Authors: Embracing Scandal
“Why are you willing to lie back and let me assume control here, yet during the day you still fight me, every step of the way?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because here we’re in our own world. Here, my gorgeous lover, we have the same goals, the same providence. Nothing else exists. There’re no conflicts, no differences.”
“Whatever you want from me, love, whatever you need, take it. Tell me your deepest wish for us?”
“To give each other peace. To surrender to our deepest longings. To have each other.”
“For me, I crave long, passion-filled days and nights in the future with you in my bed, when you yield to me as willingly as you surrender to me now. I want more than anything to be your strength, as you’re mine.”
“Kiss me, Cayle. Enclose me in your arms. Love me.
Make me feel safe, at least for now.” Too choked up to reply, unable to even vocalise what he felt, Cayle demonstrated with deeds what he couldn’t express in mere words. He closed one hand around his swollen cock and opened her still soaking sex with the fingers of his other. Slowly, with great care, he claimed her. Took her to the heights. Showed her what peaks they could reach. An hour later, they lay wrapped around each other in a tangle of bedclothes. A noise sounded in the passageway, and they jumped apart.
Becca gave a breathless gasp. “Did you lock the door?”
“Damnation! I forgot, when I caught sight of you. Spread like a delicious banquet on the bed. You’re too bloody distracting.” She giggled.
Cayle grabbed the coverlet with one hand and reached over to snatch up his discarded clothing with the other, tossing his garments under the bed. With quick thinking, Becca jerked the sheet higher over his head just as the doorknob rattled. The door was flung wide and Laura rushed in. She jumped on the end of the bed, making its two occupants bounce and nearly causing Cayle to be tipped to the floor.
“Good afternoon, Cayle.” Laura addressed the large hump lying in concealment next to her sister. “Do I take your presence in my sister’s bed to mean that you’ve mended your differences and are once again friends?”
As Cayle struggled into a sitting position, he took care to keep the sheet pulled high over their bare shoulders. A quick glance revealed Becca’s swollen lips and tell-tale heightened colour. He sighed, resigned.
“Yes, Laura. Your sister and I are … friends. More than friends. Before this month is out, I’m going to make her my wife.”
“How dare you!” Becca gave him a punch on the shoulder. “I haven’t agreed to marry you. I haven’t agreed to anything.”
Cayle scowled at her, his expression set. “My first priority, Rebecca Jamison, is to ensure that you’re kept safe over the next few days.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “But then, my stubborn little amour, we’ll make appropriate plans for the future. Our future. Is that clear?”
Laura glanced between the two of them and snorted. Then laughed. “I’m glad you’re in such total agreement, as usual, because tonight you need to present a united front. You are betrothed, after all.”
“We’re pretending to be betrothed,” Becca corrected in a haughty voice.
Cayle bent his head until his nose touched hers.
“We. Are. Marrying.” Not caring of Laura’s close observation, he pressed his lips to Becca’s. “Later tonight, sweetheart, I’ve more to teach you. A lot more.”
For once, Becca was speechless, although Laura wasn’t. “By the way, I came to tell you that we’re all gathering in the garden to discuss our strategy.”
“How did you know I’d be here?” Cayle asked.
Laura grinned again. “Oh, I asked Tony and Brian, and your disgusting cousin, and we all agreed that you’d be unable to resist sneaking in to see Becca after we managed to keep you apart for the entire day.”
Becca regarded her sister in a mixture of horror and amazement. “Oooh, you’re all as interfering, as irritating, as … ” She waved her hand in Cayle’s direction, “As him.”
“I’ll be there in an hour,” Cayle announced. He pointed a finger at Becca. “And so will you. We need to draw up a roster to ensure you’re not left alone at all tonight.”
Laura flicked a telling glance at Becca, who nodded.
“Is there something else?” Cayle demanded.
Becca bit her bottom lip. “Actually, if what we suspect is true, you mustn’t be left alone tonight either, Cayle. Or you may find yourself engaged to be married, in truth. But not to me. To another woman.”
Cayle groaned. “Blast! I was so worried about your safety, I’d forgotten about the other side of our bargain. That one where you protect me from some scheming hussy who’s after my money, and my titles.”
He studied the two women. “Are you ready to tell me yet who you suspect?”
Becca and Laura shook their heads in unison. “Not until we’re certain.”
• • •
Laura flounced out of the room, her message delivered and with a sigh of regret, Cayle snuck out of Becca’s room and went to search for his brothers and cousin. An hour later, the group assembled in a secluded part of the garden to plot their next move. The men, wise enough to include the Jamison women in their plans, thought they’d covered every eventuality.
“The fact that Bennett’s also here, makes me even more suspicious,” Cayle said. “I thought I’d scared him enough he’d turn coward and go into hiding.”
“Just what did you say to Arthur?” Laura asked.
Cayle glanced at Becca, searching for an answer. He’d told her only part of the truth.
“Bennett promised to lure Mitchell into a public disclosure in return for my silence on a personal matter. We need to arrange that several higher titled lords attending the ball are in the garden when we trap Mitchell.”
“I’ll ask Arthur to accompany me to the gardens. I’ll say I’m prepared to hand over our predictions if they’ll leave us all alone. That’s sure to draw out the baron and hopefully whoever is pulling his strings.”
“No, it’s far too dangerous,” Cayle argued. “Bennett will have you right where he wants you.”
“This unknown gentleman must hold considerable influence over the others,” Richard added. “None of the gentlemen we quizzed are prepared to speak out against him.”
“Or else, they’ve even less idea of his identity than we do,” Brian said.
“Cayle,” Laura added, “we know you don’t like this plan. But Becca’s the best one to dangle as bait. We need an enticing lure and she’s the only one who can feed them exactly what they expect to hear.”
“We don’t have any alternative,” Tony agreed. “One of us will remain close at all times during the ball. And then, when she goes outside, we’ll be positioned around the terrace and gardens.”
Becca placed a hand on Cayle’s arm. “It’s the quickest way to end this. I want it finished tonight.”
With great reluctance, Cayle agreed and they departed to their various chambers to dress for dinner.
• • •
At eight o’clock, Cayle hovered at the entrance to the ballroom, awaiting Becca’s arrival. As soon as she’d made her bow to the host and hostess, he took her arm and led her to a darkened alcove, desperate for a moment alone with her. He tried a last ditch attempt to change her mind.
“This is crazy. You can’t keep putting yourself into danger like this. My nerves won’t stand it.” Unable to help himself, he pulled her to him and kissed her, hard.
She patted his hand. “Your nerves are just fine. They always are.”
“Not around you. Just promise me you’ll be cautious.”
“You’ll be close by. I trust you to protect me, as you always have.”
“Sweetheart, when this is over, later tonight, we must talk.”
“When this is over, there’ll no longer be any urgency for our families to be involved. In all probability, everyone’s lives will resume as before, as if nothing has changed.”
“You’re so, so wrong.” He closed his eyes and prayed for strength in the face of her stubborn refusal to accept his change of heart. “Everything in my life has changed.”
When Cayle opened his eyes again, he was talking to empty space. He strained to see Becca stride purposefully across the foyer and into the ballroom. Her evening gown of amber washed silk shone as lustrously as her hair as she marched, for it couldn’t be termed a walk. She surveyed the rapidly filling room like a general quartering a battleground.
Cayle’s stomach knotted at the thought of the battle looming later that night and of Becca being involved. If Bennett followed his usual pattern, he’d have already sniffed out a chambermaid to share his bed, a redhead, and would have imbibed in several large brandies.
They counted on him being mellow enough to follow Becca like a lamb to slaughter and that other higher-level syndicate members would seize the golden opportunity to pounce on Becca at her most defenceless. The powerless position she’d be in rattled Cayle. A hundred things could go wrong.
He envisioned her lying on the ground, injured and bleeding and him not being able to get to her. He didn’t blame her for being confused, for rejecting his proposals. Repeatedly, he’d swept her close and then rejected her, swinging between needing her in his bed, wanting her as his mistress, and wanting to marry her to protect her.
Now, proving to her that he wanted to marry her for other reasons had become essential, a driving force. He was arrogant enough to believe that he could seduce her into revealing her love to him. He was humble enough to pray that happened. Four years ago, he’d pretended they’d shared a lighthearted flirtation when deep down, he’d understood that it’d meant much more to her. Circumstances had driven him away, but even since his return he’d drawn physically close to Becca while keeping her at arm’s length emotionally.
He’d not trusted himself to keep Julia’s bargain if he allowed full reign to his emotional response to Becca. By doing that, he’d hurt the thing most precious to him. Tonight, he’d rectify his mistakes.
• • •
As the musicians warmed up for the first dance, Cayle hurried after Becca into the ballroom. Bowing before the older lady he asked, “May I lead your niece away for a dance?”
Aunt Agatha didn’t smile, still distressed by his reckless treatment of Becca. Many fences still to mend. “I assume you mean my eldest niece?”
Standing beside her aunt, Becca was trying to appear relaxed. Leaning towards them, he whispered, “For appearance’s sake.”
“Of course.” The older lady spoke in a hushed tone. “You must project a happy front. Dearest, smile at the duke.”
The smile Becca shot his way showed more exasperation than affection, but he wisely accepted it with good grace. No matter what it took to get her there, having Becca safely in his arms, reluctant or willing, was bliss. After their dance, Becca was claimed by her usual line of swains ready to worship at her feet.
Two hours later, Cayle snarled at a drooling man who clasped Becca too closely and peered down her scooped neckline. Good heavens, when he encouraged her to discard her old wardrobe and purchase new garments, he should’ve been shot. Except for the times she was naked with him, he wanted her covered in conservative necklines, high ones. Winchester teased him unmercifully, yet Cayle realised with satisfaction that his cousin’s eyes had a dangerous glint each time a young buck embraced Laura too closely. He wasn’t the only one affected by the untameable Jamison sisters. A minute later, Winchester echoed his sentiments.
“Thank heavens, Cayle, it’s supper. If young Murchison moved any closer to Laura’s chest, he’d have toppled in. Then I’d have challenged the idiot. Hurry, Cayle, time to escort the ladies before they’re surrounded again.”
Supper proved to be almost as hard on the nerves of the men as the dancing had been. Tony fended off would-be suitors chasing Lottie and Winchester panicked when Laura disappeared to the retiring room with a torn flounce.
• • •
Becca stood alone watching the evening’s chaos, normal by Jamison standards. She noticed the footman slip Cayle a note and the frown crease his forehead before he bent to Winchester’s ear. When Cayle turned to the door and left, in a hurry, Becca’s spine tingled with apprehension. They’d focused on the syndicate and shelved Cayle’s original problem of being snared for an unwanted marriage. Nothing untoward had occurred at the social events in the past weeks and their guard had dropped.
Becca’s apprehension increased as she rushed into the corridor. Laura ran towards her, clutching her skirt up in one hand and careless of her exposed ankles. “Hurry! We were correct. I overheard Sybila. She and Julia set it up so Cayle is caught in the library with her.”
When they tested it, the library door proved locked but having spent the afternoon sleuthing around this house, Laura knew a side entrance.
“Laura, go for reinforcements. “We need help if we’re to disprove any accusations Sybila makes against Cayle. The more the merrier.”
Scurrying to the hidden door, Becca pushed it open in time to hear Cayle’s angry voice. “Is this a repeat of four years ago, Sybila? I told you then I wasn’t interested in anything you had to offer. I’m even less interested now. You’ll not force me to leave England again, no matter what you try.”
Sybila smiled, a cat with the cream smile. “Oh, I don’t want you out of the country, Cayle. As my husband — ”
“Husband!” Cayle threw back his head and laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t be accused of preying on an innocent this time, can I?”
“No, but if you break your agreement with Julia you’ll have to pay her so much money, you’ll end in pauper’s prison. Unless you marry me immediately.”
Becca gasped at her cousin’s cunning smile. She’d always known that she and her mother were schemers, but she’d never envisaged the lengths Sybila would go to for an advantageous marriage. Standing behind the door, she willed Laura to hurry and bring help with her.
• • •
Cayle stood in the middle of the library and stared at the woman who had already destroyed a large part of his life. For a terrifying moment, he envisaged his new future with Becca slipping away. To pay out Julia, he’d be compelled to forgo much of the immediate income from his export business. He’d not be in a good position to support his brothers as well as a wife and the children he now knew he wanted.