The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace) (15 page)

‘Five days’ time should be perfect. We’ll go up to London tomorrow. Then there are three days for you, Tess and Tamsyn to shop for all the things you’ll need. I’ll sort out the licence and the legal details and find a clergyman. I’m hoping that Cris will let us use his house in St James’s Square. That will prevent any hint of the hole-and-corner about the marriage.’

‘It certainly will,’ Caroline said hollowly. The thought of Crispin de Feaux’s cool blue regard simply made her want to curl up into a ball and seek out every hole and corner she could find.

‘So, are we agreed?’

There was the sensation of holding her breath, as though she was about to jump into icy water or walk out along a narrow ledge. ‘Yes,’ Caroline said. There was a guilty relief in surrender that she tried not to analyse too closely.

‘Then I think we should summon the staff, who are probably all agog about this morning’s incidents and making up the most lurid tales. We will tell them who you are and that we are to be married. There’s no disguising the clandestine nature of all of this, so let us hope they are both loyal and idiotically romantic.’

Idiotically romantic, like me. And I am also idiotically loyal, Gabriel Stone. Vows mean something to me.

* * *

The staff had been embarrassingly excited to be part of what they obviously saw as a Great Romance. Caroline promised to send them a new housekeeper as soon as possible and spent the afternoon immersed in practical details, which at least had the advantage of keeping her mind distracted.

Gabriel appeared to have employed the time creating a stack of letters which he sent off with the groom to the nearest receiving office. Dinner was formal and polite with only an exchange of the most trivial chitchat. Caroline made her excuses and retired immediately afterwards, frankly retreating from the domestic intimacy of tea in the drawing room.

At least Harriet, the personal maid who had been recruited in London, was sufficiently down to earth to ask questions. ‘Will you still be requiring me when you go back to London, ma’am? My lady, I should say.’

Caroline sat at her dressing table as the young woman unpinned her hair before brushing it out. ‘I need a lady’s maid, Harriet, and you’ve done very well. But can you manage elaborate hair styles and the care of fine fabrics? I will be a countess and that will mean a considerable social life and the clothes and jewels to go with it.’
Provided we are not completely shunned by decent society.
‘I quite understand if you think it will be too much and I would give you an excellent reference.’

‘Oh, no, my lady. I can do it.’ Her face broke into a happy smile. ‘I might have to learn a few things, but if you tell me when I go wrong, I learn ever so fast, truly I do.’

This is really happening. I have my affianced husband in the house, I have a lady’s maid, I have a wedding date. And I very much fear that the man in question is going to come to my door tonight. And then... Will I open it?

Chapter Fifteen

T
he knock on the door came at midnight. It was nicely judged, Caroline thought as she got up from the chair where she had been curled up with an unread book. Not a demanding thump, not a wary tap, not a secretive scratch. Just a mannerly light knock.

She opened it, and stepped back so that Gabriel could enter. He came in far enough to close the door behind him, then studied her as she stood there in her sensible flannel wrapper, suitable for any night-time emergencies that might call a housekeeper from her lonely bed. It took an effort not to clutch the lapels closed or fold her arms defensively across her well-shrouded bosom.

‘I have been thinking. We need a very frank discussion.’ He gestured to the ottoman atthe foot of the bed and raised an interrogative eyebrow.

‘Yes?’ Caroline retreated to her chair, tossing Byron, who was less than helpful under the circumstances, to the floor. Gabriel sat down and regarded her from beneath heavy lids. She did not make the mistake of thinking him sleepy.

‘You raised any number of objections to this match, as I recall. I am also aware that I have two, shall we say, sticking points, which have become stickier the more I considered them. I am not prepared to make a marriage in name only, but on the other hand I am not prepared to force an unwilling woman. I was wrong to try to pressure you by referring to my own reputation suffering.’ He shrugged. ‘I thought it might work, but I can’t blackmail you, Caroline. Just because we cannot see a way out of this now does not mean there is not some other solution if we think hard enough. But answer me this. If I had asked you to marry me in June, what would you have said?’

The question took her completely off balance. ‘Yes,’ she said, surprised at herself. ‘I would have said yes, I think.’

‘Why?’

‘Because...’ Caroline swallowed and studied her bare toes. ‘Because I found—find—you physically attractive. You know that.’ She fixed her gaze on the point where Gabriel’s robe formed a vee exposing bare skin and a curl of dark hair and tried to stop gibbering. ‘I found you intelligent and interesting. And although you were shocking you were also kind to me. Much kinder than my impetuosity deserved. And you did the right thing for Anthony when it meant a significant financial loss and you had no reason to want to help him.’

‘So, a mixture of gratitude and sexual attraction.’ She could not tell without looking at his face whether he was amused or annoyed.

‘And you were much better than the alternatives,’ she added frankly and found herself looking at him. That curl. Would it feel silky if she twined her fingers around it?

Now his expression was definitely sardonic. ‘Have any of those opinions changed?’

Caroline shook her head.

‘So your objections are because you feel my hand has been forced, not because you object to marriage to me as such?’

‘I suppose so. Yes.’ Strangely she was beyond embarrassment, driven by an instinct that only the truth would serve them now.

‘You are very frank, Caroline. I would expect any sheltered young lady to faint dead away before admitting to physical attraction.’

‘I must be honest with you. With myself. Coyness and misunderstandings are not going to help us, are they? If I had not already seen you, found you attractive, then I would never have made the proposal that I did. Which puts my so-called sacrifice for my brother in a different light, I suppose. It would hardly have
been
a sacrifice. Young women have to pretend that we have no idea about physical matters when of course we do. We certainly do not keep our gaze fixed above a man’s waist level.’ Gabriel’s lips twitched. ‘I was attracted by the way you moved,’ she confessed. ‘So it would be hypocritical of me to pretend I am shocked at the prospect of sharing a bed with you. Nervous and shy, yes. Shocked, no. But it would be very wrong to expect you to marry me.’

‘I find I am becoming strangely reconciled to the prospect, my lady.’

Caroline realised it was her turn to be taken aback. Gabriel was smiling in a way that brought the blood to her cheeks, which must be why her heart was beating so erratically. ‘Are you certain?’ she demanded. ‘Why?’
And why do I know you are telling me the truth?
Perhaps it was simply desperation or exhaustion and she was delusional, but she trusted Gabriel.

‘Possibly because I’ve never had to work so hard to get a woman into bed as I have today. If it had been anyone else I’d have given up hours ago.’ She frowned at his levity and he smiled. ‘I am teasing you. Marry me, Caroline. I admire your courage and your sense of honour. I think you’re beautiful. And I am driven to distraction by that garment.’

He admires me, thinks I’m beautiful? Can I believe him?
‘This?’ She plucked at the wrapper which was a discouraging shade of grey.

‘Any right-thinking man would want to burn it, which means taking it off first.’

I want him. He apparently wants me again. He is being scrupulous about this.
And that put all the onus for a decision on her. Caroline took a deep breath.
I ought to say no. But I am at least an eligible wife for him in rank and I know I will do my best to make the marriage work.
‘Yes.’

‘Yes, you will marry me knowing me as you do, having heard me warning you that I will not be the sort of husband you dreamed of?’ She nodded. ‘Yes to tonight?’

‘Yes to both.’ She got to her feet and walked past him, turned the key in the lock and then came to stand in front of the ottoman. It gave her the illusion, at least, of being in control.

‘You are nervous,’ Gabriel said, looking down to where the sagging hem was quivering just above her bare insteps.

‘I told you I was and I would wager so were you when you lost your virginity,’ she retorted. She had admitted that she desired him and he was probably far too experienced not to have realised it anyway, but instinct told her to hide how he made her feel, hide just how much she wanted
him
, not simply that rangy body. Somehow she had to retain some strength in this relationship.

His hands came to rest lightly either side of her waist, warm even through the flannel, then, when she stayed where she was, he tugged the ends of the sash so the robe fell open to reveal her equally chaste white cotton nightgown.

‘As for my virginity, the second time, yes, I was nervous. The first time I was so excited that I wasn’t thinking about anything. Not coherently. My father took me to a high-class brothel to be initiated into lovemaking, just as he selected the right tutors for us, bought us the right horses to learn on, sent us to the right teachers for fencing and shooting. Everything had to be perfect for his sons.’ She thought his voice took on a bitter edge. Then it was gone. ‘After he died I did the same for my brothers.’ He slid his hands under the robe to caress the curve of her hips through the cotton. ‘You are a very lovely shape. Classical.’

Caroline sorted her breathing out. ‘I am appalled at your father. How old were you?’

‘Fifteen.’ Gabriel pulled her a little closer, leant in to kiss the slight swell of her stomach.

‘That’s younger than Anthony! And you took your own brothers.’

‘We will worry about your baby brother’s education later.’ Gabriel was on his feet and her wrapper, somehow, was on the floor and so was his robe.

Under it he was naked.

There was silence, broken only by the sound of her breathing, which was not even, and his, which was not either. That was comforting. Slightly. They were standing so close that she could feel her nightgown brushing against his legs, the warmth of his bare flesh. And so close that it was surely safe to drop her gaze.

Or not. Bare chest, dark curling hair that did not conceal his nipples and that arrowed down over a flat, muscled stomach to his navel and...

Caroline had no idea what to do. But talking, especially when one was nervous, was easy. ‘I know about the mechanics of the act, of course. No young lady with access to a library, some knowledge of basic Latin, an enquiring mind and eyes to see men in tight evening breeches need be ignorant, exactly. And there was the night in the hermitage, of course. Only I was not quite prepared for...
that
.’

She made a wildly sweeping gesture and found her hand resting on Gabriel’s chest, her fingers in that intriguing hair. ‘Oh, it is soft. I wondered.’

‘Feel free,’ he said. ‘Explore. And don’t worry about
that
. We’ll get to him later. We have time now.’ He was amused, but not laughing at her, more inviting her to share a joke. Could lovemaking be
fun
then? He seemed so relaxed with her, as though he truly liked
her
, not just her body.

‘Him?’ She teased her fingertips into the curls, trailed a pattern into them, brushed his right nipple accidentally and stopped, fascinated as it hardened and puckered. She rolled it gently between her fingertips. ‘Yours do that, too?’

‘As you see.’

‘And
him
?’

‘It is definitely male. It has a mind of its own and is inclined to be unruly at the most awkward moments.’ Again she was aware that Gabriel’s breathing was not quite under control. ‘You may carry on exploring, you know.’

Above the waist was safe. That unruly male object could definitely be left for later. Much later. ‘You are very warm. And I did not expect your skin to be smooth.’ She tried to circle her fingers around his upper arm and realised just how muscled he was. ‘So hard underneath. And I can see the muscles. I’ve got some, I think that is from riding, but mine are smooth.’ She traced a finger down the arrow of hair and Gabriel sucked in his breath as she dipped her finger into his navel. ‘Am I talking too much?’

‘There are absolutely no rules, although you are wearing altogether too much clothing.’

‘I am shy. I told you that, too.’

Gabriel pulled her gently forward until her forehead rested on his chest. ‘You are beautiful and you are even more beautiful naked in my arms. How long is your hair, Lady Godiva? I have never seen it out of its plait and it will veil your blushes.’ His fingers were busy in it as he spoke, then he combed it out over her shoulders until it hung around her. ‘We may safely undo some of these buttons now.’

‘You are very good at undressing,’ Caroline said after a moment as the fiddly buttons yielded, one after another.

‘I am handy with corset strings, too. There, almost unveiled.’ Her nightgown slipped down, clinging precariously to her hips. Gabriel smoothed her hair down, the palms of his hands brushed her nipples, then stilled as she made a faint, involuntary sound. He bent his head and blew gently on the strands, parting them so he could seek her left nipple with his mouth. His hands held her steady by the waist as she stiffened, then softened into his embrace.

It was bliss, and frightening, and delicious all at once. She could feel every movement of his lips, the tiny nip of his teeth, the soothing stroke of his tongue, not only at her breast but deep in her belly and between her thighs. Before had been wonderful, but so fast she had hardly been aware of anything but the urgency of their desire, the shock of that violent pleasure building. Him leaving her at that crucial moment.

Gabriel moved to the other breast, his hands sliding up to cup her, then down to give the nightgown the one last touch it needed to send it pooling around her feet.

Caroline caught at his shoulders, off balance with desire, confusion, the need to touch him. She found herself swept off her feet and deposited on the bed, wrapped in Gabriel’s arms, his leg thrown over her hips, her whole body gathered in against his heat and hardness, all at once both safe and overwhelmed, swept up in the sheer masculine power of him.

Her body remembered, responded with enthusiasm as she burrowed against him, her hands running over the powerful shoulders, down to the narrow waist, the hard swell of his buttocks. She should be ashamed of her eagerness, her upbringing warned her, but she did not care. Everything throbbed and ached and wanted more. ‘Tell me what to do,’ she managed when he lifted his mouth from hers.

‘Whatever you want, or just leave it to me.’ His hand slid between her thighs as he spoke and she parted her legs instinctively, then almost arched off the bed with the pleasure of it and the embarrassing discovery that she was wet and aching there and that his fingers were sliding inside and she
liked
it.

They were more than sliding. They were stroking into the folds of flesh that seemed swollen and more sensitive than she could ever have imagined, then he focused his attention on one spot, teasing and caressing and everything, the entire universe, her whole needy, pleasure-filled body, was focused on that single point and the sensation became unbearable and then impossible and suddenly everything fell apart into something that was more than just pleasure.

She was vaguely conscious of being on her back, of a weight over her, of Gabriel’s lips on hers again and then... ‘Ow!’ Indignant at the discomfort that shattered her bliss, she dug her fingernails into his shoulders. She had forgotten it might be painful, and he was very large and she was very new to this.

‘I’m sorry.’ His voice was husky. Caroline opened her eyes to find herself almost nose to nose with him, the points of her nipples fretted by the hair on his chest, his hips tight against hers, and realised his body was deep within hers. ‘It will get better in a moment, I promise. Trust me.’

She was not so sure, not when the pleasure and the tingling and the heat were ebbing in the face of this male intrusion. Why couldn’t he be fast, so she didn’t need to think? She could push him away, resist it, or she could trust him, she realised as he began to move again, rocking slowly into her, edging deeper. She closed her eyes, unable to cope with sight as well as touch and sound and the scent of their passion, musky and heady. Gabriel had never let her down yet, she realised as her body began to soften, embrace his hardness, open to him like a flower worshipping to the sun. And the pleasure flooded back, different from before, better than before.

‘Come for me, Caroline,’ he said and she opened her eyes to meet his, dark and deep and utterly focused on her. She did not understand what he meant, but he slid his hand between them, touched her in that magic place, and she spun out of control, out of herself again. She was conscious of Gabriel surging deeper, of his hoarse cry, of heat deep in her core and then she was lost in the strange bliss their two bodies had created.