Lady Libertine (14 page)

Go back to her room… Lucy moistened her lips, thinking about – well – going back to her room. With Hamersley.
Alone
with Hamersley. Did she really want to go back to her room with this man, a man who had a reputation as being irresponsible, feckless, and irreverent?

A man who had a reputation as being one of the best lovers in London
…

Lucy stood for a moment, thinking of the past and thinking of the future, both of them barren, without love, without the warmth that only a few short days in the earl’s company had taught her to appreciate. Reaching out, she took Hamersley’s hand and turned to lead him back the way she had come.

She had left a candle burning. Closing the door softly behind them, she turned to face Hamersley. She could see the fire in his eyes, banked down to a smolder, but kindled there just the same. It stirred a corresponding desire within her and she remembered that kiss in the orchard.

He gave her a slow smile and her pulse leapt in response. How strange it was that a man could make her feel so deliciously heated from two feet away. ‘Tell me,’ he invited, voice soft. ‘I want to know
all
your secrets.’

‘Well,’ Lucy began, then hesitated again. Why she felt the need to confess, right now, to her greatest secret she had no idea. She didn’t actually
want
to. But something was pushing her to, just the same. Her wretched secret was the reason he was here with her, right now. If it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to know the identity of Lady Libertine then he would never have looked twice at her. Surely he should know the reason he was standing here now? ‘Well…,’ she repeated, not progressing at all.

‘Well,’ he agreed, stepping forward, closing the distance between them. Suddenly she could feel the heat from his body. It radiated off him, chasing away her own chill, and her breath quickened. ‘This secret, is it so very dreadful?’

He was so close now. She could feel the whisper of his breath against her face, mingling with her own. ‘Yes,’ she breathed, ‘I’m afraid it is.’

He was going to kiss her. She
knew
he was going to kiss her
…

Hamersley moved, but not to kiss her. Instead, he reached forward abruptly, hands landing on her hips. With a soft grunt, he lifted her off the ground, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and Lucy gave a startled shriek of surprised as he carried her across to the bed. Sitting down on the side of it, he slid her across him until she was face down across his knees, hair falling over her face as he upended her.

‘In the conservatory with Caroline Astor!’ he muttered, and brought his hand down firmly on her rump. Lucy gasped. ‘In the
fernery
with Caroline Astor!’ he snarled, bringing his hand down again.

The blows stung, but they were hardly a brutal assault. Still, Lucy was incensed by both the unexpected spanking
and
the fact that he already knew she was Lady Libertine. ‘Stop that!’

He slapped her again and she bent her head, biting him on the leg. He swore, seizing her arms to swing her upright. ‘You should be spanked until you beg for mercy!’

‘How did you know!?’

‘Your sister let slip...’

‘
Phoebe
knows?’ Lucy was aghast.

‘She will not tell a soul.’

‘She told
you
.’

Hamersley paused, unable to deny it. He was still holding her by the upper arms and their faces were very close together. ‘She won’t tell anybody else, Lucy. It’s alright.’

And then he kissed her.

Lucy melted against him, anger and confusion disappearing, everything forgotten as his mouth took hers, as wonderfully familiar as if they had done this many times, instead of only once before. Thoughts fled, swirling away like dust in the wind as sensation took over. Sitting on his lap, Lucy wound her arms around his chest and held on while he explored her mouth with bruising intensity, longing and anger merging together so that he took what he needed the most – the soft, yielding sweetness of her mouth. One of his own hands was buried in her hair, holding her still as his lips softened, sliding from angry to seductive in slow degrees. Beneath her, she felt him harden, felt him swell with his need – so intensely arousing - and she moaned beneath the kiss.

Turning, Rand rolled her onto the bed, his body half laying across hers as he cupped her face between his hands, looking into her eyes. ‘You confuse the hell out of me, Lucy. Ever since I met you I can’t seem to think straight.’

Lucy swallowed. He was, without doubt, the most beautiful creature she had ever encountered. With his shaggy dark hair falling around his face, he looked like a buccaneer about to ravish her and dear Lord, she wanted to be ravished. His arousal was hard against her inner thigh, his leg lying between her own. ‘I want you,’ she whispered. ‘I want this.’

He groaned, momentarily burying his face in her neck. ‘You don’t know… God, Lucy, you
can’t
know what you’re saying!’

‘I don’t know everything,’ she murmured, staring into those glorious green eyes, ‘but I know enough.’

He dragged in a ragged breath, fingers beginning to unlace the tie of her nightgown, pushing it open to expose her breasts, small, pink nipples tight with need. She heard the hitch of his breath catching, felt the warmth of it as his mouth moved to take one, then the other, in his mouth. Her own breath caught and she closed her eyes, startled by the way her body unexpectedly clenched when he touched her. His hand was moving down, pulling her nightgown up so he could reach the warm, moist apex between her legs and it clenched harder as his searching fingers found the slippery nub of her clitoris. She gasped as he began to play with it, writhing beneath his touch as the gathering tension in her body built, pooling in the pit of her stomach before it spread outwards, rising up in a cataclysm of heat and dazzling, disorienting ecstasy. The climax held her, gripped her, made her want to weep with the sweet, sweet power of it.

Opening dazed eyes, she saw the earl was looking at her, eyes on her face. His smile was a little strained. ‘I swear, if you mention Caroline Astor…’

Lucy shook her head. ‘Don’t stop.’

His thumb began to make small, circular motions across her delicate, pulsing center, while one finger slipped upwards, into the warm tightness of her body. Lucy groaned, arching beneath his skillful ministrations. ‘Dear love,’ she heard him murmur, ‘there is so much more I can show you…’

So much more?
Lucy thought dizzily as another up-rush of pleasure caught her up, swelling into another climax that rocked her already trembling body. The wave shuddered through her, followed by another and another and Lucy swore she saw stars and fireworks and lightening
explode
around her as she exploded, yet again, pieces of her drifting back down to earth as aftershocks rippled through her, leaving her blissfully, deliciously replete.

It seemed there was so much more, after all.

When the magic had faded enough for her to open her eyes and focus again, she saw Hamersley face above her, smiling, eyes glittering with a mixture of desire and delight. ‘Dear heaven,’ she murmured, voice uneven, ‘that was… marvelous!’

‘I am very glad. But now,’ he made a small grimace, adjusting his body, ‘it is time for me to return to my room.’

Lucy pushed herself onto her elbows to stare at him incredulously. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, knowing that she still sounded a little breathless. It was understandable, after all. The man was a magician. ‘But I believe there is more.’

He was clearly amused, if a little taken aback. ‘Miss Landon, you merely confirm what I have known all along. You are a minx.’

‘Minx or not, I am not so unkind as to leave you in such a sorry state.’ She said virtuously, angling around a little so she could rub her leg against his rigid manhood. She was rewarded by a groan. ‘My dear Hamersley, this will never do!’

And with considerable dexterity, she slipped from underneath him, rolling him onto
his
back. He tried to rise, he really did, but Lucy’s small hands were busy unfastening his breeches and the man did not stand a chance.

‘Lucy!’ he rasped. ‘This is not right. I cannot do this.
We
cannot do this.’

‘Your sensibilities are admirable,’ Lucy murmured, fingers momentarily faltering as the last fastening fell away and the hard, rigid length of him was exposed. ‘Oh my…’

Looking up, their eyes met and Lucy gave a slow smile. With deliberation, she straddled him, pulling up the nightgown and robe, never breaking eye contact. ‘My dearest earl,’ she murmured, wriggling around as she tried to position herself, ‘I do believe you have something that belongs to me…’

And Hamersley reached for her, helping her to find the right angle, knowing it was no good and that he was well and truly lost.

Epilogue

‘You cannot mean me simply to stop,’ Lucy objected, hands on hips as she eyed her lover, soon to be her husband, as he lounged on the bed. He was naked and therefore disturbingly distracting. ‘Only think of Thomas.’

‘Be damned to Thomas,’ Rand retorted lazily. He was feeling particularly good, but then, time spent with Lucy always made him feel as if he could conquer the world. They had enjoyed several wicked hours in bed, but now Lucy had to go. They were hosting a pre-wedding party at Julia’s that very evening and it would be circumspect
not
to arrive in each other’s company, lest people thought that they had been together before.

The proprieties must be maintained, no matter how foolish they might seem.

Besides, nothing could be more scandalous than two people who were engaged – to each other! – actually wanting to spend most of their waking minutes together. Rand had surmised that Society simply could not cope with such an idea.

‘But it is such a good income.’

‘I am worth a fortune! You just want to continue to keep the
ton
on its toes. Deal out dirt and dismay.’

‘True,’ Lucy admitted, sitting on the edge of the bed. She shouldn’t have done any such thing, but Rand possessed a very fine chest that was just begging to be touched. She ran her hand down it. ‘I compromised on the cottage.’

He captured her hand, bringing it to his lips. ‘Very kind of you, my love. It would have been perfectly natural, of course, for my wife to live in a small cottage in Cornwall.’

Lucy grinned. ‘I never said you couldn’t live there with me.’

‘So, back to Lady Libertine. You
really
cannot keep doing it. It’s just so… so…’

‘It’s just so much fun. I think you are jealous that you cannot find out as many juicy details as I.’

‘You’re days are numbered,’ he retorted, pulling her down so that she was lying against him. ‘You’re no longer a little mouse any more. People
see
you.’

‘Yes,’ Lucy agreed with a sigh, ‘I suppose it will quite ruin things. I’m glad that I was able to put in that bit about Mama on Tuesday though. Oh Rand, she was practically spitting brimstone!’

Lucy had been fortunate enough to observe her mother’s small indiscretion with Mr. Edgewicke at the Somerton party on Sunday. For some reason, Lady Landon had decided to take a walk in the dimly lit gardens with a man who was
not
Lord Billingsworth. It was uncertain what her elderly suitor would think of her dallying with another elderly suitor, but Lucy didn’t much care.

Lady Landon had greeted her eldest daughter’s engagement to the Earl of Hamersley, at first with incredulity, and then with fury, accusing Lucy of stealing the earl out from beneath her sister’s nose. It had required a very firm set down on Hamersley’s part to rein her in. Phoebe, of course, had been delighted. She herself was aglow for, the day after they had returned to London, Appleby had once again petitioned for her hand. Lady Landon had initially said no, but Phoebe had thrown an emotional outburst of such epic proportions that Mama had said she washed her hands of the entire thing.

‘Yes. You know, a substitute. There are a great many women out there who blend into the wallpaper. I am sure I know of at least three who could do the role of Lady Libertine.’

Beneath her cheek, she heard the deep rumble of Rand’s laugh. ‘Oh, dear God! What did I ever do for entertainment before I met you, Lucy Landon?’

‘I have no idea,’ she admitted dreamily, ‘but how very fortunate you are that you did. I have rescued you from a life of pointless lovemaking, endless gaming hells, and relentless pleasure. You should be very grateful I came along.’

‘I am,’ he murmured, pulling her up so that he could kiss her, ‘Oh, Miss Landon, I am so
very
grateful you managed to save me from myself.’