape, Nick pulled her closer, his lips once again a finger-width from hers. “Now we finish what we started.”

He pulled off her nightclothes, leaving her panting and needy while she stood naked before him. It brought her great pleasure to see he was not unaffected, for he had to clench his jaw, and take in deep, even breaths.

“Why savor this?” she asked.

“Because I want to taste every part of you. Indulge both our senses.”

“To forget?” she boldly asked.

He nodded. “I think we can both admit we like losing ourselves in each other.”

Her lips quirked up in a smile. How right he was. She took a step toward him, closing the distance that separated them. Her breasts heaved up against his chest; her hand wrapped around his side and rested against his scars.

“Might I suggest we test the water before we eat?” Amelia kissed his chin.

Sweeping her right off her feet, Nick set her in the water, stripped out of his clothes, and followed her in. And as promised, they indulged in every sense imaginable.

N
ick took Amelia's arm and led her down to the dining room. It seemed odd that her nerves would strike her at such a time as this and that she felt panicked at the prospect of seeing his friends now. They hadn't attended their own wedding dinner, her feigning tiredness, which was the same excuse that had kept her from spending time with anyone for the past week, one she felt less guilty about using as the days passed. It seemed easier to hide in her room. It was easier to avoid everyone's questioning glances and speculating expressions altogether, but that was no longer an option.

She would hold her head up high.

She would be brave in the face of their missing adversary, Shauley. And she would thank everyone for the help they'd provided over the past week.

“Do you think your friends will be upset we didn't join them last night?”

Nick patted her hand like one might do with an aging grandmother. “Not at all.”

He was pulling away from her emotionally. Putting a rift between them that she stupidly thought would be fixed once they married. How wrong she had been. Intimacy aside, it felt like they were growing farther apart. She needed to fix this. Now, all she needed to figure out was how. Hot, sultry nights didn't seem to be the end-all and be-all solution.

Amelia placed her gloved hand against her cheek. She was hot and positive she still blushed. A combination she was sure Lady Burley's
cosmetiques
could not fully mask.

“What is it?” Nick asked, his hand squeezing hers.

“I'm worried about what your friends will think of me. Of our actions,” she whispered, not wanting anyone milling about the inn to hear what she had to say. Even though she was putting on a brave face, she still hated that anyone would think less of her.

“I can assure you that they have likely done the same.”

“That doesn't help cool my embarrassment at being caught in your bed at all,” she responded and was stopped from saying more when they opened the stained-glass double doors to a private dining room. The round table was almost as large as the room and covered in a cream-colored tablecloth. Dark wood paneling marched three quarters of the way up the walls, while the vaulted ceiling was painted hunter green. It was a cozy room that could be sectioned off for private functions.

Lord Burley stood on their arrival and came forward to take her hand. He kissed the back of it.

“A pleasure to see you both,” Lord Burley said. Not a hint of censure in his tone.

“I have already arranged for tea and coffee to be brought in,” Lady Burley said.

“I apologize for our tardiness,” Amelia said shyly, though she forced herself to look Lady Burley in the eye without flinching in discomfort.

“I'd have been worried if you were more punctual.” Lord Burley said this to Nick with a wink. Amelia could feel her face flushing anew.

“What are your plans today?” Lady Burley asked the men, obviously trying to change the topic.

“Huxley will be arriving later this afternoon,” Nick responded. Huxley was Nick's right-hand man and once filled the role of secretary. Huxley took over some of Nick's business interests when Amelia had moved into the house and agreed to work as Nick's secretary.

“Has your sister already left?” Amelia asked Nick. She'd only had a glimpse of Sera at the wedding and had regretted not being able to spend time with her the day before.

“The school keeps her busy during the week. She said she could come back on Friday when her classes concluded, but I advised we'd be home by then.”

This news surprised her. “I didn't think we would be leaving so soon.”

“I have only a few things to take care of while we are here. Our business affairs should wrap up before week's end.”

His explanation provided more questions than answers. Leaving in a few days was a surprise to her, since she hadn't been involved in anything he needed to do in Highgate. Something she would have to remedy immediately.

“What is there remaining for us to do?” She might be Nick's wife now, but that did not exclude her from acting as his secretary.

There was a moment of awkward silence that had Amelia looking around the table. Lord Burley held his wife's hand, focusing on the rings she wore, but Amelia saw the amused smirk on his face. Lady Burley was watching Amelia with rapt interest.

Amelia turned her focus to her husband, who was avoiding eye contact with her. A kitchen servant came in and set out the tea and coffee, her presence only extending the tension that was growing in the stuffy room.

Amelia didn't want to rudely depart now that they'd only just sat for luncheon. But she and Nick would discuss why he thought her role should change now that they were married. She would not be one of those women who gave up her pursuits because a man advised her of it. Unfortunately, now was not a good time for that conversation.

“I'm absolutely famished,” Amelia said, steering the conversation in another direction.

“As am I,” Lady Burley said, handing a teacup and saucer to Amelia and then making coffees for Nick and Lord Burley. “There are purportedly some beautiful trails for riding just beyond the village. I thought Amelia and I would take advantage of the scenery before we left Highgate.”

Amelia opened her mouth to object but snapped it shut a moment later. Perhaps she did need time away from Nick. And a ride with Lady Burley sounded like the perfect distraction.

“I'll have Roberts ride with you,” Lord Burley said. Roberts was Lord Burley's manservant, and Amelia had only seen him on two occasions and then, briefly.

“I'm sure we won't find any danger,” Lady Burley said, a hint of objection in her tone.

“My lovely wife.” Lord Burley brought his wife's hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “You know I wouldn't dare have you riding in strange lands without aid at a stone's throw.”

Amelia blushed and turned away from their display of affection. It was one thing to act such a way in the privacy of your room, but another thing entirely when the world around was your witness. She couldn't say she was embarrassed, more touched that they were so open with each other. Yet it wasn't a display she ever imagined between her and Nick.

“An afternoon ride sounds like a marvelous plan,” Amelia agreed. “What time is Huxley scheduled to arrive, Nick? I would like to return before you conclude any business matters with the manor house.”

She expected Nick to challenge her, but he only said, “You have until four. Should he arrive earlier, I promise to wait before conducting any discussions regarding the school.”

Perhaps she had mistaken his meaning moments ago. Yes, she must have. She was overthinking everything. Expecting him to be a different man now that he had what he wanted. It was a silly notion but one derived, she supposed, from living with her brother for too long.

“Thank you,” Amelia responded with a tight smile. She shouldn't have to thank him at all. It was her right to know what was happening, more so now that she was his wife.

She'd been such a fool to think marrying Nick would be cause alone to bring them closer; instead, it seemed as though a chasm had grown between them. That it was growing more as the days went by.

Lady Burley stood from the table and pulled on the cord to call for the kitchen servant. “I wouldn't want to waste the day indoors when there doesn't appear to be a raincloud in sight. Let us arrange for our lunch to be packed, Mrs. Riley.”

Amelia set down her teacup that was still half full. “That sounds like a perfect plan. I can meet you at the stables in twenty minutes.”

Amelia had to change into her riding habit. Thank goodness she'd packed one for this trip and only because Nick had advised they would be attending the manor house on horseback.

Both husbands stood as she and Lady Burley pushed away from the table; Nick assisted Amelia by sliding out her chair. How had they gone from intimately familiar to near strangers on the short walk from their room to the dining room? Perhaps Lady Burley would share some of the peculiarities of marriage with her on their afternoon ride.

Then again, maybe distance was all Nick and Amelia needed to better understand the new coldness that grew between them. They both needed time to adjust to the momentous changes that had happened in their lives over the past few weeks. It was no lie that everything had happened quickly. The thought that they were married, even now, was incomprehensible to the woman she'd been a few weeks ago.

Amelia kissed Nick's cheek. Though she didn't slip out of his grasp before he could take her hand to kiss the inside of her wrist. She pulled gently away, blushing something furious. It would make her monumentally and deliriously happy if she could stop blushing altogether.

“Good day to you, Lord Burley.” Amelia looked back to her husband before they parted company. “I will see you later this afternoon.”

Nick's gaze smoldered with something akin to desire. They'd just sated their appetites; surely she was reading his expression wrong. She couldn't help the shiver that chased through her veins. Then again, perhaps she was reading him correctly.

“Can I help you ready?” he asked, his voice low and tempting her to take up the offer.

She swallowed hard, her heart picking up in pace. That would not be a wise decision. Delectable, yes, but she had an appointment to keep with Lady Burley.

“I can manage,” she said with a wink and turned from the room before she changed her mind—or Nick could convince her otherwise.

“D
o you suppose they are still sitting in the dining room, wondering why they were left behind?” Amelia asked, drawing her horse to a stop at the top of a hill that overlooked the village behind them.

The day was typically autumn cool; the lands were a pleasurable sight, not as green as they would have been during the summer, but a rolling wave of grass that beckoned you to sit and stay a while.

“It's hard to say,” Lady Burley replied. “I know they have other matters to discuss aside from the manor house. I believe they will parcel out the land between them, and they'll have to work through the paperwork and legalities of dividing those particular assets.”

“I hope you don't mind if I'm forward, but Nick said Lord Murray disliked your husband and wouldn't allow the leases to be taken over by anyone else aside from Nick.”

“Murray lets petty jealousy rule his actions. He only despises my husband because my husband is a better man.”

Amelia quirked a brow. For some reason she didn't believe she was getting the full story.

“Truth be told, there is bad blood between them. I don't know the particulars, only that they once gambled together, and the game in question did not end well for Lord Murray.”

“I imagine your husband came out ahead,” Amelia said.

Lady Burley nodded. “Men are truly a peculiar sex.”

They were, but Amelia had a different kind of experience—she was sure—than Lady Burley's and did not comment further.

Even though they were fairly close to London, the air was cleaner here, almost as if she were back at her countryside home in Berwick, minus the familiar tang of salt in the air that was present at her old home.

“The country suits you well,” Lady Burley said. “You seem more at home here than you did at the dinner party at the Langtry.”

“I could say the same for you. There's a certain freedom about the countryside and being away from the filth and bustle of a city that seems to never sleep.”

“You are right. The slower pace is a good change,” Lady Burley said with an amused expression.

“I will never forget the air of the Highlands. The freshness to it, the lick of the ocean playing at your taste buds. And the countryside . . . it's breathtaking when it's in full bloom of the warmest season,” Amelia said. Lady Burley was, after all, lady of the manor from the far reaches of Scotland. She would understand why Amelia loved being away from the crowded city.

“I miss Scotland even now,” she said. “But Landon insists on splitting our time with London; otherwise, business might lag.”

There was a wistful longing in Lady Burley's tone.

“When did you marry? You seem as though you have known Lord Burley all your life.”

“Goodness, we nearly have,” Lady Burley mused. “We are coming up to three years.”

“But you knew Lord Burley prior to your marriage?”

Lady Burley smiled. “We did.”

“Does that make marriage easier?”

She wished someone could tell her whether or not things were supposed to change between her and Nick now that she was Mrs. Riley and not just his secretary, Miss Grant.

“My situation is hardly a good comparison to yours.” Lady Burley's voice turned firm and serious. “I grew up in a neighboring estate to the Prices. In fact, my brothers and Landon were constant companions.”

Lady Burley looked back at the manservant who was twenty paces behind them before she tied her reins around the saddle's pommel and slid off the horse as elegantly as Amelia had ever seen a lady do.

Amelia followed suit. Knowing she did not have the grace of Lady Burley, Amelia tossed her reins over the horse's mane and hopped down to the ground. Thank goodness she had chosen a horse that was no more than fourteen hands high, or her dismount would have not only been inelegant, but more painful, she was sure. She caught her balance easily and took the horse's reins in her hand so they could walk together.

“May I ask you something, Lady Burley?” Amelia was walking next to her newest friend.

“Anything,” she said, her smile radiant as she stared back at Amelia. “Though I have to insist on your addressing me by my Christian name.”

“I had forgotten.”

“Forgiven, of course. I daresay you have good reason to have forgotten,” Lady Burley teased.