Seducing the Rake (Mad, Bad and Dangerous Heroes) (42 page)

“He tried to—he almost—” She swayed. Almost against her will, her eyes slanted down in the direction where the body had fallen.

“Don’t look down, Chessy. Look at me,” Morland commanded. “Think about us. Think about—”

A loud shout burst from the stable yard. “Go fetch the magistrate! And then that church-fellow. This poor beggar’s dead!”

Chessy shuddered. Her knees seemed to sway, then lose their strength.

The next moment, she went plunging over the roof.

“
Chessy!”

Without thought or the slightest hesitation Morland threw himself down after her.

~ ~ ~

She was going to die. That was the only thought shrieking through Chessy’s mind as she smashed along the jagged tiles, her skirts shredding farther with every jolt.

Dear heaven, in a few seconds I am going to die.

But she didn’t want to die. She wasn’t nearly ready.

The sky tilted, spinning around her in a blur of turquoise. Wind whipped at her hair, lashing it across her eyes as she careened wildly down the sloping roof.

“No!” She drove her fingers into the tiles, sobbing as they ripped free again and again.

And then, dimly, she heard the crashing from the opposite roof. Her eyes widened as a tall shape hurtled toward her.

“Tony!”

They had mere seconds of impact, his hard thighs rammed into hers, driving her sideways. His feet slammed hard against the lower corner of the roof. “Hold on!” he shouted.

Blindly Chessy twisted to her stomach. Her fingers found the lip of the gutter and clung tight.

And then her feet skittered free. She dangled over the stable yard.

She sobbed as she heard the crack of tiles upon the earth and Morland’s raw curse.

A moment later, she heard the dull
thwack
of a large body striking the ground.

She twisted, straining to look down, but all she could see was black hair tossed about her eyes.

“Tony! N-no!”

Tears burned her eyes, and her fingers screamed in pain where the metal rim of the gutter bit deep.

But no answering call came from beneath her.

Her strength began to fade. The pain was too fierce, the effort too great now that he was—

A sob broke from her throat. Two fingers tore free, and then her right hand. She cried out as her whole body pitched wildly, jerking from side to side.

And then she heard a low groan, followed by the scrape of stone on stone.

“Ch-Chessy?” Another groan, then a low curse. “Sweet Lord—hold on, my love.”

“Tony?” She blinked as tears flooded her eyes, her cheeks.

“Here, Cricket. Hold on—just a little longer.”

Her hand was white, fast growing numb. She caught back a sob as one more finger wrenched free. “I-I can’t!”

“A second or two, my heart. And then—”

She heard the scrape of fabric and the creaking of wood.

“Done! Let go, Chessy.”

Another finger ripped free. Chessy sobbed as pain cracked through her wrist and forearm. She had only a few more seconds until she fell. “Now? Tony, I can’t see—”

“Do it now, my love. Trust me. Just—ahhhh—trust in me.”

Black hair covered her eyes, whipped up by the wind racing over the roof. She felt the metal gutter shudder and heave beneath her gripping fingers.

Trust me.

Her heart lurched. There was nothing but emptiness and death beneath her kicking feet.

Just trust me
.

With a wild cry she let go of the shaking gutter and dropped into space.

She heard Morland shout. The next second, her feet struck the ground with a bone-jarring crack. Pain exploded through her from rib to toe.

And then the ground began to move, tilting crazily before pooling into a soft heap.

Blinking, she looked around her and caught back a watery sob. “A quilt?”

“It was the best I could do on short notice.” His hard hands were around her; his fingers gripped her shoulders. “You fool, you little fool. I’m tempted to turn you over my knee and flay your sweet hide! Promise me you’ll never do anything so dangerous again.”

Chessy closed her eyes and burrowed into that warmth. “He—he tried to k-kill me. He h-had a pistol. I couldn’t—”

The fingers tightened. “Hush, Cricket. It’s over now. Just rest.”

Dimly Chessy felt a shudder rush through his chest and then the hot slide of tears upon her neck.

His
tears.

She clung to him, afraid to let go, afraid that she’d find that this was just another dream and any second she would be ripped away from him.

“I-I killed him. He is over there right now, isn’t he? His—his body.”

“He killed himself, Chessy. Don’t talk rubbish.”

“But—”

“No
buts.
And no more talk. I’m taking you inside. I’ll tend to the body later.”

She closed her eyes as she felt herself lifted up, crushed against his taut frame.

Tight as they were, she could not mistake the momentary tremor that shook him, the tensing of his thigh.

“Tony—you’re hurt. Put me down! I can walk—”

“When pigs can fly!” he muttered grimly, stalking toward the inn’s rear entrance, where a score of wide-eyed servants were thronged, whispering and pointing.

“Out of the way,” he growled. Instantly the milling humanity parted like the biblical Red Sea, and Morland stalked up the White Hart’s rickety rear steps.

Chessy felt him flinch and twisted her head downward.

“Your feet! Oh, Tony, you’ve—”

He swung her close and cut her off with a kiss, raw and hard and infinitely fierce.

Around them the onlookers giggled, then began to laugh.

A moment later, a ragged chorus of cheers broke forth.

Chessy barely heard, her world limited to the hard, hungry slide of Tony’s mouth against hers.

Light flared behind her locked eyelids. Heat, oh such heat…

Maybe you did die. Because this certainly feels like heaven.

A moment later, Morland pulled away. Chessy’s cheeks flushed crimson beneath the unveiled sexual need that blazed in his eyes.

“East of forever, Cricket. And don’t ever forget it. Because I’m never going to let you go again.”

She heard shouts of encouragement, then wild clapping.

“Now will you marry me, woman? Or am I going to have to save you from death yet another time?”

Her breath caught before the force of his unrelenting gaze. She wanted to yield. Oh, heaven, how she wanted to. If it weren’t for the Triad threat. If it weren’t for her father … and for the vast differences between them.

“I—”

“Done. As good as a yes!” Morland slanted a look at the surrounding crowd. “You heard it, didn’t you? A yes—clear as sunlight on an August day.”

Several women laughed. A brawny workman shouted a very lusty suggestion of how the earl might persuade her.

Smiling darkly, Morland stared down at Chessy. “Oh, I mean to. Just as soon as I can fetch her upstairs to bed.” His fingers cupped her fiercely, protectively while his eyes made a host of hungry, erotic promises.

Meanwhile there was no mistaking his savage need, the hot rise of his manhood against her hip.

Chessy licked lips that had gone suddenly dry. Her heart began to thump in a crazy staccato.

For she knew the same need now.

She shivered as the flame in his eyes blazed higher. She should have known she could never hide anything from this man.

But she had to try. “You don’t—we c-can’t—”

He wasn’t fooled for a second by her sputtering denials.

“I do and we can. Oh yes, Cricket, we most certainly can.” Without looking away, he raised his voice in command to the crowd. “Will somebody go and fetch that bloody cleric before I have to chase the woman over
another
roof?”

This time when Morland put her down, Chessy found herself on a settee in the sitting room on the second floor. Not, as he had threatened, in the adjoining bedroom.

“Don’t want to shock the cleric, do we?” Morland said gruffly as he bent to examine her ankle.

Chessy winced as he ran his fingers over the bone.

Only then did she look down and see that her whole foot was blue-black and swollen. Morland muttered something beneath his breath and yanked at the bell-pull.

Almost instantly the landlord appeared, all smiles. Chessy realized he must have been waiting at the upper landing. By the cheerfulness of his manner, she decided that all the furor had not cost him any business.

Quite the contrary, she suspected.

“What is your wish, my lord? Claret? A fine pair of hens my Elsie has been all day in the roasting? Or perhaps a pigeon pie?”

Morland cut into this happy recitation. “Clean gauze and a basin of water will do for now. But the cleric—is he still below?”

“Enjoying his second bottle of claret, my lord.”

“Very good. See that his glass is kept refilled.”

As soon as the landlord left, Morland came back to the settee where Chessy was lying. “Is it damnably painful?”

She managed a smile. “Oh, just a twinge or two. I’ll be fine. But what about you? Your feet are—”

“My feet can wait. But I’m sorely tempted to blister your backside, hellion. What possessed you to bolt that way?” His eyes blazed down at her as he lifted her shredded skirts and gently slid his hands along her leg.

Chessy swallowed at that masterful sweep of callused skin. “I-I had to go.”

“I can see I’m going to have to keep a close eye on you. Now hold still while I remove these ruined stockings. Then I’m going to wash your face and brush that wild hair. And then, my dear sweet idiot, I’m going to carry you downstairs and hold you in my arms while that overpaid cleric, who is by now almost certainly three sheets to the wind, pronounces us man and wife in the eyes of man and God. And then, my sweet—then I am going to carry you up here to bed and—”

A pounding came at the door. “The cleric is ready, my lord. He requests that the bride hasten. He has other parishes to visit and another marriage to perform this day.”

Morland muttered beneath his breath. “Ten minutes, landlord. And tell him he will be amply repaid.”

Heavy footsteps echoed back down the stairs.

Morland’s eyes darkened as he raised Chessy’s skirt higher, following the soft curve of her calf.

“N-no, Tony. You—you mustn’t—”

But with every inch he left her more breathless, more confused, until she couldn’t seem to frame a complete sentence.

And the libertine knew it full well.

Smiling darkly, he ran his fingers along one lace-trimmed garter. Slowly he slid his finger beneath the edge.

“Tony—don’t—I can’t think when—”

“I’m delighted to hear it.” His hand slid deeper.

“No, stop! You don’t understand. It’s not that I don’t want—that you aren’t—”

His fingers splayed, cupping the hot, sleek skin beneath her knitted stockings.

Chessy caught a ragged breath, determined to finish, to explain all the reasons why she couldn’t marry him. But she did not want to hurt him. “That is—well, attractive. I don’t deny that sometimes I find you—that you can be extremely—”

His thumbs edged out, leaving trails of fire along her naked flesh.

Upward, ever upward.

Chessy tried to repress a shiver—and failed. “Just like, well,
now.
I have to admit that your touch does not leave me—ah, unaffected.”

“Indeed?” Morland’s voice was as rough and rich as damask. “And what about this?”

His thumbs eased higher.