Undeniable Rogue (The Rogues Club Book One) (29 page)

Perhaps her boldness stemmed from the fact that she had it in her mind that she could help him for a change. She was acting from a position of strength for once, a feeling she embraced.

She knew not what, exactly, drove her to seduce her husband amidst her worry over his losses, but she did feel driven.

They heard the servants filling the bathtub in his dressing room and pulled somewhat apart, lest one of the retainers enter, but no one did.

“You said you would care for me, yourself,” Gideon said, his voice butter smooth, enticing. “Does that mean you will help me with my bath?”

“I will.” She raised her chin, but lowered her lashes, aware she was flirting. Flirting. With her own husband.

Gideon hardened the more against her. She would never stop thrilling to the knowledge that she aroused him. “I missed you last night,” she said. “I went looking for you.”

“Did you? We were all asleep?”

“You were. The boys were awake. Rafferty said you were frightening the thunder away with your snores.”

“The bounder. Much good it did me to protect him.”

“He was smiling when he said it.”

“I suppose that must count for something.”

“With our Rafe, it must. Do you care for your bath, now, your grace?”

“Have I any other choice?”

Sabrina sighed. “I wish.”

“Do you?” Gideon pulled back so he could see her better. “Honestly?”

Sabrina blushed, which apparently became answer enough, for his grin reminded her of the undeniable rogue who drove so sensual a bargain on their wedding night.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“How can I bathe you with
that
monstrous thing in my way?” Sabrina asked, not five minutes later, as she leaned over Gideon’s bathtub, washcloth in hand.

“Why thank you, Bree.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Well, how can you blame me? Since Juliana’s birth, we have abstained for, what, six months?”

“Four and a half weeks.”

“Is that all, by damn?” Gideon threw his head back in a caricature of martyrdom. “Yea, how I have suffered.”

Sabrina smiled at his play, enjoyed it, even, so much so that she dared reach into the water to grasp his poor neglected...self. “Let me make it better.”

Like Neptune rising from the sea, Gideon stood, stepped from the tub and lifted his wife in his arms, all in one shocking move.

He carried her to his bed and they went down as one, dripping, soaking the covers, and kissing as if they had not kissed in months.

“Touch me now,” Gideon said, “The way you just did in— Ah yes.” He set his jaw and closed his eyes in an ecstasy of sweet suffering. Then he touched her in return, more gently than ever, so lightly and beautifully that together they found the release denied them.

They remained entwined for a long, splendid, eternity of kisses, until Juliana in the next room began to make her presence known.

While Gideon took his bath, Sabrina changed her clothes, and fed the baby, and just when she got to the point of beginning his shave, the boys trooped in.

Sabrina gaped at them, and then she gaped at Gideon. “I assumed that your door had a l-o-c-k,” she spelled.

“N-o,” he countered with a grin, looking jocular beneath his shaving cream. “I never needed one before.”

“Well you need one, now. I mean, I knew that my door did not lock, but I assumed that the Duke’s did. Good God. We might have...They could have...”

Sabrina gave up raving and shaved her husband.

“Do not cut off anything important,” Damon said.

“What do you mean by important,” Sabrina asked.

Damon rolled his eyes. “His nose, of course, and his ears.”

“And take care to shave his chin dimple well,” Rafe said. “Old Mr. Bundy, the farmer,—do you remember him, Mama?—He always had pig whiskers bristling from his chin dimple.”

Sabrina had to stop, because Gideon had broken into a fit of laughter. When he caught his breath he regarded Rafe seriously. “How do you know they were pig whiskers?”

“Well, they were his own whiskers, of course, but one day his porker came up to him as he spoke to me and I saw that their whiskers were exactly like.”

“Will you stop laughing,” Sabrina ordered her husband. “It is not easy to shave you while you do. I
shall
snip something important, if you do not calm yourself.”

Gideon cleared his throat and relaxed, though his shoulders shook at regular intervals after that. 

“There,” Sabrina said when she was done. “Everything still attached, and Rafferty, you will note, that I did a good job on the chin dimple. Not a single pig whisker bristles from it.”

“It is time to go back upstairs and do ciphers with Miss Minchip, is it not?” Gideon asked the boys, while Sabrina wiped the excess froth of shaving soap from his face.

They groaned in unison, but they went.

When they were gone, Sabrina broached the subject praying on her mind. “I am a bang-up rider, Gideon, did you know that?”

Gideon started in surprise at the question. “I did not. When we go down to Sussex, I shall have to let you ride one of my Arabians.”

“I am better than a simple rider, I mean. I once jockeyed in a race where a certain gamester lacked the funds to pay a real jockey?”

“Your husband lacked the funds, you mean?”

“I won a fat purse.”

“Congratulations. I did not know I had married a horse jockey.”

“There is a race at The St. Eustace Winter Fair in three weeks time. I have seen your Arabian. Deviltry is a prime goer. I could ride him at the fair race and win you the purse. I imagine five thousand pounds would help.”

“What?” Gideon took the towel from her hand and wiped his face more thoroughly. “What are you talking about?” he asked, rising. “You want to play jockey in a race? Why ever would you want to do that? And of course, you will not.”

“I want to help you recover some of your fortune.”

“I am sorry, Bree, but you make absolutely no sense.”

Sabrina took from her pocket the folded paper she had found beneath the upended drawer and handed it to him.

Gideon barely needed to read the document she gave him. He had only forged and hidden it last night. He rubbed his freshly-shaved face and considered this unexpected turn of events. “Where did you find this?”

On the floor in your study with everything else you tossed about in your rage last night. Shame on you. But do not worry, I cleaned everything up, so no one else would realize that you gave in to a tantrum. I know you do not usually lose your temper in that unruly way.”

Sabrina paced to the window and back. “I knew, of course, when you left me last night that you were upset about money, but I never dreamed—until I saw this. Then I understood.”

“I see.”

Gideon’s brain and his heart ran a rioting gamut of emotions. At first taken aback then chagrined, he moved through bewilderment, and finally to hope.

He had purchased this woman. She had made it clear to him that money meant everything to her. And now she supposed him penniless and rather than releasing her rage or threatening to find a rich protector, she was offering to help him recover his losses.

It made no sense, but Lord, it made him hope, as he had never dared.

As he slipped into a fresh shirt, Gideon wondered how long Sabrina would remain with him, if he allowed her to continue to believe him destitute.

Ignoring the anguish engendered by the very possibility of losing her, he regarded her levelly. “You saw this and realized I needed funds.”

His wife nodded. “I would like to show you how well I ride, so I will need you to help me dress like a man. Then I will need help walking and talking like a man as well, because it has been a long time since I raced, before even the twins were born.”

“Let us be clear, here. You want me to help you dress, ride, walk and talk like a man?”

Sabrina nodded.

“Now there is a scheme I can sink my teeth into.” Aware he was ignoring any and all possible repercussions; he also knew that if he did not snatch at this opportunity to become closer to his wife, he might never be allowed another. “When shall we begin?”

“This evening after the children are asleep?”

Gideon stepped up to her, took her into his arms and kissed her as if she were his lover in fact. “This evening. I can barely wait.” He gave her a look heavy with promise, before he went downstairs to his study to see what might have gone wrong.

By the time he was finished examining his study, he was not certain what to think. It left him with new questions, when already too many had been left unanswered, not the least of which was the nagging question of whether he could be so foolish as to be falling in love with his wife.

A query with no answer, one to be saved for another day.

For today, he needed to confront Doggett, because several— What had he called them? Oh yes, baubles. Several baubles were missing.

By the time evening arrived, and the children were finally asleep, the phrase
I can barely wait
had become Gideon’s mantra. He placed on his bed all the clothing Sabrina would need, and she regarded the assortment with a critical eye.

“Drawers?” She held up a pair for a thorough examination. “Why do I need drawers? They will bunch, I think.”

“Because you have nothing with which to fill them.”

“The better for you,” said she.

“Saucy wench. What did you wear under your pantaloons the last time you raced?”

“Nothing.”

“Even better.” He went for her.

She sidestepped his reach. “Gideon, now, stop that. We seek to arrive at a particular destination, do not forget. We are undressing me to redress me.”

“But there can be nothing wrong with a little side journey, now and again, before we reach our destination, can there?”

“Hmm. A journey to where?”

Her rogue raised a speaking brow. “Heaven.”

Sabrina laughed and danced from his reach once more. Under cover of her dress, she attempted to pull on the pantaloons he had set out for her.

“Oh, no fair. You have to take the dress off first.”

“We will never reach our desired destination, if I go about dressing in that way.”

“Will we not?”

But Sabrina’s opinion held sway. And after she successfully pulled on and fastened his pantaloons, she did remove her dress.

Gideon decided that she filled his breeches out in remarkable ways. Come to think of it he was filling his own out quite well at the moment. His palms itched to touch, his mouth watered to sample. “I must be the luckiest man on earth.”

“Mama, Damon is sick.”

Sabrina turned her back and slipped into her wrapper, tugged off her riding boots, checked to be certain Juliana slept, and followed Rafferty and Gideon up the stairs.