Nothing Denied (6 page)

“If you had such an agreement written up, I would consider what you have asked of me,” she final y agreed, hiding her shaking hands behind her back.

“And if you made every effort to protect whatever reputation I might have left.”

He drew back. “You surprise me, Miss Albright. I admit I thought you were bluffing.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Wel , you do not know me at al , my lord.”

He smiled. “And yet it seems I’l soon know you most intimately.”

When he laughed, her skin tightened and her body heated, but she did not respond. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

He arched a brow. “If we were to make this arrangement, it would have to take place at my estate half a day’s journey west of London. I can promise you that it is quite secluded despite its proximity to the city and my staff is trustworthy to a fault. No one would need know what we did together, as long as you could escape your mother and find a way to journey unattended to me.”

Beatrice twisted her mouth. That was the one contingency she had not considered. Escape from her mother would not be an easy task. Beatrice could pretend an invitation from Amelia to the country, but her mother could not stand to be left out of anything. She would insist on coming along and ruin everything. Unless…

“I might need your help with removing my mother from the equation,” Beatrice said with a sudden smile.

“Do you think you could help me have a letter posted as if it were from another place?”

Gareth nodded. “I believe that would be possible. But wil that truly help your situation?”

“If I write the proper letter, she wil abandon me with ease.” Her smile wavered. “You see, my lord, I know exactly how my family functions. Al I must do is manipulate my mother’s desire to be important.”

He nodded after a moment’s consideration. “Then it seems we have come to an accord.”

Beatrice swal owed, for the first time realizing exactly what it was she had agreed to. “Yes, it seems we have.”

She held out a hand to shake on the bargain, but instead he drew her closer. She felt his hot breath on her skin, his hand was heavy as it slipped around her back and settled just above her bottom in a most inappropriate and exciting way. He molded her body to his and she felt the hard length of his erection against her bel y as he stared down at her.

“We should kiss on it, Miss Albright. It is the best way to seal a deal of this nature.”

She swal owed. The first time he had kissed her, she hadn’t had room or time to ponder what would happen. Now he moved his mouth to hers with seductive slowness and she could hardly breathe as she awaited his touch.

But he didn’t kiss her lips. Instead, his mouth found the curve of her throat and his tongue teased out to drag along the line of her pulse. To her shock, Beatrice found herself arching against him as he sucked the tender column of her skin. Strange, powerful sensations overwhelmed her, making her legs shake as his mouth glided ever lower.

But final y, he pul ed away.

“I look forward to doing that again when you have fewer layers.” With a grin, he turned away. “I’l speak to you very soon, Miss Albright. And I look forward with great anticipation to seeing you in my home. And my bed.”

With those parting words, he was gone, back on his horse and pounding down the path away from her. Beatrice stared at him, eyes wide and body tingling in new and terrifying ways she didn’t understand. Al she knew was that she liked the way she felt. And in the most secret places of her heart, mind and body, she couldn’t wait to explore more sensuality with the Marquis of Highcroft.

And to appease her curiosity about the “proclivities”

he had intimated he possessed. The ones that titil ated as much as frightened her.

Chapter Five

O
nce the agreement had been struck, Beatrice was shocked by how quickly the marquis moved to fulfil his part of the arrangements. Within a day she had written a letter inviting her mother to join her sisters at Penelope’s house party. Somehow Gareth managed to have it posted so it appeared to have come from her brother-in-law the Duke of Kilgrath’s country home. With perfect timing, Beatrice had revealed to her mother that
she
had been invited to join Amelia’s family in the country. When faced with a choice between meddling in Beatrice’s failed love life and hobnobbing with earls and dukes and people of import, her mother had been very clear.

Oh,

of

course

when

Dorthea

appeared

unannounced at her daughter’s home, there would be much suspicion, but by then it would be too late. Her sisters, if they bothered to make search at al , would likely be unable to find her. After al , Beatrice had been careful not to share her plans with anyone, so there was no one to betray her confidence if her family investigated further.

And so Beatrice now found herself in a carriage with a very quiet female chaperone Gareth had sent along to fetch her. Whatever the servant thought of her, Beatrice did not know, for the girl kept to herself, hardly speaking during the entire half day’s journey from London.

In some ways, the chaperone’s silence frustrated Beatrice. At least if the other woman talked, Beatrice wouldn’t find her mind slipping to the devil’s bargain she had quite possibly made. And to the dangerous situation she was about to enter.

After al , as much as she tried to ignore and forget it, the fact was that Gareth Berenger was thought to have been involved in the death of his first wife. When Beatrice spoke to him, she found it hard to believe that to be true, but she didn’t know his innocence for a fact. Once they were alone, he could do anything to her. And he had already intimated that his sexual desires were depraved.

As the carriage slowed she shivered, and it wasn’t entirely with displeasure.

“They’re opening the gates, miss,” the servant said without looking up from her book. “We should be at the main house before a quarter of an hour has passed.”

Beatrice glared at her companion. “So it turns out you
are
capable of speech, after al . What a relief.”

The servant’s gaze came up for a brief glance, but then she returned to her reading without reply. It took al the self-control Beatrice had not to throw something at her.

She shut her eyes for the remainder of the journey and found the carriage stopping what seemed like an interminable time later. The door opened and a hand reached in to help her out. When she took it and stepped down, she was surprised to find it was Gareth who greeted her, not a servant.

“H–hel o,” she stammered as she touched her feet to the drive and looked up at him. Up and up at him, actual y. Had he always been so tal ?

“Good afternoon, Beatrice,” he said softly as he maneuvered her so the servants could begin unloading her things.

She hardly noticed as people shuffled back and forth around them. Al she could think about was that Gareth was stil holding her hand.

“Are you going to say something?” he asked with an eyebrow arched in obvious amusement.

Beatrice snatched her hand from his, blushing as she realized she had been staring up at him like some besotted school-girl.

“Could you have sent a dul er servant to chaperone me?” she asked as she peeled off her gloves and strode into the house without waiting for his invitation.

“She hardly spoke four words the entire journey. I was bored beyond belief.”

“Perhaps you should have brought a book.”

Beatrice jumped. Gareth was right at her elbow, though she hadn’t heard or felt his presence beside her. She turned on him.

“Perhaps. Now please have someone show me to my chamber, I am tired and I wish to refresh myself.”

He stared at her and he laughed, low and dangerous. “No, no, no, Beatrice. This shal not do at al .”

She stepped back, but he moved forward and crowded her against the wal .

“What do you mean?” she asked and found herself to be quite breathless.

“You and I made a bargain, my dear. You are mine for a fortnight. And if you think you shal spend it dictating to me, then you shal be very disappointed, indeed.”

“What do you mean, I am
yours
?” Beatrice asked, her heart beginning to pound. “I never agreed to such a foolish thing.”

“But you did, my dear.” He braced one hand on each side of her head. She felt his warm breath on her skin and hated herself for liking it so much. “You see, you said you could stand my proclivities, whatever they may be. If that is true, then by the time this fortnight is over, you shal be bowing to my wil whenever I demand it. You shal be my devoted sexual servant, Beatrice, and you wil be thanking me for it.”

Gareth had never used such blunt terms to describe what it was he longed for in bed. With the ladies he paid, there was no explanation necessary. Lightskirts had a much broader view of sex. Stil , those encounters had never been very satisfying because there was no true surrender in them. Those women did what they did for blunt, not for the pure satisfaction of submitting.

So he had married, with the hopes that he could coax Laurel into surrender. When he had described his fantasies and desires to her, he had been gentle, for al the good it had done him in the end.

But with Beatrice, that would not do. To obtain her body, he needed to be perfectly clear about what he would do to her. And he reveled in how her eyes widened and her lower lip trembled even as she tried to glare at him with a mixture of disgust and disdain. She didn’t quite achieve it. Behind her anxiety was definite interest and desire.

“I shal never be so foolish, I promise you,” she spat back.

“Then I fear we won’t match wel at al , my dear,” he said, cal ing her bluff with the one fear he actual y knew she would admit to. After al , she had made this shocking bargain with him. Her straits were dire, indeed.

She flinched, just as he had known she would. For a long moment, she seemed to ponder what he said and then she nodded.

“Very wel , Gareth,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You lead the way.”

“Oh, I wil ,” he al but purred before he took her hand and slipped it into the crook of his arm. She stiffened beneath his touch, her natural desire to resist, to argue bucking one last time. But when he maneuvered her toward the stairway, she didn’t resist. While he wouldn’t have described her as meek, when she fol owed him, she was definitely a kitten with her claws retracted. He wondered how long that would last.

The question only lasted in his mind a few short moments for as he opened the door to his chamber and motioned her in, her brief acquiescence ended.

“Is this—” she broke off as she looked around the dark, very masculine room. He doubted she knew her blue eyes were so impossibly wide. “Is this
your
room?

”

He nodded as he slipped the door shut behind him. She shook her head when her gaze moved to the pile of trunks his servants had already efficiently deposited in the corner to be unpacked later.

“But those are
my
things!”

“Indeed, they are.”

She turned on him, folding her arms below her breasts as she speared him with a very angry, very pointed glare.

“Where is my chamber?”

“You’l be sharing this one with me,” he said softly. “I want access to you whenever I desire. However I desire.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Absolutely not. You promised me you would protect my reputation, you promised me—”

“Don’t be an idiot, my dear,” Gareth snapped, final y coming toward her. “Everyone on my staff is ful aware that the only reason a lady would come without chaperone to stay here is to fuck in my bed.”

She flinched at the blunt term, but did not look away. God, how he loved the fire in her eyes.

“There is no use simpering and pretending by providing you with a separate chamber that I wil either invade every night or drag you from in your nightshift. You wil stay with me, you wil do as I please and my servants wil politely look the other way and keep silent. Your reputation is something you have ruined in your own way. But there wil be no further damage from this stay, I assure you.”

Beatrice was silent for a long moment and Gareth could see that always-present war in her eyes. The one between her tart nature and what she thought she had to do in order to win his agreement to marry her. But her nature was strong and this time it won out. He smiled as she stormed forward, one finger extended toward him like a tiny sword.

“How
dare
you talk to me about reputation? I am the only one risking anything for this devil’s bargain, and what I have to win is very slim, indeed, considering what I wil surrender before I am finished. Should I not have some say in what wil happen to me? Some—”

He slipped a hand around her waist and dragged He slipped a hand around her waist and dragged her against him. The action stopped her mouth and she simply stared up at him in a combination of fear and desire. The fact that the second emotion was there gave him great pleasure.

“I promise you, Beatrice, what you wil receive wil be pleasurable,” he murmured.

She shivered as he brought his lips to her throat, but she stil stammered, “I–I somehow doubt that. I have said I would do this for the end result, do not confuse yourself that I wil take any pleasure from it.”

“You are such a little liar,” Gareth chuckled as he found the first button along the back of Beatrice’s silken gown. He popped it free and she gasped.

“I am not,” she whispered.

“Of course you are.” He freed another button slowly, but kept his gaze focused firmly on her. “You can say you don’t plan to enjoy anything I want to do with you,
to
you…but when I kissed you in Hyde Park, your reaction was explosive with a passion you have been taught to repress. Come, Miss Beatrice Albright, do not play games with me. There is some part of you that thril s at the idea of experiencing wicked, wanton pleasure. Some piece of you that aches when you imagine what I shal do with your body.”

He freed three more buttons in rapid succession and her gown began to gape around the scooped neck, giving him a lovely tunnel view to the curve of her cleavage.