Wicked Proposition (12 page)

Nicholas frowned and tossed the cheroot he
smoked into the flames of the fire. Lilly had arrived shortly after
he had returned home from his ship. As always, she showed up when
she wanted to. He was supposed to jump back into bed without any
questions. Lilly and he had been lovers for nearly five years, and
still refused to tell him her real name. She feared she couldn’t
trust him, and said that more than he wished to hear.

Nicholas cursed her under his breath. He was
finding it difficult to trust this noblewoman who came in and out
of his life when it suited her. Returning home from his ship
tonight to find her in his bed was not unusual. It was her way.
Lilly was a mystery, if that was even her true name. He supposed he
couldn’t blame her for not trusting him. When had he ever given her
a reason?

Until recently, he had never wanted more than
this casual arrangement they had. Nicholas certainly was not seeing
Lilly exclusively. His recent visit to Clarice’s came to mind. He
had no right to feel this way, but yet the hollow ache within him
persisted more often of late.

The emptiness of this relationship had become
all the more pronounced. He blamed it on a certain green-eyed
temptress who had gotten under his skin. It did not help him sort
out his misgivings in his current relationship.

Lilly was obviously just some bored noblewoman
looking for a lark behind her husband’s back, nothing more. He had
no business expecting her to be more than what she was. It was he
who had changed. He came back to stand over her as she sat up and
looked up at him expectantly. Lilly eyed the handsome dark-haired
man with a shiver of raw expectation.

Lilly smiled when her eyes fell to his flaccid
shaft, which rivaled most men at their hardest. He was hung like a
stallion. She had always despised her unquenchable hunger for the
man. Nicholas was the best lover she ever had. The part of her that
was still capable of it, believed she loved him. His moodiness of
late had begun to annoy her. He was distant and quiet, alerting her
that he had started questioning matters once more.

Lilly risked discovery each time she came to
him. She couldn’t help herself. Her desire for Nicholas had become
her one private weakness. The knowledge they could be discovered at
any time added fuel to the affair. She enjoyed the excitement. Just
tonight, she had narrowly avoided Samuel Vickers as she slipped
away from a soiree.

“I demand you get back into this bed, Nicky, and
make love to me again,” Lilly whispered softly. She reached out to
grasp his hardness, smiling as she felt him stiffen in her palm. “I
shall have to convince you of my need for you, I can see.”

Nicholas closed his eyes as she took him in her
mouth. He groaned in delight as her tongue stroked the velvety head
voraciously, her mouth suckling him urgently. Lilly was adept at
convincing him. She looked up at him while she lavished her mouth
upon him.

Nicholas looked down into her dark blue eyes,
wishing them to be as green as a forest meadow. His hands slid into
her white-blonde hair, imagining it to be as dark as night. He
closed his eyes as her hungry mouth took him, and saw lush ruby
lips encompassing him instead. She brought him to a hard throbbing
awareness within seconds.

Nicholas was breathing raggedly as he pushed her
down on the coverlet roughly. He closed his eyes and thoughts of
Catherine seemed to intervene. It was not Lilly who writhed and
arched under him, but the raven-haired beauty he could not get out
of his mind.

Hours later, he lay completely unsatisfied
against the pillows as she dressed. It was time for her to leave.
Her expression was languid from his lovemaking. He said nothing.
His blue eyes were hooded and detached as he watched her primping
in the mirror at the dressing table.

She never stayed the night. Lilly came to him
only two days a week and thought it enough. He questioned whether
what he felt for her was love, or something he forced just to fill
his lonely life. Lilly would not be returning one day, he knew. He
felt it every time she came to him. His heart hurt to know one day
she would just quit coming at all, and he would never know who she
really was.

Nicholas refused to take Gabriel’s advice and
have her followed. He did not want to know the truth. The feelings
he had allowed to develop over the years had no place in what was
between them. Who was he to judge her for her infidelities? He was
her lover after all.

“When will I see you again, Lilly?” he asked
gruffly, knowing the answer already. She would return when she
wanted to.

Lilly looked up from adjusting her bodice. She
smiled at the dark-haired man watching her intently from the
bed.

“I cannot give you a precise day, Nicky,” she
began with disarming sincerity. “My husband sometimes accompanies
me to my engagements. He decided to go to his club. I was able to
sneak away. That is not always the case.”

“How is it you have not been caught yet?”
Nicholas watched her pull up her silk stockings, waiting for an
answer. “You stay only fifteen minutes. You are seen there for a
time. You come here in a hired coach, and return back at the end of
the night to leave in your own. And yet not one person there is
aware you have ever left? Very clever, but I would not be so
fooled. Either your friends are all idiots, or you are not as
popular as you claim.”

Lilly made a face at him and shrugged. She
turned and fixed her hair in the mirror to some semblance of its
former style.

“You would be surprised how little people
notice, my love,” she said with a trace of irritation. “Why do you
do this every time I must leave? You spoil our time together.”

“I know little next to nothing about you,
Lilly,” Nicholas said in a frustrated tone. He raked a hand through
his dark hair as he flung back the sheets. He rose from the bed,
looking so glorious naked she sighed and wished she could stay
longer.

“Forgive me if I want to know something more
about your life. I do not understand why you are so afraid. You can
trust me. I would never betray you.” He shrugged into a dressing
gown. “If I wanted to know more, I could find out on my own. I
could follow you.”

“But you won’t, will you, Nicky?” She reached
out, her long nail tracing the wicked scar there, following it all
the way to his hipbone. “We both know you don’t want to know the
truth. It has nothing to do with what we have here.”

“It is best you go, before you are missed.” He
pushed her hand away, questioning what they even had at all. His
expression was inscrutable. She smiled triumphantly and turned and
showed herself out.

Nicholas always had a poor habit of latching on
to troubled, damaged women. They seemed to appeal to him for some
unknown reason. Perhaps if he were not so troubled and damaged too,
he could avoid such disastrous relationships. Nicholas had hoped
his evening with Lilly would stop his growing obsession with a
certain green-eyed temptress. It had not stopped his thoughts of
her, however.

Catherine belonged to Gabriel. She was out of
his reach. Still, the dreams of her persisted and proved otherwise,
making him want her all the more. Those thoughts aside, he more
than suspected she was involved in something. It was more than just
her ensnaring a rich benefactor, and involved Clarice no less.

Nicholas questioned the prostitutes at Clarice’s
recently. All said Clarice brought the girl in from the outside,
specifically for Lord Iverleigh’s entertainment. He questioned the
madam’s angles, and certainly it involved money. Gabriel was very
wealthy. It was obvious she used Catherine to bleed Gabriel’s
wealth. The desire to protect his friend was not new to him. His
growing desire for Gabriel’s new mistress disturbed him enough to
question the direction he now went.

Catherine stiffened when the door opened and
Gabriel entered. It was late. She looked panicked at his intent
look in her direction in the firelight.

“You need not appear so alarmed. I’m not going
to pounce on you, Catherine,” he said in amusement. He strode to
his wardrobe, beginning to remove his clothes. “I am pleased you
stayed up in anticipation of it, however. It looks like progress
has been made.”

“I did not wait up for your attentions,” she
informed him snidely. “I hoped to reason with you once more.”

“I am not in the habit of repeating myself.” He
shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it on the chair. “You will
stay until the debt is paid.”

“How can you claim to have done me a fair turn
and hold me to such ridiculous conditions now?”

“That contradiction is not lost upon me.” He
removed his breeches as slow as possible for her benefit, his dark
eyes twinkling as they met hers. “You could say that you have
intrigued me, Catherine. Consider that a compliment.”

He stood naked before her now, his arousal
apparent. His dark eyes seemed to glow with desire as they met
hers. Catherine’s eyes skidded away from his nudity, face flaming.
She gritted her teeth at his low laughter. Her disturbing reaction
to him annoyed her. He took pity upon her and donned a dressing
gown.

“You know nothing about me at all,” she argued
as she sat up in the bed, self-conscious of his joining her
there.

Gabriel frowned and approached the bed. He
watched the play of emotions crossing her face. Fear and indecision
clouded her face. His new mistress needed some reassurances from
him.

Gabriel reached down and grasped her chin. He
lifted her face to his, staring down into her troubled emerald gaze
and smiled. His eyes traced every perfect curve of her heart-shaped
face, lingering on her full, soft lips, aching to taste them
again.

“Why can you not just enjoy our time together?”
he asked and stroked her cheek. “Why do you fight it?”

“Forgive me if I feel this is wrong, Gabriel,
but this is not what I wanted for myself.”

“Even the most careful plans can go awry, my
dear,” he offered quietly.

Catherine looked up into his handsome features,
softened now with desire in the firelight.

“I cannot make light of this,” she admitted
softly. “I knew after last night. I was leaving Clarice’s
house.”

Gabriel listened to her words in understanding.
He had cut off her escape. He could well understand her anger at
him now.

“There is nothing casual about my making love to
you, my dear,” he surprised her by saying. “You please me more than
you can know. The fact you are here should tell you that.”

“It is more than wrong,” she fumed.

“Does it feel wrong? Forgive me, but we both
know you enjoy my touch, Catherine,” he said with a touch of
arrogance.

She stared up at his handsome face in helpless
frustration. Gabriel would choke upon his own words if he knew he
was having relations with his sister-in-law.

“Had you not interfered, I would have found the
means to return home,” she said waspishly, her green eyes
flaring.

“That would have been most unwise,” he informed
her grimly. “Clarice would have hunted you down. You do not
understand the agreement you made. I have heard of her methods when
one of her girls runs out on their debt.”

“Is the deal I make with you any better?”

“You know nothing about me. I am not the ogre
you think. You will see that,” he reassured her, smoothing her
silken hair. He frowned as he noticed her nightgown. “I thought we
decided against those garments?”

Catherine knew he referred to her night gown
when he said ‘those garments’. She scooted away from him across the
bed. Her expression was filled with defiance.

“I am not comfortable. It is unseemly to sleep
without one, Gabriel,” she informed him tightly.

“Take it off. I do not wish to sleep,” he said
with a slow, lazy smile. “I would enjoy what I paid for.”

She glared at his taunting words. “Does it even
matter to you what I want?”

Gabriel frowned, for it did matter to him. He
had no wish to force her, but he refused to allow her to distance
herself from him either. His lustful thoughts aside, he just liked
the feel of her nude body next to his.

“Something tells me you have no idea of what you
want at all, Catherine.”

Gabriel’s hands went to the ties of his dressing
robe. He let the garment fall to his feet. Her eyes widened at the
sight of his aroused maleness.

Before she could react, he pulled back the
comforter and got into bed with her. His arms pulled her to his
chest. She was struggling as his arms held her body to his. His
hardness throbbed against her belly, making her frantically aware
of his desires.

“Stop, you take all the fun from it,” he
complained with a soft laugh and nuzzled her throat.

“Forgive me if ravishment isn’t fun for me!”

“Then I have failed you, my sweet,” he said as
he rolled and pinned her beneath him. He smiled down at her, his
dimples growing. “This is most certainly supposed to be fun.”

Catherine stared up at his laughing handsome
visage, wanting to scream in frustration.

His hand eased up her nightgown, his hand
stroking along her leg and curving hip, caressing her boldly, and
making her tremble all over.

“Not having fun at all, I see?” he asked with a
mock frown, seeing the defiance in her expression. “You give me no
choice but to insist.”

Catherine released a gasp as she felt his hand
slide up her night gown even higher. He yanked it over her head and
tossed it away. Gabriel caressed her freely, making her tremble
even more. Bold hands were stroking the soft velvety folds apart
with feather light touches.

His fingers were like magic, making her body
respond despite her intentions. The soft, sensitive nub in her
center was stiff and quivering as he stroked it slowly. She grew
hot and wet with need within minutes.