Libertine's Wife (34 page)

Garret left Vale House gnashing his
teeth in frustration. He had no choice but to wait. His tortured
thoughts of them renewing their former relationship were a bit
misplaced. He knew it was too late. He had no right to say anything
of his wife’s behavior. His own had been abominable. She gave him
his heir. What she did now would never be questioned overmuch. He
could only hope for her discretion.

He had to accept he made a terrible
mistake in his hurt and anger, pushing his wife right back into
Lord Vale’s arms. The man loved her still, had a child with her,
and would not give her up again. He saw it in the man’s face when
he came at him that night. He still loved Arianne.

No, he lost his wife. Clinging to her
image as a treacherous opportunist cost him whatever happiness he
could have had with her. His lack of faith and love was firmly
ingrained in seeing only caricatures of it over the years, never
actually having it, until his wife offered him her
heart.

Instead of trusting that emotion and
letting himself return it, he withheld it, as some sort of reward
she could never earn. Arianne never asked for anything from him.
She even went to Lord Vale when Eustace demanded money from her.
Her actions reminded him she never felt she could come to him with
anything without his harsh judgment or threats.

He stood and stared out over the
gardens, watching the nannies with the boys. They needed their
mother back. He needed her. With such a burning intensity, it
shocked him. He missed her everywhere he looked. At night he lay in
his lonely bed, unable to stop thinking of her.

Garret knew it was his fault. He
mishandled everything from the minute he learned of Jaime. He knew
that now. He’d jumped to unfair conclusions of her relationship
with Julian, even then, assuming they were more than just
friends.

In his anger and jealousy, he hurt her,
badly, as he was hurt. To think of how he’d trampled upon her the
last year made him sick, thinking himself the monster Vale accused
him of being.

For the first time in his life he lost
his control, his reason, his mind, and he knew why. He loved her.
He was in love. The irony he was unable to recognize such feelings
made him cringe. He’d thrown it all away. His eyes fastened on
Jaime and a tender smile curved his lips.

Even knowing the boy wasn’t his didn’t
change anything. He should have told her that when she came to him
and begged him to take her back. He still cared for the boy as much
as he ever did. Why had he not told her that to relieve her guilt?
Why did he lash out at her that day? Just the feel of her in his
arms was enough to weaken his resolve to allow her to come home.
He’d been angry then, pushing her away once more, determined to
make her suffer longer.

The thought of what she did to herself
made him swallow hard, feeling sick at the thought. He vowed to get
her back. Vale might have become her knight in shining armor once
more, but he had yet to win the lady. When Arianne returned from
wherever she went, he would win her back to him. Not with threats
and accusations, but with what clamored within his
heart.

~ ~ ~

Arianne smiled as she lingered in the
wooden tub. Julian was gritting his teeth beyond the curtain
separating the tub from the rest of the cottage. Her former lover
wasn’t pressing her for more, but she could see the desire in his
eyes when they returned from their walk earlier. He was patient,
waiting for her to heal, both physically and mentally, before they
resumed being lovers.

Arianne felt it was time to put him out
of his misery, looking forward to his surprise. She smirked to see
she forgot the toweling sheet outside the draped-off
partition.

“
Julian, do you mind handing
me my towel?” Arianne called from behind the drape. She stepped out
of the tub and heard him moving about the cottage. When he would
have handed it around the drape, she surprised him by opening
it.

“
Thank you,” she fairly
purred as she accepted it from his hand.

Julian stared at her nude body, dewy
and dripping from her bath and swallowed hard. His dark eyes took
in her lush nakedness with frank desire. She met his gaze and saw
his hesitation.

She began to dry herself before his
stunned gaze. Julian could take it no more. Before she dried the
last of her body, he reached out and snatched her into his arms.
His mouth sought hers, hungry and searching, parting her lips and
stealing her breath.

He bore her to the bed without breaking
the kiss, easing her onto the mattress and following her down. His
hands shook as they caressed her hesitantly and then bolder with
her heated responses.

Arianne urged her to him, feeling
acutely aroused when his lips went to her breasts, gasping as he
sucked and stroked them. Her hands slid through his dark hair,
holding him to her.

He raised his head, looking at her in
the dim firelight, his eyes filled with desire and hesitation. “Are
you sure of this, Arianne? We can wait—”

She answered him by pulling his lips
back to hers. He saw a side of her he’d never seen before as she
returned his ardor with equal fervor. His hands grazed the flesh
between her thighs softly, stroking her there until she writhed and
urged him to take her.

Julian undressed quickly and eased over
her and settled his lean hips between her thighs, moaning aloud as
he entered her. She cried out at the pleasurable feel of him within
her, moved with him quickly, their rhythm matched and hungry. He
groaned in delight as her legs twined around his hips. He drove
within her deeply, his eyes closed in ecstasy.

“
I’ve wanted you so badly,
my love,” he whispered at her ear, his lips and hands adoring
her.

Arianne dug her nails into his
shoulders as he stroked deep within her, the sensations growing
acute and intense. Her body demanded release and soon she clenched
around him as waves of her orgasm shook her.

Julian watched her take her pleasure as
he felt himself begin to grow rigid. Julian pulled out quickly and
his semen ran off onto the bedding, his body jerking from the
effort to stop.

He sank upon her, burying his face in
her neck. After several moments, he lifted his head and smiled down
at her contented expression. He kissed her softly, his hands
sliding through her damp hair. “I love you, Arianne,” he said
solemnly, his dark eyes meeting hers. “Never doubt the way I feel
for you. I wish to spend the rest of my life showing
you.”

Arianne wished she could say the words
back and mean them. She still loved her husband. They both knew she
would lie. He leaned down and kissed her once more. Soon the
passion once more took over.

Julian worshiped her body, his hands
and lips making her moan beneath him in pleasure. When he joined
their bodies the second time, she became the aggressor, urging him
to her, her fingers digging into the backs of his hard thighs. They
climaxed together, hands linked, cries merged as one.

Arianne lay content in his arms, her
hand stroking his hard muscled chest. Her body was sated and spent,
her thigh snuggled between his. He stroked her back contentedly and
there were no words between them.

Arianne felt little guilt in turning to
Julian now. Her marriage was over and his had never begun. She
couldn’t know the future or what lie ahead for them upon their
return to London. He said tonight they must go back.

She dreaded leaving this cottage where
life seemed so simple and her choices few. The complications of her
new relationship with Julian would no doubt enrage her husband. A
small part of her, the part that still cared, welcomed
it.

Garret received word Lord Vale returned
to his residence. He fumed to know they’d been gone nearly six
weeks. Imagining the worst, he fought a wave of savage jealousy.
His green eyes narrowed in what could only be called husbandly
outrage.

Their son Stephen was always crying and
fussing. The nurses had little success in getting the boy to ever
stop. Jaime became deviant and was constantly getting into
mischief. Garret finally could take no more and put a hand to his
backside.

Garret sat within his study
that day to write his wife a note. He wrote demanding her presence
at once. He glared and balled it in his fist. He tossed it out and
started over. His next note was solicitous and inquired of her
health, before he demanded her presence.
Bloody hell!
He glared and wadded it
up and sighed. Did he never have to ask for anything in his life?
He grinned ruefully, knowing he never had to.

Garret’s final note was polite and
civil. It conveyed concern for her health. It offered to allow her
to see her children as soon as she was rested from her trip. He
refrained from writing anything to indicate he loved her with an
intensity that made him breathless, wanted her badly, and could
hardly sleep at night.

He also failed to include that he
wanted to rip Vale’s cock from its roots and smack him about the
head and shoulders with it for running off with his wife. In the
end, he wrote none of that, sensing appropriately she wouldn’t come
if he did.

Garret smiled as he sent his footman
off with the note, his eagerness to see his wife pronounced. He
found himself watching the clock in anticipation. He was sulking by
the dinner hour when she failed to arrive. Garret drank a brandy to
help him sleep near midnight, feeling like an idiot to think one
note would bring the woman running back to him.

The next day he sent two.

~ ~ ~

Arianne demanded the notes be thrown
out. She refused to read any of them. They came like a torrential
downpour the minute she arrived back at Julian’s house. She
received as high as twenty a day since the first week they’d been
back.

Her eyes were like blue chips of ice as
she discarded the many notes that arrived each day into the
fireplace in her room, recalling how she cried her eyes out writing
to Garret while he was out with his whores and mistresses the year
before.

Her heart broke anew to not give in.
Her resolve to not allow her husband to use her children against
her was difficult. Julian applauded her efforts, saying she was
getting to Garret by playing his own games against him. She hid it
well, but Julian knew how hard it was for her to not tear open one
of his notes to see what it said.

Julian delighted in his new mistress.
He found his former lover neither timid nor hesitant in her
pleasure. They hardly kept their hands off one another since
becoming lovers again. Arianne wanted to forget her husband,
determined to purge his image as she went eagerly into Julian’s
arms.

Julian insisted on going out that
second week they were back. They attended the theatre. All eyes
were agog to see Lady Ravensford and Lord Vale arrive at his
private box, their relationship no secret now. Every gossip in
London divined the pair ran away together and had only just
returned.

Once it was learned Lady Ravensford was
living openly with Lord Vale, she became aware of the condemnation
from those that once approved her, the looks and whispers growing.
The looks of admiration from some surprised her. She handled it all
with a frosty smile until the rude gawkers looked away.

“
Your claws are out again,
my love.” Julian brought her knuckles to his lips. “Pay them no
heed. They will grow tired of lauding our sins. I know men who have
their wives and mistresses under the same roof because their too
cheap to buy them separate residences.”

Arianne giggled at his words, marveling
at how handsome Julian looked in his dark evening wear. The
covetous looks ladies launched at him secretly pleased her. To be
linked with him in such a naughty way, knowing every soul in the
theatre knew they were lovers was scandalous and
exciting.

He gifted her with a new wardrobe
worthy of any mistress. The new sapphire silk gown trimmed in lace
was at the height of fashion and daringly cut, revealing fuller
breasts he seemed fascinated with when they lay abed.

The jewels sparkling at her throat and
ears were new. They were a gift he showered upon her, making her
wear the diamond choker and earrings during a rousing session of
lovemaking before they left for the evening.

She could see their arrival at the
theatre caused quite a stir, knowing her husband would learn of it.
For that reason alone, she delighted in it. Her smoky looks at
Julian were slightly more exaggerated for that reason, leaving
little imagination to her thoughts.

By the second act, the lights went
down. She gasped in surprise as she felt Julian’s hand slide into
her lap, rubbing her slowly between her thighs under the noses of
those that peeked through opera glasses up at them.

Sweat beaded upon her forehead at his
innocent expression as he looked over at her, his sensual lips
parted in a slow smile. His dark eyes glowed with amusement as he
went further to inch up her dress.

Easing his fingers under the silk
folds, he engaged her moist flesh with slow, insistent flicks of
his fingers. She bit her lip to keep from moaning, her gaze growing
dilated with desire.