He wanted to care for Harriet and Nicholas as his own, but he knew that was a preposterous dream for a lowly marine lieutenant. By the first morning light, he’d find his way to the harbor and send a messenger to Captain Thorne before he left for Rose Cottage. His old friend could have his few things at the cottage sent on to him. The only thing he owned of any value was the field shaving kit Harriet and Nicholas had given him.
He regretted not being able to do more for Thorne by cutting his leave short, but the captain was Harriet’s old friend as well, and he would understand better than most what Richard had to do now.
When he finally opened the door to Harriet’s room, she was clad in only her chemise with her slender ankles and bare toes revealed below. She’d wrapped her woolen shawl around her shoulders and covered her breasts. Richard wished he had the talent to sketch a picture of the way she looked at that moment. And then he realized all he’d have to do for the rest of his days would be to close his eyes and there she’d be, looking exactly the way she looked tonight.
He quickly locked the door behind him and pushed a massive chest across the opening.
When he finally reached for her, she held her hands away from her body to stop him.
“What is this?” He was confused. He swore he would never understand women.
“I want to undress you, piece by piece, and then make love to every inch of your body until morning.” He stood very still, afraid to move, while she began her slow assault by unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning his uniform jacket first. Then she made him sit on the bed while she pulled off his boots, offering her straining backside as entertainment while she wrested them off, one at a time.
By the time she made it to his stockings and smallclothes, he had a cockstand demanding attention. It must have been well after one in the morning when she finally stripped him of everything. “Now what?” he had the audacity to demand.
She sat at the edge of the bed in front of him, pushed up her chemise and bared her wet, glistening sex for him. Just as he could stand it no longer and reached for her, she sank one long finger into her own juices and then dropped to her knees in front of him. She stared directly into his eyes while she sucked the wetness off her finger before using her tongue to lave the tip of his cock. He wobbled and nearly collapsed before she pushed him back toward the bed.
“Tsk—.” She made the noise from the back of her tongue. “One would think a Royal Marine would be better able to stand up to the attentions of a mere, frail woman.”
He growled and reached for her again, but she pushed him back onto the mattress and followed him. She cupped him and licked at the beads of liquid forming at the tip of his cock. He groaned and arched against her mouth.
Wetting her fingers across the top of his cock, she used the lubrication to slowly sweep her hands up and down while she sucked the tip of his cock into her mouth. Within minutes, he tried to push her away but she stayed until he groaned again and pulsed out his seed.
Harriet rose and went to fetch a basin of water she’d probably ordered earlier. She’d planned all along to seduce him. Damn her conniving ways. He’d considered at one point earlier the honorable thing to do would have been to sleep on the floor without touching her. What had he been thinking?
He laid his arm over his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. The ornately carved cherubs seemed to mock him. What did he think he was doing? Lady Blandford was not just another lover. She was a marchioness, a widow with huge responsibilities to her son until he could reach his majority.
He considered once again the wisdom of sleeping on the floor the rest of the night. He’d had to make do under worse conditions in Africa. And then she returned with the water and a soft flannel cloth. All logical thought flew out of his head as they tenderly cleaned all signs of their frantic lovemaking from their bodies.
Harriet broughta bowl of grapes and sat cross-legged on the bed, popping them into their mouths, one at a time. She’d put her chemise back on and Richard was once again sort of dressed, in just his trousers.
“You know, I might be called upon to defend you as some point in the night.” He pointed sheepishly at his now covered lower half.
Of course, she made sure that consideration also flew out the window by suddenly setting the bowl down on a table next to the bed and crawling toward him. When she reached his side, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like a woman who’d walked across the desert in search of water. She clung to him like that for long minutes, breathing with him, until she finally moved her mouth close to his ear and demanded, “Make love to me.”
Richard had spent most of his adult life making love to women where he was the one who was in control of the seduction. This woman was like no other, and he could deny her nothing.
Sleep was out of the question for the next few hours, since he was on guard duty, but when the first faint fingers of light crept around the edges of the heavy damask curtains at the hotel windows, he pushed away from her arms and silently reassembled his uniform. When he finally pulled his boots back on and turned to kiss her good-bye, she was already awake, propped up on an elbow, watching him silently.
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
“I have something to tell you too.” Richard knew this was where his chest would break open and his heart would spill out. He might still be able to walk around and fight against slavers off Africa, but he’d have to do it without his heart.
“Let me go first,” she insisted. “I love you, Richard Bourne,” she started. “I’ll never love another, but I have to accept Viscount Grantham’s offer of marriage. It’s the only way…” Her voice cracked. “It’s the only way I can protect my son from the damage his father’s family would inflict with rumors and gossip they’d spread all the way back to London.” The tears she’d been holding back started to flow.
“There are two things I know for sure,” he started, having no idea how to tell her what he felt inside. But he made a clumsy effort anyway. “I’ll never be able to give my heart away, because you’ll always have it here with you. But the good thing is, no one else can ever break my heart, because you’ve already shattered the stupid thing into hundreds of pieces.
“Every time I see a ginger-haired beauty, I’ll feel this pain all over again. Every time I see a strong-willed woman insisting on what she wants, or what she thinks is the right of things, it will be like a knife to my gut again.
“I’m going back to my ship now. Please give my regards and thanks to Captain Thorne and Sidmouth. Tell them I’ll send someone for my things in the next few days.”
“But what about your leave?” she asked, panic in her voice.
“I’ve had quite enough time away from the Kings Navy. That’s where I belong, it’s really all I’m good for.”
“Please don’t leave like this.” When she reached for him, he moved away toward the door.
“I don’t think your new husband would want me around for the wedding.”
