A Gentleman's Wager (30 page)

To her relief, they did the latter.

Vaughan eventually broke off the embrace and led the short ride home to Lauwine.

Warily, they parted company in the hall. Bella stole a careful glance backwards at the two men before she left to change out of Charles’s clothes. They were speaking in low voices and, from the tilt of Lucerne’s head, she guessed that not everything was fine, although he also seemed eager for contact. When she returned there was no sign of either of them, but the fire in the salon had been lit. She crossed the polished floor to the doorway and found Vaughan standing to the right of the mantel, looking down into the dancing blaze.

‘Where’s Lucerne?’ she asked.

‘How should I know?’ The dark cascade of his ringlets ebbed against his shoulders, while ebony glints sparkled against his equally dark coat. Bella felt a surge of jealousy, though whether it was over Lucerne or the man before her, she wasn’t sure. Either way, she suspected he knew exactly where Lucerne was. Vaughan was probably hoping to persuade her to leave so he could have him to himself.

She moved to the other side of the fire, as far from him as possible without straying from the source of heat. In the soft red and orange light of the fire, he was both primal and beautiful. She wondered how many past lovers had been mocked and humiliated by him and yet still desired his affection. For a fleeting moment, she rather hoped that he would finish what he had started out on the cold moors. He offered her a predatory smile.

Bella began to pace nervously. Lucerne always managed to defuse these tense moments: where was he now? Vaughan was following her movements. She could feel his gaze like a caress against her skin. She stopped
pacing
, looked up to face him and found herself toe to toe with him, her own reflection drowning in his fire-lit pupils.

She was caught.

His mouth bore down on her, his kiss both savage and unmerciful as he tilted her off balance with his hold. Wild and ferocious, he sucked hungrily on her tongue and then moved to her throat, where he nipped the skin. Bella protested at his intention to mark her. He was a terrible and beautiful man, but she wouldn’t let him possess her.

However, he was stronger.

All too soon he had her undressed and rolling on the floor like a cheap whore, while she raked at his skin, craving any contact at all. He pressed into her back, kissing the nape of her neck and the space between her shoulder blades while his erection probed her thighs. He drew a wetted fingertip along the crease of her bottom, and then across her perineum and into her vulva.

‘Mmmm – madam is apparently still eager for me, despite her derision of my talents,’ he said. He entered her suddenly, and forced a groan of delight from her. The sensations he roused in her were beyond description. He filled her in a way unlike anyone else, for she had never hated and yet desired another so much. Eagerly, she pushed back to meet his thrusts. She shook her head in joy as his fingernails dug into her hips.

Then abruptly he withdrew, leaving her empty, as if he had taken away something unbearably precious. ‘Vaughan,’ she whimpered. His reply was to hold her writhing against the tiled floor with him straddled across her thighs, his thumb drawing dew from her cleft to her anus. ‘No,’ she gasped, but he only snorted and swapped the digit for his cock.

Her tight muscles yielded too easily, and he slid inside
in
a rush while releasing a gasp of glee against her neck. ‘You’re mine, little bird,’ he hissed.

‘No, Vaughan. You’re hurting me.’

Once she had permitted this, when Lucerne had been present to protect her, but now she was alone with the fiend, and she didn’t trust him not to hurt her. The only movement she could make was with her hips, but her wriggled attempts at escape only succeeded in impaling her further, and intensifying the sweet, burning sensations in her behind that struck similar chords in her quim. His hand covered her mound and his middle finger sought out her clitoris. He ground the sensitive nub against her pubic bone, and an intense buzz fizzled through her pelvis from two points.

‘Not all pain, I see,’ he said, and stopped rubbing. Bella pushed herself down against the floor on top of his hand but, even trapped, he refused to renew the stimulation.

‘You will beg, Annabella.’

‘No,’ she snarled.

He bucked, withdrew, thrust again, drawing her hips back to meet him, then repeated the action, using her bottom entirely for his pleasure. Bella whimpered. The taboo, the deep heavy penetration, and her own feelings of helplessness as she was buggered, all left her in a heady state of arousal. However, she knew he would finish before she reached orgasm, and that he would leave her frustrated, with self-stimulation her only solace. ‘Please, Vaughan,’ she begged.

‘Please what?’

‘Give me what you give Lucerne,’ she managed to blurt between the throbs of pleasure caused by his rough thrusts.

He laughed aloud. ‘I thought I already was.’

Two fingers brushed her clitoris, then formed a V around it to tease it from its hood as they rocked
together
. Bella soared under his caress, her first orgasm breaking like the day, here then gone. The second was deeper and pulsed through her body as intense waves of prickling light, while his cock jerked and spasmed inside her.

He lay on top of her in a state of brief exhaustion, his loins still captured between her buttocks as he held her lightly, almost as if temporarily unaware of her. Soon his penis softened and slipped out of her bottom-hole. She felt the loss keenly and nuzzled back against him. Vaughan sighed and got to his feet, denying her the contact. He picked up a decanter and poured himself a cognac, then began to drink.

Bella felt the rebuke throughout her sated body. Suddenly she was overcome with shame, since again he had used her. She gathered her clothes and left the room. Back in the lonely comfort of the entrance hall, she felt cold angry tears roll down her cheeks onto her torn gown. She wasn’t ashamed of the act, but of the way she let him treat her. His callous disdain made her feel sordid and hollow; time and again he had proved himself an unfeeling wretch, but always she hoped for better treatment. Her heart told her that there had to be something else; a better person for Lucerne to love.

Lucerne was at the top of the stairs.

Bella pulled the ties on her gown a little tighter to hide the marks Vaughan had made. Lucerne had changed out of his day clothes and now wore a beautifully embroidered dressing gown of black and red satin. The smile he found for her vanished when he saw her tears.

‘Bella, what’s wrong? Has he upset you again?’ His voice rang with care. Bella couldn’t face him. She lowered her head and tried to move around him to the sanctuary of her room, but he refused to let her pass. He pulled her
into
his arms and looked into her tear-filled eyes with open concern. His affection almost broke her heart.

‘I’m all right, Lucerne,’ she admitted some moments later. ‘I just feel a bit fragile, that’s all.’ He nodded, accepting her explanation without question, until his eyes came to rest on the fresh bruises around her neck. Self-consciously, she tried to tug her dress across them.

‘Vaughan?’ he said very quietly.

‘Yes.’

Bella felt sick and dizzy. All the light drained from his angelic face as the significance of her reply sank in. Dear God, how had the fine prospect of a few weeks ago developed into this mess? The floor seemed to rise up to meet her.

Lucerne caught her, and held her in both arms. ‘I never thought I’d see you faint,’ he said.

‘I’m tired. So desperately tired.’

He nodded. ‘Maybe I can give you something to help you sleep better.’

She clung to him and felt the strain in his muscles as he carried her along the corridor. Bella closed her eyes, concentrating on the motion of his walk, and tried to ignore all the bad thoughts in her head. He stopped and balanced her body as he turned a door handle. To her astonishment, she realised it was his room he’d taken her to, not her own. On the four-poster bed he removed her dress and unpinned her hair so that her curls fell across her bare shoulders and all down her back. Then he stood, statuesque, just looking at her.

Vaughan appeared in the doorway. The enquiring look he directed at Lucerne was responded to with an eloquent shrug. Bella guessed that they had planned to spend the night together, but the bite marks around her neck had changed that. Lucerne let his gown slip down
his
arms to the floor. He was naked underneath. Sure of the reaction he’d provoke, he joined her on the bed.

Without a word, Vaughan turned his back on them and shut the door.

Lucerne left Bella sprawled out, asleep between the sheets with a satisfied smile on her face. His sitting room was dark, lit only by the fire, but welcoming and warm. By the hearth, Vaughan sat turning a glass of port nervously in his hands. He turned his head as Lucerne closed the bedroom door.

‘She’s asleep,’ said Lucerne. He gave Vaughan a weak smile. His lover was pale, and his lips were drawn. He looked tired and fragile, probably as a consequence of hearing them making love in the next room. Obviously he had something important to say, to keep him here.

Lucerne curled up on the rug and lay his head upon Vaughan’s lap. He shivered at the gentle touch against the nape of his neck. Vaughan brushed his long fingers through the thick blond locks. There was tension in his grip, and sometimes he twisted a little too hard, but Lucerne bore the slight discomfort, and eventually the hold slackened and softened into a gentle massage.

‘Things can’t go on as they are,’ he said.

He peered up at Vaughan, who nodded. ‘I know. I’ve been thinking the last few days, and while I waited here. Perhaps it will be best if I leave. My estate almost certainly needs putting in order and it would give you time to decide how you feel about Bella. We could meet again in the spring.’

‘Don’t do that. I know exactly how I feel about Bella, and about you.’ Lucerne curled his fingers around Vaughan’s arm. He knew his skin was flushed, and that his feelings were too near the surface to hide, but for
once
he didn’t care. He wanted Vaughan to know how he felt.

By comparison, Vaughan’s visage was a mask. He broke eye contact after a few seconds and bit his thumbnail. ‘What are you suggesting?’ he said.

‘That you stop fooling yourself and accept her as part of the equation. I’m not blind. Nor am I stupid. If the only interest you had in her was as part of a wager, why are you still tormenting her?’

Vaughan stared into the blaze and didn’t reply for a long while. Eventually, he raised his head and spoke. ‘I need time to think about it.’

Lucerne shook his head.

‘Really, I mean it. It would be easy to say yes to your
jolie ménage à trois
, but I don’t know if I can reconcile myself to the thought of sharing. I have to have things my way, Lucerne. You wanted me to be honest, so I have been. Now you’re going to have to give me some time to think things over.’

Vaughan rose and pressed a kiss to Lucerne’s brow. He crossed to the door and paused just over the threshold. ‘Go and sleep with her, Lucerne. It’s what you want.’

FREDERICK WAKEFIELD SAT
in the front parlour at Christopher Denning’s house, praying for a brief, painless interview. For the second month running he was short on his payments, and his debt to Denning was steadily increasing. He would have avoided coming here, but he already owed Joshua a month’s rent for their lodgings.

‘What can I do for you, Captain Wakefield?’ asked Denning in his customary brisk tone. Wakefield seethed inwardly. He hated Denning for his smugness, his mockery and outward geniality; hated him for his success. ‘I’m a bit short this month,’ he began, although he sounded lame to himself.

‘What, you want another loan already? I’ve just got rid of you, man.’ He picked up the morning paper and used it to swat at a fly. Wakefield stared at him blankly. ‘You don’t know,’ Denning realised. There was a cautious undertone to his voice. ‘I don’t own the debts any more; they’ve been sold.’

It took a moment for the statement to sink in. ‘To whom?’

Denning paced across to the window then returned to his seat, and shook out the creases in the newspaper. ‘Sorry, I can’t say. I’m sure they’ll make themselves known to you soon enough. But to be honest, I’m surprised. I assumed it was a friend of yours, since he paid over the odds for them.’

‘What did he look like?’

The only person Frederick knew who would consider
meeting
that sort of expense to help a friend was Lucerne, and they hadn’t spoken since the fight on the stairs. Perhaps it was an attempt to persuade him back to Lauwine. Strange that he hadn’t said anything, though.

Denning shook his head. ‘It was part of the agreement. I can’t say. Good day, captain.’ Frederick found himself escorted out into the street.

It had to be Lucerne, he reasoned, as he sat in his room at the inn. Had to be. There wasn’t anyone else.

At that point, Joshua bounded through the door. ‘Have you seen this?’ he said as he thrust a grubby broadsheet at Wakefield. ‘Garret Pryce is missing. Disappeared from his office with half the bank’s notes and a number of their records. They believe he’s absconded with it all, run off to France. Damn stupid place to run to but he’s gone all the same. I suspect he’s lost his reason; the old weasel’s done nothing but look at ledgers for years.’

‘I take it you’re not worried by this.’

‘I bank elsewhere. Watson and Pryce were fairly small, but it’ll be a blow to the families that do use them.’ His words petered out, and he suddenly looked anxious. ‘We have to get this to Lauwine.’

‘Why?’ Frederick sat forwards in the chair, surprised by Joshua’s change of mood. ‘Lucerne doesn’t bank there, his accounts are still managed from London.’

‘Yes, but Louisa does.’

Frederick felt his heart jolt as Joshua spoke her name. The thought of facing up to Louisa was the reason why he hadn’t immediately hired a horse and galloped over to Lauwine to thank Lucerne. He was terrified of seeing her, and now, today, when he felt happy for the first time in days, Joshua was telling him she was ruined and they would have to go and break the news to her.