Only Scandal Will Do (33 page)

He reached down, pressed her legs wide, then trailed a finger through the moisture there. His lazy smile widened. “You are as ready for me as I am for you, my love.” As he spoke, a hot pressure strained eagerly between her thighs. “But there is no rake’s trick to take away the pain, Katarina.”

The ache within her seemed worse than any pain possible. “Come inside me now, Duncan,” she whispered, and pushed toward the waiting heat just as he surged upward.

He hadn’t lied; the pain was there–sharp, like the bite of a blade–but over quickly. Then great fullness, as he continued to fill her in one swift stroke.

“Oh, Katarina.” Duncan sighed, a mere whisper with his eyes half closed.

The burn spread where he lay inside her, and she took a sharp breath. But it was done at last.

Suspended above her, he watched her with a sultry look. His smile grew tender. “My wife.”

Of all the things he could have said, that was the sweetest.

“Can you put your legs around me, love? And your arms?”

When Katarina did so, marveling at the way her body stretched to receive him, he rocked gently, withdrawing partway only to return deeper and deeper, until she believed they might truly join as one. Tension built within, a new ache she could not name that blotted out all others. “Duncan,” she cried, needing him to assuage the pain that was not pain.

“Soon, love.” His voice, filled with a tension of his own, washed over her, igniting a new bloom of heat throughout her. His strokes quickened, insistent and driving, urging her toward a spiraling peak that suddenly burst deep within her. Her cries of sheer astonishment carried her along, riding on pulsing waves of indescribable pleasure. As stunned by the continued lapping throbs at her core as by the feeling of oneness with her husband, she lay panting. Moments later, he shuddered, calling her name as he erupted deep within her.

His weight lay pleasantly atop her, though he still bore most of it on his arms. Still her inner flesh pulsed around him. She would have liked to savor the moment even longer, but found herself sliding toward a delightful sleep she was not inclined to fight.

Sometime later, she awoke to find Duncan rolling them onto their sides and pulling up the covers. They were no longer connected and she felt strangely bereft, but then he wrapped his strong arms around her and gathered her to his chest. Snuggled against her husband’s shoulder, she was more content than ever in her life. She smiled as she slipped into sleep. Their next lovemaking could not come soon enough for her.

* * * *

Duncan lay awake, watching the dark night lighten to pre-dawn gray, one arm flung over his head, the other curled protectively around Katarina, who slept unperturbed beside him. Savoring the memories of their lovemaking, reliving every moment so he could remember them in perfect detail, had kept him up most of the night. By the light of the guttering candle, his wife lay with her head pillowed on his shoulder, her bewitching hair spread out beneath the hand she’d laid possessively across his chest. Sight of that hair fanned the ever-present flames of his ardor. Perhaps she’d agree to lesson number two.

He brushed straggling burnished wisps from her face, then dislodged her head and slid down beside her under the covers. When he brushed her lips with his, she did not stir. A second, more lingering kiss drew a soft purr from her throat, but no other response. Chuckling, he engulfed her face in both hands and melded his lips with hers. A moan escaped her this time. She seized his head and invaded his mouth, insisting, with her tongue. Now, this was how to begin the day.

“Good morning, love,” he said, after disengaging their mouths. “You slept well, my lady?”

“Better than I have ever slept before,” she murmured. “So relaxed.” She opened one bright blue eye. “It’s still night. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“Because I am in need of something to relax me, sweetheart. If you are not too sore.”

Her eye closed again. The smile widened on her lips. “Sore? I don’t think so. Anyway, I wouldn’t care if I ached, my love. I am sure you have a trick or two to make me forget.” She swept her hand across his chest and made as if to pull him atop her once more, but he stayed her with a hand to her cheek.

“There are more ways than one, love.”

“More?” She cocked her head.

“Shall I show you?” He tugged her into his arms, opening her mouth with his kiss, re-igniting their earlier passion.

“Umm, yes. Show me what you will.”

Duncan rolled her over, so that she lay on her front. “Sit up on your knees, Kat.”

She complied, her bare bottom pressed against her heels, but gave him a curious look.

“Trust me?”

At her nod, he ran his hands across her smooth, rounded buttocks and up her back. She arched into his caress, and he knelt behind her cupped her full breasts, fingers open so the nipples peeked through. Slowly, he slid his fingers closed, pinching her nipples, teasing them until they formed hard peaks against his palms.

He’d been busy the while, caressing her nape, nibbling down her shoulder, nipping her soft skin until he felt it pebble with goose flesh.

“Lean back on me, love.” He took her weight against him, repositioned her knees apart and continued to stroke and torment her breast. With his other hand, he journeyed down to the tangle of moist red curls between her thighs. At his first touch, she moaned.

“Sore?”

“No,” came the low, throaty response. She strained her head against his shoulder. “No, I’m fine. Ah!” She gasped as he circled the sweet little nub he would use to bring her to the height of pleasure. “What are you doing to me, Duncan? Ahh.” The groan at the end sounded almost guttural, low and needful.

“Loving you, sweetheart. Is that all right? Does that feel good?”

“God, yes!” Her head rocked back and forth across his shoulder as tension built within her, swifter than last time. He smiled with satisfaction and slid his fingers lower, slipped into her hot, wet flesh and stroked in a slow, insistent rhythm. She moaned again, as he ran his tongue up her shoulder, tasting the light salty sweat he had already evoked with his play below. Her need mounted. He gently pushed her into position on her knees, and as he slipped his fingers out of her, she cried out in protest. As he knelt behind her, the tip of his shaft poised at her entrance, she gave a low, guttural sigh of satisfaction.

Though more than ready for her, he made himself dawdle, teased himself with the feel of her, so ready for him, and teased her with the hot hardness he longed to plunge inside her. But he wanted to make this time as memorable as the first. So he pressed into her tight sheath and slowly possessed her, every inch of her drenched in her desire for him. Arms around his wife, covering her, cherishing her, he enfolded her in his embrace.

Katarina moaned and writhed with impatience, until he finally stopped, his shaft buried inside her. “How is that, my love?” he whispered, breathless with his own desires. “Can you feel me deep inside you?” The image his words evoked, coupled with the long awaited feeling of her body wrapped tightly around his aching flesh, almost sent him headlong into climax. He fought the base urge to seek his pleasure before hers, groaning with the effort to retreat from the edge. “Relax, love. Relax and take me deeper still.”

She breathed in shallow pants and fell to trembling, then her muscles relaxed around him and he could breathe again.

Fighting his urgency, he withdrew and thrust back, going even further than he’d believed possible. The moment was too glorious, the experience must be savored, but that warm, slick slide would undo him all too soon.

He returned again, plunging so far within, they must become one. Despite his caution, he reached the pinnacle first, cried out at the exquisite release–made sweeter when she called his name as she shattered. Her flesh embraced him strongly time and again as he reveled in the incredible intimacy he shared with this woman he loved.

Still joined, they collapsed onto the bed. “Ohh, I
like
your rake’s tricks, Duncan.” Kat’s satisfied tone brought a smile to his lips.

He placed a loving kiss on her shoulder. “And just think, my love, now they are all for you alone.”

Chapter 30

“Considering the beginning of our journey, my love, this final leg of our return has been remarkably without calamity.” Duncan squeezed Katarina’s hand as the carriage drew up before the front door of Dunham House late one afternoon toward the end of August, almost seven weeks after he’d set out with her aboard the
Constanza
.

It had taken them considerably more time to travel to London than either he or Katarina had expected simply because neither wanted to give up their precious time alone together. They’d tarried at Seaton House for two weeks, exploring the estate and surrounding areas with the carefree abandon of children on holiday. Once on the road, they’d often spent more than one night at an inn they’d fancied, or a morning or afternoon idly stretched out on a blanket beside a picturesque lake or stream or meadow. Never in his life had there been a time more filled with peace, contentment, and love.

“Perhaps we should have sent word of our change in plans, Duncan,” Katarina said. She glowed, with excitement, no doubt, at the prospect of their return. “Everyone will be shocked to see us.”

“I expect so, love.” Duncan assisted her from the carriage. “They will be surprised both at our early return and our insatiable lust for one another.” He leered at his wife, quite unabashed.

“Duncan!” She laughed and slapped his arm in pretended outrage. “Behave. We must send word immediately to Jack and Juliet. She is with your aunt?”

“Yes, and I daresay, already had enough of Aunt Phoebe and wishes herself back at Lady Honoria’s. But perhaps they have their heads together planning the wedding.” Juliet had become engaged to Mr. Sutton just before he and Katarina had sailed. “That would at least distract poor Juliet from Aunt Phoebe’s whining. She’s such a high stickler, we always hated having her visit.” He grinned as a flurry of activity began at the front door.

Grayson opened the door, his mouth dropping open in shock as his master and mistress strode in, arm and arm, laughing and talking together as though they had been happily married for years. Duncan tried to control a smirk. They would be a nine days wonder.

“My...my lord! You have returned? But how is that possible? The letter could not have reached you yet.” Grayson paled as though he thought a ghost stood before him.

“Letter?” Duncan assisted Katarina with the removal of her shawl, which revealed his wife’s plump breasts pushed high by her tight corset. His mouth dried and Grayson’s voice faded from hearing.

“Yes, my lord. The letter concerning Lady Juliet.”

“Lady Juliet?” He swung back to Grayson. “Why would you write to me about Juliet?”

“Because she is missing, my lord.”

The butler’s agitation now became clear. All pleasant thoughts of their homecoming vanished. He grasped Grayson by the shoulders. “Missing! What do you mean? How can my sister be missing?”

The man winced with pain.

“Duncan.” Katarina touched his arm, and he released his butler, who rubbed the injured area, glancing fearfully at him.

In an attempt to marshal a calmness he did not feel, Duncan clenched his fists at his sides. “Grayson, start at the beginning. Why do you say Lady Juliet is missing? Did she not go to stay with Lady Honoria Claypool the day after we left?”

“No, my lord. She did not.”

“Then tell me what happened, man!” he thundered. Juliet, abducted, held for ransom, taken to some God-forsaken house... Like Katarina. Abducted, thrown on the block at Madame Vestry’s and sold to the highest bidder. Oh God.

Duncan held still, concentrating only on breathing. The possibility Juliet had suffered a similar fate blotted out Katarina, Grayson, and the whole of the bustling foyer. The next thing he knew, he was sitting beside Katarina in Juliet’s parlor. A deep breath and his focus cleared–Juliet’s safety depended on his calm command of the situation–which enabled him to ask the most pertinent question. “How long ago?”

“The day after you left, my lord.”

“Christ!” An icy hand squeezed his heart. Katarina looked just as dazed at the news. Her bewilderment steadied him. “What has been done to recover her, Grayson?” Damn it, such neglect was unforgivable! This could mean his sister’s reputation, if not her life. “Tell me that you have contacted the watch, Bow Street...someone?”

“But, my lord...” Grayson’s normally unflinching voice was a slight, subdued whisper. “I did not think it necessary at the time.” The man blanched and looked as if he awaited certain death.

“
And why in God’s name not
?” Duncan leapt to his feet, making the pendant crystals in the foyer chandelier jangle discordantly in the vibrating air.

“Because she left with the gentleman voluntarily, my lord.”

Duncan lunged at the older man and only his servant’s hasty retreat to the chaise lounge saved him from certain mayhem at his hands. Why would Juliet willingly leave with a man? By Katarina’s shocked expression, she had no explanation for the bizarre statement either. He turned to the servant.

The butler had taken the brief interlude to put more distance between them and stand almost in the doorway.