Rapturous Rakes Bundle (37 page)

Rebecca sat down and closed her eyes briefly. None

of this made the slightest sense and if someone did

not enlighten her soon she was sure she might explode

with frustration.

‘Excuse me,’ she said politely to Marcus Woolf,

‘but I should appreciate an explanation, Mr Woolf.’

Marcus Woolf’s blue eyes were very amused be-

neath the shaggy salt-and-pepper brows. He sat for-

ward on the sofa. ‘Certainly, Miss Raleigh. This work

of yours—’ his nod encompassed the workshop ‘—is

exquisite. The execution and the ideas...’ He

shrugged. ‘Believe me, I see many, many pieces of

work from aspiring engravers, Miss Raleigh, and I

would give anything for even one of them to be as

good as yours.’ He gave her a shadow of a smile. ‘So

I wished to tell you that should you desire it, I would

be delighted for you to come and work with me.’

Rebecca gulped.

Woolf smiled again. ‘I appreciate that you cannot

engrave any longer, but you can still draw, and your

designs are superb. So, how would you like to design

for me? I know it is not orthodox for a lady to work,

but to waste your talent would be a greater sin. What

do you say?’

This time Rebecca almost choked. Through her

280

The
Rake’s
Mistress

streaming eyes, she could see Marcus Woolf laughing

at her. He got up. ‘No doubt you will wish to discuss

this with Lord Lucas. I will leave you my card. Come

to see me if you wish to discuss the offer. For now I

had better be getting back to my studio.’ He turned to

Lucas. ‘Good day, my lord.’ He touched his hat and

went out.

Rebecca turned to Lucas. ‘I do not understand,’ she

whispered. ‘You showed Marcus Woolf my work.

Why?’

Lucas came forward into the studio. He was looking

very pale. ‘I wanted you to have a choice, Rebecca,’

he said. ‘When you explained that you were obliged

to give up your engraving I wanted—’ He stopped,

swallowed hard. ‘I wanted you to choose to marry me

of your own free will, not because one way of life was

closed to you. So I thought to find you an alternative.

I wanted to prove that I loved you enough to let you

go. With all that had happened between us, I wanted

you to be sure—’

Rebecca crossed the distance between them and put

a hand up to his lips to stop the words. ‘Oh, Lucas.’

She smiled mistily at him. ‘There was no need, but

you have made me very happy.’

‘You said that you always loved your engraving

more than anything else in life,’ Lucas said.

Rebecca laughed a little shakily. ‘So I did. But that

was before I realised how much I loved you, Lucas.’

There was a fierce light in Lucas’s eyes now. ‘Do

you?’

‘So very much.’ Rebecca gestured around the work-

shop. ‘I needed to take my farewell of all this because

Nicola
Cornick

281

it was so much a part of my past life. But I am willing

to step into the future with you.’ She held out a hand

to him. ‘And I think you must love me very much too.

You had asked me to marry you, but you were willing

to give me an alternative—working for Marcus

Woolf.’

Lucas came close to her and took both her hands in

his. ‘I did not wish for an unhappy bride,’ he said, and

Rebecca could hear the rough undertone of emotion in

his voice. ‘I love you more than I ever thought pos-

sible, Rebecca, but I wanted you to want me.’

The laughter bubbled up within Rebecca. ‘So you

persuaded Mr Woolf to offer me work.’

‘Not so. All I did was show him your engraving.

He recognised your talent for himself.’

‘And now I shall have to disappoint him.’

‘Why should you do that?’ Lucas was drawing her

closer, but now he paused and looked down into her

eyes. ‘He has offered you the chance to design for

him. Surely you cannot turn him down?’

Rebecca was puzzled. ‘But if I am to be Lady Re-

becca Kestrel I cannot work!’

Lucas laughed. ‘You are more conventional than I

had thought, my love. Why not accept his offer?’

Rebecca frowned. ‘Do you not wish to marry me,

then?’

‘Of course. But I have realised that the two need

not be mutually exclusive. I should be very proud to

have a wife who designed commissions for the best

glass engraver in town.’

Rebecca stared at him in stupefaction. ‘But, Lu-

282

The
Rake’s
Mistress

cas—ladies do not do such things! Ladies do not

work!’

Lucas was shaking his head in mock disapproval. ‘I

am disappointed in you, my love! Since when did you

conform to what is expected?’

Rebecca looked at him in dawning hope. ‘You do

not tease me?’

‘No, indeed. I have no independent fortune,’ Lucas

continued, ‘and need a wife to support me.’

Rebecca caught the flash of amusement in his eyes.

‘Oh! You are so—’

He stopped her words with his lips and they clung

together as though they would never part. The kiss

turned swiftly from tenderness to passion. Rebecca felt

the four walls of the studio contract to the space im-

mediately about them as they held each other with

desperate need. She could feel Lucas trembling as he

held her and the knowledge of it brought a mixture of

terror and elation.

He let her go for a moment and she knew what he

would see in her eyes: the excitement and the wanting,

the hours she had spent thinking about him as she now

knew he had been thinking of her, the memory of how

it had been between them. Sharp desire twisted deep

inside her and she almost gasped aloud.

Lucas pulled the gown off her shoulder and bent to

kiss her neck, the hollow of her collarbone, her throat.

There was a look of intense concentration on his face.

If Rebecca had not heard the quickness of his

breathing, seen his fingers shake, she would have

thought him unmoved. Her mind reeled. Surely this

could not be happening to her in the studio, in the

Nicola
Cornick

283

middle of the afternoon? Yet she had waited for him

for what seemed like forever. She felt unbearably im-

patient. She reached for him.

Lucas’s hands circled her waist, then moved up to

push the bodice of her dress farther down, leaving her

in her shift. He unlaced the ribbons and slid his hand

inside. Rebecca gasped against his mouth as the

warmth of his hand cupped her breast. He lifted her

slightly so that she was sitting on the edge of the work-

bench. He pulled her skirts up her thighs. She felt the

cold hard edge of the table against her bare skin. Lucas

was fumbling with the fastening of his breeches. His

mouth took hers again at the same time as his fingers

parted her, stroking with a sly seduction. Rebecca cli-

maxed at once, in shock and fierce delight, and a sec-

ond time, helplessly yielding, when he entered her.

Her fingers were digging into his back and the bench

creaked in protest at each thrust. It was shocking and

erotic and everything that she had dreamed of.

‘Oh, Rebecca...’ Lucas’s face was turned into the

hollow of her neck.

Her legs were trembling when she slid to the floor

and she had to grip his arm to steady herself. Lucas

scooped her up into his arms.

Rebecca squeaked. ‘Lucas, no! You will hurt your-

self.’

‘I have done it before, if you remember,’ Lucas

said.

At the top of the stairs he put her down and she

turned, wrapped her arms about him, and kissed him

fiercely. They tumbled onto the bed. Lucas propped

himself up on one elbow and allowed his gaze to travel

284

The
Rake’s
Mistress

all the way down her body, from the bow unravelling

in her hair, to her breasts peaking with desperate

arousal beneath the thin cotton shift, to her tumbled

petticoats, down her legs to her toes. Rebecca’s whole

body ached for his touch.

He smiled slowly. ‘I do believe that you are over-

dressed,’ he said.

Lucas stripped their clothes off with ruthless effi-

ciency and turned Rebecca gently so that she was ly-

ing on her stomach next to him on the bed. Lucas

allowed his hand to drift down the silken length of her

back and over the curve of her buttocks. There was so

much passion in her. He had suspected as much when

he had seen the eloquence and the beauty and the raw

longing that was locked into those engravings. He had

wanted to unlock it in reality and make her his, no

matter that he knew he should not. And now he had

done it, this time forever.

‘Rebecca...’ He leaned over so that his chest

brushed the soft skin of her back, and spoke gently in

her ear. ‘I am going to take you again. I cannot help

myself...’

Rebecca made a faint sound of assent and gave a

tiny, voluptuous wriggle. Smiling a little, Lucas

reached for the bolster, slid his arm beneath her, lifted

her hips and pushed it under her stomach. Finding that

she was almost on her knees, Rebecca stirred abruptly.

‘Lucas, what—’

‘Hush.’ He soothed her at the same time as holding

her still with one hand spread on the small of her back.

She looked so provocative and open to him without

Nicola
Cornick

285

any pretence of modesty that he felt his body tighten

almost unbearably. ‘I won’t hurt you,’ he whispered.

He held her hips and slid inside her, feeling her

shudder with pleasure. Her back arched, her hair fell

about her shoulders in glorious chestnut waves and she

gave a moan of sheer, unbelieving excitement as she

felt the relentless possession take her. Lucas revelled

in Rebecca’s uninhibited response, which drew an

equally unrestrained passion from him. Dimly he knew

that he should treat her more gently, but he was pow-

erless to resist, powerless to control his thoughts, his

desires and his need for her. He had never felt like

this before. Never felt this sense of exquisite com-

pleteness. He held her still and took her with a sure,

hard control.

Yet this perfect pleasure, this flagrant possession,

was not sufficient. He needed to see her face, to hold

her, to kiss her.

He drew back and tumbled her over and into his

arms. Her face was flushed pink with arousal and there

was a dazed, abandoned darkness in her eyes. He

swooped down on her.

‘Not enough...’ He had spoken the words aloud and

now he saw her eyes open wider and a smile creep

into the slumberous blue depths. Her hand came up to

stroke his jaw.

‘There’s more?’

‘That wasn’t what I meant.’ He looked at her. ‘I

need to look at you.’

Her eyes smiled. He bent to kiss her. His hands

were on her thighs, spreading them wide. He surged

into her softness and heard her gasp, and cut the sound

286

The
Rake’s
Mistress

off with his plundering mouth on hers once more. One

of his hands trapped her wrists above her head, hold-

ing her still. The other came up to caress her breast

and slide over her heated skin in triumphant posses-

sion.

He could not get enough of her. As he started to

move inside her the conflagration took them. She gave

a wild cry and Lucas felt the flames rise and consume

him, destroying his self-control and his self-sufficiency

and all the barriers that had kept him alone. Mindless

urgency overtook him and drove him to its final, shat-

tering climax and he gathered Rebecca closer still, as,

body and soul, they were fused as one.

The sensations died slowly to leave them still and

peaceful. Rebecca was boneless and soft in his arms

and he drew her closer into their shelter, filled with

wondrous contentment and a searing peace. He felt her

body soften further and slide into sleep, and rested his

chin in the cloud of her hair, inhaling her scent and

relaxing as sated pleasure and deep satisfaction beck-

oned him irresistibly to join her asleep. And this time

when she awoke, he was still there.