Out Of Her League, An Erotic Romance (12 page)

“I see.” James tilted his drink, watching the amber liquid swirl around the base of his glass. Free of emotional entanglements... Two weeks ago he would have agreed with that assessment, but now?

Roger frowned. “I appears I spoke too soon. I assumed that since your liaison with Miss Kittworthy had ended, you’d be able to leave the country. Perhaps you need more time.”

James let out an impatient breath and stood. “Don’t coddle me, Roger,” he replied curtly. “Your offer was unexpected, that’s all. I’ll need some time to put my affairs in order.”

“So you’ll take the position?”

James hesitated. If he could help bring the war to a close, or prevent the kind of treachery Roger had mentioned, how could he turn the position down? Too many live were at stake to focus solely on his own interests. He gave a decisive nod. “Of course.”

Kate walked down the hospital corridor of St. James Hospital with James by her side. The experience was rather unnerving. Time spent with him at his home had been an idyll, altogether separate and distinct from her busy, work-a-day routine.

Never had she imagined the two worlds would intersect. Yet here he was beside her, companionably visiting the recovering soldiers she tended in her daily morning shift, chatting with the hospital physicians and surgeons, strolling through the wards.

And though his unexpected presence at the hospital left her feeling flustered and off-balance, she was also aware of the surge of pride that rushed through her as she watched him tour the wards. How tall and handsome he looked, how strong and purposeful. She had thought him charming in a crowded ballroom.

That was nothing compared to the praise and attention he showered on the staff and patients of St. Thomas, paying particular regard to the recovering soldiers. He even made a point of visiting the mailroom, thanking the clerks for their efforts in shipping equipment and supplies overseas.

“It was kind of you to come here,” she said as they left the building.

“It occurred to me yesterday that it is no longer necessary for you and Dr. Michaelson to make the trek across town to my home, when I am quite capable of coming here for the remainder of my treatments. As Dr. Michaelson has other patients in need of his attention, that only seems sensible.”

“Indeed,” Kate murmured, though her thoughts were in turmoil. Their erotic interludes had always taken place at his home, after their therapeutic sessions had ended. Was this his way of informing her that he had no further interest in pursuing her? She pushed the horrid possibility away. If it were true, she would face it later, in private.

“So this is where you spend your time when we’re not together,” he said.

“Yes. Every day except Sunday.”

She glanced over his shoulder at the hospital’s austere brick edifice. They were leaving the building behind, strolling through the open grounds. Every so often they passed a patient in a wheelchair taking the air, or testing his limits with a new set of crutches. Invariably she knew the patient, so she stopped to offer encouragement or a simple word of cheer.

James stood aside, watching the exchanges. “You mean a great deal to these men,” he said quietly.

“They’re forgotten,” she replied with a sigh.

“Forgotten?”

“Rarely do we receive visitors. The soldiers sent here for treatment come from all over England. Very few can afford the expense of bringing their family in to care for them. I do my best, and so do the other nurses, but there are so many of them, and so few of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you’ve seen, we have no shortage of bandages or medicine. But I often think what a man truly needs to recover are regular visits from someone who cares. Look at the people of London. They’ll line the streets and cheer the troops as they ship overseas, reveling in the glory of battle. But they won’t come visit those same soldiers when they return battered and broken, desperately in need of comfort and companionship. The hypocrisy of it makes my blood boil.”

Kate stopped herself. She hadn’t meant to vent her feelings. She risked a glance at James, only to find him staring straight ahead, his brows drawn together and his lips turned down in a pronounced frown. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken so strongly.”

He turned to look at her. “I’m glad you did,” he said simply. “I had no idea.”

They walked on in silence, each absorbed in his own thoughts. At length James said, “You mentioned you had two brothers in residence at the hospital. Surgeons, I believe. Were they not on duty today?”

Kate froze, feeling as guilty as a child caught with her finger in the jelly jar. “Oh, they were there,” she said, attempting a tone of breezy nonchalance.

It didn’t work. James drew to a halt, searching her gaze. “You didn’t introduce me?”

She should have. That would have been the polite and proper thing to do. Instead, the moment she’d caught sight of them she’d steered James in the opposite direction. What if George had been drinking, or Bertie had tried to involve James in his newest money-making scheme? Unlikely perhaps, but not impossible. That would have been beyond mortifying.

“I should like to meet them, you know.”

A tremor of alarm shot down Kate’s spine. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“They don’t move in the same circles.”

“Is that your way of calling me a snob?”

She looked up at him, surprised by the edge in his tone. “I didn’t mean that,” she started, then she released a sigh and told a partial truth. “I’m afraid we haven’t been getting on lately. It appears I’ve become a bit too independent for their taste.”

“Anything wrong?” he asked, his concern evident.

Kate forced a smile. “You mentioned you have two elder brothers. Did the three of you always get along?”

James let out a curt laugh. “Three headstrong boys?” He gave a shake of his head, a smile of willful reminiscence playing about his lips. Giving her an arch look, he said, “Very well. We both have a pair of older brothers. As you will not tell me about yours, I shall have to tell you about mine.”

They strolled the grounds as he regaled her with stories of youthful indiscretions, of the unfortunate consequences of slingshots and beehives, snowballs and maiden aunts, bull baiting and broken fences. There were fistfights and footraces, forest hideouts and forbidden swimming holes. But no matter how outrageous he and his brother’s antics had been, running within each tale was an undercurrent of love and loyalty Kate couldn’t help but envy.

She’d been so lost in James’s words she hadn’t paid attention to the direction they walked. She looked up to find they had reached the elegant serpentine brick wall that divided the gardens from the hospital grounds. While the main building was rather grim and foreboding, here the architect had created a lovely labyrinth of tall shrubbery, the shadowy alcoves and dappled sunlight—perfect for the sort of trysts she had confessed to watching.

A deep blush spread across her cheeks. “We should head back,” she said, but James blocked her way before she could escape.

His gaze slowly moved over her flushed face, then he took in their surroundings. Recognition set in. “So this is it. The famed garden wall.”

“Yes. Now you’ve seen it. The quickest way back is through—”

“I wasn’t aware we were in a hurry.”

He captured slender one wrist, then the other, holding them both over her head as he pressed her back against the wall. He thrust his knee between her skirts, imprisoning her beneath him. Then he lowered his head and began to nuzzle the side of her neck.

“What are you doing?”

“If you have to ask, I must not be doing it very well.”

“But...” She struggled to put her tumultuous emotions into words. “I thought when you said you no longer needed Dr. Michaelson’s private visits...”

“That I was finished with you, as well?”

“Yes.”

He drew back, quietly searching her gaze. “It would pain me considerably if you truly believed that. Particularly after what occurred between us yesterday.” Then a slow smile curved his lips. “Besides, now that I’ve seen you here at the hospital, I know better.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re far too conscientious a nurse to abandon a patient still in need of your care.”

She fought back a small, embarrassed smile. “I highly doubt what we are doing helps your ankle heal. In any event, there’s no one here. Nothing to see.”

He shrugged. “At every ball there must be one brave couple to begin the dancing.”

“We’re not talking about dancing.”

“True. We’re not.” He lowered his head, his lips brushing hers. “I don’t know why we’re talking at all.”

Kate couldn’t stop herself from kissing him back. She didn’t want to stop. How many times had she walked past this very spot, convinced she would never share that sort of passion? Longing for something just out of her grasp. Her affair with James might be a fleeting thing, but that didn’t make her cherish it any less.

Yesterday’s interlude had done nothing to sate her curiosity. In fact, just the opposite was true. Her lust for him had grown, expanding and curling into something far more reckless and compelling.

The mere touch of his lips on hers was enough to ignite a fire within her. Her body melted against his. She swept her tongue into his mouth. Her kiss was hot, scorching, an open confession of burning need. He continued to entrap her wrists above her head, pinning her between the wall and the solid masculine length of his body, and that felt exactly right.

She wanted to be captured. Taken. Right there, in that instant, no matter who might see them.

All sense of place and propriety evaporated as she thrust her breasts against his chest. Pressed her thigh against his. Felt his cock stiffen and swell against her belly. The knowledge that she could arouse him as he was arousing her filled her with an intoxicating combination of power and pride.

Kate tore her mouth away from his, hungrily pressing a trail of kisses along his jaw, his throat.

James slipped one hand beneath her skirt. He drew his fingers over her ankle and up her calf, following the knit seam of her stocking. She felt a shiver run through her as he traced a path along the back of her knee, then continued up her leg. Finally he reached the lovely space where her stockings ended and her flesh was bare.

His fingers teased the soft, creamy skin of her inner thigh. He brushed the delicate curls that covered her sex, then slipped one finger inside her.

Kate gave a startled whimper at the unexpected penetration. She clamped her thighs shut, imprisoning his hand between her legs. Delicious tension rocked through her as he slipped his fingers between the slick pink folds of her quim, then toyed with the sensitive nub at the entrance to her sex.

She rewarded him with another whimper, a kitten-like release of warm breath against his shoulder. Her skirts rustled as she bucked against his hand. Pulsing pressure built in her belly and a damp heat rose between her thighs.

“Do you think I should petition the Lord Mayor to install a commemorative plaque upon this spot?” he murmured. “We’ll call it ‘Kate’s Wall’. Surely there’s no place in all of London where the Queen’s subjects will find such utter bliss.”

“James...”

“No? I could do it, you know.”

“No.”

“You’re right. Let them find their own bit of paradise. This will be our secret spot.”

He was teasing her, massaging her sex as he spoke, taking her to the brink and then pulling back. Burning impatience filled Kate. She struggled to free herself from his grip on her wrists. The moment he released her hands, she reached for the buttons on his shirt, unfastening them one by one. She trailed hungry kisses over his throat and down his chest, nipping at his skin with her teeth, licking him with her tongue.

He let out a low moan and reached for the delicate buttons that ran down the front of her gown. He wasn’t fast enough, his hands too large for the task. Urgency made him fumble. Impatience careened through her. She wanted him abandon the effort and nibble the delicate buttons off her dress. No. She wanted him to bite them with his teeth and spit them out. To pull the damned thing off and liberate the skin beneath.

Finally he succeeded. He shoved her gown off her shoulders and slid it down her arms, letting the bodice hang loosely around her waist. He groaned in dismay to find yet another barrier between them: a prim, high-collared cotton shift. It was made of gauzy cotton, sheer enough to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of her rich peach corset.

The corset had been expertly tailored to lift her breasts and thrust them forward, offering themselves to him like a set of delectable, exotic fruit. It was cut so low he could just make out the rosy crests of her areolas.

James couldn’t take any more. He grabbed the hem of the cotton shift and drew it upward. A ripping sound rent the air as the delicate fabric tore in two.

Kate gasped in relief.

“I’ll buy you a new one,” he muttered by way of apology. “A dozen new ones.”

He took her left nipple in his mouth. She drew in a sharp breath and arched her back. She dug her nails into his scalp as he laved the nipple with his tongue, sucking twirling around the sweet pink bud until it rose stiff and hard. He brushed the tip of his teeth lightly over the erect peak, drawing a low moan from Kate. Then he lavished the same loving attention on her right breast.

James lifted his head and looked at her. “If you were watching,” he said, “this is what you would see: the sun falling on a woman’s bare breasts. Her nipples are dark and peaked. Her lips are swollen, her cheeks flushed, her cap is askew, and her skirts are tumbled. She looks wanton. Entirely indecent. She looks like a woman who had been thoroughly ravaged. And who has loved every moment of it. Who needs only one thing.”

“What?” Kate whispered, her voice husky with desire. “What does she need?”

“More.”

He unbuttoned his trousers. His cock sprang out, firm and hard and pulsing with life. Tossing aside her skirts, he thrust himself inside her with a force that lifted her off her feet. Kate, teetering on the edge of orgasm for so long, came almost immediately. She cried out as she spent, her back against the serpentine wall, clutching his shoulders as he drove into her.