A Gentleman's Wager (17 page)

‘Get out.’ Vaughan’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Unsteadily, Mark got to his feet.

‘Get out now.’ Vaughan raised the crop and, when Mark hesitated, struck him across the cheek again. Mark blinked in confusion, putting his fingers to the wound in shock. Then he grabbed his breeches and fled through the open hatch. The crop flew over his head as he dropped to the stall below.

‘Alone at last.’ Vaughan turned back to face Bella, and gazed down at her glistening pubis. ‘Delightful, disordered
and
certainly wanton.’ He smiled thinly, then took her hand and pulled her to her feet. ‘I wonder what Lucerne would think of this little tableau. Do you know, he has some interesting thoughts on guests copulating with the servants.’

‘What do you want?’ Bella asked. Now that it was clear he wasn’t about to give her what she wanted, she was losing patience with him.

‘We have a small matter to discuss.’

‘Why don’t you just get on with it, then, instead of boring me with your pathetic power games?’

Vaughan shook his head and laughed at her. ‘What! Hungry for more?’ He tweaked her nipple through the cloth and Bella only just stopped herself from swooning. She grasped his coat for support, but the tickle of the thick fabric only made her more wanton.

‘Actually, I’d rather have sex with Charles.’

‘My dear, that can be arranged, but I don’t believe you would. He may have the heart of a poet but he lacks the brilliance of a true bard.’

‘Don’t overrate yourself.’

Vaughan’s lips twitched with a smile. A cold chill tickled over Bella’s bottom as he raised her skirts and pulled her against his leg. Bella held on to him and rubbed her pubis against his chamois breeches. The friction relieved some of the tetchiness she felt towards him, but not much. She still owed him for what he’d done in the folly, and now he’d compounded that with what he’d just done to Mark.

Vaughan grabbed the low neckline of her dress, pulling her back from her thoughts. ‘Before, I asked you to stay away from Lucerne,’ he said. ‘Now I’m telling you.’ He tugged the fabric sharply and snapped the ribbon that criss-crossed up the front. The sections fell apart, exposing her chemise and breasts. Bella cried out inarticulately
in
protest but he just bent his head and flicked his tongue across one nipple. The wash of sensation made her shake.

‘I don’t appreciate competition,’ he said.

He pulled her hair, forcing her to tilt her head back and thrust her breasts towards him.

‘Ow!’

His lips closed over a teat and he sucked firmly, while he grasped her bottom in his still-gloved hands. Bella’s heart leaped into her throat. She almost sobbed as she felt the nip of his teeth against her neck, but she wouldn’t let him get the better of her again. His words had just confirmed her suspicions about the locket – the hair was almost certainly Lucerne’s, and that made Vaughan her rival.

‘You’re a monster,’ she said, and tried to push him away.

‘If I was a monster I would fetch Lucerne to queue behind your stable-boy.’ He pulled off his right glove and cast it on to one of the hay bales. Bella struggled as he sucked his thumb, but he easily stopped her half-hearted attempt at escape. ‘You know you want it. Why pretend?’

Bella clawed at him as he kissed her. Fine! If he was going to use her, she would damn well use him too. She knew he was aroused. The outline of his prick was pressed against her thigh. She wondered how he’d like it, to be left a single touch away from orgasm.

The hand on her bottom pulled her more firmly against his thigh. His wetted fingers slid into the valley between her cheeks and his thumb pressed against her anus. No, she thought, not that, but her resistance was weak. Pleasure fluttered through her chest at his touch. Despite her desire to repel his overtures, she whimpered softly and failed to pull back when he put his other hand
to
the back of her neck, and pressed his thumb inside her.

A burst of heat exploded between her thighs. Her legs felt wobbly, he was making her so dizzy with desire. She felt light-headed, as though she were drunk.

‘I’m prepared to barter with you,’ he said. ‘Ask and you shall have.’

‘No.’ Pressing firmly against his chest, she shook her head. Lucerne was too high a price, even when satisfaction was only one word away.

Vaughan removed his other glove with his teeth. He dropped it to the floor behind her, then made no further move. Bella closed her eyes, but the air between them was charged with possibility, and she couldn’t convince herself she didn’t want him. The warmth of his breath against her neck and the heat of his loins against her thighs were too much. Also, there was the matter of his thumb tormenting her in a place she’d never imagined had so many nerve endings.

Recklessly, she pulled at the fastenings to his breeches. ‘Damn you. Make love to me.’ There was nothing to stop her breaking the agreement later. They were enemies, after all; she didn’t owe him anything, and he was extracting her word under pressure.

‘Here?’

He pushed his thumb deeper, shocking her to the core. The very thought of him entering her in that sensitive place made her recoil in disgust, and yet the caress brought such sweet agony.

‘No!’ she whimpered, although in her mind’s eye she pictured him doing just that.

‘No?’ He met her eyes, wearing a deliberately confused expression. ‘How, then?’

‘Like a normal man would.’

He inclined his head slightly, frowning almost imperceptibly. ‘Would you care to clarify that, Annabella?’

‘In my quaint,’ she said, burning with shame. She couldn’t believe he’d forced her into being so crude.

‘Aah. Thank you.’

He slid two fingers between her thighs, releasing a flood of fresh arousal. Bella wrenched at his waistband and a button sprang away. He had kept her waiting long enough. His cock reared proudly just out of reach, and he held her back with the twin penetrations of fingers and thumb while he settled on the bale at his back. Then he used his thumb to pull her gently into his lap. Bella squatted over him. Her skin was flushed and her breathing was shallow as she tried to find her balance.

‘No tricks this time? No false promises?’ she pleaded.

‘Not this time. This time you get what you deserve.’ His cock nudged at her labia, and he entered her fully.

Bella rocked between the two penetrations, trying to find her pleasure. He throbbed inside her and his breath was scalding against her ear. All her insides felt liquid, as if she were filled with molten sugar. Her climax built to an unbearable intensity until she came, her muscles clenching around his thumb and cock as he reached his own release.

They sobbed and laughed at the glow in each other’s cheeks and he kissed her once, passionately.

Vaughan wiped the fine shadow of perspiration from above his lip, then dug into his pocket and produced half a guinea. He took her hand and placed the coins in the centre of her palm. Bella dropped them as if they had burned her.

‘Damn you!’ After what they’d just shared, she was stunned by his viciousness. ‘I’ll have Lucerne when and where I like, and you won’t stop me.’

Vaughan pushed her from his lap. ‘Don’t be so sure. Or do you really care so little for your friends?’

‘Leave them out of this.’

‘Stay away from Lucerne.’

‘I won’t.’ She stamped her foot in frustration. How was it that he always seemed to come out on top?

Vaughan mounted the ladder. ‘That’s your choice.
Vale
, Miss Rushdale; until next time.’ He blew her a kiss.

‘But where have you been?’ Louisa asked for the third time in quick succession. Bella gave her a noncommittal shrug.

‘I told you, just for a walk in the gardens.’

‘But it’s been pouring with rain, and we saw lightning. What were you thinking of? Look at you, you’re soaking wet.’

It wasn’t strictly true; she was merely clammy. Bella sighed, but held her tongue and allowed Louisa to push her closer to the fire. She ran her hands through her loose curls. Her hair was still damp and tangled from rolling around in the hayloft. She pulled a piece of straw from it and cast it into the fire. After Vaughan had gone she’d wandered around the gardens aimlessly, trying to justify her actions to herself. Finally, she’d taken refuge in the gazebo when the thunderstorm set in. It had been dry inside and the air had been warm, providing a comfortable backdrop for her to reflect. If Vaughan made good his threats it would result in Mark’s immediate dismissal without references, and her own disgrace, but she didn’t think he would. Vaughan was sadistic and vengeful, but she didn’t think he was that petty. He was more likely to attack the subject of his wrath than he was a bystander, and she feared far less for herself than for Mark or Louisa.

‘Lucerne was concerned about you,’ Louisa said.

Bella turned her back to the fire and looked at her
friend
. Louisa was working on her embroidery: a waistcoat with a motif of delicate flowers. She smiled impishly, clearly bursting with knowledge she wanted to share.

‘He was very concerned,’ she reiterated.

The corners of Bella’s mouth twitched upwards and she broke into a girlish smile. She joined Louisa on the sofa and linked arms.

‘He was pacing about, and kept staring out of the window. Vaughan scolded him for being tiresome but Lucerne just rebuked him for an unfeeling wretch if he didn’t care that you were out in the rain.’

‘What did Vaughan say to that?’

‘He said, “She’s probably in the stables with the other horse.” ’

Bella thumped the cushion. ‘How dare he!’

‘That’s exactly what Lucerne said. He told him to get out of his sight with his vile slanders. He was very angry.’

‘What happened then?’

‘Vaughan disappeared with Charles, and Lucerne wandered off. I haven’t seen any of them since. Why is Vaughan being so nasty about you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Bella lied. That comment was something else she owed him for, she thought, as she mentally chalked it up alongside the other slights.

‘He’s a venomous, spiteful man,’ said Louisa. ‘I wonder that Lucerne likes him so much. They are very different.’

‘Perhaps he sees a side of him we don’t.’

‘Ahem!’

They both looked around to find Lucerne’s valet observing them.

‘Yes, Ivo, what is it?’ asked Bella.

‘Milord wishes to speak with you,’ he said, his voice liquorice thick with his Italian accent.

Bella stood outside Lucerne’s quarters, with a candelabra clutched tight within her whitened fist. Through the closed door, she could hear Ivo’s low voice. He was announcing her presence. She shivered. It was cold away from the fire, and this part of the house smelled musty and old. She wondered why Lucerne had chosen to sleep here, so far away from his guests.

He had his back to her when she entered the room. He fastened the window latch and then turned around and met her bedraggled appearance with a neutral expression. Bella tried to read his eyes. Had Vaughan already been called upon to explain his remarks and, if so, what had he said? Lucerne wasn’t giving anything away. She prepared herself for a reprimand, or worse.

‘You’re shivering. Please sit by the fire,’ Lucerne said.

She obeyed and sat down on the sofa, grateful for the warmth of the fierce blaze. She felt chilled. Lucerne produced a glass from a cabinet and poured out a large measure of brandy.

‘Here, drink this; it’ll warm you.’ He knelt before her and closed her hands around the balloon. His touch excited her, but his scrutiny made her feel clumsy and unkempt. The faint smell of damp fabric wafted over her. Self-consciously, she sipped the fiery liquid, unable to meet Lucerne’s serious expression. This was the first time they’d been alone together since the brief incident in the chapel, and she looked and felt abominable. She stared over his shoulder at the hand-painted Chinese wallpaper; it was mildewed in one corner near the picture rail. Clearly Lucerne hadn’t been able to undo all the damage to the property from it standing empty so long, at least not yet.

‘Are you warm enough?’ He pressed the back of his hand to her brow. ‘I’d hate for you to become ill.’

Bella swallowed the lump of self-pity in her throat. His tenderness made her feel far more wretched than her knotted hair or her damp clothes. She guessed he was oblivious to what had happened in the stables, and that was how she preferred it to stay. However, thoughts of how she must have appeared, first straddling Mark then beneath him, and finally with Vaughan, kindled a sudden heat between her thighs. She stared at Lucerne – his eyes, his mouth, and his hands. He had large hands, with soft skin and rounded fingertips. What would they feel like against her skin? She couldn’t stop herself wondering, or imagining how his cock would feel in her hands – thick, large and hard. She pushed her promise to Joshua to the back of her mind and unconsciously licked her lips.

‘I nearly sent a search party out for you,’ he said. ‘I feared you were lost on the hillside.’

His comment tempered her lustful thoughts. ‘I was in the garden,’ she explained.

‘You should have let someone know. Your brother entrusted you to my care.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Lucerne placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and sat down. The fresh tang of his eau-de-Cologne made her long to bury her face in his clothing. ‘I trust you would tell me if anyone had offended you,’ he said. ‘Have Vaughan or Charles said anything?’

Bella stiffened slightly under his touch, still on edge and battling with her rising desire. ‘No, I just lost track of time,’ she lied, and hoped Lucerne couldn’t read the deceit in her eyes. Vaughan had been offending her since they’d met, but that wasn’t why she’d gone out, and she didn’t want to discuss either matter with Lucerne. Meanwhile, he gazed uncritically at the soiled hem of her
dress
. She stared at his covered crotch. What’s the matter with you? she thought to herself. You’ve already had two men today. When did you become so cock-starved?

‘What made you come to Lauwine?’ she asked, determined to master her thoughts. She’d always thought Lucerne somewhat out of place here. Maybe at the height of summer he’d fit in, but in the winter?