Beauty and the Earl (16 page)

It had felt a bit like abandonment, though she pushed those silly thoughts away. She was here for a purpose. Connection wasn’t that purpose.

His smile faltered slightly, but he recovered it swiftly.

“I apologize,” he said. “Sometimes I have trouble sleeping and I didn’t wish to wake you with my pacing, so I returned to my own chamber.”

Violet nodded. It was a reasonable explanation and yet she felt somehow unsatisfied by it.

“Does your injury trouble you?” she asked, smiling as a servant poured her tea and motioned silently to the sideboard with its selection of breakfast items.

He hesitated. “Occasionally, yes, my shoulder does hurt at night. Or during the day. Or when I think too hard about playing cards…”

He smiled, and she supposed he meant for her to laugh at his last flippant statement, but she couldn’t when she knew he remained in pain.

“Perhaps I could apply a poultice of some kind,” she suggested. “Or we could experiment with warmed oils.”

He locked eyes with her. “I certainly like the idea of experimenting with warmed oils with you.”

Now she couldn’t help but smile, nor could she seem to control how her body clenched with what could only be described as immediate, powerful desire. This man did this to her, he did so much more. And those reactions had nothing to do with any agreement she had made to come here and wheedle information from him.

They had gone far beyond that now. So far that her feelings scared her sometimes and she had to distance herself from them.

This time she did it with a sultry glance that made the sexual connection between them rise and any other connection fade.

“And what would you do with oils, my lord?”

He held her stare evenly, then leaned forward, covering her hands with his. His voice dropped.

“We would rub them on each other until our bodies were slick, until our skin slid against each other with no resistance. Then I would stroke you until your pussy was wet with excitement. Can you imagine being fucked while covered with oil, when there was nothing to stop the slide of your flesh against mine?”

She shifted in her chair, trying to find a position where her tingling pussy was more comfortable, but moving only made her arousal worse.

“That doesn’t sound very therapeutic,” she gasped.

He grinned. “You would be surprised. It sounds exactly like the kind of thing that would make a man forget his injuries and worries.”

The door to the dining room opened behind them and Violet jolted as she was dragged back to reality by the entrance of Olivia and Malcolm. Violet had never been so sorry to see friends in her life, but she gently extracted her hands from Liam’s and leaned back in her chair, hoping her flushed face and shaking body didn’t reveal too much.

“Good morning,” Olivia said, chipper as always as she took a place at the table. Her friend shot Violet a look that told her Olivia could sense her discomfort.
 

Violet fought to keep her arousal from her voice as she croaked out, “Olivia, Mal.”

She did not look at Liam as the others got their food and servants appeared with more tea. She was so focused on her plate she almost didn’t hear Olivia when she said, “And since Mal and Liam have a little business in town, I thought you and I could go to a few shops.”

Violet blinked and looked up. “I’m sorry?”

Her friend tilted her head. “You and your woolgathering. You didn’t hear anything?”

“I’m sorry, I was…” She smiled at Liam. “I was distracted by a topic Lord Windbury and I were discussing before you two entered. What is happening?”

Liam sat back, smug satisfaction on his handsome face as he said, “Mal and I do have a few things to do in Bath. And rather than abandoning you two here for the day, Olivia suggested we all go into town together and you two can see the shops.”

Violet fought a strong urge to pout. She’d begun to picture her day with Liam very differently thanks to his wicked suggestions. Now she had to adjust.

“I wouldn’t mind stopping at a few places,” she agreed.

Olivia laughed. “Don’t let your enthusiasm take you over! Great Lord, Violet, I’ve never known you to be so reluctant to shop.”

Violet shook her head, her cheeks flushed as she felt Liam grinning at her. The man knew exactly why she hesitated and she could have slapped him…or more likely kissed him…for it.

Olivia popped her last bite of scone in her mouth and moaned with delight. Violet couldn’t help but notice how Mal stiffened with the sound. So it seemed their friends were playing games too.

“I need to get my wrap and my reticule,” Olivia said with a laugh. “Then I’m ready when you gentlemen are.”

Violet nodded. “I’ll need to take a few things as well.”

The men pushed back from the table as the ladies stood.
 

“We’ll meet in the foyer in twenty minutes?” Mal suggested.

Violet sent Liam one last look. “Certainly.”

She and Olivia went upstairs, parting at the top to go to separate wings of the house. She opened her chamber door and looked around. The servants hadn’t yet had time to tidy up since she left and so Liam’s clothes were still scattered around the room, her bed remained rumpled, taunting her with memories.

She shivered and moved into the adjoining room to find her wrap. When she returned, Liam was standing against her now-shut bedroom door. She dropped the wrap and stared at him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

He crooked a finger and beckoned her toward him. “Come and find out.”

She didn’t hesitate, but flew to him, lifting her mouth to his. He spun her around as he kissed her and thrust her against the door as he began to lift her skirts.

She found the buttons of his trousers even with her eyes closed and loosened them, letting his pants slip down just enough to free his erection. He lifted her with his good arm and she wrapped her legs around him as he slid deep within her shaking, ready body.

She cried out as he began to thrust hard and fast. He hit that place deep inside of her that made her body shake, and after a few moments the well of pleasure began to overflow. She rotated her hips against him and cried out as her orgasm ricocheted through her. He didn’t slow his tempo as he drove into her, just pressed her to the door harder as his breath came short. Finally, with a guttural cry, he set her aside and spent as he leaned on the door with his arm and panted.

Eventually he straightened up and looked at her with a grin that made her heart leap and her body clench.
 

“We should have breakfast together more often,” he said, then kissed her on the mouth, pulled up his trousers and left her to stare after him as he exited the room.

And as she smoothed her skirt down over herself, her body still twitching from release, she couldn’t help but laugh.

Even though she knew breakfasts together, sex against walls and the connection they had formed were all things that couldn’t last.

Chapter Thirteen

Violet strolled through the streets of Bath, her arm linked with Olivia’s as they peeked into shop windows. Normally her mind would have been on the pretty hat there or the hint of a discount there, but not today.

Today she could hardly enjoy the late spring air and the pleasurable company because her mind spun far too fast and hard about Liam.

“You are terrible,” Olivia said, giving Violet’s arm a light, playful slap.

Violet shook her thoughts away and turned toward her friend. “What have I done now?”

Olivia arched a brow. “I have asked you three questions in the past few minutes. Would you care to tell me what they were?”

Violet swallowed. “I—um—well—”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “First I asked you if you thought that fabric might be pretty for a gown. You said three.”

Violet bit her lip. “Oh dear.”

“Then I asked you if you had recently been to France. You said Tuesday.”

“I’m sorry,” Violet said with another shake of her head.

“And finally,” her friend declared with a laugh, “I asked you if you would like sugar with your fish and you declared you liked nothing more.”

Violet motioned toward a little garden that was in the square where they strolled. “There is a bench there. Perhaps we should sit and I will gather myself.”

Olivia led her to the place she indicated and the two women sat together. Her friend folded her arms.

“When you made this arrangement of yours and invited me to come here with you, I thought certain you would have gathered your information within a week and be finished. But the longer we stay here, the more I see you with Lord Windbury, the more concerned I become. Violet, you are not yourself.”

Violet sighed. Perhaps what Olivia said was true, but she had never felt more like herself than when she was with Liam. There were times she forgot all her manipulations, her important goals, her seductive wiles and lost herself in the man and all he offered.

In fact, that happened more often than not.

“Are you woolgathering again?” Olivia asked with a put-upon sigh.

“No, no,” Violet reassured her. “I am simply pondering what you have said.”

“And what is your response?” her friend asked.

Violet dipped her head. “I don’t know. The fact is that I thought Liam would be one thing and he is entirely another. When I am with him, there is nothing pretended about it. And I haven’t felt that way with a lover for years. So many years that I cannot even recall it.”

Olivia’s cheeks grew pink.
 

“I can understand that,” she whispered. Then she cleared her throat. “But what have you
learned
? Surely Windbury must have told you something worth writing to the Rothcastles about.”

Violet hesitated. At any other time, with any other man, she would have told her friend everything. But with Liam, that seemed so very wrong.

“I-I have written letters to Lady Rothcastle. In fact, I have written her a letter every other day, reporting to her what he is doing, how he is. And I have reported what I’ve learned.”

Though she had hesitated greatly and even left a few facts out when she felt they were too raw and personal, even for a beloved sister.

Olivia took her hand, her face gentle with understanding. “Then if you have completed your task, why do you stay?”

Violet shifted. Perhaps Olivia was correct and she had done enough to make the Rothcastles happy. And perhaps it was time to abandon her part of the deal. And yet she couldn’t walk away.
 

“You wish me to make some kind of confession,” she whispered, refusing to meet Olivia’s eyes.
 

“No, I simply wish to understand,” Olivia said. “Though I think there must be a confession to be made judging from your demeanor.”

“There is none, I assure you,” she said, perhaps too quickly and strenuously. But she had to make Olivia stop prying, if only to keep her own thoughts from roaming.

Olivia touched her cheek. “If you don’t want to tell me anything, I won’t force a confidence. I only see you struggling and I hate to see that. Especially when this will all be over soon.”

Violet stiffened. “Why do you say that? Did Malcolm tell you something?”

“No,” Olivia responded slowly. “But it is a foregone conclusion. After all, Windbury will leave Bath in a short time, and then the affair will be over. Unless you have made some other arrangement.”

Violet shook her head. “No.”

“Would you if he asked?”

Her body clenched. She already knew that answer, even though it stung.
 

“I have made promises,” she whispered. “I must keep them. So even though I doubt Liam has any thought of keeping me, if he wished to, I would have no choice but to refuse him.”

Olivia nodded, but there was a knowing expression in her eyes that made Violet flinch.
 

“Well, then it is better it is almost over.” Her friend straightened up. “And there are Mal and Windbury now.”

Violet stared in the direction her friend indicated and sure enough the two men stood together, Liam lean, Mal muscular. Liam lifted a hand to wave and Olivia returned the gesture.

But Violet didn’t. Because suddenly the wave felt like it would be one of goodbye. And her heart broke when she considered that.

Even though it had always been a certainty.

Liam watched Violet from across the carriage as they made their way back to his estate after a day in town. There was something different about her at present. A distance in her eyes as she stared out the carriage window into the gathering darkness outside.

Malcolm and Olivia seemed immune to her change in mood. They continued to talk and laugh with each other as Olivia showed his friend a hat she had bought earlier in the day.

But Liam couldn’t contribute to their gaiety. Not until he understood what was troubling Violet. Now that he knew he would possibly become her protector, her comfort and ease was more important to him than ever.