A Lord Rotheby's Holiday Bundle (85 page)

“
No,” he said, the word a
choked plea. “Let me see you.” He moved closer, took her hands in
his, and held her arms out to her sides.

She felt exposed, ashamed. His wedding
night ought to be with a woman in possession of her virtue. And
hers should be with a man who could love her.

But neither of those would
be.

“
You are so beautiful
Grace. So perfect.”

She felt anything but beautiful or
perfect. But then he moved closer still, so the distance between
them pulsed. He slid his hands down her bare arms and across her
back, moving until they came to a stop on her behind. His hands
were so large that one of them almost covered her derrière by
itself. He pulled her closer, pressed her length into him. She
gasped at his heat against her stomach.

Lord Alexander looked into her eyes.
His were liquid pools of forest green, and the gold flecks in them
were danced like flickering flames.

“
I need you, Grace.” His
mouth came down and enveloped hers. He swept his tongue inside to
stroke against hers.

A pull in her center drew her into
him, and she wrapped her arms around his waist to hold him close.
His scent, that glorious, masculine scent of woods and man was
enhanced, musky. It washed over her in waves as they moved together
and their heat combined.

He pulled the thin fabric up and
touched the bare flesh of her backside with his hands, rubbing,
kneading, stroking.

Her courage grew, and she lost her
inhibitions. She would give in to her love for him, at least for
this one night. Grace became the aggressor in their kiss, thrusting
her tongue inside his mouth to taste him. Steady on her feet, she
ran her hands over the hair of his chest.

Lord Alexander growled, a low sound
deep in his throat. “I need to see you. All of you.” He placed one
arm around her waist and pulled the garment free with the
other.

Grace instinctively moved her hands to
cover her breasts again, but he caught them before she
could.

“
Please let me see you. Let
me touch you, Grace.” He kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, beneath
her chin, along her neck. He cupped her breasts in his palms and
she whimpered. Sensation ruled.

“
You like that, do you?
Tell me you like it.” He moved his head lower and lapped his tongue
over her sensitive nipple.

“
Yes, I like that, Lord
Alexander.” She couldn’t think.

“
Say my name, Grace. Call
me Alex.” He completed the order by suckling her entire breast in
his mouth.

Grace gripped his shoulders for
balance. Her legs turned to jelly beneath her. “Alex. I like that,
Alex.” She might enjoy it a bit too much. He was welcome to stop in
a few years or so.

He lowered to his knees, where his
eyes were directly across from the swell of her stomach. Alex
placed a gentle kiss there and held his head against where her
child grew, resting for a moment and holding Grace by the
hips.

His tenderness overwhelmed her. Her
love for him coursed through her body so fast it scared her. She
felt like she might break in two if he so much as brushed a finger
over her skin.

For just that moment, she felt
beautiful. Loved, even.

Grace placed her hands atop his head
and ran her fingers through his shaggy hair.

He moved one hand between her legs,
shocking her senses when he stroked her tender flesh. Alex slid a
finger inside her and she shuddered.

When she thought she would die from
the pressure building internally, he stood and picked her up. He
carried her to the bed and laid her carefully across the sheets,
her hair fanned out over the pillows.

He removed the last of his clothing in
the flickers of the candlelight. She had never seen a nude man
before, and the size of him scared her. His muscled arms, the
definition of his chest, those long, powerful legs. He was
glorious. She had a sudden urge to paint him, just as he stood
before her, but pushed it aside. That could come later.

She needed him now.

Alex came down on the bed beside her
and took her face in his hands. “I will never hurt you, Grace.
Don’t be afraid of me.”

It wasn’t fear but awe, but she had no
voice to tell him. He kissed her again, deep and full, and his
hands stroked her to a passionate peak again. He rose above her and
braced his weight on his arms as he spread her legs with a knee.
The tip of his manhood rested at her opening. She wanted
more.

“
Say my name, Grace. Call
me by my name.” His voice shook with passion and need, and an edge
of fear.

“
Alex.” The word was a
prayer on her tongue.

And he was inside her, filling her,
pulsing with her. She moved her legs up to wrap about his waist and
marveled that it brought him closer, deeper.

They moved as one. Her body tightened
and tensed, and she would shatter to pieces if she didn’t find
release soon. Alex seemed to sense her need and he quickened his
pace. She moaned from the most wonderful pain.

And then the world came to a stop. She
crashed over the edge and held onto him for dear life. “Alex, Alex,
Alex.”

He spilled into her a moment later and
collapsed on top of her, burying his head in her hair while he
regained his breath.

“
Oh, how I love you,” she
said on a sob. She regretted the words as soon as she said them,
but he didn’t react. She didn’t want to love him. It would be so
much easier if she didn’t. Perhaps the pain would be lessened to
know she was married to a man who could never love her in return if
she felt no love for him.

Alex moved beside her and pulled her
in close, her backside pressed firmly against his front. His
breathing grew even, and he placed a large, protective hand over
her abdomen where her baby grew.

Grace laid still and cried herself to
sleep, careful not to alert him to her tears.

~ * ~

Alex brushed Grace’s hair away from
her face to watch her sleep. The tears weren’t yet dry on her
cheeks, so he brushed them away as well.

“
Oh my sweet Grace, I love
you.” His words fell on the darkness of night.

She still didn’t believe his love,
even after their tender loving that night. What else must he do to
convince her?

He pulled his wife closer and breathed
in the fragrance of Grace and the scent of their lovemaking. One
hand rested against the child growing in her belly. Their child. He
already loved the baby as his own.

Alex drifted off to sleep, dreaming of
a baby girl with midnight hair and eyes of ice.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Every movement she made in her sleep
sent blood rushing to his groin. If Grace didn’t still soon, he
wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking her again.

Not that that was such a horrible
thought. Far from it.

But her movements increased in
frequency, not to mention scale. She kicked a leg out and landed
her foot against his shin. Something was very, very wrong. Even as
he tried to wake her, she whimpered in her sleep. She was
frightened. He leaned over her and shook her shoulder. “Grace, wake
up.”

Her fist swung out to strike him in
the face. She would have made contact with his nose if his reflexes
had been slower.

Alex used a bit more force in shaking
her shoulder this time. “Grace, you’re having a bad dream. Wake up
for me.” His voice rose in pitch.

“
Ah. No, no, NO!” Her eyes
flew open and she sat up in bed, struggling against him with
everything in her.

“
It’s me, Grace. Alex. It’s
Alex.” He held her tight to his chest, careful to keep her hands
firmly locked in his fist.

She fought against him for a moment
more before finally stilling in his arms. Her heartbeat slowed to a
normal pace as he stroked her hair, her arms, her back.

When he pulled away from her, she
still had wide eyes full of fear. “What were you dreaming
about?”

She shook her head and looked away, a
single tear threatening to fall.

“
All right. You don’t have
to tell me now. It’s all right.” He lay down in the bed again and
held her close. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his
shoulder, still shaking violently.

He pulled the blankets over them and
wrapped her tight. “I’ll never allow you to be hurt, Grace.
Never.”

Alex shut his eyes. Could he keep that
promise?

~ * ~

She shivered against him, huddled
under the counterpane in a cocoon of his warmth.

The nightmare had been far worse this
time. When she awoke, she’d seen Barrow leaning over her, not Alex.
It took several minutes for her to calm enough to recognize him as
her husband and not as the man who had ravished her.

“
I’ll never allow you to be
hurt, Grace. Never,” Alex had said before he fell asleep
again.

But how could he prevent hurting her
himself? He caused her great anguish simply by not loving her, by
treating her with care and tenderness, but not giving her the one
thing she wanted more than anything in the world.

No, not wanted. Needed. Grace needed
his love. She needed to believe he could love her, even if only
half as much as she loved him.

If he couldn’t love her, who
could?

She turned toward him and willed
herself to sleep.

And she prayed she would not dream
again.

~ * ~

Alex woke with the sunlight streaming
in through the windows. He rolled over to give Grace a good morning
kiss, but she’d already quit his bed. The spot where she had slept
was cold to the touch. He grumbled under his breath.

He pulled on a robe before knocking at
her dressing room door. The housekeeper had arranged for breakfast
to be brought to them in bed. Grace was spoiling all his plans. How
could a man be romantic if his wife wouldn’t comply?

Tess answered his knock, opening the
door only a crack, and informed him, “My lady is already down to
the breakfast room this morning, and will be delighted to see you
there, sir.”

He scowled through the crack. “Be
certain all her belongings are packed and ready. We leave for
Somerton after breakfast. I’ll send a footman up to carry
everything to the carriage.”

In his own dressing room, he wanted to
dress as soon as possible and join his bride and family. “Can you
not hurry with tying that deuced knot?” he asked Thomas. His
beleaguered valet passed him a withering look but held his tongue.
Alex sighed. “It seems you can’t.” He tried to be patient, but
patience was in short supply this morning. When he was finally
dressed to Thomas’s satisfaction, he went downstairs.

His family filled the breakfast room
to the brim. Mama and Sophie sat on either side of Grace. While
Alex was glad to see his family accept his bride, he felt a twinge
of jealousy that he couldn’t sit next to her. “Good morning,, Mama.
Good morning Grace.”

Grace looked at him, her expression
unreadable. “Good morning Lo—Good morning, Alex.” She returned to
her conversation with his mother and sister and ignored
him.

He prepared a plate and sat as close
to her as he could manage, across the table and down a few seats.
He ignored Neil, who sat to his right, and ate his food without
tasting a bite of it.

“
I believe I still have
some of the dressing gowns and blankets my children used when they
were babies. Would you like me to have them sent to you in
Somerton?” Mama asked Grace. Then she acted as though a novel idea
had struck her, and not something she’d likely been planning since
her discovery that Grace was with child. “Or better yet, I could
travel to visit you and bring them with me. If you wouldn’t mind my
company, of course.”

“
Of course, Your Grace,
you’ll always be welcome. I would be glad for any assistance you
can give me for the baby.” Grace flushed.

Mama frowned. “Now that you have
married Alex, you’re my daughter. Please, let us not be so formal.
If you aren’t comfortable calling me Mama, then Henrietta will do
just as well.”

“
Yes, Your Grace, I’ll try
to remember that. Oh, and there I go again.” Her face flushed as it
screwed up in concentration. “I daresay, I have so rarely had close
relationships, it daunts me to use such informality.”

His mother patted the top of Grace’s
hand. “You’ll learn.”

Char’s face lit up. “Oh, Mama, we
ought to all go to Somerton Court this winter. We can be there when
the baby arrives. It would be just wonderful. May we
please?”

Alex chewed his baked eggs with undue
force. Would his family not grant him any time alone with his
wife?

Mama turned her attention to him.
“Well, Charlotte, you should ask Alex and Grace. They may want some
privacy.”