Beauty and the Earl (13 page)

He obeyed her silent demands by pressing her sex open and lifting her into position to spear her in one, slick movement. She groaned as he filled her, stretching her and making her feel complete like no other man had ever done before. She dropped her face into the crook of his neck as he began to thrust, smelling his scent, feeling his pulse pound. She was lost.

She had been lost for a long time, but now she didn’t fear it. She welcomed it, she welcomed him.

He rotated his hips, cupping her close, and the slow burn of pleasure between her legs began to increase. He hit her so perfectly, rubbing her clitoris with his pelvis even as his cock stroked her inside until she was panting with the sensation. She drew back to look into his eyes and he smiled at her, so slow and so sensual.

She exploded, digging her nails into the rough fabric of his jacket as her orgasm ripped through her, took her over, stole everything except her awareness of him. He was everything,
they
were everything, and she cried out his name over and over as her entire body went limp with satisfaction.

He groaned as his own release followed shortly after and lowered her to the ground as he pulled out to spend away from her. She watched him tuck himself back into place and frowned.

Olivia and Mal had taken no such care. They could have created a child that day. It was a consequence she was certain Olivia was aware of. But she and Liam…well, they would never look into the eyes of a baby who shared his smile and her dark hair.
 

She blinked as she smoothed her gown and brushed loose pieces of bark from the back of her dress.
 

Liam offered her his arm. “You have a strange expression on your face, Violet. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked as they continued on their way to the main house.

She flinched. “No, I was just having…it was an odd day and my thoughts are equally odd.”

He laughed. “I don’t know how you
couldn’t
have odd thoughts. What we just did doesn’t happen every day.”

She smiled because she liked his lightness after an afternoon of watching him fight with darker emotions. But inside, she felt no joy at what he said. After all, he was correct that what they had done didn’t happen every day.

And soon it wouldn’t happen ever again. And that reality troubled her far more than it should have.

Violet sat in the library, her legs tucked beneath her, leaning over a side table as she stared at the letter she had been writing to Lady Rothcastle. This was not her first letter to the duchess since her arrival in Bath, but it was the most difficult so far, mostly because she didn’t know how to explain what she had been doing. She didn’t know how to explain
Liam
to a sister who feared for his well-being.

“I don’t know anything anymore,” she admitted out loud to herself as she rested her head on her hand with a long sigh.
 

She was about to give up trying to write the note when Olivia stepped into the library. With a frown, Violet folded the sheet of paper and tucked it away. She didn’t stand, but merely stared at her friend evenly. It had been over an hour since she and Liam had discovered Olivia and Malcolm making love by the lake.
 

Olivia shook her head. “Where did you and Liam go? Why didn’t you return?”

Violet pursed her lips, her frustration with her oldest and dearest friend growing.
 

“Before we discuss that, I want to talk about something else. Why did you try to talk to Liam about his sister? His past?”

Olivia stared at her without even a fraction of guilt or remorse over her intrusions. “Isn’t that what you’re here for? To wheedle the facts about those things out of him and report back?”

Violet shot to her feet and rushed around her friend to close the library door. “Mind your tone, Olivia, you could ruin everything!”

Her friend folded her arms. “What
everything
, Violet? We’ve been in Bath for over a week and as far as I can tell you’ve only confessed your own secrets to the man. Have you even tried to pry any out of him?”

“Not exactly. I told you, it’s part of my plan,” Violet retorted, but she turned her back so Olivia couldn’t see her expression.
 

Olivia huffed out a breath. “Yes, I do recall the plan, but it only works if you begin to obtain information from your target.”

Violet spun and shook her head. “He isn’t my target—you make it sound as though I’m attacking him.”

“No, you aren’t. Though you should be.” Olivia sighed. “I’m sorry you feel I interfered by asking Windbury a few questions, but I was trying to help you. Though I judge by your frustration with me that you didn’t attempt to walk through the door I created by bringing up tender subjects.”

Violet sat back down hard in the chair she had vacated. She rubbed a hand over her face.
 

“No,” she admitted softly. “I didn’t. I suppose I could have—I think he might have told me something had I pushed. But…I couldn’t.”

Now Olivia’s expression softened considerably as she took a seat beside Violet and examined her closely. “Why?”

“Because I have been increasingly questioning what I’m doing here, Olivia. This man has been through so much and though his sister means well, what she and her husband have asked of me is a terrible violation. The guilt of that…” She cut herself off with a gasp of breath. “It eats at me.”

Her friend nodded. “You are a good person, Violet. You always have been, much better than I. But you cannot forget your goals, my dear. You have more to think of than just yourself.”

Violet dipped her head. “I know. I
know
that and I know that what I’m working for,
who
I’m working for, it’s worth this. But I can’t focus on the future too hard, Olivia. I don’t want to be disappointed if it doesn’t work out.”

She was shocked when a single tear rolled down her cheek. She hadn’t even realized she was crying, but there was such an ache in her chest. Such a familiar ache of regret and longing. But now she felt a similar ache when it came to Liam and what would ultimately be her betrayal of him.

“It will,” Olivia said, squeezing her hand. “If you do this.”

She nodded as she swiped the tear away with the back of her hand. “I know you’re right.”

Olivia smiled gently. “Now where
did
you and Liam go today?”

Violet lifted her eyebrows, happy for the change of subject. “Oh, you have questions about that? I’m surprised considering what you and Malcolm were doing while Liam and I took our walk.”

Her friend’s eyes grew wide and redness flooded her cheeks. “I—we—you—”

“Oh yes, we came back earlier than perhaps you thought we would, and we saw you,” Violet confirmed with a shake of her head and a half-smile. “We saw
all
of you, actually.”

Olivia was shocked silent for a moment, but then she shrugged with a nervous laugh. “We may have gotten a wee bit carried away. I was truly sorry I upset Liam and Mal decided to…comfort me.”

“You did seem
comforted
,” Violet teased. “If comforted is a euphemism for something else.”

Olivia covered her face, but she was smiling beneath her hands. “I am embarrassed. I’m sure Lord Windbury dislikes me more than ever.”

Violet flushed herself as she thought of Liam’s passionate and utterly pleasurable reaction to that wicked scene.
 

“I wouldn’t say that,” she croaked. She shook off the memory. “But tell me about you and Malcolm.”

Her friend lowered her hands and to Violet’s surprise, Olivia’s face was glowing with such happiness that Violet could hardly look at her.
 

“He’s—he is—I—” Olivia stammered, trying to express herself as she clasped her hands before her heart.
 

Violet drew back, her eyes widening as the truth became so very clear, as clear as it had been when she saw them kiss after they made love.
 

“You care for him?”

Olivia swallowed and then she nodded slowly. “I do, Violet. I truly do.”

Violet could hardly respond. Her friend, who had always dealt with men by keeping a level of playful detachment, was now admitting she had come to care about someone. And it could be nothing less than true, judging from her bright, joy-filled face.

“I can see that,” Violet whispered. “Does he feel something for you in return?”

“It is hard to say, for men are so difficult to read when it comes to matters of the heart.” Olivia paused. “But I have reason to hope he does care for me.”

Violet’s brow wrinkled. “What about the future? Will he become your protector?”

Olivia dropped her chin. “Perhaps that is all I should expect, considering my past.”

“But you want more.” Violet said it as a statement, not a question, for there was no doubt in her mind that it was true.
 

“I do.” Olivia’s voice was no more than a faint whisper.

Violet reached for her friend, patting her hand gently. “Then I wish for nothing less than you deserve, happiness and joy…and love.”

Olivia lifted her face with a smile, and Violet returned it before she stepped away so that Olivia wouldn’t see her true feelings. Yes, she did hope for everything good for her best friend. But just like when she’d seen the powerful physical and emotional connection between them outside earlier, she felt something else as well.

Jealousy.
 

And the reaction made her feel ugly and cruel in its wake. But worse, it forced her to realize that she too, longed for the same joy that she now saw on Olivia’s face. The same joy she caught a brief glimpse of whenever she touched Liam.

But she wouldn’t ever have it.
 

When Malcolm came into his office, Liam was still reeling from the day’s events. But Malcolm seemed to have no patience for that as he slammed the door behind him and folded his arms.

“Do you know that you made Olivia cry?”

Liam closed the ledger he had been half-heartedly examining and glared at his friend. “How did I do that?”

“Getting up and stomping off like a child does that sometimes,” his friend sneered. “And you have been cold to her since her arrival.”

“She attempted to intrude upon—” he began.

To his surprise, Malcolm slammed a hand down on his desk. “She attempted to connect with you, as people sometimes do. You
do
remember how human beings treat each other, don’t you?”

Liam pressed his lips together, fighting to control emotions that bubbled up within him and threatened to overflow. Anger, no rage, coursed through him. Malcolm was his friend, but he was also his employee and now Liam wanted to put him in his place more than anything.

Consequences be damned.
 

“Bollocks,” Liam snapped. “She wasn’t worrying over me as a friend and you know it. She was poking at a wound, hoping to see if it would bleed.”

“She isn’t like that,” Mal snarled, his face reddening.

Liam recognized he should have stopped, but now that this had begun, he had to finish it. He wanted to yell at someone, to purge some of this emotion in the hopes he could keep it at bay for a while.
 

“How would you know? You’ve been fucking her for a week—you know nothing but her body.”

Mal was purple now and he grasped Liam’s collar and shook him. “Shut up, Windbury, you’re talking about the woman I love.”

Liam wrestled free and stumbled back, staring at his friend in utter disbelief. Mal didn’t look much less shocked that he would say such a thing. But he also didn’t look sorry.
 

“Love her?” Liam drew back in surprise. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Malcolm hesitated, as if he was letting the concept roll around in his head. Then he nodded. “I love her,” he repeated and there was no hesitation. “And I want to marry her.”

Liam froze. Mal was so certain and it put him to mind of himself, just two years before, when he had asked Matilda to marry him. He had been just as certain, just as filled with nervous joy and anticipation.

And it had ended with blood and pain and death.
 

“You idiot,” he muttered, uncertain if he was directing the comment to himself or Mal, or perhaps both of them.
 

Mal’s eyes narrowed. “You would prefer that I follow you around my whole life, trying to keep you from walking over a cliff or putting a bullet through your ear?”

Liam’s eyes widened, but Mal didn’t allow him to reply.

“Oh yes, I know your dark thoughts. I’ve seen them on your face when no one else was looking. And I have watched you, guarded you from yourself because I care for you, you pompous ass. Because I know you will allow no one else to intervene on your behalf. I don’t regret any sacrifices I’ve made to be your friend and your confidante. But I do not agree to live in your misery forever, Liam.”

“My
misery
,” Liam repeated and his anger began to mount again. “I never asked you to.”

“No, but you tend to drag everyone else into it with you. I have done my best to help you, to carry you through your suffering, but there comes a point when you must stand up and decide to live again. But you won’t. You utterly refuse to do anything except stand with one foot in the grave, waiting to die alone. Well, that is your choice, my friend. But I think you are a god-awful fool to let the past destroy your future. And for what?”