Victorian Vigilantes 01 - Saving Grace (25 page)

“I don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart, but just by being here with you, you made me so fucking hard. Tell me if I’m too big for you.”

She laughed. How could he ever hurt her? Besides, she wouldn’t care if he did. His pleasure would be her reward. She felt as though she was drifting on a timeless wave when his fingers parted her slick folds and the head of his cock slid into her. It felt sublime and she expelled a deep, satisfied sigh. So too did Isaac as he gently worked his way deeper. He was right about his girth. He stretched her to the limit but Eva felt no pain, just searing warmth and nascent pleasure beyond her wildest imagination. Her hips lifted to welcome him deeper, but Isaac seemed reluctant to accept her invitation.

“I must be hurting you. You’re so tight, I–”

“You will only hurt me if you stop,” she replied breathlessly.

“Wrap your legs around my waist then, my love, and we will find out way together.”

“I can’t begin to tell you how it feels.” Eva’s breathing fractured as she clung to him like a vine. “But pain absolutely does not feature.”

He kissed her brow in an oddly chaste yet intimate gesture. “That’s good.”

He slid a little deeper and Eva groaned as the sensitised walls of her cunt welcomed him inside. She felt filled to capacity by his throbbing cock, deeply feminine and totally abandoned. She closed her eyes, willing this delineating moment never to end.

“You have me all now, my love,” he said softly. “You are so tight, it’s like heaven.”

He started to move faster and she moved with him, the pungent scent of their arousal filling her senses. Pulsating passion slammed through her as Isaac picked up the pace and her body reacted in unimaginable ways.

“Isaac!”

“Yes, darling?”

“Don’t stop.” She stared up at him in disbelief, desperation making her reckless. “This is astonishing. I think I…argh!”

Her world exploded in a starburst of pleasure that started somewhere deep inside her core and lanced through her veins so violently her senses fragmented. Her pulse skitted in her veins as his thick heat continued to pummel deep inside her and she struggled to keep up with the kaleidoscope of emotions assaulting her from all angles. She didn’t want to miss a single one. She closed her eyes and tried desperately to commit her various reactions to memory for later examination since she might never experience them again.

It was a long time before the sensation faded. When it did so and she opened her eyes again, Isaac was still buried inside her. Still rock hard. He had stopped moving and sent her a heated smile.

“Now I understand,” she said, wishing more than ever that she could touch him. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” He kissed the end of her nose. “That was just a foretaste.”

“It was?” Eva had trouble accepting it could be more rewarding than that. “Are you absolutely sure?”

His throaty laugher sent shivers down her spine. “Trust me.”

He picked up the pace again and Eva’s body responded with indecent haste. She saw the tremor in his arms, the ropey veins standing proud, presumably because he was trying to delay his own pleasure. With a taunting smile she deliberately closed the muscles of her vagina around his cock.

“Fuck it, Eva, don’t do that! I want you to have more but if you—”

“It’s your turn.”

“Together,” he said, driving into her harder than ever.

To her astonishment she felt pleasure spangling again, just out of reach. Isaac’s straining and groaning brought it to the fore and a second, less intense but far deeper wave of pleasure streaked through her. It had only just faded when Isaac pulled out of her and, with a feral growl, shot his seed over her stomach.

“Ah, love,” he said, laughing and panting simultaneously as he rolled off of her and lay flat on his back at her side.

***

Isaac took a moment to regain his breath, then levered himself from the bed. He released her hands, found a washcloth beside the basin in the adjoining bathroom, dampened it and returned to clean Eva up. She smiled up at him, as somnolent and contented as a cat who had raided the cream jug.

“You look…well, satiated,” he said, abandoning the cloth and returning to the bed. He pulled her into his arms and she rested her head on his chest. Her hair spread all over it, as did her fingers, which danced across his torso.

“What just happened to me?”

Isaac laughed. “Do I really need to spell it out?”

“I ought to feel shocked. Ladies are not supposed to enjoy such things.”

“Rubbish! That’s just a myth perpetuated by men who are either too selfish to stimulate their partners, or unwilling to take the trouble.”

“Very likely. Seriously though, Isaac, I had absolutely no idea it could be like that.”

“I know you did not.”

She stretched, again reminding him of a sleek, satiated, albeit gloriously rumpled feline, and settled herself into a more comfortable position against his side. He pulled the coverlet over them both to keep the chill off their rapidly cooling bodies and enjoyed simply holding her. Unthinkable impulses invaded his brain. He loved this impossibly naïve, feisty, indescribably lovely yet monstrously disobedient female, but to admit it would be foolish. Worse, it might tempt providence.

“Eva,” he said softly. “You realise that the next few days—”

“Yes, I know.” She tangled her fingers with the hairs on his chest.

“We spoke with Franklin this evening. That is where Jake and I went. He meets with one of Jake’s contacts to pass on his findings every evening. If Jake wishes to speak with him then he keeps the engagement himself.”

“Lord Torbay told him how to get into William’s desk, I suppose.”

“Yes, he is going to attempt it tomorrow morning while your husband is at his warehouse.”

He sensed the increased rate of her breathing. “I really hope he succeeds.”

“Woodstock is distracted with the search for you, and with the adverse newspaper report about him. He has his hands full now the time is approaching to steal the diamond. Jake plans to further throw him off by having someone leak information to him that Stoneleigh had you within his grasp but lost you.”

She gasped. “What good will that do?”

“It will drive a wedge between Woodstock and Stoneleigh. Divide and conquer is Jake’s mantra. It’s usually an effective one.”

“I see.”

“He’s sent a man to accost Barker in a tavern this evening.”

“That will certainly stir an already bubbling cauldron.”

“Precisely.” He ran a finger softly down the curve of her face. “The more concerned they are about other matters, the greater the chance of Franklin’s success.”

“I couldn’t bear it if Franklin were to be caught.”

“It wouldn’t be your fault if he was.”

“Then why do I feel so responsible?”

Her tormented expression tore at his heartstrings, but he couldn’t afford the luxury of lingering and making her feel better about herself.

“It’s late,” he said, reluctantly lifting her head from his chest and sitting up. “I shall leave you now.”

“Not yet.”

“I must.” He kissed her lightly but didn’t trust himself to do anything more. “We must all be alert tomorrow. If Franklin is successful it could all be over as quickly as that, then we shall be at our leisure to enjoy one another’s company.”

“I pray you are right about that.”

He picked up her discarded nightgown and helped her into it. “I am no good at braiding hair.”

She shrugged. “The braid usually comes apart during the night anyway.”

Isaac pulled back the covers, waiting for her to slide between them. When she did so, he pulled them up to her chin and kissed her brow, almost as though she was a child. He checked the bed for tell-tale signs of his presence and found none, stepped into his trousers and collected the rest of his clothes.

“Have courage, my love,” he said softly. “Jake has never failed with a mission yet.”

“That will be all.”

Barker left the room and closed the door behind him. William rested his elbows on his desk and his chin on his steepled fingers, mulling over the extraordinary story Barker had just taken considerable pleasure in imparting. Could there be any truth in it? Information obtained in a tavern—how reliable could it possibly be? And yet…and yet, William couldn’t afford to ignore it. His temper in danger of erupting, he ran a hand across the surface of his desk, reluctant to jump to a conclusion that would bring his own judgement into question.

How in the name of the devil had his affairs been reduced to such a sorry state? A meticulous planner, William never left anything to chance. The theft of the diamond might be his most audacious venture to date, but he was more than capable of managing it. In his view, the more daring the crime, the easier it was to pull it off because no one was expecting it.

The disappearance of his wife had seen the great personal satisfaction he had felt at his own genius fall by the wayside. Everything in his life had gone to pieces and he was at a loss to know how to repair the damage. He missed Eva more than he was prepared to admit to anyone. Her continued determination to stay away ate away at him like a virulent disease. Where the devil was she? If what Barker had just told him was the truth then Stoneleigh knew a damned sight more about that than he had admitted. Such a transgression was unforgiveable.

William rang the bell twice, a signal for Stoneleigh to attend him, and sat back to wait. Stoneleigh was slow to respond, adding to William’s impatience. When he did deign to appear, he was limping and looked as though he hadn’t slept for a fortnight.

“What happened to you?” William asked.

“A misunderstanding with a hand cart.”

“Really?” William sent him a disbelieving look and leaned back in his chair. “What have you to tell me about Lady Eva?”

“No news.”

William fixed him with a malevolent scowl. “Are you absolutely sure about that?”

“Well, I’ve still got some sightings to check out but—”

“What about Rose?”

“What about her?”

Stoneleigh flushed and looked down at his feet, a sure sign he was holding something back. William was disappointed but somehow not surprised.

“I told you to pay Rose off, not set her up for your own entertainment.” William spoke in the deceptively quiet voice Stoneleigh would know spelt trouble. “What have you to say for yourself?”

Stoneleigh shrugged, probably trying to decide how much William knew. “Didn’t think it made any odds.”

“Have her come back here. I’ve changed my mind about turning her away.”

“Well, I…that’s to say, she ran off with a jarvey who took her fancy.”

“Liar!” William stood and pushed his face into Stoneleigh’s. “My wife went back to Whitechapel to call on Rose and you…you, my supposedly loyal lieutenant, allowed her to escape.”

“How the hell did you—”

“Some people still have my best interests at heart, even if you are not amongst them.” William was so irate, so beside himself with fury, that he was sorely tempted to reach for one of his swords and run the ungrateful peasant through with it. “What the devil where you thinking? How did not one but two women manage to escape you?”

“I had no idea Lady Eva was with Rose. They pushed past me before I could—”

“Enough! I’ll deal with your disloyalty later. First, tell me what my wife wanted with Rose.” When Stoneleigh shuffled his feet and said nothing, William thought he might actually explode with anger. “You didn’t even get that out of her.” He threw up his hands and tore at his hair. “Yea gods, you’re a moron!”

“I would have caught them, but…but two gents appeared and took them off in a carriage.”

“Did you recognise them or the carriage?”

“No, the carriage was unmarked and I didn’t see the men’s faces.”

“But you followed the carriage?”

“By the time I could get a handsome they were long gone.”

William wasn’t only furious, he was now downright worried. Eva’s interest in Rose was a puzzle. How did she even know where she was? William himself hadn’t known. Someone in his household must be in touch with Eva, knew what Stoneleigh had done with Rose and passed that information on to his wife. She had always disliked Stoneleigh and had a soft spot for Rose. It didn’t appear to concern her that William openly flaunted his relationship with Rose in a vain attempt to excite Eva’s jealousy.

Presumably Eva had persuaded her gentleman protector to take the girl in. A gentleman protector. William thumped his clenched fist against the wainscoting. He would slice the man clean through when he got his hands on him. No one took liberties with his wife and lived to tell the tale. Stoneleigh would regret the day he started holding out on William too, once this business with the diamond was over. William’s wealth would then be equal to the richest men in the land and he would use as much of it as was necessary to find his wife and avenge himself on the people sheltering her.

Feeling slightly more in control, he addressed Stoneleigh. “We leave for the warehouse in half an hour,” he said curtly.

“But Lady Eva. I have an idea where she might be.”

“An idea?” William’s lips twisted into a cynical snarl. “Or actual proof?”

“Well, it’s just a thought at the moment, but—”

“Leave it. I have put Barker in charge of tracking down my wife.” He had the satisfaction of seeing Stoneleigh pale. They made no secret of their rivalry or dislike of one another. “He, at least, can be relied upon not to exceed his orders. Arrange for the carriage to be brought round.”

He waved a hand in dismissal, taking a little satisfaction from the fact that Stoneleigh would be feeling totally humiliated. He had just been reduced to nothing more than a glorified bodyguard, and well he knew it.

***

Eva sat alone in the small salon the following morning. Isaac had appeared briefly but told her he had to go out. For the first time since arriving in Lord Torbay’s house she was wearing something other than the day gown she had arrived in. In honour of the incredible discoveries Isaac had helped her to make about herself the night before, she donned a beautiful faille walking gown in a pale shade of mauve trimmed with a kilt-pleated flounces that matched her mood. The tight-fitting bodice, heart-shaped neckline and Dolman sleeves, embroidered with bright colours, were an outward display of the new person she had become. Isaac didn’t appear to notice.