Romney Marsh Trilogy: A Gentleman by Any Other Name / The Dangerous Debutante / Beware of Virtuous Women. Kasey Michaels
Читать онлайн книгу.
stepped away from him and reached into her pocket to pull out the ring, show it to him. “It’s too large, so I wrapped a ribbon around it until it fit, but now it’s uncomfortable.”
Chance took the thing and looked at it, then handed it back to her. “That’s quite a bit of ribbon, isn’t it? While I’m gone, have Morgan take you to see Waylon. He’ll trim the thing down to fit you.”
“Waylon? You have a jeweler here at Becket Hall?”
“No, but we do have a smithy in the village. Every crew needs a blacksmith.”
Julia tipped her head as she looked at him. “You want me to take this obviously expensive ring to a smithy? That’s preposterous.”
“Not really. Waylon has worked with jewelry many times,” Chance said, thinking back to the island and sitting on an overturned barrel to watch as Waylon dismantled some of the more distinctive jewelry to remove the stones, then melt the gold. Not that he was about to tell Julia about those particular memories.
“Very well then, I’ll ask Morgan to go with me tomorrow. Didn’t you say you should be leaving? Don’t let me keep you.” She so wanted him to go before she had to think too much about the fact that he would be gone.
“You’re right, I should go,” Chance said, suddenly uncomfortably aware that he might just miss this woman while he was playing at government agent and smuggler’s spy. And for some unknown reason, he seemed to want to punish himself before he was on his way. “I’m still waiting for my kiss from my betrothed, remember? A kiss, an affecting few words such as Godspeed and hurry back to me, darling. Do you think you can manage that?”
“I don’t think so, no. But do try not to be discovered doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Alice would miss you, I’m sure. Have you said goodbye to her?”
Chance winced. “Damn. Alice. Is she in the nursery?”
“I would suppose so, but she might be napping. Do you want me to tell her?”
“I shouldn’t, but yes, thank you. I’m…I’m not accustomed to informing Alice of my comings and goings, I’m afraid. Tell her…tell her that when I return we’ll all three of us go on a picnic on the beach or some such thing.”
Julia smiled softly, because he seemed truly upset that he had forgotten his daughter yet again. She didn’t know what all was going on at Becket Hall, but the man certainly had something weighing heavily on his mind. “Alice will like that.”
Chance smiled at her. “Thank you. And Alice and I will laze on a blanket and watch as you dig up that boot again, to take a look inside.”
“Oh, really? I don’t think so. If I’m lucky, the tide will have taken it.” Then she walked over to him, stood up on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, because she now had truly run out of things to say to him. “There. And I’ll pine for you endlessly. Now go.”
Chance had his arms around her before she could move away from him. “I think I need more than that miserly kiss, madam,” he said, then brought his mouth down hard on hers.
It is amazing what a body remembers all on its own, Julia thought as she melted against him, her arms snaking up and about his neck in the off chance he thought to break the kiss before she was ready.
And she wasn’t ready. Not when he was now cupping her breasts, rubbing his thumbs across the thin fabric of her gown, concentrating on her now-straining nipples. Not when he had somehow insinuated his thigh between her legs, pressing against her sex as their tongues dueled, as she dug her fingernails into his shoulders.
She was no young miss. She was a woman grown and now an awakened woman. And she was not going back to the way she had been, innocent, ignorant of just what being a woman meant.
Since coming back to her bedchamber from the beach to discover that she may have just snipped off her nose to spite her own face, she’d decided to take what he had to give her for as long as he felt inclined to do so. But she’d likewise decided to give back as good as she got.
Chance reluctantly slid his hands back down to Julia’s waist, not because he didn’t want her but because he was beginning to think she was experimenting with him, this woman he’d shown the pleasure men and women could share.
He might worry that another woman would believe herself in love with him merely because he’d come to her bed, given and taken pleasure there. But Julia Carruthers wasn’t other women and far from gullible. She knew why he’d come to her—she’d told him as much—and no one could believe herself in love with a man who would do anything so low, so base.
No, she didn’t really want him. She wanted it. Miss Prim and Proper had turned overnight into a wanton, and that transformation was his fault.
So why shouldn’t he reap the benefits?
Because he was a gentleman, damn it, and if not that, he was a man with at least some semblance of a conscience.
Chance pushed her slightly away from him, pressed several more kisses against her face, then stepped back. “I really have to go now.”
“Yes…you really should. They’ll be waiting.”
“Don’t worry. Billy hasn’t boxed my ears in some time now.”
He got as far as the door before turning around to take one last look at this woman who had so quickly gotten beneath his skin, annoying him, rousing him, maddening him.
Julia still stood near the window, looking at him as the early afternoon light haloed around her. She lifted a hand and pressed her fingertips to her swollen mouth, hardly able to believe she’d behaved so recklessly…and that she still wanted him so much.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Chance said, turning the key in the lock and already unbuttoning his shirt as he stormed back across the room. “Let them wait.”
Julia was in his arms again almost before she could register what was happening, and moments later, their mouths fused together, she was lying on her back on the bedspread.
The flare of passion was instantaneous and fierce. They kissed again and again, nipped at each other, tasted each other, and all while working to remove each other’s clothes.
Julia’s gown was at her waist before she could push Chance’s shirt from his shoulders, so he finished the job for her, then began unbuttoning his pantaloons as he knelt over her, looking at her upper body with an intensity that she felt tauten her nipples in response.
“Hurry.”
Julia had said the word. She heard herself say the word, her voice all but pleading with him. And she didn’t care. She just wanted him to hurry.
She felt his hands on her thighs as he pushed up her gown, then slipped her underclothes down past her knees before settling himself against her. Just the thought of their shared state of partial dress, the urgency they both felt, ignited her passion to the point where such sudden, unseemly haste seemed perfectly reasonable.
Chance bowed his head toward Julia’s breasts, licking the valley between them as he looked up at her, heard her sharp intake of breath. And when he covered her nipple with his mouth, the low, purring sound she made in her throat made him realize that not only was she ready for him, he was in danger of disgracing himself if he didn’t take her, take her now.
He raised himself slightly to position himself better between her legs, then slipped inside her in one long glide, deep into the moist heat that awaited him. Captured him. Held him.
Julia wanted to lift her legs up and around him, as he had taught her last night, but her underclothes were tangled around her ankles. She whimpered in frustration and pulled him close against her so that she could hold him.
Chance felt his already nearly frantic passion building as his heart pounded, as he found it difficult to breathe. He plunged faster, deeper, while Julia matched him thrust for thrust.
There was nothing