Captured Love (6 page)

He moved forward, leaving the candles burning to add
to his pleasure, and her discomfort. He felt no charity for her. She had
brought this on herself.

“I... I’m... s...sorry.”

“It is far too late for that.”

“I —”

“I have no wish to hear anything you have to say,
Meredith. So pray, do not speak. I have only come to consummate the match.”

Her mouth formed an ‘O’ and then shifted to a pout as
he undid the sash at his waist.

When he shrugged off his dressing gown, her gaze
dropped as did her jaw.

He was still not inclined to be kind, and he hadn’t realized,
until this moment, that is was possible to be intensely angry with someone and
yet intensely attracted to them, too.
That
hair
... “Let the covers go.”

She did. They fell to her waist, only revealing more
of her nightgown.

“Stand up.”

She looked nervous and scared as she climbed off the
bed and then stood before him. All he could see of her body was her hands, her face
and her toes. Her thick linen nightgown hid all else.

He met her gaze and stepped forwards, his eyes holding
on to the blue as his fingers began working loose the buttons at her front,
starting at her chin and moving down.

She was shaking. She bit her lip and her eyes dropped
to stare at his Adam’s apple. His gaze dropped to watch each button slip free
and the material begin to gap. Her skin was as pale as cream; it had not one
single blemish, and her hair glowed in the candlelight, a striking contrast to
her pale complexion.

The pulse in his groin intensified, and he was fully
erect, while something equally hard tightened in his chest.

Yes
, he had no issue with consummating this marriage.
This was the only part of his life which would be a pleasure from now onwards.
He had wanted a comfortable marriage; he would make this it.

When her nightgown was loose he brushed it off her
shoulders and it dropped to the floor, leaving her naked.

His fingers slipped into her hair, and, cradling her
nape, he brought her mouth to his. He kissed her opened-mouthed and she kissed
him back, brushing her tongue past his lips.

She knew how to kiss, then. Lord he hoped she was not
loose. He did not want a wife who would cuckold him. Still, it hardly mattered
now. She was the wife he had.

His hands moved, running over her body. He’d thought
her thinner than she was. She had wide hips, flesh a man could grasp. He
clasped her buttocks as he kissed her. She did not seem at all shocked, or
afraid, not now. She pressed against him with more confidence than he’d
imagined she would have. Perhaps it was the bravado he had always seen in her,
returning. Perhaps she did not care if he liked her or not, as long as she had
what she wanted. At the moment, he did not particularly care whether he liked
her or not, either.
He liked this
...

His hand gripped her breast, and she arched, pressing
it into his hand. Her breast had an exquisite pert tilt, which made her tight
nipple stand proud. He caressed it with his thumb as her tongue weaved about
his, not compliant, but hungry. She was not merely permitting his kiss and his
caress, but clearly taking pleasure in them, and proving that, her hand moved
from where it had gripped his shoulder, falling to his groin, and then she
clasped him.

Lord, she would unman him in a moment. He’d had no
mistress for a year; he had not thought it right to have one when Rowena had
come out.

His kisses became more ardent, his tongue pressing
deep into Meredith’s mouth as her fingers began working him in tight swift
strokes. He ought to care that she knew a man’s body far too well, he ought to
be angry. But the anger had gone from him. There was no room in his head for
thoughts; it was swamped with sensation.

“Meredith...” he said into her mouth as his fingers
gripped in her hair and at her breast, then his tongue fenced with hers as she
fought him for who would invade whose mouth.

Panting and ravenous, he backed her toward the bed,
and then they tumbled.

He could be slow and take his time, but he was not
inclined for that. He had abstained for far too long. He just wanted quick,
urgent relief, and she was his wife; he could have what he wished.

Within moments her legs were braced open by his, and
he was looking down at her, holding steady in the single second before he
plunged.

Her gaze shone with heat, but there was also fear
there again, and when he was inside her, deep inside her, he saw a flash of
pain, having burst through the brief restriction of her maidenhead.

She had been a virgin. She was untouched by any other
man, in this way.

There was a deep sudden feeling of relief as he
watched her bite her lip. She might have toyed with other men, but she’d kept
herself whole for the marriage bed. He began moving, slowly at first, steadily.

She held his gaze for a little while, lying still and
looking up at him as he pressed all the weight of his upper body onto his hands,
so he might work with more skill.

His heart was thumping and he suddenly had an intense
desire to ensure she was as pleased by this as he would be, and he knew he
would be. He increased his pace.

She began moving, lifting her hips, and using muscles
in her stomach which he could feel tightening inside her.

As he pressed in, she pressed up, and this became a
battle between them — no, not a battle — more like a country dance where each
step counterbalanced the other.

Lord,
Lord.
She was fiery hot.

Still holding her gaze, he smiled gently, with closed
lips.

She smiled back, responding, as his pace became more
aggressive. He entered her with firm, fast, deep strokes. Then he was kissing
her hair, her face, biting at her lip, nuzzling her neck and nipping at her
shoulder.

Her fingers clawed into his back, cutting through his
skin and her panting rang on the still air in the bedchamber.

“No, stop,” she cried toward the end as her head
pressed back into the mattress and her eyes closed. She bit her lip, but then
her mouth fell open and a rush of warmth flooded about his intrusion, while he
felt a spasm claw at him to stay in her heat.

Conceding,
he reached his end and pressed deep, relinquishing
himself inside her.

Her fingers clung to his back, holding him close.

Meredith felt as though they had just run across a
bridge into each other’s arms, as though they were not distant anymore. He had
smiled at her, and looked at her, and she was now truly his wife. It had been
painful at first, but after that it had been beautiful.

“Lord Morton,” she whispered.

His body immediately stiffened and he lifted off of
her.

She didn’t like losing him. She wanted to hold on to
him, and never let him go.

“
Here.
” He lifted a corner
of the crumpled covers, obviously implying she should slip beneath.

When she had, he bent, picked up her nightgown and
then handed it to her.

Her fingers shook again when she took it.

“Thank you,” he said, before bending to retrieve his
dressing gown. Then he turned away, putting it on as he did so, and afterward,
he walked about the room and blew the candles out, all except for the last,
which he picked up, and took with him as he left the room. She did not know
what to think.

Had she done something to displease him?

~

Rupert sat at the breakfast table, scanning the
papers. Rowena was with him; she was reading a letter which had just been
delivered. There were another three dozen white roses in the hall.

He turned the page of the paper. His announcement was
there, small and almost hidden.
The Earl
of Morton, wed Miss Meredith Divine
... He had no wish to herald his
marriage. He turned the page.

He’d wanted a comfortable marriage — that, he knew, he
would have to fight to obtain. He’d also wanted a comfortable marriage bed — that,
he now knew, he would never have. He would have far more in his bed.

Clearly there had been no woman in Meredith’s life to
tell her she ought to lie still, and not move, while a man took his pleasure.
Well, Amen, and thank God, to that. He had married a delicious, sultry hoyden. He
smiled, still looking at the paper, although no longer reading it, as memories
slipped through his head.

He had not been able to sleep after his exertions last
night. He’d
lain
awake longing to go back for a second
course, and wishing he had not left her bed.

He would go back tonight.

Meredith came into the room, and he instantly stood,
looking at her and nodding slightly. “Good morning, Meredith.”

Her eyes focused on his and she gave him that smile,
the one which sought to please.
The one which had annoyed him
for so many months.
A warm sensation gripped in his chest.

Last night he’d had to direct her to sit at the far
end of the table when she would have taken a seat near him. This morning he
beckoned her forward. It would do no harm in the mornings. Her lips parted, her
smile broadening.

The warmth, which had blossomed in his chest when she
came in, tightened its grip, and left him feeling short of breath.

“Sit here, Meredith; we may be informal in the
mornings.”

A footman drew out a chair, and once she was seated, the
man poured her chocolate.

Rupert’s heart thumped oddly as he remembered the body
beneath her clothes, and how last night it had responded so beautifully to him.

Another footman offered to fill her plate.

“How are you?” Rupert asked. Her head, which had been
bent, now lifted and her gaze met his, that lovely vivid blue. “Did you sleep
well?”

She seemed paler than normal and she looked tired.
Perhaps her conscience — if she had one — had been bothering her. It should be
bothering her... The girl had tricked him into marrying her. Yet today, he was
far less angry about the whole debacle.

“Yes, thank you, Lord Morton.”

“There is little point in you calling me that, now.
You must call me, Rupert, Meredith.”

She blushed and then glanced at Rowena, who only now
lifted her gaze from her letter, and then put the letter aside. Rowena did not
speak, though. She merely glanced at her former friend, before picking up her
cutlery and starting her breakfast.

Rupert picked up the paper and passed it to Meredith.
“My announcement is in here.” Then he rose, having finished eating. He would go
to Jackson’s, and then dine at White’s, before it was the hour to go to the
House of Lords.

He glanced at Rowena. “I have asked Ellen to take you
and Meredith shopping today.”

Rowena looked up, and gave him the sympathetic smile she’d
been bestowing on him ever since Meredith had played her ace. Rowena felt
guilty, whether her friend did or not. She had been apologizing constantly
during the last couple of days; her look suggested another.

He smiled back. Welcome or not, intended or not,
Meredith was to live with them now and they must make the best of it. Rowena
would have to learn to forgive as he had to learn to accept. Since last night
though, he thought it might be easier than he’d expected to accept his new
fate.

He glanced at Meredith again. She stood, as though to
speak or to do something, but then appeared to not know what...

He left.

 
“Rowena —” Meredith began as she took her seat again,
but her former friend just lifted her hand.

“I am not listening to you apologize, Meredith. He is
my brother, and I love him dearly. I am too angry to speak to you. He deserves
far more than to be trapped by —”

“I did not plan what I did, Rowena,” Meredith
whispered. “It was not like that.”

Rowena leaned across the table, and with a vicious
pitch, ignoring the footmen, accused, “Then how was it? He had no interest in
you. You know he did not. I suppose you only became my friend so you might get
close enough to him for this...”

“No! It is not like that! I fell in love him after we
became friends, but I have loved him for weeks... I know he does not like me,
but my father had agreed a marriage with his business partner.
Perrigrew
is old, and bitter, and I did not —”

“Wish to marry him? And so you thought you’d force my brother’s
hand. I will shop with you today, Meredith.” Rowena stood up, dropping her
napkin on the tablecloth. “But do not expect me to speak to you. I have no wish
to be your friend anymore. Rupert warned me about you months ago. He said you
only used my friendship. I wish I had listened.”

She walked away.

Meredith stood, and a blush burned her cheeks as tears
stung her eyes. “That is not true, Rowena! It is not true!”