The Langley Sisters Trilogy Boxed Set (31 page)

“Yes,” she said, shooting him a look before dropping her eyes to her hands.
 

“Well, I think that proves you are not ready to ride with the men in the Derby, Olivia, if you cannot even manage a simple training run on a snail like Boris without injuring yourself.”

“Boris is not a snail!” she said, defending her horse before herself.

She could have been taken from him last night.

“I have seen Boris and this other horse next door before but cannot remember where,” he said, opening the latch and letting himself into the stall. Olivia, he noted, shuffled round Boris’s rump to appear on the opposite side from where he now stood. “Did you buy him from someone local? Perhaps I have seen his sire somewhere.”

“Why are you here?” she whispered, once again looking nervous.

“You know why I’m here, Olivia. To return the things you lost last night,” Will said, urging Boris back a couple of paces until his rump nearly touched the wall. He then circled the front.

“What things?”
 

He saw the minute she realized what he had done. By moving Boris and approaching from the front, he had caged her in.

“These things.” Will kept his eyes on her face as he pulled the hat and scarf from the inside of his jacket.
 

Her eyes widened as she looked at the items, and then she turned away. “Th—they’re not mine.”
 

“Yes, they are, and it was you who robbed me on my way to Rossetter House and it was you I chased last night!” Will snapped out the last word as his anger got the better of him. “Have you any idea how foolish you have been?”
 

She didn’t yield or admit defeat, and Will could almost admire her courage as she faced him with her shoulders drawn back. She’d dropped the bucket and was now gripping Boris’s tail tightly and her cinnamon eyes were wary, as if he was a four-headed creature and she was uncertain of its next move.

“Have you resorted to your old ways, my lord, and started drinking throughout the night?”

“No, and you will not help this situation by insulting me.”

“W—well this story you have concocted is pre… pre…”

“…posterous,” Will finished for her as he took a step closer.

“If you needed money, Olivia, you should have gone to my brother for help and if not he, then to me when I returned.”

“You are speaking of things I have no knowledge of, Lord Ryder. Now please step to one side so I may freshen B—Boris’s water.”

Will advanced on Olivia until he had her back pressed to the wall and his hands braced on either side of her head. She grabbed his wrists and tried to move them and then pushed against his shoulders but he did not yield. Instead, he pressed his body into hers.

“Let me go!” She begged him.
 

“I chased you last night while you flew over fences and rode under trees at speeds which, had you fallen, would have broken your neck, Olivia Langley! Do not tell me to let you go! I want to bloody shake you until your teeth rattle!”
 

“Please, let me go.”

“A highwayman! Could you not have stolen a silver tea service from a neighbor or something from my brother? He would never have noticed in that bloody great palace he lives in!”
 

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” she said, clinging stubbornly to her story.
 

“You could have been shot!” Will roared, his temper now unleashed. “And I suppose your accomplice was Phoebe?”

She kissed him, threw her arms around his neck and pressed her body into his. Will was so surprised he didn’t react and then he felt her, the soft sweet curves that were Olivia Langley. Fighting the need that was filling his body, he wrenched his mouth away.
 

 
“If you think one kiss can stop me this time from saying what needs to be said,” he rasped, “then think again.”

She bit his bottom lip and then licked it, and Will shuddered.

“Olivia.”

She didn’t heed his warning, instead kissing his chin. She then lowered her hands and ran them up his back.
 

Her innocence was provocative, each touch and kiss may be one of inexperience, but it drove Will wild in seconds.
 

Kissing her way back to his mouth, she opened her lips and once again placed them on his.
 

Will felt his anger turn to lust as Livvy touched and kissed him. Suddenly, he was aware of her breasts crushed against his chest and the feel of her fingers running over his back. He tried to push the sensations aside, tried to speak again, demand that she tell him the truth but as he opened his mouth, she pushed her tongue inside and he was lost. Cupping her face, he tilted her head and took control of the kiss, his anger making him take her lips with furious hunger. Teeth clashed as they struggled to taste each other. Reaching for her cloak, he pushed it aside and then cupped her breasts through her dress. Instead of shying away she arched forward, filling his palms.

“I’m going to take you here and now,” he whispered, tugging the bodice down and freeing her flesh. Lowering his head, he took one hard nipple into his mouth and bit down. She moaned, so he did it again.
 

“I have carried the taste and feel of you since our first kiss.” His words were harsh against the straining flesh.
 

Livvy opened his jacket and waistcoat, then pulled his shirt free from his breeches. Slipping her hands beneath she then touched his chest, running her fingers over the muscled plans of his stomach and Will could do nothing to stop the moan that left his lips.

“You’re so warm,” she whispered, stroking the flesh above the waistband.
 

“Christ, Livvy.”

His eyes closed as she trailed her fingers over his skin then with fingers that trembled Livvy released the buttons and slipped one hand inside his breeches to cup the hot, hard length of him.

“You’re killing me, love,” Will rasped as she caressed him. “But what a way to die.” He groaned as she ran a finger over the tip of his arousal. When he could stand the torture no longer, Will grabbed her wrist and lifted it to his chest. He then reached for her skirts and pulled them to her waist.

“Hold your skirts, Livvy.” She did as he told her to, her eyes glazed with desire, cheeks flushed.
 

“Now, Will, please. I need you now,” Livvy begged him.
 

Will kissed her swollen lips and then touched the soft, plump petals that shielded the secrets between her thighs. She was wet and ready for him, and was soon making small incoherent noises, urging him on as he stroked and caressed her heated flesh. Slipping two fingers inside her tight sheath, he felt her clench around him.
 

“Yes, sweetheart.” She gasped and he knew what was coming so he kissed the cry that tore from her lips, and then as she leaned into him trying to draw a breath, he lifted her.

“Wrap your legs around my waist.”

In seconds, he was driving up as he lowered her onto his length. It was heaven to be encased in her velvet heat again.
 

Livvy urged him on, taking each silken slide and thrust as he pushed her passions higher until she was sobbing his name over and over again. She kissed his jaw and then he claimed her lips as he thrust into her hard, again and again. It was rough and fierce and soon the pressure reached its pinnacle and they both cried out their release.

Will’s chest heaved as he drew in a deep breath. Need had driven them to take each other with none of the tenderness they had experienced before and he felt no remorse as she had been with him through every thrust and moan. She lay boneless against him, her arms wrapped around his neck her breath brushing his skin.
 

“Livvy, we need to talk.” Will ran his chin over her hair.
 

“I don’t want to talk. I want to sleep.”

He snorted, but lowered her gently to her feet. Readjusting her bodice, he then straightened his own clothes.

“No, love, not this time. This time I want the truth.”

“What truth?”

Standing once again, he lifted her chin, forcing her look up at him. Her lashes were at half-mast and her lips rosy from his kisses and she looked lush and sensual and she was his, every last maddening inch of her.
 

“You will tell me, and now,” he said in a voice that usually got him exactly what he wanted.

“Livvy!”

“It’s Bella. Dear lord, she can’t see me like this!” Livvy hissed, looking for somewhere to hide.

“Tell me, Livvy, now before your sister sees the flush in your cheeks and your kiss-swollen lips and I tell her what we have just been doing.”

“You wouldn’t. Please don’t upset Bella, not now.”

The pleading in her eyes was his undoing.

“Pick up Boris’s hoof and pretend to inspect it,” Will said. When she didn’t move he turned her and then lifted the hoof and wrapped her hands around it.

Dropping to his knees, Will looked at her. Her eyes were still dazed and had anyone really looked at her they would have known instantly that something was not right.

 
“This conversation is not over, Olivia, so don’t think it is. And if I hear that you have attempted to don the guise of highwayman again, my wrath will make you wish you had never been born. Do you understand?”

She remained stubbornly silent.

“Answer me, love, or I will tell Bella how responsive you are to my touch.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Livvy gasped.

“Try me,” he said, holding her eyes until she relented.

“Yes, I understand. However, I still do not know what you are talking about.”

“It would not be wise for you to think me a fool, Olivia, or to think I will eventually give up.” Placing a brief kiss on her lips, he added, “I will know the truth and it will be you that tells me.”

“Livvy?”

“In Boris’s stall, Bella!” Livvy called to her sister.

“Horrid Lord Langley has sent us another letter and Phoebe is threatening to open it if you do not hurry.”

When Bella peered over the door, Will had his knife in one hand and was flicking nothing out of Boris’s hoof. To give him credit, the horse played his part perfectly, especially after what he had been forced to witness.
 

“Oh, hello, my lord. I did not realize you were here.”

“Hello, Bella,” Will said, wondering what was in horrid Lord Langley’s letter because Livvy had flinched when she heard his name.

“Do you wish to take tea with us, my lord?”

“Lord Ryder has no wish for tea, Bella,” Livvy said. “However, I will come with you now,” she added, placing Boris’s hoof on the ground once more.

“After what Freddy told me about Jenny’s tea tray, I would be a fool to refuse such a request.” Will rose to his feet and took Livvy’s arm as she tried to hurry out the door Bella now held open. He knew her game; she thought that surrounding herself with family would stop any further questioning on his part.
 

“Can you tell me more stories of your travels, my lord?”

“Surely between us, Freddy and I have told you everything we know,” Will teased the youngest Langley as he turned to shut the stable door and ran a hand down the horse who had moved to look over the door, no doubt making sure they were leaving after disrupting him for so long.

“There is always more, my lord. I want to know about the food this time and the houses you lived in. And then there is life at sea, as Phoebe tells me you own ships,” Bella said, limping along beside him.

“I think the weather may deteriorate, my lord. Perhaps you had better head for home after all.”

Will didn’t comment, just looked up at the clear winter’s day. Livvy wanted him gone yet he would not leave until he was ready. In fact, he wanted to look inside the house and observe the sisters. His anger had stopped him from seeing the outside of Willow Hall on the way into the stables, yet now he noted the neglect. The stable door hung on an odd angle and several of the fences were listing slightly. The rear of the cottage was chipped and peeling and there was a crack in one window.
 

“We shall go round the front,” Livvy said, trying to shake his arm free and direct him down the path past the back door which stood open.
 

“We are not so formal, Livvy, I have no problems with walking through Mrs. Bell’s kitchen. After all, I’m sure I ran through it at some stage in my youth.”

She frowned at the charming smile he arranged on his face. She wanted no part of him walking through her house or into any of the rooms she did not direct him to.

Ducking his head he entered and then sniffed loudly.
 

“I smell something sweet. Tell me that cake is fresh from your oven, Mrs. Bell, and I shall marry you at once!”

“Go on with you, my lord. ‘Tis nothing but a gingerbread cake,” the housekeeper said, shooing him through her domain behind Livvy and Bella.

“But it is my favorite,” Will added.