Rapturous Rakes Bundle (16 page)

unfeigned. She had played her part well, but with

enough hesitation and innate modesty for Lucas to

know that she was part afraid, part intrigued. He could

tell that she felt the same irresistible passion that he

did and that it confused her. The knowledge was the

only thing that held him in check and prevented him

from sweeping her into his arms and his bed. The

strong protective urge that he felt for her had not di-

minished. When he had seen Fremantle about to lay

his disgusting hands on her, he had almost given way

to violence.

Now he looked at Rebecca curled up in a corner of

the hackney carriage and his heart twisted with pity

and the need to comfort her. She looked so small and

forlorn. He wanted to chase those shadows from her

eyes. The surge of feeling she stirred within him

threatened to overwhelm him.

On impulse he put out a hand and touched her

shoulder. She did not move.

‘Rebecca...’ his voice was gentle this time ‘...what

were you doing at the masque?’

He caught the sheen of tears on her cheeks as she

turned her head towards him and he pulled her into

his arms. She came easily to him, curving against him.

‘I wanted everything to be different,’ she said softly,

‘just for one night.’

Lucas pressed his lips to her hair. ‘I understand,’ he

said, ‘but did it have to be a masque?’

He felt her smile against his chest. ‘There was no-

where else to go.’

Lucas’s mind filled with images of all the places

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that he would like to take her. She would enjoy the

theatre, or an evening stroll through Vauxhall Gardens

in the summer, when the sun was setting indigo and

red and the lanterns were lit. Or a ball at Carlton

House, or to visit the Royal Academy... There were

so many places, so many treats that he wanted to

shower upon her. Such matters were easy for him to

arrange and he took them for granted. It was not the

same for Rebecca, tied to earning a living, relentlessly

working in order to survive. It made him feel oddly

humble.

Rebecca shifted slightly in his arms and Lucas be-

came instantly aware of the press of her body against

his. Her cloak had slipped to reveal the bodice of the

scandalously low red silk dress and the pale swell of

her breasts above it. His body tightened in instinctive

response to her luscious beauty and he bit back a

curse.

‘And the dress?’ His voice sounded harsher than he

had intended.

Rebecca snuggled closer to him, causing his body

further agonies of self-denial. ‘It belongs to Nan Ast-

ley.’ She sounded a little sleepy.

‘Of course it does.’ Lucas, compensating for the

tightness in his breeches that the dress caused, sounded

pompous. ‘And the flirting?’

‘
You
flirted with
me,
’ Rebecca said.

‘And did you know it was me?’

There was a pause. ‘Yes,’ Rebecca sounded cau-

tious. ‘I...I thought it was you.’

‘You
thought
it was me?’ Lucas felt outraged. ‘You

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The
Rake’s
Mistress

mean that you flirted like that with a masked stranger

without knowing his identity for sure?’

Rebecca tried to sit up, but he held her tightly in

arms that were suddenly as hard as steel.

‘I was certain it was you,’ she said. She sighed.

‘Besides, I doubt you meant a word you said.’

‘Every word,’ Lucas said. ‘I meant every word.’

Suddenly the silence between them was vivid with

unspoken emotion. Rebecca struggled to free herself

from him and even in the dark he could see the hectic

colour in her face and the glitter of her eyes.

‘Lucas—’ she said.

‘Hush.’ He pressed his fingers to her lips. ‘Re-

becca.’

The hackney turned into the street and drew to a

halt outside the silent workshop.

Lucas helped Rebecca down and turned to pay the

jarvey. She heard the chink of coins and a mumbled

word of thanks from the driver as he raised his whip

and the carriage moved off. The night was cold and

damp. Light no longer shone from the tavern and the

street was silent.

Lucas waited whilst Rebecca unlocked the door.

Her hands were shaking and it seemed to take her a

long time, but it was not the cold that was making her

tremble. The air between them was thick with sensual

awareness. She felt as though she could touch it, taste

it. She felt as though it was smothering her.

She stopped and turned to him. Behind her was the

darkness of the workshop, the fitful moonlight lying

in scattered beams across the floor. It was waiting for

her—all the loneliness and the misery and the empti-

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ness that had trapped her since her uncle’s death had

left her almost alone in the world. Yet before her was

a man who could block out all that sadness and soli-

tude, if only for a short while. He could hold her, give

her comfort, turn the darkness to light for her.

Lucas did not move. She could not see his expres-

sion. She did not need to.

She put out a hand and her fingertips came up

against the smooth material of his coat. Her fingers

drifted across his chest and his own hand came up to

imprison hers.

‘What is it that you want, Rebecca?’ he said. His

voice was husky.

‘You.’ Rebecca spoke barely above a whisper. She

knew nothing other than that the desire for him burned

hotter than all else. Almost all...

The words
I
love
you
were blazed across her mind,

so vivid she almost spoke them aloud.

‘I need you,’ she said. She tugged on his hand very

gently and he followed her across the threshold. The

door closed behind them with a gentle click and they

stood in total darkness.

Time spun out between them. She could feel the

tension emanating from Lucas’s body. It felt almost as

though he was about to turn and leave her. She could

not bear for him to go now. She wanted to blot out

the pain and the anguish and the unhappiness, just for

one night.

‘Lucas,’ she said beseechingly, ‘please...’

Then he closed the distance between them and took

her mouth with his, and as he drew her into his arms,

his kiss turned the darkness to light.

Chapter
Five

Rebecca’s head was spinning, her heart racing at the

shattering sensations that were coursing through her.

Lucas’s mouth claimed hers again with a hungry de-

mand and she responded with all the pent-up longing

and loneliness and need in her soul. Her breasts felt

full and heavy against the slippery silk of the ballgown

and his hand slid up to cup her there. Rebecca shivered

and pressed closer. It felt as though she had always

known it would come to this. It had been inevitable

from the moment that they had first met and now she

wanted nothing more than to lose herself in him.

Her cloak fell to the floor in a pool of darkness, and

then Lucas had swept her up off her feet and into his

arms.

‘Where is your room?’

‘Up the staircase in the corner.’

They wasted no further breath on words.

The wooden stair was a narrow spiral, but it posed

no difficulties for Lucas, who carried her as though

she weighed nothing at all. Halfway up the stairs he

stopped, and in the pulsing darkness, looked down into

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her face. Rebecca’s lips parted as she stared up at him

and he gave a ragged groan and swooped down to take

her lips with his, his tongue darting wickedly to part

them farther and invade the moist sensitivity of her

mouth. Rebecca’s senses reeled.

She had no memory of how she came to be on her

bed in the tiny garret under the eaves. Lucas was lean-

ing over her and she raised a hand to touch his lean

cheek with a shy possessiveness, entranced to feel the

roughness of his stubble beneath her questing fingers.

There was a tender wonderment in her touch. Nothing

had ever felt so good, or so right. She wanted to see

him, but there was very little light in the room. Her

other senses were heightened, drinking him in like wa-

ter in the desert, the feel and the taste and the scent

of him.

‘Lucas,’ she said.

His only reply was to slide his hands into her hair

and find her mouth with his again. Rebecca was

drowning in acute longing, waiting breathlessly in fe-

vered, urgent desperation. He shed his clothes and hers

too, their hands bumping impatiently as Rebecca

sought to help and to rid herself of the constraining

layers that came between them. She wanted to feel his

skin against hers, but when they were naked together

and she felt his hands on her body, she thought she

would burn up with sheer, agonising need. He bent his

head and nipped at her breasts, torturing her with his

tongue and his teeth while Rebecca writhed beneath

him and gave a low, wanton cry of total abandonment.

She was driven to near madness by every sure, know-

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The
Rake’s
Mistress

ing stroke of his hands and his mouth on her. This was

beyond anything that she had imagined.

She slid her fingers into the hair at the nape of his

neck. He felt warm and strong, and she revelled in that

strength. Her hands brushed the tousled hair from his

forehead and slid over the hard, muscular perfection

of his shoulders and down his chest, until he captured

them and spread her arms wide apart on the mattress

so that her body was open to him.

Rebecca shivered convulsively. Her mind was

cloudy with heated desire. When he teased her thighs

apart she shuddered, jerking and gasping as he found

and traced the hot, intense centre of her. The exquisite

sensations built and crashed about her, and wrenched

a tormented gasp from her.

‘Lucas,
please
...’

She was dimly aware of the urgency in his hands

as he slid over her, then he plunged into her and the

passionate invasion wrenched a sharp gasp of pain

from her lips. He stilled in an instant.

‘No! You can’t be!’ He sounded breathless and rag-

ged.

Rebecca shifted slightly, utterly distracted by the

tiny movements that were easing him all the way in-

side of her. It was impossible to concentrate and talk-

ing was the last thing that she wanted to do. ‘I
told

you,’ she said.

‘Yes, but I thought...’ Lucas sounded dazed.

Rebecca rubbed his arm in a gentle caress. ‘Do you

really wish to speak about it now, Lucas?’

His eyes came back to hers and she saw him register

their situation, his expression darkening as he took in

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the tension and heat of her body wrapped about his in

intimate conjoining. He gave a groan. ‘No.’

‘Then do not.’ Rebecca wriggled a little and Lucas

groaned again, bending to kiss her, ravishing her

mouth with the same thoroughness with which he was

now taking her body. He took his time now, building

up the new and devastating sensations that had fled

briefly from her when he had stopped. Raw desire pos-

sessed her again, whirled her up, mingled with the

pounding surge of his body within hers. She was spin-

ning, tense and tight and out of control, until the mind-

less pleasure burst like stars and tumbled her over the

edge of a shattering release.

For a long time there was no sound but their

breathing as it slowed and calmed, and then Lucas

pulled Rebecca close to him and wrapped his arms

about her. His mouth was against her hair.

‘I am going to light a candle.’

Rebecca stiffened. It seemed too soon. Suddenly she

needed the anonymity of the darkness. ‘Please do not.’

‘I want to look at you.’ He sounded adamant.

Rebecca sighed with acquiescence. She heard him

grope for the tinderbox and strike a light. The small

flame flared, bringing the shabby garret into warm fo-