Her Secret Fantasy (27 page)

“You did?” She looked at him in surprise.

“Lily,” he said slowly as he cupped her cheek, “anyone who doesn’t love you is a fool. Especially your mother. And that goes for Lundy, too.”

“What about you, Major?” she asked barely audibly, with a daring lift of her chin. She gazed into his eyes. “Does that apply to you, as well?”

“I’m no fool,” he breathed.

The sweet, anguished longing that he read in the lavender-blue depths of her eyes mirrored the burning need that throbbed inside of him.

He gripped her shoulders, closing his eyes briefly, unable to bear another moment of denial. “God—that’s it—I can’t let you do this. I’m going to make a scandal of us that will rock the ton to its foundations and shake you free of this damned prison you’ve put yourself in—”

“No! Don’t you dare do it!” Her cheeks were flushed with passion as she planted her hand on his chest and blocked him. “I won’t marry you!”

“Why?” he demanded in outrage.

“Because the only way we could afford it is if you either go to your family to help us, or return to India to fight. The former I know you will not do—and the latter I cannot bear for you to do! Not when I’ve seen for myself the damage it’s already done to your heart.”

“I would do it for you,” he whispered, aching for her.

She cupped his jaw and said with the most earnest gaze, “But I would never let you.”

They stared at each other as time seemed to drop to a halt.

He couldn’t help smiling at her, haphazardly. “What, you’re going to protect me, then?” he murmured ruefully. This mere slip of a girl protecting him? It was the silliest, most adorable thing he had ever heard.

But something had registered in her eyes in answer to his question, as though his words had reminded her of some pressing fact. She lowered her hand from his cheek. “Look, Derek—I don’t know why you came into the house today, and frankly, I don’t think I want to know. But as for the reason I came in, well, I should probably warn you that…Edward bade me follow you.”

“Well, now,” he murmured, pausing to absorb this. “That was very foolish of him.”

Though his heart sank a little and his male vanity smarted to hear that she had not pursued him of her own accord, preferably for amorous reasons, he appreciated the information—and his hunger for her was undaunted.

He ran his fingertip slowly down her chest. “Old Edward should’ve had a care for what might happen to his little spy if she were caught.”

Lily shivered, her blue eyes darkening in answer to the searing awareness between them.

They had managed to resist it in the stable. But now it was just too strong. He could feel their mutual resistance failing, like a boulder rolling down a mountainside, faster and faster, gathering power, force, and speed.

Their separation had only sharpened their hunger for each other. He saw it in her eyes, and felt it in his blood. He bent his head slowly and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck.

Her whole body quivered with the most thrilling response. “Oh, God, please. Derek—don’t. I want you so much. Don’t compromise my reputation. It’s all I have.” She had gripped his shoulder, but he couldn’t tell if she was trying to pull him closer or push him away. “I can’t bear a scandal. I can’t,” she whispered almost frantically.

“Shh,” he hushed her, unsettled by the near panic in her voice. God knew he did not wish to upset her.

Though it cost him a heroic effort to release her when his instincts told him that with a bit more effort, she’d be putty in his hands, he did just that.

He lowered his hands to his sides and took a slow step backward. “As you wish, Lily.” Her trust was the most important thing. “I would never harm you or ignore your feelings or do anything to make you feel coerced.” He swallowed hard, and added, “I’m not Edward.”

“No, you’re not,” she echoed with a trace of bitterness in her breathy tone. “Would that you were.”

“Well, go on,” he said with a small nod toward the corridor. “Go on back to him. I shan’t stop you.”

She slanted him a wounded look.

Derek’s pulse thundered as he held her in his gaze.

She made no move to go.

“But…if you want to stay,” he added slowly, “you already know that I can be discreet. If this is all that I can have with you, I’ll take it.”

She stared at him with eyes of blue flame, and then she was moving toward him, reaching for him. She grasped the lapel of his jacket and hauled him to her suddenly. He went to her like a slave in her thrall; she curled her hand around his nape and pulled him down to kiss her in fevered desperation. He complied with swift and total willingness, starved for her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, rose on her toes a bit, and captured his mouth with a furious hunger that burned up his senses and melted all his wits. He caressed her, astounded by the explosive passion that came pouring out of the girl.

She cupped his jaw as she consumed his tongue in scorching intensity, clearly wanting, needing this as badly as he did. Derek groaned, tightening his hold around her slim waist.

Fighting this was futile. In this moment, there were no answers, there was only need, desire overwhelming all the reasons they both had to stay away from each other.

Passion took over. Want poured through him as they gave in to burning temptation. Her hands were all over him, and it was glorious.

Derek knew it was also insanity. Lundy had sent her and was waiting for her now. For God’s sake, they were in the man’s house. But she excited him so deeply that he was past caring. The despair of knowing she would never truly be his lent an edge of crazed urgency to their every touch.

With a quick glance out of the alcove to make sure the coast was clear, Derek spotted the next door just a couple of yards down the hallway. He began shepherding her toward it, never breaking their kiss. It led to a darkened parlor, a fact he had discovered a short while ago in his search for Edward’s study.

He opened the door behind her and began pressing Lily into the room, his heart slamming in his chest. She stumbled along with him, eager to go as he backed her into the dim parlor, where the shades were drawn against the daylight.

Derek locked the door.

They crashed into the furniture, tearing at each other’s clothes as they crossed the room, tangled in a blind frenzy of desire. His member throbbed like it would burst from his clothing as he pressed her down onto the wide, round ottoman. Sinking onto his knees before her, he nearly hesitated—and he was stunned by the unexpected depth of his reverence for her. He almost trembled to touch her, but her soft moan reaffirmed her need for him, and smoothly he lifted her skirts.

She fell back on her hands on the plush velvet ottoman, watching him as he kissed her chest all over and nuzzled her round, lovely breasts through the tight, tailored bodice of her gown. “You are so beautiful. Every inch of you.” All the while, he caressed her fine legs and sleek hips beneath the voluminous folds of fabric, her skirts and petticoats hitched up around her thighs.

“Ah.” She tipped her head back, reveling in his attentions. Her porcelain skin was flushed, her lips swollen and luscious pink from his kiss.

Staring at her in wonder, he bent lower and kissed her knee. A light, breathless laugh escaped her as he skimmed his lips slowly up her milky limb.

He left a love bite on the soft flesh of her inner thigh where only she would see it. It would fade in a few days, but till then, just a little something to remember him by. Then he touched her dewy core with his fingertip, reverently parting the delicate blond curls that veiled her womanhood.

His tender caress coaxed a restless sigh from her lips. Derek trembled, catching her scent. He moved closer, drawn by the warm, musky fragrance. Inhaling the natural perfume of her readiness for him drove him absolutely wild.

He dug his fingers into the yielding flesh of her hips, overcome by lascivious joy. Spreading her thighs wider, he bent his head and tasted her. She gasped the moment his mouth touched her. She was smooth and sweet and pebble-hard as he ran his tongue over and around her fiery center, plying her sweet core with kisses of the most artful variety. Drinking her in, he caressed her silky body again and again, adoring her innocence and losing himself in the bliss of devouring her.

Her sighs and soft moans and every rise and undulation of her hips told him just how she wished him to proceed. He made it his business to give exactly what she wanted. As he traced her hardened jewel with the tip of his tongue, gently, patiently licking away her inhibitions, he draped her elegant thigh over his shoulder, opening her more deeply for his thrusting tongue.

Before long, the last vestiges of her little ice-queen façade had melted away; she flowed wet and warm for him like a crystal-pure stream, and he drank deeply, exhilarated by each sinuous wave of her body rising to meet his kisses.

He yearned to possess her, to make every inch of her his, from her delicate toes to the tips of her ladylike fingers and the silken waves of her cool blond hair. But he doubted that would be permissible until after she was wed.

He could hardly bear to think of it and blocked it from his mind as her moans built in volume. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, his back. “Oh,
Derek
!” When he brought her to climax, her release was so deep that her nectar flowed onto his tongue. A swallow of it gave him ecstasy.

Before long, she lay back across the ottoman with a luxuriant stretch, then let out a soft, breathless laugh.

The breathless music of her satisfaction tickled his brain. He watched her, smiling darkly. Still on his knees in front of her, he fixed her skirts for her, making his darling lady neat and tidy once again.

“Oh, Derek. That was so unbelievably wonderful. Mm, I never imagined such splendid things.”

“Still want to marry Edward?”

Drowsy laughter tumbled from her lips as she languished in the aftermath of pleasure. “You are impossible,” she purred in a tone of utter feminine satiety.

“And you’re beautiful,” he murmured, gazing at her, and stroking her arm.

“Oh, we shouldn’t be here, should we? I suppose we are both very bad.”

“You, never. Me, perhaps. But nobody’s chaining you here, if that’s how you feel.”

She came up on her elbows and slanted him an indignant look at his irreverent tone.

“There’s the door.” Then he smiled wickedly at her. “We both know you don’t want to use it.”

With a mild scowl, she heaved herself up to a seated position and draped her arms lazily around his neck, giving him a little chiding pout. “And here I thought we said good-bye last week.”

“So did I. Yet somehow, here we are again. There doesn’t seem to be much point in fighting it.”

“No.” She petted him, doting on him, apparently unaware of the lust still raging in his blood.

Derek soaked her in with his gaze, and then suddenly noticed the absence of an all-too-familiar detail. “No pretty diamond earrings today, Miss Balfour?” he whispered, ducking his head to nibble her naked earlobe.

She giggled and pulled back with a mysterious smile. “No, my Major. Not today.”

“Is this your way of making sure I got the message that you were out of charity with me?” He offered her a penitent half-smile, considering how her diamonds had become the touchstones of their dealings with each other.

“Not exactly,” she replied, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Then she shrugged. “I’m afraid they just…didn’t match my gown.”

“I thought you girls are fond of saying that diamonds go with everything.”

“I missed you,” she told him, changing the subject adroitly, stroking his hair. “It’s like I’m sleepwalking on the days when I don’t see you.”

He shook his head, wanting her so badly. “I think about you all the time. I’ve been trying so hard to stay away from you.”

They gazed at each other for a long moment.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?” he admitted.

“I’m glad it did. Kiss me. Kiss me now.” She pulled him closer and he did her bidding with a besotted smile on his lips.

He decided that this young lady had to come again. Yes. There had to be time for one more quick…

“
Mmm,
that’s better.” Her appreciative answer to his light kiss interrupted Derek’s wayward thoughts. “It seems like ages since I’ve seen you. How
are
you?” she murmured. “And for that matter, how’s your furry patient?”

“The horse?”

“Of course,” she rhymed with a silly little smile.

“Worlds better. She even has a name.”

“She does?”

He tapped her on the nose. “I named her Mary Nonesuch in your honor.”

“I’m so flattered!”

“As you should be. I think you’ll be impressed when you see Miss Mary again. Gabriel and I had her under saddle on the lunge line yesterday. A nice mover, in all, and I’m happy to say I should be able to deliver her to her new owner very soon.”

“You’ve sold Mary Nonesuch?” she exclaimed with indignation.

“No, darling, I’m giving her to you.”

Her blue eyes widened anew. “To me?”

He laughed softly at her expression of childlike amazement. “Yes, Lily, that was my intention all along. You will take her, I hope? She needs a good home. I can’t risk giving her to someone who’ll abuse her when I’m gone.”

At the mention of his upcoming exit from London, her whole mien changed like the English weather. Her face fell, and a wistful sadness crept into her eyes.

“Oh, darling, don’t look like that,” he pleaded, his heart clenching.

“I can’t help it.” She turned away. “It isn’t fair.”

“Why isn’t it fair?”

“Because you’re going off to chase after fortune and glory and you don’t even care what happens to me!”

“Of course I care.”

She threw up her hands. “All this time, you’ve been browbeating me for being a fortune hunter, but I think it’s all rather hypocritical of you, considering the first time we met, you specifically told me your whole purpose in going back to India was—and I quote—for ‘fortune and glory.’ Don’t preach at me about ‘chasing gold’ when you’re doing the exact same thing.”

“Well—I suppose I did say that.” He glanced at the floor and then eyed her warily. “But my situation is very different from yours.”