‘And after?’ he asked.
‘Not content,’ she said simply. ‘I do not do as well with order as you and Sargent.’
‘I noticed,’ he said, smiling.
Sargent returned with the apple, looking from one to the other of them before dropping it at Georgiana’s feet. She picked it up and prepared to throw again. Then she paused. ‘Are you about to tell me that it is improper for a lady to play games meant for boys?’
‘I suppose I might, if you mean to hoist up your skirts and play a game by the Serpentine,’ he said. ‘But I see no reason you cannot throw a ball for the dog.’
She nodded. ‘Then I will show you what it looks like when I am not holding back to protect your delicate male sensibilities.’ She threw it again, even farther than before.
Fred whistled in amazement. ‘It is a shame we did not have you at Eton.’
‘You would not have known what to do with a girl there.’
He slipped a hand around her waist and dragged her to the ground. ‘But I know what to do with one now.’
‘We are in a field in broad daylight,’ she reminded him with a wicked grin. ‘Anyone might walk by.’
They were a half mile from the nearest path and lying in grass so deep the foxtails were waving over their heads. By the sound of his distant baying, even Sargent had found something more interesting to do than bother them. All the same, Fred returned her smile as he tossed up her skirts. ‘Then I’d best be quick about it.’
‘About what?’ she said, gasping as his lips touched the inside of her thigh.
‘Another lesson in your education,’ he said, continuing to kiss his way upward. ‘If you happened to look at the ceiling while you played cards, what I am about to do to you what was happening to the Roman girl painted directly over your head.’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘Oh, dear.’
He was kissing his way up the inside of her leg until his mouth settled on the place that gave her the most pleasure. He grazed the little bud of sin with his teeth before swirling his tongue around it, then dipped inside of her, thrusting just as he did when he kissed her on the mouth.
The pleasure was sudden and intense, and she arched her hips up to press herself against his mouth. She clutched the grass in her fists to anchor herself to the earth as the climax took her. It was almost too much to stand. Her heart would burst if it continued. But when she tried to escape he held her hips in place and took her even higher before the last release which left her limp, wet and ready for his entry.
He pulled away and knelt to undo his breeches. She rose as well, lunging to tackle him to the ground, climbing on to his body and pushing her skirts out of the way to take him inside her. Then she locked her feet behind his thighs and thrust hard and fast against him, moving on him with the same frenzy he had driven her to.
When she knew he was nearing the peak, she reached beneath the collar of his coat and dug her fingers into his shoulders before sealing his mouth with a musky kiss. She felt his climax in the shocked breath he gave and the sudden tensing of every muscle before he relaxed with a sigh.
She broke the kiss and relaxed as well, resting an elbow on the ground and her head on her fist. ‘Does the club have a painting for that as well?’
He sighed, staring up at the sky with a beatific smile. ‘If we do not, I shall paint one myself and hang it at tomorrow night’s masquerade, in your honour.’
‘We are going to London,’ she said, smiling at the fun of fancy dress.
He gave her a surprised look. ‘I have given you my opinion of your attending events at Vitium et Virtus.’
‘But surely, now that we are intimate, it would be all right,’ she said, running a coaxing finger down the front of his vest.
‘I do not see how,’ he said. ‘The club is no place for a lady.’
‘Yet I saw many women there,’ she said. ‘If you go without me, how am I to trust that there is nothing unsavoury occurring?’
‘You should not even know of the place, much less wonder what I am doing there,’ he replied.
She had meant it in jest, but his reply was hardly reassuring. ‘But I will wonder,’ she said. ‘And others will wonder why you are alone, since we have been married less than a month.’
‘No one will talk,’ he said, as if this was the only thing that should concern her. ‘I am the one who sees that no scandal ever escapes the place. The members are sworn to secrecy.’
‘Not talking about a thing is not the same as not knowing it,’ she said. She could already imagine the sidelong glances she would get when ladies of her acquaintance realised he had returned to town without her. ‘I do not understand why you think my scandals shall be public and yours shall be private.’
