Devil Takes A Bride (15 page)

He felt…dazed. Happy.

Tranquil and tender. Heavy-limbed with contentment. He could not recall the last time he had felt so deeply connected to any lover. He ignored the slightly alarming thought and tickled her cheek with a lock of her hair.

She brushed it away with a velvety chuckle. The soft sound of it thrilled him, so rich with womanly satisfaction. God, if he were half as bad as his reputation, he would mount her and rend her maidenhead even now, consequences be damned. The fierce impulses that shot through his mind were so foreign to him that they almost amused him: He wanted to shelter her, take such care of her, build her a fortress and keep her safely inside where no harm could ever come to her.

Instead, he hugged her a little closer and kissed her head and ignored the fact that he was not the doting type.

She'll get to you if you're not careful,
his mind warned, but he couldn't seem to help himself. She was so different from the women he was used to, so kind and giving and warm. He loved her thick, brown hair with its lavender scent, her dove-gray eyes and shy smile, her milky-white skin….

“Devlin?” she asked softly, breaking into his absurd smitten musings.

“Hmm?”

“What are you thinking of?”

“You.”

“Flatterer.” She hugged him a little harder and snuggled closer. “What about me?”

“There's still so much I don't know about you,” he mused aloud. “I still have many questions, Miss Carlisle. For example, where did you learn to speak German?”

“I'll give you one guess,” she whispered, biting her lip with suppressed mirth.

“Saucy little baggage.” He squeezed her side to tickle her. “You've been to Germany?”

She nodded, grinning and pleased with herself.

“Explain,” he commanded.

“All the most important thought comes out of Germany these days. I was lucky. The Knight family tutor, Mr. Whitby, taught me the rudiments of the language as a child. He had studied at Gottingen. ” She brushed a long tendril of her hair out of her face. “Three years ago, my interest in German literature was revived when Robert—the duke, I mean—was assigned to the delegation to the Congress of Vienna.”

“Was he?”

She nodded. “Jacinda and I went to Austria with Robert and Bel to ‘broaden our horizons.' We had the most marvelous grand tour. Fortunately, we had already returned to England when the cursed war broke out again.”

“Very well. Second question: What's this I hear about you and some bookshop?”

“Your aunt told you about that?” she asked indignantly.

“Yes, and I do not at all approve, I'll have you know.”

She tweaked his nose in answer.

“Stop that,” he scolded, swatting her hand away.

“I can jolly well open a bookshop in Russell Square if I want,” she informed him with an adorable thrust of her chin, “and why should I not? You men get to do whatever you please. Go on, laugh.”

“I would never dream of laughing at you,
chérie
.” The corners of his mouth twitched, but he managed a look of mock sobriety. “But I must know—why Russell Square?”

“Supply and demand,
obviously
. It's right by the museum. Think.” She tapped her temple and stared up at him from her pillow. “Who buys books? There are coffee shops all around there where the intellectuals like to gather to discuss philosophy and politics, where they go for refreshments after the scientific lectures and such—but I don't suppose you ever set foot out of Mayfair. After all, I hear you are
terribly
fashionable.”

“Well, I hear you are a bluestocking, and now I am beginning to believe it.”

“You asked,” she said with a one-shouldered shrug. “I try not to inflict my eccentricities on others. Brains in a woman?” She shook her head at him with a wry smile. “Most unfeminine.”

“Not to me,” he murmured, cradling her in his arms for a moment. “I find you fascinating, Miss Carlisle. Extremely feminine…and altogether unique—”

“Go on!” she scoffed, trying to pull away.

“Why do you doubt me? I shall lavish you with compliments until you believe,” he declared, preventing her from wriggling away. Holding her naked body against him, he pressed a kiss to the crook of her shoulder. “You're charming, witty, kind,” he whispered. “And very…very beautiful.”

She stopped struggling. Her gray eyes were wary and full of youthful vulnerability as she slowly turned her gaze to his. “You really think I'm…beautiful?”

“'Tis not my mere opinion, Miss Carlisle. It is an obvious fact.”

She smiled shyly at him. He pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. They both fell silent for a long moment.

“What will you do when she—dies?” he asked hesitantly.

“Get another job, I suppose.”

“In London?”

“Why? Do you want to give me a reference, Lord Strathmore?” she asked, sending him a roguish glance over her delicate shoulder.

Laughing softly, he slipped his arms around her waist. “I'll give you more than that, you hoyden. You know,” he said cautiously, petting her hair for a measured pause, “once she's gone, you wouldn't really have to work if you didn't want to.”

“Yes, I do,” she said with a sigh.

“No. I could take care of you.” He couldn't believe he had just said it, but there it was. “I stand to inherit a lot of money. You could come under my protection.”

“Devlin James Kimball.” She sat up swiftly. “You did
not
just ask me to become your mistress.”

“Why not? It's good between us, isn't it? You could have servants, your own house and carriage. Whatever you want—”

“Stop it.” She pulled away from him. “It's out of the question. Please do not speak of it again. The thought is disgusting to me. What we did tonight, I gave freely, not for any kind of gain. For heaven's sake, I've never done anything like this before in my life—”

“I know that. Lizzie—I'm sorry. It came out wrong.” He reached for her as she turned her back to him. “Don't be angry. I'm a fool.”

“Well, I suppose you can hardly be blamed for assuming I'm that sort of girl after I allowed this to happen,” she huffed, half burying her face in the pillow.

“Do you really think you ‘allowed' this to happen?” he asked, pausing. “Do you really think you could have stopped me?”

Warily, she glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Don't you know who I am?” His eyes gleamed. “The abandoned, the wicked, the cursed Devil Strathmore? Dear little thing, you didn't stand a chance.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she scoffed.

“Yes.” He sat up, leaning behind her. “Don't be angry, Lizzie. Not at me, nor at yourself. This night was a beautiful thing.” He caressed her arm. “Promise me you won't regret it.”

In spite of herself, she turned and gazed at him with her heart in her eyes, then cupped his cheek. “Oh, Devlin, how could I?”

“That's better,” he whispered, staring at her. “Come here, you.” He gathered her into his arms once more and leaned back against the headboard.

“So, how does this sort of thing work, then?” She nuzzled in the crook of his neck. “Will it be awkward when we see each other next?”

“Don't know. Come to London, and we'll find out. After all—” He ducked his head to kiss the tip of her nose. “Who else is going to show me these famous coffee shops I've heard about in Russell Square? You know I can't find my way out of Mayfair all by myself.”

She laughed, rolling onto her side with a sinuous, inviting stretch. Dev slid down and fitted his body behind hers. He reveled in the tempting feel of her backside curving snugly against his groin but managed to keep his libido in check. “You know, I still have one more question,” he murmured, deciding to chance it.

“Do you, my curious fellow? All right, I will take one more question. What is it?”

He paused, his lips lingering against her shoulder. “What happened, exactly, between you and Alec Knight?”

She went very still.

He waited with intense alertness, for by now, he had a fair idea of what
hadn't
happened between Alec and her; the girl was as pure as the driven snow. She hadn't even known how to receive a proper kiss that first night in the library, which made his suspicions about the great Don Juan even harder to explain.

“How did you figure it out?”

“I saw the look on your face the other night at dinner when I mentioned I knew him. Then my aunt told me you came here hiding from a broken heart. I can put two and two together.” Sliding his arm around her waist, he tugged softly, rolling her onto her back so that she was forced to meet his gaze. Studying her vulnerable expression, he caressed her cheek. “What did he do to you?”

With ill-concealed distress, she looked away, twining a length of her long hair around her finger.

“Lizzie?” He grasped her chin very gently and turned her face to him. “I told you my troubles, didn't I? Don't you trust me?”

“It's not that. It's just—a little humiliating.”

“He hurt you.”

“Don't look like that. It's frightens me.”

He lowered his lashes to veil the quick spark of vengeance in his eyes. “If the man hurt you, Lizzie, he will answer for it.”

“Heavens, Devlin, it wasn't a dueling offense! We were close, I'll admit, but we had a—a falling out.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” she said flatly. “Nothing at all.”

“I see,” he murmured, studying her. “You wanted something to happen and it didn't.”

“Oh, Devlin.” She let out a wistful sigh and cast her forearm over her brow, studying the white ceiling. “Did you ever have a wonderful idea of someone in your mind, only to find out they weren't really who you thought they were at all?”

He didn't answer, only listening.

She cast him a wan smile askance. “Alec Knight seemed the stuff of dreams to me for…years. I loved him so—at least I thought I did. But when I finally let him know it, he ran away. And now what I thought was love appears nothing more to me than a lonely little orphan girl's hope of finding somewhere to belong. I thought if I married Alec, I would finally be a
real
part of the family. The Knight family, I mean.” She shrugged and let out a wistful sigh. “My position in life is a bit confusing at times, I'm afraid. I'm not a servant, but I'm certainly not a blue blood like you or Jacinda. It's precarious, trying to exist in between these two worlds, below-stairs and above. One feels there is never a place where one truly belongs. I thought that if I took perfect care of Alec, the way I had taken care of Jacinda all those years, that he'd love me, and marry me, and then I wouldn't have to worry anymore, because then I'd have a home and a family of my own, and I would always know just where I belonged.”

He stared at her, his heart clenching.

“But I was deluding myself,” she added quietly. “For Alec never had the slightest interest in me.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It's true. Whatever the nature of the bond we shared, it never went beyond platonic. Ah, well, I guess you might as well hear the whole story.” She came up onto her side and propped her elbow on the mattress, resting her cheek on her hand. “Alec hit a losing streak at the tables last summer and got into a great deal of debt. Usually, he lives off a generous allowance from his eldest brother, the duke. But Robert had warned him repeatedly about his gaming, and by June, the whole family was at their wits' end with him. Well, Alec is very proud. Rather than scale back his fashionable mode of life—and thus jeopardize his exalted place in Society—he sought out one of the low, cutthroat moneylenders that inhabit the most dangerous regions of the City and, despite the most appalling terms of interest, arranged for himself a generous financial rescue.”

“Not wise,” Dev murmured.

“Yes, and Alec knew it, but opted cheerfully to ignore that fact. He was sure his luck would turn around, but in the meantime, he had to pay his IOUs or he wouldn't be able to show himself at White's and Brooke's again. So, he used the loan to pay off his IOUs, and all was well at the clubs. But by the time the first few payments on the loan came due, his luck had still not turned around, which meant he was in even worse trouble than before.

“The moneylender sent out a trio of giant street thugs to demand payment, but there was nothing Alec could do. He put them off for as long as he could. They wouldn't stop. They finally accosted and attacked him when he was on his way home from some night's revels—alone, quite foxed, I'm afraid, and unable to put up a proper fight. He managed to get away despite a broken ankle from their blows, but it wasn't long before they came after him again. By now he was too angry and humiliated to tell his brothers of his plight. I was there the night these horrid creatures came after him again.

“They said they were going to kill him, Devlin. I heard them threaten so—this man I had worshipped since I was nine years old. I couldn't let them hurt Alec. When I realized the danger he was in, I gave him my inheritance that my father had left for my dowry. It's not much, but Robert had invested it well over the years—”

“What?”
he whispered, staring at her in awe. “You offered up your dowry to pay Alec Knight's gambling debts?”

“I tried to, but it didn't work out that way. I'll never forget the look on his face when I gave him the money. He just stared at me as though he were seeing me for the first time, finally grasping my feelings for him after all those years of living under the same roof as chastely as if we were brother and sister. For the first time in his life, I think, he was faced with something serious, something he couldn't charm his way through. He didn't know what to say.” A sheen of tears misted her eyes briefly, but she blinked them away.