Kathryn Caskie (21 page)

Shock at his actions quickly erupted into excitement. Breathing in his musky scent, she savored the all too carnal feeling of his hard body pressed so intimately against hers.

With a determined look in his eyes, Magnus claimed her mouth. His warm lips urged hers to part, to open for him. Eliza did not resist. Could not. She did as his mouth commanded.

Closing her eyes, she slid her arms around his neck and clung to him, as their bodies rocked with the gentle rhythm of their breathing.

Then, she felt his mouth lift away. She opened her eyes to see him peering down at her, and she sighed softly.

“Tell me ye dinna want this, Eliza. Tell me ye dinna want to be with me and I will go now,” he said, his voice low and husky with passion.

She shook her head, then looked away.

“Why, Eliza? Say it!” He thrust against her pelvis as if to force her to speak.

She said nothing. Could not deny it.

“Ye canna because ye want me as much as I want ye. We belong together, lass. I know ye feel it too.”

Eliza turned her head to peer into his eyes once more. “Listen to me. What we feel is of no consequence. You must marry another or lose everything.”

“Nay,” he whispered. “I will have
ye.
I must. And if…
when
my ship arrives in the basin—”

“Your ship?” Eliza blinked. So she had not imagined his reaction at the Hogarts’ supper. “You invested in one of the ships in the storm?”

Magnus looked away, then rolled beside her and slowly exhaled.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice sounded oddly strangled. “Why would you have me looking for a rich bride, when you never needed my help at all?”

Humiliation infused Eliza.
Devil take you.
She had to get up, get away from him. She tried to slide upright, but her skirts were caught beneath his body. She pushed against him, pounded at his chest, trying not to whimper foolishly.

"Stop it, Eliza. I was going to tell ye.
Tonight,
in fact,” he said, trying to catch her flailing hands. “Stop.”

But she wouldn’t. If she did, she would start to cry. Eliza clawed at her dress, then shoved at him again. But he was too heavy.

Magnus caught her wrists then and pressed them down into the carpet on either side of her head.

“Ye are going to listen to what I have to say.” His eyes were dark and roiling as a storm ravaged sky, but she looked straight into them as he spoke.

“I dinna mean to deceive ye. I only wanted to be with ye. That’s why I agreed to your ridiculous
arrangement.
I dinna give a damn about yer investigations or even the portrait. I only wanted to be with
ye.”

The moment she heard him speak those few simple words, her eyes began to sting.
He only wanted to be with her.
The same way she wanted to be with him.

He released her wrists then and she rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. “But your ship—” she sputtered.

“If she arrives in the basin, my financial problems will be solved.” A thin smile, borne of hope, shone down at her. “And we could be
together.”

She lowered her hands and stared at him, stunned. He actually believed his ship would make port. Or he wanted very badly to believe it. She could see it in his eyes. He hoped for a future—together. But she could not.

“When we—” he began, but Eliza laid a finger over Magnus’s lips, silencing him.

“The whole of London knows of the storm—of the ships lost.” Not wanting to see the disappointment in his eyes, she rolled closer to him and rested her forehead against his thudding heart. “I know you must adhere your hopes to your ship, but I cannot. My future lies in Italy.”

“Eliza, there’s been no report yet—”

"Shhh. It doesn’t matter. You know as well as I that we cannot see each other again. Not the way we have been. The temptation to be together is too strong for either of us to bear.” She ran a finger down the muscled slope of his chest, savoring the feel of him one last time. “You must forget me. You have a responsibility to your family, to the people of Somerton.”

“Eliza,” Magnus whispered. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? I tried all the way to yer doorstep this very eve. But I canna do it. I can no more forget ye than I can forget to breathe.”

He lifted a long dark curl from her shoulder and drew it to his lips as he leaned closer to kiss her. “I will never leave ye. Ye’re mine.
Mine.”
He raised his mouth from hers and gazed deeply into her eyes. “And I am yers.
Forever.”

And she knew it was true. It would not take a ring of gold to bind her to him. Eliza knew in her heart, from this moment, she was his, and would always be. A sob began working its way up her throat.

If only they could be together, the way he envisioned. But it was impossible. How she wanted to believe in his world. A world where money and position didn’t dictate who you must marry. Where Society’s fickle rules didn’t determine a woman’s destiny.

For one night, just one, she wanted to believe in the possibility of a life together.

This time, when Magnus’s mouth came ravenously down upon hers, she did not pull away. Instead, she opened her mouth to him.

Magnus slipped his right hand along the carpet then upward into the small of her back. He pulled her solidly against him. His lips left her mouth and swept across her cheek to the hollow behind her ear. He kissed her, again, lower still.

When he lifted his lips from her, Eliza plunged her fingers into the dark tumbles of his hair, not wanting his kisses to stop, trying to urge his mouth back to hers.

His breath came faster as he rose up from her, leaving her laying before him on the carpet as he loosened his cravat and unwound it with unbearable slowness. He dropped it to the floor, then leaned close and nipped her mouth teasingly with a quick kiss.

She chased his lips with her own, but he sat back on his heels, out of her reach, as he eased off his coat, then his waistcoat, and dropped them both to the floor.

Eliza reached out and grasped his shirt to pull him close, but instead his shirttails slipped from his breeches.

A dark smile lifted Magnus’s lips. Taking her boldness as an invitation, he peeled his shirt over his head and cast it to the carpet as well.

In the glow of the candlelight, his body appeared hard and angular, his skin golden and smooth.
My God.
She’d never seen anyone formed so perfectly.

Hesitantly, she reached out her hands to touch him, needing to feel the suppleness of his warm skin beneath her eager fingertips.

He sighed with approval as her bare hands met his rippled stomach and rode its cut plane upward to the muscled curves of his chest.

“Magnus,” she whispered as her fingertips brushed over his nipples. She watched them harden and tighten under her touch, and felt a pleasurable twinge between her legs.

Magnus leaned over her and once more he kissed her, harder this time. More urgently.

She moaned against him, knowing at that moment that tonight she would give everything. Take everything. Feel no regrets.

Magnus seemed to read her thoughts and his seduction became ever bolder.

Eliza watched his appreciative eyes twinkle as he boldly slipped her dress off her shoulders and pressed it down until it bunched about her middle; its sleeves wringing her wrists like bracelets. He looked into her eyes as he bit the tie that cinched her shift and tugged it loose. Slowly, his fingers drew back the linen until her half bare breasts rested atop her corset.

Eliza swallowed hard. This time there was no darkness to quell her modesty, and she struggled to cross her arms over her breasts to conceal her nakedness.

“Nay.” He ran his fingers lightly over her skin, drawing goose bumps to the surface. “Ye’re beautiful.”

Eliza said nothing, only stared up at him, her breath coming in short pants as her excitement mounted.

One after the other, he took her hands in his and pulled them from the rumpled sleeves of her dress. Slowly, he pressed a kiss into each of her palms, then drew her arms up and laid her hands near her shoulders, pinning them there in silent command.

He leaned down over her, and suddenly his lips were upon her throat, sending her heart pulsing madly as he kissed her. His hand slid up over her corset, over her ribs and higher still.

He pulled down the thin chemise covering her breasts and cupped one in his hand, making her groan with pleasure as he trailed a path of kisses across her chest. He stopped at last, allowing her only one scant breath before he closed his lips slowly, tantalizingly, over her nipple.

The sensation sent her mind spinning, and she reached out to grasp him in order to remind herself this was not a dream—this was really happening. She sucked in a breath and clasped her hands to his head, running her fingers through his hair as he devoured her, driving her ever closer to delirium.

Just when she thought she could take no more, his hand moved slowly down her body to her ankle. Without a word, he trailed his fingers slowly up her silk stocking, nudging upward her chemise and gown, leaving it bunched at her waist. His hand stopped only when it touched her lightly between her thighs, making her body quiver with anticipation.

Eliza clung to Magnus as he kissed her, touched her. She pulled her mouth from him. “Magnus,” she panted. “Now.”

Magnus looked deep into her eyes, questioning, yet wanting.

“Yes.” Her courage soaring, she wedged her hand between their bodies and fumbled unsurely at the buttons of his breeches until the flap opened and she felt him. His erection stirred and pulsed against her palm, exciting her wildly as she led him to her center. She didn’t know for sure what she was doing. All she knew is that she wanted him there, needed him
there.

Magnus stared at her, his eyes dark and primal.

She nodded slowly. “Forever,” she said, knowing this was what he wanted to hear.
“Forever”
she repeated, her breath uneven, but her words sure.

Magnus kissed her deeply, then moved his body between her legs, parting them with his knees. He leaned over her and put his hand between her legs, touching her, stroking her. She arched beneath him.

Her fingers splayed, she clung to the broad plane of his back, urging him onward as he moved between her thighs.

Magnus closed his eyes and groaned as he skimmed her wetness, filling Eliza with exhilaration, with a female power she’d never before known.

This was it. After this moment, there would be no turning back. Ever. Her life would be forever changed. She would be ruined in the eyes of the world, but she would not stop now. For her heart was already his.

“Forever,”
he whispered as he positioned himself over her then pressed his hardness slowly into her.

Eliza whimpered softly and tensed as he filled her. Deeper, he moved and soon the initial burn and sting of his claiming of her subsided.

He rocked against her, slowly at first, then faster.

She felt her body stretching, tightening around him, drawing him deeper. Surprising rivulets of tingling warmth urged her to move her hips, to meet him thrust for thrust. The drugging sensation grew, intensified, and she closed her eyes, allowed herself to be consumed by the core of heat emanating from the place where their bodies met.

Magnus drew up on his arms and watched her as he moved within her. He drove into her again and again.

Eliza bit her lower lips and thrashed her head against the carpet. She locked her legs around Magnus’s waist and held him tightly to her, controlling the pressure as he drove onward. Bucking against him, she cried out as something inside her ignited, then flared, sending liquid flames shooting from her center to every part of her body.

Magnus arched up suddenly and she felt him strain.

“Eliza—” With a groan, he rested atop of her.

She clutched him to her. Not wanting to move. Not wanting to let the moment end.

Magnus kissed her. “We are right for each other, lass.”

A smile of contentment lifted her lips. For several minutes more, she stroked her fingers through his hair, down his back, and lower still, until, to her surprise, she felt his arousal—
again.

Wholly confused, she looked up and saw that he watched her intently. Suddenly the front door’s latch clicked loudly. Eliza’s eyes snapped wide. She gasped.

Magnus cupped his hand over her mouth to quiet her.

Her family had come home!

Rule Thirteen

Use bait to draw him into secure ground. Here, his strengths can be compromised.

“Someone is here!” Eliza’s breath seized with panic in her lungs.

For several seconds she remained completely still beneath Magnus, listening to the creak and groan of yielding floorboards as several people entered the hall. Gradually, the pounding faded as the group ascended the stairs.

Magnus rolled upright, snatched up his linen shirt and pulled it over his head. With a speed that astonished Eliza, he buttoned his now overtight breeches and hurried into his waistcoat.

Shooting her arms into her sleeves, Eliza hoisted her chemise and bodice into position, then scrambled to her feet. She whirled around, turning her back to Magnus. “My buttons,” she pleaded as she tugged down the hem of her gown.

With the speed of a lady’s maid, Magnus’s nimble fingers fastened Eliza’s gown, then he slipped on his waistcoat.

“Hurry”
Eliza said, tossing his coat to him.

As she moved toward the door, Eliza wrung her hands and glanced frantically about the room for a means of escape. Her gaze focused on the large windows facing the street. “You will have to climb through the window. There is no other way.”

“The window?” Magnus lifted his brow and flashed a sardonic grin as he haphazardly tied his cravat around his throat. “Ye must be joking.”

“I assure you, I am not.” Eliza stared at Magnus with amazement. Though she shook with fear of being discovered, he seemed quite calm.

“I should think being caught together by yer aunts greatly preferable to explaining to all of London why an earl was seen climbing from yer parlor window.”