What an Earl Wants (17 page)

Richard nodded. “Beautiful. One might say exotic. But without a
single air or touch of starch about her. Had me shake her hand rather than bow
over it. And she’s wearing riding clothes, says there’s time enough later to
change if she has a mind to, which she doesn’t.”

Jessica considered this for a moment. “But you think I’ll like
her.”

It was Richard’s turn to consider. “It’s like with the earl,
Jess. I don’t think you have a choice.”

“And since they heard me laugh, no choice about going in
there,” Jessica agreed. “Richard, do you sometimes think it was easier when it
was just the two of us?”

“No,” he said, grinning. “I like the gravy boat I’ve somehow
been dropped into too much to say that. And so do you.”

Jessica was still smiling as she entered the drawing room,
still hanging onto Richard’s arm, that smile only fading when she began taking
inventory of its other occupants.

There was Adam, dressed this evening in shamrock-green jacket
and fawn pantaloons, bent over one of the many couches, snapping at the seat
with his handkerchief, probably to dislodge any dog hair.

There was Lady Katherine Redgrave, exotic as Richard had said,
in her deep burgundy riding habit as she all but sprawled on another couch, both
arms stretched out along its carved wooden back, one long booted leg crossed
over the other in a highly unladylike way that flattered her all hollow.

One thing Jessica could say about the Redgraves, at least the
three she’d met; they certainly knew how to relax and didn’t appear to much care
where they were when they did it. And, oddly, the more they relaxed, the more on
guard you felt you needed to be.

Her ladyship’s darkest brown hair, glinted with golden
highlights, was piled haphazardly atop her head, several softly curling tendrils
escaping the pins in a way many would suffer hours of curling sticks and poked
pins to achieve. Her eyes were huge and dark and slightly tip-tilted, her mouth
wide and pink and lush, her nose rivaled the perfection of the profile on
Jessica’s new cameo, as did her creamy complexion.

She tilted her head in Jessica’s direction. And winked.

Jessica smiled in return, hoping she looked pleased rather than
terrified.

And there was Gideon, standing at the mantel at the far side of
the room, dressed in his usual impeccable black and white, the rose visible on
his lapel, seemingly deep in conversation with...who was that man, and why was
he wearing—

“Oh, my God. Now? Tonight? Is he out of his—Richard, why didn’t
you tell me about—
Now?
”

She must have spoken that last word above her strangled
whisper, because Gideon and the man wearing the starched white collar of the
church turned to look at her.

And that’s when the world stopped.

He left the clergyman where he stood and crossed the wide
expanse of the drawing room in his coolly determined way, making a dead-set at
her, his dark eyes never leaving her face. Smoldering. Yes, that was the word.
He was smoldering. All sophistication, all his devilishly handsome dark good
looks, all his fine clothes and finer physique enough to cause her to forget to
breathe.

“Damme,” Richard breathed quietly, in some awe. “If there was
ever a man who wanted a woman...”

Jessica quickly lowered her eyes, praying they hadn’t revealed
what Richard had seen in Gideon’s. Because if there was ever a woman who wanted
a man...

She dropped into a curtsy and held out her gloved hand, some
bit of her brain remembering what she’d been taught a lifetime ago, as a young
girl preparing for her Come Out. Gideon bowed over it, turning her hand at the
last moment in order to press his kiss just below the pearl button fastening the
soft kid against her wrist. The tip of his tongue touched her heated flesh and
was gone, leaving her branded.

Richard melted away, physically removing himself. The rest of
the world simply disappeared, as they, the room they gathered in, the entire
city of London, were no longer important.

“Tonight?” she asked when she could finally locate her
tongue.

“God, yes. Tonight,” he answered quietly, his tone all fierce
seduction as he drew her arm through his and walked her back into the foyer,
just out of sight of the others. “You flatter the gown just as I knew you would.
I know what lies beneath it, and what lies beneath that. The silk of your
stockings, the laces that lift and mold your breasts. The fiery center of you,
the memories that have driven me mad these past endless days. I’ll be undressing
you with my eyes for the eternity of time we have to yet get through until I can
turn thought into deed. You must be gentle with me, Jessica, for I’m a man who
has touched the silks that now touch you, imagining how I will rid you of them
with reverent hands and delicate kisses, a man who is now rapidly approaching
the end of his tether.”

She opened her mouth, and the silliest words in all the world
popped out. Perhaps because she had wondered and then hated herself for
wondering. Men had needs. She knew that, certainly. She hadn’t realized women
could share those needs, but she did, now, thanks to him. That he would wait for
her, however, astounded her. “You’ve been celibate these ten days?”

“Gives you pause, doesn’t it, knowing my reputation?” he asked,
at last gifting her with a half smile, one that made him look younger, even
vulnerable. “But I made myself a promise, and I keep my promises, although if I
hadn’t been able to secure the Special License this afternoon, God only knows
how I would have made it through another night without breaking down your
door.”

“I’ve thought much the same,” she admitted, feeling heat flow
into her cheeks...and other parts of her body. “I have this
new...curiosity.”

“You’ll have to tell me about this curiosity. In some detail,
please, and I will attempt to satisfy it all...also in some detail.”

The small bud of pleasure between her thighs, which he’d
awakened from its lifetime of innocent slumber, contracted and released, sending
a ripple of sensation throughout her body. Her skin tingled. Her nipples
strained against the silk lining of her corset. Her knees could barely support
her. If this was what his mere words could do to her...?

He touched the back of his hand to her cheek. “You’re thinking
about it, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes, your pupils gone all dark and
wide. There’s heaven and there’s hell in what we humans desire, Jessica. But the
past is the past, and now we start fresh. From now on, for us, and only between
us, we reach for the stars.”

“You’re...you’re a remarkable man. Arrogant, always bound and
determined to get your own way...but remarkable.” She watched his own eyes go
dark and felt herself leaning toward him, angling up her chin for his kiss.

“Haven’t you finished
yet,
Gideon?
Should I help? Jessica, please marry the man, which he’s assured me you want to
do, although I can’t see the attraction, frankly, and let’s go in to dinner.
I’ve been on horseback nearly all day, and I’m famished.”

Jessica lowered her head, the spell between Gideon and her
broken.

He took her arm once more and turned her about to see his
sister standing a few feet away, one hand on her hip, her left boot tapping
against the marble floor. Her grin was very nearly unholy. “Oops,” she said
cheekily, clearly a young woman devoid of fear. “Are you going to growl now,
Gideon?”

“Not tonight. Jessica, allow me, please, to introduce you to my
sister, the incorrigible but kind Lady Katherine Redgrave. Kate, my bride,
Jessica.”

Jessica dropped into a curtsy, realizing Gideon had not added
Linden
to that introduction. But as he’d said,
the past was the past. “My lady.”

“Kate. My name is Kate, and since you’re about to become my
sister, I think we can also dispense with curtsies, considering it would be I
curtsying to you if Gideon ever gets this ceremony behind us. Gideon, the man is
quoting sermons in there, and the fool is attempting to make
limericks
of them. Oh, that wasn’t nice of me, was it,
Jessica? Your brother is a very... That is, he’s a well set-up young—” She
hesitated, flashed a smile that could bring down kings, and ended, “He’s a bit
of an adorable twit, isn’t he?”

“Of the first water, although only a woman would include
adorable
in that description,” Gideon agreed,
laughing. “I could have had Brutus and Cleo fully trained by now, if I put my
mind to it. But I’m enjoying Adam’s discomfort too much. Jessica, I asked Kate
to come to town to bear witness at the ceremony, along with Richard. As I left
the invitation rather late, Kate chose to travel the final leg via horseback,
her groom in tow and her carriage containing her luggage lagging behind. But she
is obedient,” he ended, grinning at his sister.

“Dying of curiosity, more like,” Lady Katherine admitted. “And,
not that I don’t appreciate having you include me, brother mine, why didn’t you
just have Trixie fly on over here on her gilded broom to bear witness? Oh, wait,
I believe I’ve just answered my own question.”

“Not really. She has other plans this evening in any case.” He
looked toward the doorway. “I suppose we should get this over with.”

“How could any woman refuse such a romantic proposal?” Jessica
smiled at Kate, who winked at her yet again, and the three of them at last
entered the drawing room, Gideon guiding them directly toward the fireplace and
a clearly uncomfortable clergyman.

“Jessica, there you are! Quickly, what rhymes with leper? All I
can come up with is pepper, and that won’t fadge.”

“Adorable,” Kate said again, in some amusement. “And much
preferable to the way he’s been attempting to impress me with his clearly
irresistible charms. Whoever let him off his leading strings this soon was
overconfident in his hopes.”

“Yes, about that,” Jessica said to Gideon as the clergyman
hastily arranged everyone in the proper order in front of him. “Adam told me a
few things this afternoon. Shocking things. We should talk about them.”

“Tomorrow,” Gideon promised as the clergyman pointedly cleared
his throat and opened his prayer book.

In the next few minutes, much more quickly and even prosaically
than she could have imagined, Jessica became the Countess of Saltwood. She
hadn’t really given much thought to that particular result of marrying Gideon,
even after Lady Katherine had earlier joked about curtsying to her. Many people
would now curtsy to her, address her as my lady, or your ladyship. Just the sort
of thing she had once daydreamed about a lifetime ago, back in the days of her
innocence.

Now Gideon, by wedding her, had given her back what he so
clearly thought was the life she deserved. He’d married her because he felt the
Redgraves owed her something, that was clear. But he also desired her. She
hadn’t thought about
desire
as a young girl awaiting
her first Season. She certainly hadn’t thought about it during her months with
James, except to think men were no better than animals in the forest.

Yet when Gideon looked at her with desire in his eyes, she knew
the trappings of society meant nothing. The titles, the curtsies, the balls, the
nights at the theater, all of it.

How strange that her father and stepmother had clearly been
preparing Adam for what was to come, but had not attempted any such education
with her. Considering her father’s plans for her, that did seem odd. Unless that
was to be her appeal...her ignorance. Her
innocence.

Unless...unless her father had never planned any such thing for
his daughter and had only been obeying someone else, who’d demanded her from
him, demanded his obedience. James had been afraid of someone. Had her father
been equally terrified? Cowed enough or frightened enough to allow his own
daughter to be sacrificed? Yes, that seemed the more logical explanation, not
that she could ever forgive her father, no matter how deep his fears.

Jessica looked down the length of the dining table to see
Gideon watching her, and realized her wandering mind had been taking her to a
place that had no
place
tonight.

He raised his wineglass to her in a sort of salute, and
immediately Lady Katherine took up her own, rising to her feet. “Since my
brothers are not here to do the thing properly, I suppose it is up to me to
propose a toast to the Earl and Countess of Saltwood. Which I hereby do.” She
raised her glass higher. “To a long and happy life, Jessica, even if that means
having Gideon in it. Cheers!”

“Oh, hear, hear!” Adam agreed, also on his feet, glass raised
high. “To a long and happy life, Gideon, even if that means having
me
in it!”

Everyone laughed, as they were hopefully meant to do, and
Jessica gazed at her brother in real affection. He’d be all right, he truly
would. They’d all be all right, in time. Because Gideon would see to it. She
truly believed that.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

W
ITH
K
ATE
YAWNING
into her hand and
Adam thoroughly in his cups and half-asleep in his chair, Gideon exchanged a
meaningful glance with Richard, who immediately stood up, stretching and yawning
and then quickly apologizing for his lapse.

“Quite a day for an old man like me, quite a day,” he said,
smiling at Lady Katherine. “Would you do me the extreme favor of allowing me to
escort you upstairs to your chamber, my lady?”

“What was that?” Adam stumbled to his feet, blinking. “I can do
that. I’ve always wanted to escort a lady to her bedchamber, damned if I
haven’t.”

“Adam!” Jessica exclaimed from her seat beside Gideon. “You
really must learn to not say everything you think!”

“He thinks?” Gideon asked quietly, eying the curls at Jessica’s
shoulders, the ones he’d been manfully resisting wrapping around his finger this
past hour or more. But it hadn’t been easy goings. “It is rather late, Richard,
isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, my lord. After a long day,” he added helpfully, and
then winced as the mantel clock struck ten. Many carriages were just now leaving
Portman Square, for an evening round of parties. “All things considered, that
is.”

“You’re all as subtle as a sharp jab to the ribs,” Lady
Katherine said, but then held out her hand to Richard, to allow him to help her
to rise. “I held out as long as I could, as I’d like to think part of my mission
in life is harassing you and Max and Val, Gideon, but I will admit I’m more than
ready for my bed.” She looked to Richard and Adam. “And I would greatly
appreciate both you fine gentlemen accompanying me upstairs. To my
door,
” she added, shooting Adam an amused look.

“We’ll all go up,” Gideon said, holding out his hand to
Jessica. He wouldn’t look at her, because she might smile at him, and if she
gave him one more ounce of encouragement he might just take her here and now, on
the couch.

The way she looked at him from beneath her lush lashes, the way
she held her spoon as she sipped her soup, her endearing habit of touching her
hand to the middle of her breasts as she leaned forward to listen to the
conversation. He’d even envied her serviette as she’d dabbed the fine linen
against her lips.

It hadn’t been her fault. He knew that. She’d done nothing out
of the ordinary. She hadn’t purposely teased him. She had only to breathe to
make him want her.

Ten days. Who knew ten days could be so long a time? He’d given
Gwen her
congé,
even introduced her to Freddie
Banks, who much to Gwen’s delight immediately offered her his protection. He’d
harassed a modiste and her dozen seamstresses like a man possessed. He’d
petitioned the church for a Special License, pretended not to know his
grandmother’s favored way to secure, well, favors. He’d paced the floor each
night, he’d counted the hours each day. He’d stared at the locked door between
his and Jessica’s bedchambers and suffered the torments of the damned.

And all for a woman he barely knew. A woman who was now his
wife.

He’d wanted her. In the beginning, it had been that simple.
Because what he wanted, he took. Had always taken. He’d never seen any reason to
deny himself anything.

But he’d never wanted anything the way he wanted Jessica.

And now he had her.

They entered her bedchamber together, his hand at the back of
her waist. He turned and closed the door. Turned the key.

They moved farther into the large chamber, to see it was subtly
lit with candles and the light from a small fire, the curtains on the
four-poster bed tied back on one side, draping the other three. The coverlet was
turned down, a confection of ivory lace rather artfully arranged atop it.

He couldn’t believe he wasn’t seeing a scene well-laid for
seduction.

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Where are your
women?”

“I dismissed them for the night.”

He cocked his head to one side. “You did? And why was
that?”

“I don’t know. The note I found this morning. The new clothing,
the necklace...all of it. I had...hopes,” she said, and then stepped closer,
raising her hands to his neck cloth, deftly beginning to undo it. He decided to
help, quickly dealing with the buttons on his waistcoat and shirt.

His smile brought a hint of color to her cheeks. “You had two
eyes in your head when you saw yourself in this gown, and knew I couldn’t see
you tonight and then simply walk away.”

“So now you know how I feel, every time I look at you. It was
only the once...but I can’t forget it. How you made me feel. I hadn’t felt
anything, Gideon, not in a very long time. But this was new, what you made me
feel. I wanted... I want to know if it was real, what I felt. I want to know if
there’s even more. Is that wrong? Please tell me it’s not wrong.”

He was already straining almost painfully against the fabric of
his pantaloons. “I want to be inside you so badly.” His hands went to her back,
seeking out the row of buttons, dispatching them quickly. “I want to make you
mine. But I don’t want to rush you....”

“I may already be ahead of you,” she told him breathlessly,
tugging his shirt free of his waistband as she began backing toward the bed.
“Let’s don’t talk anymore, Gideon, please?”

He picked her up at the waist, her arms going around his neck,
and continued on toward the bed, smiling as he saw the pink rose petals strewn
across the sheets. He hadn’t been overly enthusiastic about Jessica’s request
Mildred and Doreen act as her ladies’ maids, but now he believed they were both
wildly underpaid.

He put Jessica down and quickly finished the job of ridding her
of the dusky-rose gown, leaving her clad in an ivory lace corset laced in front
with pink satin ribbons. The corset was purely ornamental, not fashioned for any
other purpose than the joy he’d find once he’d slid open the laces to touch the
treasure beneath.

For now, however, it could stay where it was, softly molding
and raising her perfect breasts. The French drawers, however, had to go.

They went.

The silk stockings stayed. The necklace stayed. The golden
circlet of diamonds remained on her left hand. The pins, and there were
blessedly few of them, submitted to his search, and her glorious red hair was
free, tumbling, enticing.

There was no time for his evening coat; it was too well fitted,
for one thing. Jessica, bless her, had already managed to undo the buttons of
his pantaloons. He was so ready to explode, no more than a few deep hard strokes
from bursting. Reciting lines from
Paradise Lost
in
his head wouldn’t help him now. He couldn’t even remember the damn words.

He hadn’t felt this way since... No. He’d never felt this way.
Never.

She slipped her hands inside his opened shirt, and his skin
felt scalded by her touch. With a low groan of need, he lifted her onto the edge
of the bed and spread her thighs, pulling her legs around his back even as he
plunged into her, knowing she was ready for him.

“Yes! Gideon—yes!”

Yes,
his mind echoed as he drove
into her.
Yes, yes, yes!

And then it was over. But it wasn’t over. The long days and
nights of unbearable
need
had been addressed, but
not the
want.
Because he would want her for the rest
of his life.

He laid her back on the rose petal-strewn sheets, lifting her
legs onto the coverlet, and smiled down at her. She looked unfocused, lost in a
dream, her limbs loose, her hair spread out on the pillows like a living thing.
He’d done that.
Him.
He would banish her past. He’d
chase away every last shadow. He felt all-powerful. She
made
him all-powerful.

Gideon stripped off the rest of his clothes and joined her in
the bed, placed a kiss on her mouth with a gentleness he didn’t know he could
feel. “At least we’re still breathing,” he said as she smiled up at him. “We
could have killed each other, you know.”

Jessica caressed his cheek. “But now you’re no use to me for at
least an hour,” she said, her tone teasing. Unafraid. Even daring.

Leaning over her, supporting himself on one elbow, Gideon
located one end of the bow securing her corset, began slowly pulling on it to
release it. “Not entirely.”

He began kissing her just at the top edge of the corset, and
then inched his way down even as the laces were undone. He kissed her breasts,
licked at them, paid special attention to her taut nipples until she moaned
quietly and raised her hips.

He kneaded her breasts, trailed kisses along the soft flesh
inside her arms, down the length of her rib cage. His tongue found and teased at
her navel, and she made a small, shocked sound of pleasure. He pressed his palm
against her lower belly, bringing her heat that seemed to melt her...and then
slowly turned his hand so that he was inching his way closer to her center even
as she opened herself for him.

But not yet.

He cupped her, but then brought his mouth to her inner thighs,
the sweet skin behind her knees. He worshipped, he teased, her every soft
whimper of pleasure and frustration enflaming him.

But not yet.

He was in control now, he could wait her out; he needed to see
what she’d do when he’d driven her beyond her limits.

She moved her hands down to the vee of her thighs, pressed his
hand more firmly against her, shifted on the bed so that she could dig her heels
into the mattress. She tugged upward on the skin of her belly, as if she could
bring him in better contact with the parts of her that had to be aching to be
touched, stroked into bloom.

He obliged.

He slid two fingers inside her, brought his mouth down to her
and kept it there until she began to convulse around him, a living pulse of
pleasure, taken over the edge in a new way, a different way. Ah, and there were
so many ways....

Jessica attempted to sit up, blindly holding her arms out to
him, clearly wanting to be held, needing to be held. He’d never understood that
in a woman, why indeed anyone would have that need. Until now.

Gideon gathered her to him, her arms and legs once more locked
behind his back as he buried himself, and perhaps his own past, deep inside her,
clinging to her as she clung to him, the two of them riding out the storm,
together.

When they collapsed against the pillows, Jessica didn’t comment
that he would be of “no use to her” for a while. Which was probably a good
thing, as Gideon couldn’t do much more than lie there as she picked crushed rose
petals from his sweat-slick body before curling into him, resting her head on
his shoulder.

He was going to have to learn to pace himself. If Trixie had
been right and in another thirty years he would be happy most nights with his
dogs, some brandy and a warm fire, at least he’d have that thirty years. He
could only hope to tire out Jessica by that time, which he rather doubted would
happen. But they’d work something out....

He pressed a kiss against her hair and then closed his eyes,
more than ready for sleep, and drifted away....

“Your lordship?” There was a knock on the door. “Your
lordship?”

Gideon raised his head a fraction. “Go. Away.”

“Yes, sir, your lordship,” Thorndyke answered. “I would do
that, surely. But I can’t.”

Jessica stirred slightly but then only sighed and continued to
sleep.

“Yes, Thorny, you can. You simply have to apply yourself. You
managed to propel yourself here, now manage to get yourself gone.”

Jessica yawned and stretched. Rather like a cat, rubbing her
body against him. Part of Gideon took notice and became interested. The other
part wished his butler on the far side of the moon.

“What’s going on?” Jessica asked, the grace of a cat deserting
her as she tried to prop herself up by pushing on her elbow, which then jabbed
into his chest. “Who are you bullying?”

Gideon gave it up. “My butler. But don’t worry, I bully him all
the time. Go back to sleep.”

She pushed her tangled hair away from her face, grumbling
something about never sleeping without first braiding her hair or it turned into
a rats’ nest. “What does he want? Is it morning? It can’t be morning, it’s too
dark.”

The knock came again. “Your lordship? It’s the dowager duchess,
sir. She’s sent a note.”

Now Gideon was awake. “Trixie?”

“Yes, sir. You’re to read it at once, sir.”

Gideon pushed back the covers and left the bed, using the
near-to-guttering light from a few of the remaining lit candles to locate his
breeches. “Slide it under the door. What bloody time is it?”

“Gone three, my lord. I’m so sorry, but the footman who brought
it was most insistent. I’ll have the coach brought round.”

“The— Damn it!” He watched as a folded note was pushed beneath
the door and bent to pick it up. “This couldn’t wait until morning, Thorndyke?”
he asked as he broke the seal and opened the single page.

Get here. Now!
The word
now
was underlined three times.

“Well, that’s succinct.” He raked his fingers through his hair.
“I’ll be down directly.”

“We both will,” Jessica said from behind him, and he turned to
see she was standing beside the bed, unashamedly naked, crushed rose petals in
her hair. And several other places. He looked down at himself, momentarily
amazed at his powers of recovery in the face of distraction, and then silently
cursed his grandmother’s pathetic command of proper timing.

Gideon tore his gaze from the trio of rose petals fortunate
enough to be in such intimate contact with Jessica’s left hip, and then manfully
squinted into the near darkness, looking for his shirt. “No, you stay here.”

“We’ll both be down directly, Thorndyke,” she called out, and
then began foraging for her underclothes, her bare bottom enticing as she bent
over to retrieve the French drawers. Ah, more rose petals....