Authors: Cheryl Howe
His lips moved over hers, coaxing while purposely withholding
.
Ivy felt his grin as she tried to push her tongue past his supple lips
.
He slipped his hand to the back of her neck and massaged her tense muscles.
He had done that then too, calming her when she had been ready and eager to give herself to him on the bare floor
.
They had wandered up to inspect the master suite and Darien had kissed her senseless
.
When they were both ready to collapse under the urgent need of their young bodies, Darien had maneuvered her to the well-worn carpet, the grand four-poster bed stripped to the slats and covered with a moldy dust cover
.
He had eased her bodice down, exposing her breasts, sucking and nipping until her body hummed with mindless need
.
She bucked against the thigh he had inserted between her legs, knowing he could not resist taking her virginity a moment longer
.
He
’d
pulled up her voluminous skirts and rested his palm,
damp
and hot
,
against her thigh. Her rigorous instructions regarding chastity tried to intervene
,
but Ivy easily dismissed those distant voices
.
Darien would soon be her husband and nothing would change that.
He had massaged her thigh, easing higher until he reached her feminine folds
.
Ivy
had
gasped at the intimate contact
.
Darien continued to kiss her deeply, the slow dance of his tongue against hers erasing her shock
.
The finger he slipped inside her slick passage brought a tightening in every muscle of her body
.
She picked up his slow rhythm, grinding against him to feel him deeper
.
His hot breath against her neck urged her on
.
He eased a second finger inside her and pressed his thumb lightly against the tiny part of her anatomy whose magic she had yet to discover
.
The explosion was instantaneous
.
After he had held her through the trembling that wracked her body, leaving her limp with exhaustion, she felt the wild beating of his heart against her chest
.
His full erection pressed urgently through the layers of her skirts he had thoughtfully smoothed down to her ankles.
As if her memories had no choice but to repeat themselves, yearning for fulfillment, Darien abruptly pulled away from her
.
Ivy entwined her free hand in his hair, desperate to deepen the kiss despite the drooling infant on her shoulder
.
“I want to carry you over the threshold
.
For good luck
.
I’ve never brought a woman here before,” he said as an obvious afterthought, though Ivy realized it was to cover his sudden vulnerability
.
She should warn him that the dark sweep of his lashes did more to give him away than to hide his sentimental nature.
Ivy remembered Darien’s reasons for not making love to her that summer afternoon though she had practically begged him to do just that
.
He told her he wouldn’t
until
he could
have
her
under
his
own roof and in a proper bed.
“We’d be honored,” Ivy said,
now eternally
grateful for the little stone house and thatched roof.
Without turning, he pushed the door open with his heel
.
The bleached wood swayed awkwardly on its hinges, but Darien did not seem to notice
.
He swept Ivy and Melody into his arms
.
Though Darien only stood a few inches above her in height, he did not falter in his mission and she felt solidly held as he maneuvered through the narrow doorway, ducking as he entered
.
Heat curled in the pit of her stomach
,
and something seemed right with
waiting so long to
finally
make
love to Darien
.
The idea that the roof he provided was that of a simple farmer made the act all the purer
.
Then
Ivy thrust the thought aside
.
There was nothing pure or sweet about her relationship with Darien
.
You have no idea how I
secretly
coveted your closeness
,
“Bloody hell, no!” Darien closed his eyes
.
The sound he’d been dreading since they left London yesterday spilled from the open window and vibrated the stone walls of his small cottage
.
“How can something so tiny make such a horrific racket?
”
“Not used to having wee ones around
?
”
Hank set down a crate of kitchen supplies outside the front door
.
“They can fuss for hours on end
.
That lass has a set of lungs on her.
”
Hank handed Darien a dark-brown bottle he pulled from the box
.
“Thought you might be needing a nip of this.”
“Thanks for bringing over the food and clean linens.
”
Darien accepted the well-used bottle and took a good long swig
.
His throat burned from the raw, locally distilled whiskey that he used to live on
.
Darien choked and his eyes watered
.
He corked the bottle and handed it back to Hank
.
“I promised Ivy I wouldn’t get stumbling drunk
.
Better take that home with you
.
Tomorrow I’ll ride into the village and see what I can find for sale
.
I’ve been meaning to furnish the place.”
“Aye, home furnishings have been heavy upon your mind as of late.
”
Hank allowed a rare grin to tug on his weathered features
.
“They aren’t here to stay so don’t look so amused.”
“I’m just glad they are here at all
.
Folks were starting to talk that you were getting too attached to the sheep
.
Would have been nice of you to let us know that you had a ready-made family back in London.”
“It’s not like that
.
”
T
hough Darien did not know what exactly to call his relationship with Ivy
.
“She’s only staying for a month
.
I’m sure I’ll be miserable to live with the moment she’s gone, so you shouldn’t look so pleased by the turn of events
.
It’s likely one of the worst mistakes I’ve made in a great while.”
“You’re due one, I suppose.
”
Hank glanced through the open door to see if his wife and daughter, who had agreed to nurse Melody, remained occupied in the kitchen
.
He took a swig from the bottle before he returned it to the crate. “Help me with the chair over here
.
And don’t worry about going to town
.
There’s loads of odds and ends stacked in Westhaven House’s spare rooms
.
You could do up this whole place and nobody would miss a thing
.
And for a crib, nobody has used the nursery in years
.
I cold ask old Aggie to send something over
.
You know she’s going to be itching to get her hands on your little ‘un.”
“It’s not that I’m not grateful for your offer to raid my father’s home
…
”
Darien rubbed his forehead, wishing he would have thought this through with a bit more clarity
.
“Westhaven does not know about the baby and I want to keep it that way
.
And I beg you not to tell Agatha, either
.
Ivy wants to raise the baby abroad and
…
”
Hank nodded
,
but Darien could tell by the stern set of his brow he was disappointed that Darien was not taking more responsibility for the situation
.
Darien instinctively decided not to reveal anything about the child, even to Hank
.
Truly, he was
still
not sure if the child was even Ivy’s
.
One minute she appeared shocked to be holding the wiggling crying thing
,
and the next, positively motherly, as if she would give her very life for the girl
.
“Nobody will hear a word from me
.
And the Westhaven House staff is bloody well tight lipped.
”
Hank handed Darien a rush-bottomed chair he unloaded from the wagon full of womanly odds and ends.
Thankfully, he knew his father’s employees to be the model of discretion
,
or he would have learned more about what happened on the night of Philip’s death a long time ago
.
Darien headed into the house hauling the chair but was waylaid by Ivy, a red-faced Melody nestled in her arms
.
“Evelyn thinks Melody might take sheep’s milk
.
She wouldn’t feed from Hannah.”
“We have sheep’s milk.
”
Darien set down the chair, still slightly stunned by the sight of a living breathing Ivy standing on his front lawn
.
Even the fact that she cradled another’s man’s unhappy baby could not diminish his awed pleasure
.
“I’ll fetch some right away.
”
“Thank you.
”
She sighed, bouncing Melody in her arms
.
The child wiggled and squirmed, and released occasional high-pitched wails with the deafening power of a fog horn.
“First I’ll bring in the rocking chair I spotted in the wagon, love
.
It might calm her.
”
He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear
.
Though he only meant to comfort her, the stunned look on her face proved he probably went too far in using the once familiar endearment.
Instead of scolding him, her gaze filled with sadness and longing
.
Not the effect he had been hoping for
.
“Thank you
.
For everything
.
Your home is beautiful.”
Melody gave an earsplitting scream, and then another, and another
.
“Rocking chair
.
Please.
”
Ivy went inside, jostling Melody with each step.
Darien nodded, noting that she was the only beautiful thing on his dilapidated sheep farm
.
And the reason he suddenly considered the roof over his head a home
.
***
Ivy ran her fingertips over the flowering vines carved upon the posts of Darien’s enormous bed
.
She picked up the single candle he had used to guide her and Melody up the narrow stairway
.
Though the bed swallowed most of the space, leaving only enough room for a mix-matched chest of drawers and Melody’s crib, the bed was by far the finest thing in Darien’s possession
.
Piled atop the bed were several patchwork quilts. The sheets had obviously been freshly changed and the smell of lavender hung in the air.
“Is she still sleeping?” Darien said in a low voice that startled Ivy
.
She would have to discover how he managed to silently maneuver the protesting pine steps
leading up to the second floor
carrying an armful of wood
.
He gingerly traversed the short distance to the fireplace without his boots sounding on the bare wooden floor
.
A glance at his stocking feet showed that he had thoughtfully removed them
.
The room needed a rug and she would see to that tomorrow
.
With Melody settled for the night, or at least the next few hours, Ivy turned, unable to put off the inevitable conversation they must have
.
Darien stoked the low fire then paused to glance at Melody tucked in the crib at the
side
of the bed
.
Evelyn’s oldest child had recently grown out of the willow wood crib marked and gnawed upon by nine other siblings
.