A Love That Never Tires (31 page)

Wasn’t she pretty enough? Smart enough? She was no Gaynor Robeson, but, by God, she had enough to offer a man! Patrick just needed to open his eyes and see it. And if he wasn’t willing to do so on his own, Linley would just have to make him realize how much he wanted her.

She pushed off from the windowsill and stalked around her bedroom. After a few turns, Linley sunk down to the floor and dug through her leather pack. She pulled out her traveling papers—the ones that held her secret photograph of Patrick. She pulled out her hairbrush and comb. Her toothbrush and toothpowder. The bar of strong soap wrapped in wax paper. Linley laid it all out on the floor.

Stripping out of her clothes, she sat in the middle of her room in her white cotton camisole and drawers. Her long, brown hair, lightened by weeks in the sun, hung down her shoulders. Using the pitcher and basin in her room, Linley gave it a good washing. Clean hair trumped greasy any day. She didn’t have to be Gaynor Robeson to know that. Pulling her camisole over her head, she scrubbed her top half until her skin grew red. Then she moved to her lower sections, doing the same.

It was not often that Linley sat around stark naked. She took a moment to get a good look at herself. She wasn’t exactly the most beautiful creature walking the earth, but at least everything seemed to be in the right places. But she was awfully thin. And awfully flat-chested. It appeared the good Lord chose not to bless her with a bosom—the great disappointment of her life. At least they would never hang down to her navel the way so many tribal women’s breasts did.

Yet, never would she look like one of those classical Grecian beauties on display at the British Museum.

Linley sighed. Life was a series of injustices.

She redressed, brushed her hair, and tried to make herself as alluring as possible. Though Patrick rejected her innocent advances, his words had given her hope. He was a strong, stubborn man…but he was just a man. He could not hold out forever.

***

“What are you doing in here?” he asked, shocked to find Linley hiding half-dressed in the corner of his bedroom.

“I want to talk to you. Privately.”

Patrick shook his head. “Oh, no you don’t! I am no fool, Linley.”

“What? Are you afraid I’ve come to seduce you?”

Patrick stuck his head through the curtain to see if anyone was in the corridor. “I would like you to leave now. Please go before anyone sees you.”

“Hold me,” Linley said, reaching for him. “That’s all I want.”

“No, you want a great deal more than that.”

She took a few slow steps across the room. “But you want it, too.”

“No.”

“You do, but you don’t dare admit it. You’re too much the proper gentleman. Well, I’m through being polite. I’m through trying to reason with you.” She inched closer. “I tried first with words, but you pushed me away. Now I’m going to show you.” She pressed herself up against him, her breath hot against his neck. “This is what you want…or have you forgotten?” Linley reached down and grabbed the crotch of his trousers. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you, you have dominated my thoughts. And I can’t help but feel it’s all been leading up to
this one thing.
” Holding him firmly in her hand, Linley felt Patrick grow hard.

“Stop it!” He jerked her hand away and stepped back, putting distance between them. “You’re talking like a Cheapside whore on rent day.”

“What do you know about whores?” she asked, a hint of laughter playing on her voice. Mocking him. Of course he didn’t know anything about whores.

Linley’s eyes wandered down his body, settling on the uncomfortable bulge in his trousers.

“Admiring your handiwork?” Patrick asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

She smiled. “I do rather like looking at it. You see, no matter what your mouth tells me, your body says something quite different.”

“However you interpret my body language,” he said. “That does not mean I am any closer to giving in to you, no matter how seductive you can be.”

“Am I seductive, Patrick?”

“Very.”

Linley was not sure how much more pushing it would take, but she was no less determined. “What are you really afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said. “I merely make it a point not to defile virgins, and I have every intention of keeping that promise. There are always certain expectations from virgin women—”

“Oh! If you are worried about that, I can assure you I have no expectations whatsoever,” Linley explained. “I don’t know the first thing about going to bed with a man.”

Patrick couldn’t help but laugh. “No, not those kinds of expectations,” he said. “I meant that innocent young women only agree to sleep with a man for one reason, and one reason alone—marriage.”

“I do not want to marry you!”

“You say that now…”

Linley threw up her hands in frustration. “Please understand, Patrick, that I am going to do this whether it is with you or someone else. I’m certain somewhere down the road, a willing man will come along—”

“And it will be on that man’s conscience. Not mine”

“You would let me give myself to someone else?” she asked. “Some stranger who might treat me badly? Do you want to see me hurt?”

“You know I don’t.”

“Then do this one little thing for me, Patrick.” Linley reached out to him. “Show me how good it can be.”

“Why are you acting like this? It isn’t like you,” he asked. “This is not the Linley I knew in London. Or Morocco, for that matter.”

“That girl was a fool,” she said. “I never should have given you up. I should have taken you while I had the chance.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against his chest.

Patrick pulled away from her embrace. “Don’t do this to me, Linley. It isn’t fair,” he said. “If you only understood what you are asking, if only you knew how much you have to lose, then you would never...” He took a deep, bracing breath and added, “I’m sorry, Linley, but I won’t do that to us.”

***

Patrick tripped down the stairs leading to the courtyard outside. He had to get away from her. One more second in that room with her and he would have lost his composure. Linley did not understand how hard it was for him to walk out of there. He would have a devil of a time sleeping that night.

Not unlike many other nights, but he didn’t want to think about that.

Patrick needed fresh air. He needed to get a hold of himself.

He paced around the courtyard staring at his feet. Linley Talbot-Martin was a dangerous adversary. Patrick hadn’t expected her to come at him like that. She had groped him. She had reached down and grabbed herself a handful, and Patrick had no doubt that she would’ve done a great deal more if he had pulled it out and told her what to do with it.

That only proved to him that Linley meant what she said. She would climb in the bed with someone, whether it was him or not. It was only a matter of time. God, he hated to see such a beautiful girl do something like that to herself. She’d be ruined. No telling what sort of chap she’d fall in with. Probably the wrong sort if he was willing to take her up on her offer. Any number of terrible things could happen to Linley if she put herself in a man like that’s hands. She could end up on the streets!

Patrick couldn’t live with something like that on his conscience.

He just couldn’t.

Sucking in a deep breath, Patrick thought about what he was going to do. But his mind was made up and, if truth be told, it had been for quite some time. There was nothing he could do but accept it.

He’d just turned to head back toward the monastery when Linley came bounding out the door.

“You wanted me in London,” she cried, panting. “But not now. What changed?”

“Everything has changed. The
only
constant has been my feelings for you.”

Linley blinked. “What?”

“Foolish girl,” he pulled her into his arms and whispered, “You think I don’t want you? I’d have you against that wall if I could.”

Her eyes went wide. “Do it.”

“So your father could walk out and catch us?”

“Where then? My bedroom?”

“My bedroom. Tonight,” Patrick said. “That way you can still back out. If you decide not to show, then no harm done.”

Linley pulled away from him, shaking her head. “You could change your mind. What if I go to your room and you’re not there?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Give me your word. As a gentleman.”

“As a gentleman?” He grinned. “I don’t think that term is applicable, just now.”

Linley grinned, too. “The Marquess of Kyre behaving ungentlemanly? Oh this is going to be fun!”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Linley fumbled down the corridor in the dark. She counted the curtains along the wall, making sure the room she went in was Patrick’s. When she felt certain she came to the right one, she poked her head in.

He sat cross-legged on his pallet spread out on the floor.

She slipped through the curtain without a sound. Not that she thought anyone else would hear—they had all been asleep for hours. Linley took a seat on the blanket in front of him.

“What have you been thinking about all evening?” Patrick asked.

“This,” Linley said.

“Are you nervous?”

She shook her head. “No. This is what I want.”

Linley meant it. Patrick knew that without question. She wanted this.

She wanted him.

“Then let’s not keep you waiting any longer,” he said. Patrick motioned for her to take his place on the blanket, and to lay back onto the pillow. As she did so, he moved aside, unbuttoning his shirt while she situated herself.

Linley looked up at him as he peeled his shirt over his head. The moon was dim through the clouds, making a pale square of light across the bedroom floor. Patrick’s body was hidden in shadow, but she could just see the outline of his frame against the moonlight.

She took a ragged breath as he placed both arms on either side of her shoulders and positioned himself above her.

“I thought you said you weren’t nervous,” he said.

Was he smiling? Linley wasn’t certain.

“It’s not nerves.”

Patrick bent down and kissed her. Gently.

Linley lifted her mouth to meet his, figuring she should at least follow his lead until she got the hang of this lovemaking business herself. She threaded her fingers into his dark hair, played down the chords of his neck, and then pressed her palms flat against the hot, bare skin of his shoulder blades. Linley had never touched a man like that before. She had never known the feeling of her bare skin against his—but she liked it.

She ran her hands down his back, then up over his shoulders, and around to his chest. Linley felt Patrick’s heart drum against her palm. She pushed at his chest, urging him back onto his knees. He straddled her, kneeling, and she sat up in front of him.

Patrick watched as her fingers fumbled at the waistband of his trousers. He did not help her undo them, but waited until she unfastened the buttons and pushed them open at the front. He expected her to try to pull his trousers down over his hips. Instead, she slipped one of her hands inside the fly.

Linley marveled at the feel of him in her hand. She couldn’t see what it all looked like, but, thanks to Elgin and his marbles, she had a general idea. She grasped him firmly, feeling Patrick’s body straining against her. She watched as he threw his head back, wordlessly encouraging her. Linley moved her hand and wrist. Clumsy at first. Unsure how to go about it.

Patrick moaned. It was all he could do. He couldn’t move, or think, or breathe. He only felt, and what he felt was magnificent.

When he recovered from the novelty of her little hands on him, Patrick reached down and took hold of her cotton nightgown. He pulled it up her body, forcing Linley to turn him loose so he could get it over her arms. He lifted the garment over her head and let it fall beside them.

Realizing she was completely naked, Linley clasped her hands to her chest, trying to cover herself.

Patrick gently pushed her hands away, guiding her down onto her back against the rough blanket that covered his sleeping pallet. He replaced her hands with his, palming her small breasts in his large, warm hands.

“Someday I’ll teach you to love them as much as I do,” he said, sliding his hand ever so gently across her chest.

Patrick stroked her nipples with his fingertips, marveling that no one else ever touched her like that before. Only him. There was something to be said about that, but he did not want to think too much. Patrick intended to focus all his attention on her. To concentrate on making this the best it could possibly be.

He dipped his head down and took one entire breast into his mouth. Patrick knew Linley liked that. He remembered the way she squirmed and moaned at the sensation before, buried in the tall grass when they should have been watching for tigers.

Linley squirmed then, too. She might have even moaned, but was so wrapped up in the moment that she could have recited the Lord’s Prayer and not heard herself. Patrick idly stroked her nipple, back and forth, back and forth, and then drew little circles around them with his tongue. When she thought that was too much, he went even further, using his teeth to tug at them. To draw on them, making Linley arch her back and whimper.

“Don’t you like that?” he asked, his breath a hot whisper against her skin.

“You know I do.”

Patrick smiled, and then pressed a quick kiss against her breasts. He lifted himself up to meet her face to face. Even in the cool, moonlit room she was flushed. Patrick felt the heat radiating off her body. He leaned down and blew softly across her collarbone, the base of her throat, and the sensitive space just below her left ear. Patrick’s lips retraced his steps, traveling down her neck, over her collarbone, and then up the other side of her throat. He nipped at her with his teeth. Softly enough not to hurt her, but just firmly enough for her to feel it.

Linley moaned. Her lips pursed tight against her own teeth. She rolled her head as he kissed and licked at her neck. He sucked on her earlobe. Everywhere his mouth went Linley’s skin grew hot in his wake. Finding his waist blindly, she pushed his trousers down over his hips, urging him to wriggle out of them.