An Affair in Winter (Seasons Book 1) (14 page)

She nodded. “Of course. After all, she has no one on her side but me, it seems. Not when you are fighting hard to turn everyone else against her.”

Gray stopped advancing on her and folded his arms. “Rosalinde, I made my stance on your sister’s marriage to Lucien clear more than once. It can’t surprise you that I would speak both to him and to Felicity about my concerns.”

“You make it sound like you’re addressing a business issue,” Rosalinde said, and her voice cracked. The painful sound hit him in the gut. “Celia is a
person
. She is the person I love more than any other on this earth. And you’re trying to hurt her.”

He caught his breath. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone. I’m trying to make sure my brother
isn’t
hurt.”

“How many times must it be said that Celia has no intention of harming Stenfax? The two of them have made their agreements,
both
will benefit from them. Not only will Stenfax receive my sister’s generous dowry, but she will make a good countess for him.”

She said the words, but he could see a flicker of hesitation on her face. Was she aware of some betrayal on Celia’s mind, or was it just that the two of them had no connection and it troubled passionate Rosalinde?

Either way, her words didn’t sway him as she likely hoped. He leaned in closer, getting a whiff of the lemon scent of her hair on the cold breeze.

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

Her jaw stiffened and lifted in outrage. He supposed he should have been put off by that, but he wasn’t. He liked her loyalty to her sister. He liked her fire when she was angered. He liked that she faced off with him directly, not simpering or playing or hiding how she felt.

As if to prove that point, she pushed her face closer to his and hissed, “I despise you.”

She moved to turn away, but he caught her arm and pivoted her back, dragging her almost into his arms. She made no move to resist and her pupils dilated with the desire she was obviously trying to deny.

“Do you?” he whispered.

She held his gaze, mouth twitching, her cheeks growing pink. Then she looked straight at his mouth and licked her lips.

He was lost. He tugged her firmly into his embrace and crushed his mouth to hers. She was stiff only for a fraction of a second, then she parted her lips and met his tongue. He kissed her as he backed her up until she was flat against the stable wall, tilting his head to taste her, panting as he took what he had been missing these four long days and nights.

And he knew there would be no stopping the tide now. He would have her. Here and now.

She seemed to sense the same thing, for she began to arch against him with a breathless, eager fervor that only stoked the need driving through his body.

He broke from her lips with a gasp and looked down at her upturned face. “Do you want this?”

She nodded. “God help me, yes. Yes, I want this.”

He almost sagged in relief at her acquiescence, given despite her anger toward him. He cupped her face and kissed her again, this time more gently. She moaned softly in her throat and her hands came up to grip his jacket lapels as she lifted against him.

He knew they didn’t have much time, so as much as he wanted to make love to her slowly and sweetly, until her body was limp and languid from orgasm after orgasm, that wasn’t an option. Instead, he crooked her leg up with one arm and used the other to ratchet up her skirts.

She let out a cry as he leaned into her, unfastening his trousers as he ground little circles against her bare sex. His cock came free and they sighed together.

“Hurry,” she murmured, her fingers digging into his jacket.

“Your wish is my command,” he responded as he adjusted his position and gently thrust, sliding into her as deeply as he could.

They both moaned together and she immediately began to rock, forcing him to thrust in time to her shaking body.

He kissed her as he took her, lost in her softness, her heat, her unrestrained passion. He’d never known anyone like this woman and he’d never know anyone who came close to her again once she had departed his life.

It was why he felt so driven to have her, despite all the very good reasons to stay away. Despite the knowledge that it wouldn’t last, just as no connection ever lasted. Right now he had her. Right now he would celebrate that fact by driving hard into her, sliding his hand between her legs where she was slick, stroking her clitoris with his thumb.

She jolted at the caress, her eyes going wide and her cries louder and sweeter in the warmth of the stable. Her body fluttered around him in sweet release, massaging his cock, milking him until the pleasure crested and he was forced to withdraw from her heaven and spend his pleasure with a roaring cry of her name.

“You judge Celia,” Rosalinde panted a few breaths later as she smoothed her skirts back down and watched him fasten his trousers. “But you are willing to take advantage of my vulnerability.”

He froze at the accusation and slowly lifted his gaze to her face. Sunlight streamed through a window in the loft above and hit her so that she looked almost angelic, but she held herself like a warrior. An interesting dichotomy if he’d ever seen one.

“Is that what you are? Vulnerable?” he asked.

She laughed, and in that sound he heard her rawness, a pain she had never before revealed to him. “We are women under the control of men, Gray,” she said. “Of course I am vulnerable.”

She said nothing else, but walked out of the stable without so much as a backward glance.

He thought of chasing after her, but didn’t. Why? Because the look on her face had been too genuine. If he followed her, this connection to her would no longer be a mere twist of fate, plucked from the ether. No, if he pursued her, if he pushed her, if he really grew to know the weakness and pain and emotion that she hid deep in her soul…

That would make this real. He didn’t want real.

And yet he couldn’t stop thinking of what she’d said before she walked away. He returned to his horse with her words haunting him.

We are women under the control of men.

She’d meant under his control, she supposed. That Celia was in some ways under his brother’s control. That Rosalinde had once been under her husband’s control.

But he thought she’d also been referring to someone else—her grandfather. She and Celia were under his control and he held the cards to their future in a way Gray didn’t fully understand.

But maybe it was time to change that. Maybe it was time to start finding out more about these sisters and the man who held the key to all they did and said.

Rosalinde sat in the chair by the window, staring out at the rolling hills of the estate far below. In the distance, she saw a rider. Gray. She knew it was him. She was beginning to know the way his body moved far too well.

She sighed. Her plan had not been to make love to him when she went to the stable. She’d wanted to confront him about his interference. To try to convince him that he was wrong about her family. Instead she had ended up consumed by pleasure.

She was a selfish girl, just as her grandfather had always accused her.

The door to the chamber opened and she glanced over to watch Celia come inside. Her sister shut the door and looked at her, concern written on her face.

“There you are,” Celia said, moving toward her. “You were gone so early this morning, and when you weren’t at breakfast I worried.”

Rosalinde smiled sadly. Celia wouldn’t be
worried
if she knew the truth. “I-I thought of taking a ride around the grounds but decided against it.”

Celia sat down on the chair across from her and examined her carefully. “Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Wrong?”

Celia nodded. “I have eyes in my head, Rosalinde, there is no reason to deny the truth. Since your arrival here you have been
odd
.”

Rosalinde tensed. Leave it to her sister to notice even the slightest of changes in her mood. “Odd? How so?”

“You are distracted, for one. I catch you staring off into the heavens so many times each day. And troubled. You are the one of the two of us who smiles and I have barely seen that expression since you came to the country. I can’t help but be concerned by this change.”

Rosalinde shrugged. “Perhaps I am just lamenting the loss of a dear sister when you wed in—God’s teeth—just days now!”

She had meant Celia to laugh at that statement, but she didn’t. Celia folded her arms as if irritated.

“Please don’t pretend the truth away or try to distract me. I want to know what it is your heart, Rosalinde.”

Rosalinde sighed. “I suppose I feel…guilty.”

“Guilty?” Celia edged closer. “Why?”

“I ran away to marry a man I knew grandfather would despise,” she said. “And that rebellion led to his threats to you, to his devil’s bargain that you must marry a title for us to find out the truth about our father. If I had been good, if I had stayed home, if I had—”

Celia lifted a hand. “Stop. There are many things that are regrettable about your marriage, Rosalinde. Watching your heart break when it became clear Martin had only held an interest in money and connection was horrible. But you can’t blame yourself for Grandfather’s actions. He wanted me to marry a man of rank and he would have wanted that whether you turned away from his path for you or not. Your marriage may have pushed him to the timing of his threats toward me, but I have no doubt he would have made them no matter what.”

“Still, it could have been
me
making this sacrifice rather than you,” Rosalinde said. “After all, it is clear you don’t care for Stenfax.”

Celia bent her head. “No,” she said slowly. “I have tried, I truly have. After all, he is handsome and intelligent and kind enough. Most women would give their arm to have him. And yet when I look at him, I feel nothing.”

Rosalinde shivered. “Oh, dear.”

“But one can live in a loveless union, can’t one?” Celia asked, but it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. “People do it every day. Stenfax and I will surely find some common ground along the way, develop a friendship and a partnership when it comes to children.”

Rosalinde bit her lip. “And what will you do about making those children?”

“You’ve explained to me already about the marital bed,” Celia said, and her face twisted, as if the thought of sex was unpleasant. “I’ll bear it.”

“You should experience more than just that,” Rosalinde declared, her mind turning to Gray and his searing touch, his ability to awaken her body with just an expression or a glancing touch. “Celia, the moments shared between a man and a woman should be passionate and tender. You should feel heights of pleasure and then a connection afterward that is unlike any you’ve felt before.”

Celia’s eyes narrowed and she said, “That is a far different story than the perfunctory touches you described to me weeks ago.”

Rosalinde gasped. She’d been so caught up in her worry for her sister, she hadn’t thought through what her words would reveal. Now Celia stared at her.

“Rosalinde,” her sister said slowly. “What has suddenly made you so passionate about the marital bed?”

“Nothing,” Rosalinde lied. She moved to get up, but Celia caught her wrist and held her in place.

“You told me that there was little pleasure with Martin,” Celia said. “You said that you wished you could have experienced something more like what you’ve just described. So what changed between then and now? What makes your eyes light up when you describe what a woman should experience with a man?”

Rosalinde sucked in her breath. Celia was too clever to be distracted from this line of questioning now that she had gotten the scent of Rosalinde’s lies. The truth
would
come out.

And perhaps it was best that it did at last. Despite being two years younger, Celia had always been the more rational of the sisters. She could help Rosalinde in the tangle she had created for herself. But only if Rosalinde could manage to say the words that now stuck in her throat.

“I didn’t know who he was when I met him,” she squeaked out.

Celia shook her head. “Who?”

“And he drew me in, made me want…made me want things I had long ago declared would never be mine.”

“
Who
?” her sister repeated, this time more strenuously.

“Gray,” Rosalinde whispered. “Grayson.”

The blood drained from Celia’s face as recognition dawned. “
Grayson
?”

Rosalinde nodded slowly. “We were trapped in the same inn the night of the storm, my room was damaged and there was no choice…I stayed with him. Just one night, just a stolen night.”

Celia jumped to her feet and stared. “You shared a night with
Grayson Danford
. My fiancé’s younger brother, the man driven to find any reason to have me ousted from Stenfax’s life?”

“I didn’t know it was him,” Rosalinde reminded her. “And then I got here. We were both shocked, especially since I knew by then that he had a desire to break you apart from Stenfax.”

“And then what?” Celia pressed. “Did you call him out for his seduction? Did you threaten to tell Stenfax of his ungentlemanly behavior unless he stopped his torment?”