Price of Desire (7 page)

His finger traced her lips, leaving burning trails behind
.
He caressed her mouth, her cheek, the tender spot at the base of her neck, before his fingers tangled in her hair drawing her face towards his own, his hot breath whispering across her fevered flesh
.
At the first touch of his firm lips against hers, something melted deep within her
.
The inhibitions and qualms dissipated as if they had never been.

His lips trailed over hers again and again, building up a rhythm that sang in her blood
.
She found herself meeting him pressure for pressure, warmth for warmth, breath for breath
.
When his tongue first darted out to caress her mouth she drew back, startled, but in the next instant she parted her lips to his, instinct moving where knowledge could not.

The kiss was hard
and fierce, beyond anything she’d known
.
Lips ground against teeth and tongue as fire grew and burned.

She felt his hands move down her chest, each brush of flesh on warm flesh sending further flaming arrows deep into the blaze that danced in her belly
.
His fingers brushed along the top of her gown, slipping beneath the sweat-dampened edge to tickle at burning flesh
.
Her breast swelled and tightened and ached with a fullness that took her breath away
.
The buttons of her gown loosened under his
expert touch and a cool breeze
that only fanned the flames, swept over her heated flesh, sending shivers sweeping down her body
.

His lips freed from hers then, and began to trail further hot, burning kisses along her jaw line, igniting a pleasure she had never known, before whispering down her neck and across her flushed and heaving chest
.

He paused, still for a moment, and her lashes lifted to look at him
.
He raised his eyes up to hers and they shone black with desire
.
His gaze lowered and she watched as he caressed her fevered skin with his eyes, his stare as deeply felt as his physical touch
.
Her body was alive with sensation and she knew nothing, wanted nothing but his continued touch.

He tore his gaze from her body and met her eyes again
.
Then, eyes locked, he slowly lowered his mouth and flicked her swollen nipple with the tip of his tongue
.
Her body jerked at the magnitude of the feelings that rippled through her
.
He licked and laved again, and again, as her eyes sank closed and her head fell back, the headiness of the sensations sending her reeling.

By the time he finally lowered his head and suckled deeply she was lost, all sense, all propriety, all decency consumed
.
There was nothing but him, his hot, moist mouth devouring her, the strong, masculine feel of his hands as he gathered her skirts and cupped her bottom
.
She could imagine no past, no future
.
This moment was all that existed.

“Someone’s coming.”

She missed his words the first time, only catching their meaning as those expert fingers smoothed her skirts and fixed her bodice
.
She lay beneath him, still quivering, as he straightened his own clothing and rose to standing.

His hands caught her own hands tight and pulled her up beside him
.
Her legs held, much to her surprise, and she stood there, dazed as the approaching whistle finally caught her attention.

“It’s Will.
”
She didn’t know where she found the voice to speak.

“Your husband?”

It took a moment for his words to penetrate and then she turned towards him, her cheeks burning with embarrassment at his question
.
Her senses returned
.
She would have like to protest her virtue, to ask how he could think such a thing of her
?
But, he was correct in thought if not actuality
.
She did have a husband.

“No, just the lad who was giving me a hand with the bushes
.
He went home to take his meal.”

“Ummm, it’s not a problem, then, that your dress is muddied and your lips look unmistakably kissed
.
Perhaps a lad will mistake that deep flush of passion that still glows upon your skin.”

Her hand rose to her lips and paused
.
She could not be seen like this
.
She could not do that to John
.
No matter that he had encouraged her, urged her not to let his own incapacities hamper her own desires, this was not what he had meant
.
She could not bring to him the disgrace that would come from having his wife found rolling with a soldier in the mud.

She knelt beside the forgotten bramble and pulled it forward into her lap, spreading further dirt across her skirts.

“You must go
.
If he doesn’t see you, it will never occur to him.”

“If he’s like most lads it will definitely occur to him
.
Besides, isn’t it too late
?
Surely it will be more suspicious if he sees me fleeing.”

“No, go back up the ridge, once you’re in the woods he’ll not notice
.
You can even turn and come back this way
.
He’ll think you just arrived.”

“Does it matter so much?
”
His voice was harder than before.

“Yes, please, just go.”

“On one condition.”

New tremors started in her belly, where so lately passion had sprung
.
This could not happen
.
She could not have risked her whole existence for one kiss, no matter how overpowering, how unimaginable.

“Yes, anything.”

“I am staying at the inn in the village, The Two-Headed Hog
.
Meet me there tonight, my sweet.”

“No, I can’t.”

Without moving, his feet became more planted, more unmoving, the whistling grew closer.

“I am known
.
I can’t be seen there.”

“Then . . .
”

Rose filled her lungs to capacity
.
How had she come to this?

“There’s a hay barn, about half a mile further down the road and just past a clump of willows
.
I’ll meet you there at full dark.”

“As you say, my damsel.
”
He moved with a speed surprising in such a large man
.
Before she could fully turn towards him, his stride had taken him back up the rise
.
He mounted as one born to the saddle, and turned his horse back to the woods.

Chapter Three

Evil, deceitful wome
n
.
He should have known better than to trust a single one of them
.
Wulf poured
most of
another full brandy down his throat
,
welcoming the deep burn
.
The fire in the grate glowed dimly
.
He knew what she was, what she was capable of
doing
.
Why did a single meeting have him burning
, swelling
with desire?

Since Waterloo he’d held his emotions in check – harnessing the demons that still ravaged his soul
.
Tonight those reins had loosed
.
The long afternoon with the broken wheel
had
left him little reserve
to fight her lure
.
He could not help but desire her
.
Unwanted fires burned when she was near
.
Still, h
e would not let her draw him into her verbal battles, again
.
Power was in silence
and courtesy
, not squabbles.

Still, s
he was not different than any lady, willing to twist a man to her needs and wants
.
He would not take all the blame
.
She had cast her lures well
.
He took the last gulp from the glass
.
She was fully as evil as that other, the one he only named in his nightmares, the one who’d cast him out from
everything
he’d known.

He
re
filled the glass
.
The heavy, sweet smell of the brandy wafted upward
.
His stomach lurched, but he downed the glass
.
He’d not been in his cups since before the blood and blackness of Waterloo, but if ever there was a night for it, this was it.

He should have refused to come
.
The solicitor’s secretary, Mitter, could have managed on his own
.
He’d just returned from the Dardenelles, or some such place
.
He should be ready to tackle a pile of ancient histories
.
Wulf had put aside scholarly interest when he’d left Oxford to take up his commission
.
What he’d once known could be of no help here.

But his stepfather had wanted him to
do this
.
Lord William would never have understood a decision
not
to spend days po
u
ring through musty old tomes
.
No, his stepfather probably thought he’d done Wulf a favor in sending him to
sift
through Burberry’s library
.
Lord William would only have thought of the
pleasures of properly surveying
his late friend’s collection
;
he would never have considered th
e
other factors
that
might make
such a task
unpleasant.

Wulf knew
h
e shouldn’t be here
.
If he’d followed his in
stincts,
he’d be safe in London, with
a
good book beside him and a solitary bed to lie in
.
He’d be debating whether to accept the
bloody
bequest
his uncle
,
the Earl of Falmouth
,
had left him.

Damn, he hadn’t wanted to think about that
.
He forced his blurred eyes to focus on the far wall.

He’d
kept the legacy
from his mind the whole way here.

Holly House
had been his childhood home,
before his father’s death
.
Wulf
knew he didn’t deserve such a
legacy
– certainly not from his uncl
e
.
B
ut the thought of its promise
and memories
pulled at him
.
It offered peace and safety, the quiet and security to rebuild his soul
, a home
.
He’d not called a place home in decades
.
Still, it was not right that it should be his
.
He did not
meri
t it after what he’d done
.
But, how could he refuse?

Bo
llocks
.
Maybe that was why he had come
– exposed himself to her one more time
– to put off facing the decision.

Damn her
.
The room spun.

He slumped on the bed and pulled at his own boots
.
One good thing about being a soldier, you learned to do for yourself
.
He’d known officers who’d always needed a hand, but no matter his own rank, he’d always managed on his own
.
Made life simpler.

A simple life, that was all he wanted, all he’d ever wanted
.
If he accepted
Holly House
he might even have a chance of finding it.

He tossed the boot beside the bed and yanked at the other.

Damn woman
.
How was he supposed to sleep
,
knowing she was in the same house, lying soft and warm with slumber, her eyes heavy with sleep
?
The memories of their passion surrounded him, pulled at him
.
How could he ever forget the wonder of that night?