Annabelle's Courtship (36 page)

“Are ye secure in my love, lass?”

She turned until her lips were a mere breath from his. “Can you doubt it?” Then she kissed him. It was a soft, chaste kiss, sealing her words.

Robert choked. “Annabelle, I think you forget that there are others present in the room.”

Annabelle did not look at her brother when she answered him. She was busy watching Ian’s lips. “I’m perfectly wanton. Ask Ian. He likes it.” She kissed her husband again.

Ian winked at her.

Diana said, “I think it is time we took our leave, Robert. As you know, wanton behavior requires privacy.”

Annabelle found Robert’s blush hilarious.

Robert looked down at his wife. “Are you sure you are up to the journey home?” Diana gave an exasperated sigh. “Robert, I have no intention of delivering our baby in anyone’s home but my own.” Diana softened at the look of pallor that came over her husband’s face. “I am more than fit for the journey.”

“Then I guess we had best be on our way. The carriage has already been brought round.”

Annabelle and Ian followed Robert and Diana outside to see them off. Annabelle stood secure in her husband’s arms as they watched the retreating coach carrying the Hamiltons toward home. She sighed. It had been a wonderful visit, but she was glad for the privacy. There was something she wanted to tell Ian.

“Well, lass, are you well pleased now that you have had your visitors?” Belle smiled at Ian’s surly tone. “Yes. Although, I admit I wish that Ceddy and Vivian had been able to come before going on their wedding trip.” He rubbed her arms. “They promised to come for a wee visit when they return.” He stressed the word “wee” and Annabelle bit her lip to keep from laughing. “That will be nice… Ian?”

“Aye?”

“Do you think it is very wanton to make love to your husband in the middle of the day with the dust from your guest’s departing carriage barely settled on the drive?” His answer was to sweep her in his arms and run up the stone steps. He did not stop until they had reached their room. He lowered her to the floor and she immediately set to the task of removing his cravat and shirt.

He shuddered under her roving fingers. “You make me so hot, I burn.”

They made love and afterward she lay in his arms, their naked limbs entwined.

Golden light cascaded through the window as the sun set. Annabelle snuggled into her husband’s side. “About visitors.”

His growl made her want to giggle. “There will be no more visitors for a while. I want my wife to myself.”

She ran her fingers over his chest. “In about six months I believe we are going to have a visitor that will be making a very long stay. I hope you do not mind.”

“My mother can stay with us, but surely she’ll want to return to Lansing Hall occasionally.”

“I am not talking about your mother.”

Annabelle found herself flat on her back with her husband looming above her. “What are you saying?”

“This baby fever seems to be contagious.”

“Are ye saying ye’ve caught it, lass?”

“Yes.”

He went completely still and then he swooped down and buried her mouth in a joyous kiss. “I can only hope that if we have a daughter she is as beautiful and strong as her mother.”

She could not help the tears that welled up in her eyes. She was so very happy. She had far more in Ian than she could ever have hoped for.

He loved her.

He cherished her.

He wanted her.

She blessed his stepfather and the man’s unconventional will.

“Ye’ll have to be very careful now that ye are increasing.” Annabelle groaned, but she couldn’t work up any real chagrin. After all, Ian loved her enough to cosset her. She had done well for a woman labeled
The Ordinary
her first season.

About the Author

also writes for Samhain Publishing under the pseudonym of L.C.

Monroe. Please visit www.lucymonroe.com for more information about and a listing of her available books.

Look for these titles

Now Available:

Meagan’s Chance (writing as L.C. Monroe)

Coming Soon:

Miss Fixit (writing as L.C. Monroe)

What if you’re in love–but you can’t make love?

Last Chance, My Love

© 2007 Lynne Connolly

Book One of the Triple Countess series.

Miranda and Daniel, Earl and Countess of Rosington, are in love, but for the past five years their love has been purely platonic. Because if Miranda has another child, she will die.

Daniel resolves to take a mistress, one who will understand the purely physical business arrangement, but when Miranda discovers his plan, she can’t bear it. So Daniel’s brothers scheme, and Daniel finds himself on the losing end of a wager.

Daniel and Miranda must pose as a simple innkeeper and his wife, forced to work together to save a failing business. Their masquerade brings them into temptation, their searing desire for each other threatening to ruin their good intentions, but it also brings danger, in the presence of the brutal father of a young girl who turns for them for help.

Can Daniel and Miranda save themselves, their protégée and their marriage?

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Last Chance, My Love: Daniel closed his eyes, and then opened them again to see Miranda, calm now, watching him. “I have needs. I thought I could do it, but I could never have gone through with it. I couldn’t hurt you any more than I had already. I thought you would understand.

I didn’t know you hadn’t realised just how serious your illness was. There is no doubt, Miranda. I spoke to another doctor, and he said the same. With your history, another child would be your death.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That you had two boys, and the second birth was worse than the first. About the bleeding, and the fever.”

They stared at each other, remembering the horror of that time. Then she said the bravest thing he’d ever heard. “I’d do it again, go through the birth and the illness. If it meant you would love me again, I’d go through it all without a qualm.” Now it was his turn to weep. Tears sprang to his eyes, and he blinked them away. “I couldn’t let you.” His voice came out hoarse and thin. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Miranda studied him, her head tilted slightly to one side. “You
should
want to lose me. You could marry again, and continue your family.” When he would have responded, she laid a gentle finger across his lips. “No, there’s no need. I know you would not, but there are many that would. Is that why you won’t touch me? The whole reason? Please, Daniel, the truth. If you can’t want me, I’d like to know. You did seek out a mistress, after all, and she did look most unlike me.”

Lifting a hand, he moved her finger from his lips and tugged on her hand, forcing her to lie down once more. He pulled her close, so she lay with her head pillowed on his shoulder, looking up at him. “No. If I took a mistress it would be someone like her, someone who didn’t remind me of you in the least. She is dark where you are fair, dainty and small where you are tall and elegant. I want only one Miranda.” He kissed her temple. “And in any case, I didn’t choose her. She came looking for me.”

“She did?”

“She had her own reasons. She isn’t a hardened courtesan, although her mother is.

She wants Blyth, and thought she could make him jealous.”

“Did she succeed?”

“She must have. After all, it’s Blyth’s doing that we’re here, isn’t it?” He wondered at her frown, but thought no more of it until she sighed and said; “I confess, it was partly me.” He stared down at her, unsure of her meaning. “I saw you with the girl, and I was jealous. Jealous, Daniel. I thought I was over such things, I was convinced you didn’t want me any more, not in bed at any rate, and so it didn’t come as a surprise to hear the rumours and then see you with her. Blyth was with me that day, and he saw my distress. He promised to do something about it.” A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Properly gulled I’ve been. You and Blyth made hay with me, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry.”

His free hand slid over her waist. “Don’t be. I think it’s done us good. At least we both know now.” She moved closer, snuggling in. The movement made him gasp.

“Miranda, be careful. You know I won’t make love to you, don’t tempt me anymore. It’s not fair.”

She lifted her hand to his chest, covered with fine lawn, but he felt her fingers gently tracing patterns on it. “I know you’ve taken the entire responsibility on yourself. I know you want to preserve me. What if I don’t want to?”

He caught her hand with his own, and curled it inside the warmth of his. “Miranda, if you get with child again, you will die. I can’t do that to you. If I think of it, it fills me with terror. How could I face the boys?” He paused. “How could I live without you?” She stared at him, her mouth slightly open, moist and inviting, even though he didn’t think she meant it that way. With a groan of submission, he bent his head and kissed her, dragging her close with both arms, holding her as though he would never let her go.

Since that day he escorted her to the house, after their visit to the farmer, Daniel had longed to kiss her again, but known he couldn’t trust himself not to go further. Now he couldn’t help himself. Her body, so warm, nestled against his, her lips opening softly for him, inviting him to slide his tongue inside. It was more than a man could stand.

Daniel caressed her mouth, warm and sweet, and felt her response with joy, a slow burn starting somewhere deep inside. He leaned over her, revelling in the feel of her body under his.

An impulse he had learned how to control. While enjoying the kiss Daniel drew part of himself back, tucked it away again. The wild part, the part that urged him to take her now and never mind the consequences. That part must stay hidden inside.

Finally he drew back. He reached up to smooth her hair, soft caresses replacing the abandon he longed to release. She smiled. “That felt good. It won’t come all at once, Daniel.”

“What won’t?”

“Restraint. What you don’t want us to do. I still want to, I don’t care, but the risk isn’t all mine, is it?” He shook his head. “I have to think of the children, and of what it would do to you. But I’m not giving up. There must be a way, Daniel, there must. There are times every month—”

“I’ve thought of that. It won’t do, Miranda. There are ways to make conception less likely, but none to stop it completely. If there was a way, believe me, I wouldn’t let you leave this bed for a fortnight.”

“You want me?”

This was no time for half truths. “I never stopped wanting you. When I withdrew from your bedroom, I persuaded myself it was for your own good. Perhaps, if you thought desire had left me, you might find it easier to bear. I know your nature, you see.

You hate to see anyone suffer.”

She lifted a hand and caressed his cheek in the age-old caress of lovers. “But you did, and so did I. I mean it, Daniel. We’ll find a way, I’m determined on it.”

“I’ve thought about it for years. Years, sweetheart.”

“Have you ever asked anyone else about the problem other than the doctors?” His eyes widened. “No, of course not. It’s no one else’s business.”

“Just for advice? Blyth is very experienced—” He couldn’t suppress a slight shudder. “How could I ask my brother something like that? And Blyth is so volatile still, there’s no saying what he might do.” Her hand still rested on his cheek, as though it belonged there. Which, in a way, it did. “He’s not as volatile as you think. Oh, I’m sure he was as a boy, but he’s turned the fortunes of his estate around. You don’t do that without clear thinking and planning.” He touched his lips to her palm, lapping it gently with his tongue before turning back to her. “You might be right. But I don’t think I want to ask him.”

“I shall find something out,” she said firmly, then smiled. “But not tonight. Enough, I think, to know we both want the same thing. You’ve brought me joy with the sadness tonight, Daniel. It was agony thinking you didn’t want me anymore. How could you think anything else?”

He closed his eyes against the loving understanding in hers Understanding he didn’t deserve. He’d thought he was acting for the best, and it seemed to be the other way about.

“I don’t know. I thought you wouldn’t want to any more, when the result cost you so much pain. I didn’t want you to see I suffered, so I didn’t let you see.”

“It doesn’t matter. I have you back, and that’s enough for now.” She leaned up and touched her mouth to his. He responded to the tender caress in the gentle spell she wove around him. He could trust her not to push him over the edge. The only danger now was if they both succumbed at the same time. He relaxed his hold on her and leaned back.

“I’m very tired suddenly.”

She snuggled close and lifted her leg over him, but only as far as the knee.

“Revelations can make you tired. We should sleep. We have another busy day in the morning, running the inn.”

He smiled. “So we do.”

A not-so-proper lady on a quest for freedom sneaks aboard the ship of an infamous
privateer determined to save his brother—and resist love. Who will win this clash of
wills?

The Lady and the Dragon

© 2007 Shelley Bradley

A Runaway Heiress

When bold, beautiful Lady Christina Delafield discovered her overbearing grandfather planned to tame her at a Swiss finishing school, Christina stowed away on the first ship leaving London harbor, determined to make her own way in life. But the mysterious captain of the Dragon’s Lair was a seductive reason to relinquish her independence–and embrace desire.

A Gentleman Pirate

Drexell Cain had lived for four years as the merciless Black Dragon, the scourge of the seas. Bent on rescuing his brother from the British Navy, Drex would do anything to return him to his wife and son–even kidnap the Lord Admiral’s granddaughter for ransom. A lovely blonde stowaway was an unexpected complication, until he discovered her real identity–and her passionate claim on his heart.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Lady and the Dragon: Christina drew in a quick breath and whirled to face the captain’s door, white-gloved fingers clutching her valise. She clasped the cold latch and lifted. The door opened with a quiet click. She dashed inside.