A Marriage Made in Mayfair (8 page)

He knew she wondered when he would hurt her feelings again.

Yet he played no game, other than making her his wife. With every moment he spent in her presence Royce wished for more. He wanted her under his protection and his to hold for as long as time would give them. He wanted her to be the woman to bear his children and sleep beside him for the next fifty years, if they were so fortunate.

Royce took a calming breath. To demonstrate his love to Suzanna would prove difficult. His reputation as a rake, his past treatment, and his dislike of her brother were not obstructions easily overcome.

Nor was the fact he needed a wealthy bride and soon.

He paused.
Love
? Did he love her? He smiled when she laughed at something taking place on the ballroom floor. An ache settled in his chest that could only mean one thing. He did indeed love this woman. Wanted her with a need that at times scared and excited him, but also made him complete.

“Suzanna, if you’re not already engaged, may I have the supper waltz?”

She looked at him in shock before blinking, and concealing her surprise. “Two waltzes in one night, my lord? You will create talk.”

Royce took delight in her smile and wished he could always create such a reaction from her. “Let the
ton
talk; they are nothing to me, whereas you, Miss March are fast becoming everything.”

“You flatter me, my lord.”

“If you like,” he said enjoying the rosy hue that settled on her cheeks. He stepped close and slipping his hand within the folds of her domino, clasped her hand. “I’ll flatter and spoil you for all time if you’d only give me a second chance, Miss March.”

Her hand was delicate and warm. His thumb slid over her silk glove, eliciting a tremor that ran directly into his heart. He noted her increased breathing and met her gaze. “Please follow me, and allow me to kiss you once this night.”

“You are too bold, my lord.” Suzanna took a sip of her wine and turned away.

“No amount of drink will calm your nerves, my dear. The attraction between us cannot be denied.” He paused. “Please, Suzanna.” He would beg should he have to. It was either that or throw her over his shoulder like a ruffian and carry her out of the room against her will.

She made an indelicate sound of protest and then nodded. Royce bowed and made his way toward the supper room doors. If memory served him correctly, a door within the room led to a passage that ran the length of the ballroom. At the supper room doors, he gazed over his shoulder and noted Suzanna following him at a discreet distance.

As he made the supper room threshold, he gazed over his shoulder and hesitated as Suzanna made her way toward him. Once she made the room, he motioned her to follow him into the passage beyond.

The air in the passage, cooler than in the ballroom, did nothing to dampen his desire to taste her again.

“I’m sure someone has seen our less-than-discreet disappearance, my lord.”

“Royce. And you are well hidden under the mask and domino should they have noticed. Your escape into my waiting embrace will be our little secret, Suzanna.” He pulled her into a darkened room. It smelt of cleaning oils and pine. Suzanna cautiously made her way forward then halted before a lady’s writing desk. She turned toward him. Royce twisted the lock on the door, the snap of bolts loud as they slid into place. Suzanna eyed him warily. He stalked toward her and stopped when her hand settled on his chest.

“Royce, I should not be here embarking on such scandalous behaviour.” She stepped past him, and he clasped her arm.

“Suzanna, I will not ruin you if that is your fear.” He frowned and clasped her face with his hands. Her skin was soft, her hair smelled of jasmine. Unable to wait a moment longer to gaze upon her beauty, he untied the mask. The silk ribbon fell away from her chin, and Royce allowed the mask to fall on the desk behind her.

“I’m in love with you, Suzanna March. In truth, I do believe I fell in love with you the day I saw you in that ghastly frilly gown at your coming-out last season.”

He smiled at her shock and kissed her. His body heated at her ardent response to his chaste embrace and the need within his soul roared.

Royce pulled back and waited for her to look at him. He enjoyed seeing her eyes cloudy with desire. “I wish for you to trust me, Suzanna. I have been termed a rake and a scoundrel, but I have never dallied with an innocent. I wish to marry you, honour you for all of our lives, and have children with you. Please give me a chance to prove myself worthy of your love.”

“Oh, Royce.” Suzanna swallowed the obscenely large lump wedged in her throat. Did he truly mean what he said? Did he speak the truth, or was he merely saying such things to have his way with her?

“I don’t know what to say. I…”

“Say you’ll marry me and make me the happiest man in London.”

Royce kissed her again and Suzanna lost all line of thought. Heaven above, his kisses, no matter how quick, were enough to befuddle her senseless. And at this moment she truly needed to keep her wits about her.

“My brother does not approve of you and I do not know if I can trust you.” As much as it pained her to see his disappointment, she truly did not. He had hurt her so last year when she thought they were forming a friendship. Henry kept terming him a fortune hunter. She prayed her brother was wrong.

“May I think over your proposal, my lord?”

He nodded. “Call me Royce in private please, Suzanna. And of course you may take your time. I’ll not rush your decision.”

Suzanna stilled when he met her gaze, and the heat that radiated from his eyes sent her skin to burn. “May the fine lady grant her humblest servant a kiss now?”

“I believe she will.” When his lips touched hers Suzanna leaned into his warmth and nestled against his chest. His heart beat fast beneath the many folds of clothing, and oddly, Suzanna had the urge to remove them. To feel his skin, taste, and kiss him all over.

Heat bloomed on her face, and she was thankful Royce had his eyes closed. She was becoming scandalous with her wayward thoughts. Every time his lips sought hers and his hands touched her flesh, it left her longing for more, and strangely unsatisfied for something she could not name.

He pulled away and gazed at her. He ran his thumb against her cheeks, and the loss of his touch, his kiss, left a hollow feeling in her chest. Suzanna swallowed and couldn’t form one reason against denying him further liberties, to allow herself to love him in the most intimate of ways a woman could love a man. He loved her, had asked for her hand in marriage. Should she say yes? No one needed ever to know they’d slept together before they wed.

It was a risk, on more than one level. She could become
enceinte
. Such a scandal would force her to marry a man her brother loathed. It was all very confusing and becoming more so with every kiss Royce bestowed beneath her ear.

The wooden side of the desk touched her legs as he moved her back. Suzanna, as if she weighed no more than a leaf, was lifted upon it. Paper scrunched under her bottom. She bit her lip when Royce’s hand slid her silk gown above her knee. He stepped between her legs and for the first time in her life, the desire of a man lay against her own heated flesh.

His hardness did odd things to her body. She could not touch him enough. She wanted Royce to end the sweet ache between her thighs. She pulled him closer, wanting no space between them, and touched herself against his hardness. A sigh escaped as the contact went some way to dispel her need.

“We should stop before we cannot, Suzanna.”

Royce’s hunger-filled plea made her decision simple. She could not stop and did not want to miss lying with a man she loved and had loved all along, if she was truthful with herself. If she refused his offer of marriage, settled into a marriage of convenience with another gentleman and if by so doing she never again experienced this fire burning through her soul, her decision to stop would be forever regretted.

Suzanna refused to live with regret. She met his gaze and untied his cravat, hoping Royce did not notice her shaking fingers. He drew in a deep breath and Suzanna read in his pained visage his inner fight between desire and conscience.

“I think,” she said, sliding his coat from his shoulders and revelling in the taut muscles beneath his shirt, “it is too late to stop.”

Suzanna could not tell who undressed who more quickly; she only knew there was no time to waste. The gown she wore was no impediment to Royce’s competent hands, and was soon, along with her domino, tossed onto the already discarded clothing piled at his lordship’s feet. The small room enfolded them in warmth and her skin shivered in sensual awakening.

Royce came against her and pulled her close. The hair on his chest was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It tickled and tempted at the same time. Suzanna licked her lips while her gaze devoured his upper body. Her fingers traced his chest and then moved to touch the muscles that descended like a ladder toward sin. A sin she fully intended to experience.

Suzanna murmured her delight when he laid her down upon the desk. He cupped her face and kissed her hard, his tongue demanding and tangling with her own. Suzanna welcomed his vigour and replied in turn as well as she could. Cool air caressed her silk-clad leg when he rucked her shift up to her waist. She rubbed her leg against his side and he growled.

She let her legs fall open and allowed him to settle between her thighs. Her skin burned, her body begging for something unknown but was soon to find out. Suzanna moaned when his hand cupped her most sensitive flesh and stroked.

Yes
…

Royce was masterful at seduction, and without doubt, the rumours she had heard about town of his prowess as a lover were correct. Royce knew how to please a woman. He stroked her sex—soft, round movements tormenting her to madness. Suzanna opened her eyes when a low, seductive chuckle tickled her ear. She kissed him and allowed herself the delight of touching his back, the muscles flexing beneath his skin with his every movement.

“I must have you.” Royce shoved his breeches down and Suzanna’s mouth went dry. Never had she seen a man naked. Her lips curved. It was a marvellous sight to behold.

He came over her and she tensed as his manhood—hard, yet soft as velvet—pushed against her sex.

“I’ll be as gentle as I can, my love.”

Suzanna nodded and tried to relax. He eased into her; a strange and foreign pressure unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Then in one swift slide, he breached her maidenhead.

She gasped and swallowed a sob. A sharp pain tore through her sex and then settled to a light ache. Royce stilled.

Within moments, the pain dissipated and where he now laid a new type of ache began—an ache similar to before but more powerful and urgent. Excitement over the unknown sensations Royce was eliciting tickled across her skin. Then he shifted his weight and moved, and comprehension dawned.

Suzanna’s axis tilted.

Her hands slid to his buttocks and she squeezed. Sweat pooled upon his skin. She rubbed where her fingernails bit into his skin and kissed his neck and his chest.

“Marry me, Suzanna.” Royce sought her lips and teased her with small beckoning kisses. “Please…”

To ask her at such a time was unfair, and yet all Suzanna could think was
yes
. How could a sane modern woman live without a husband like him? He was gentle, kind, and brought her body to life whenever he was present.

To walk away from such passion would surely be a mistake. Royce may not love her yet or more truthfully, she may not believe in his love at this very moment; but in time, with the sort of passion that sparked between them whenever they were together love was not impossible.

She gazed up at him, his sensual movements pushing her towards a cliff she couldn’t climb fast enough. She saw hunger, passion, and fear in the window to his soul.

His fingers flexed against her bottom, and he rocked into her deep and hard. “Yes,” she moaned. His movements threw her over an edge, and she fell into a void of utter bliss.

He allowed her to catch her breath before he asked, “Yes, you will marry me? Or yes, you’re enjoying what we’re doing on this desk?”

Suzanna smiled, but didn’t reply to his teasing. Royce groaned and kissed the arch of her neck, sending tingles to race across her skin. He pushed within her, his body tensing, his own release as powerful as hers.

He untangled them and came to lie beside her, his hand cupping his head as he gazed at her. Suzanna clasped his cheek and ran her fingers against the short stubble on his jaw before letting her hand drop to her side. “I will marry you, Lord Danning.”

His smile lit a spark within her soul extinguished twelve months ago. How strange life was. For months she had denied her feelings, kept them hidden under anger, and intentions of revenge.

But forgiveness and love trumped blame and hate. Soon she would be his wife. Lady Danning.

She grinned. The masquerade ball had been a magical evening indeed.

Chapter Nine

Suzanna floated down the staircase in her brother’s Mayfair home, unable to shift the smile from her lips. After making love with Royce, all her concerns and worries seemed to have vanished. He had asked for her hand and wished to marry her.

And she had said yes.

Suzanna hugged the wonder of it to herself and smiled at the footman who held open the breakfast room door. Thoughts of their forthcoming wedding day overran her mind. Since she had lain with him, the sooner they wed the better, just in case a little Lord Danning was already growing in her womb.

Love and longing filled her mind, and Suzanna couldn’t wait to start the new life offered to her last night. After they had left the sanctuary of the small room, Royce had assured her he would call on her brother this morning to formally ask for her hand.

Suzanna frowned down at the eggs she was piling on her plate. Henry would react badly to the news. It was no secret he loathed Royce due to his previous treatment of her. But as she had seen fit to forgive it left her brother with no reason for ill will.