“I had no idea you were so talented.” His throat felt dry, and his voice came out huskier than he’d intended.
Caroline whirled around. The paintbrush dropped to the ground. “Cage! You scared the life from me.” She placed a hand to her heart.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were up here. The duchess sent me to bring back a trunk for her. Something of her mother’s.”
Caroline crossed her arms. “Did she, now? Sent you here to my sanctuary to find a missing trunk.”
He glanced behind him down the staircase. “Vivian showed me…” He heard the distinct scrap of the heavy wood door against the stone floor, then a loud thud as it closed. He immediately realized he had been manipulated. “It appears your sisters-in-law think they have our best interests at heart by organizing a time for us to be alone.”
Caroline huffed and bent to retrieve her paintbrush from the floor.
Cage took a cautious step into the room. This was no storage area. The easel stood on the left next to a tall narrow window. Pots of paints, jars of water, and other small delicate tools cluttered a table nearby. A plush rectangle of carpet covered the center of the room. At the rug's far edge, a divan covered in a rich dark blue velvet dominated the other side of the circular room. Canvases of all sizes leaned against the wall to his right.
“So this is your sanctuary?”
Caroline put her brush into a jar of water. “When I need to mull over life, painting is my outlet. This space is my escape.”
He stared at the slim line of her spine as she gazed out the window. He dared not move for fear of sending her in flight from the room. She had studiously avoided being in his presence for more than a few minutes at a time for the past few days. He thought it best at first, but now the need to touch her flooded through him. He stepped forward just as Caroline turned to face him. Her blue eyes glowed with need. Then she launched herself into his arms. Her lips crashed against his, and he scooped her against him.
More than a week had passed since he had tasted her sweetness, and he devoured her mouth. Their lips and tongues tangled together as they tried to satisfy their need for each other. He thrust his fingers into her hair, capturing a handful and tilting her head back to nibble and nip at her neck. “God, Caroline, I missed you this week.”
Her hands clutched his shoulders. “I’m still angry at you for lying to me,” she said against his mouth. Then her hands slid down to grasp his ass. “But right now, I need you.”
He walked them back to the divan, never taking his lips from hers. Once he had her beneath him, he pushed up her skirts, sliding his hand up the smooth skin of her long legs. When he reached her center, she was so hot and wet he groaned out loud.He traced a path across the top of her breasts with his lips as he sank two fingers into her slick core.
Caroline moaned his name. She gripped his hair and gave a hard yank. “Cage, I need to feel you deep inside me. Now.” She tore at the buttons of his waistcoat and pulled his shirt from his pants. Her hands slid underneath and scorched a trail up his stomach to his chest, where she pinched one of his nipples, sending a sharp pulse of pleasure straight to his cock.
He sat up and tore off his jacket and waistcoat. Fumbling with the buttons on his falls, he struggled to take in a breath as Caroline slowly pulled her skirts higher and higher, exposing the dark curls that covered her mons. Her eyes were luminous, her face flushed pink with desire. He fell on her like a wild beast. Snaking one arm around her waist, he used his free hand to guide his length to her entrance. He sank into her in one long thrust.Mine.He pulled back and drove in again and then again.
Caroline’s hips pushed up to meet each of his thrusts. Her mouth, hot on his neck, moved across to his shoulder and she sank her teeth into his flesh. He growled as his balls tightened in response. The rhythm of their lovemaking was fevered as they made up for the lost time they’d spent apart. Then Caroline threw back her head and called his name as she came apart; her intimate muscles tightened around him. Cage let himself have one last glorious slide into her before pulling out to spill his seed onto her stomach.
Chapter 43
Caroline lay in the circle of Cage’s arms, her head tucked against his shoulder. So much for keeping her distance. But Lord, she had missed being here in his arms with the steady beat of his heart under her ear. She’d missed the sensual slide of his lips against hers, the frantic pulsing of desire that he ignited in her blood. She was addicted to this man. Caroline danced her fingers across his chest, teasing the smattering of blonde hair that grew around his nipples.
He jerked as she grazed one flat nipple, then grabbed hold of her hand to bring it to his lips. “Still angry?” His tone teasing.
Was she still angry? She tipped her head so she could see his face. His eyes were serious, and his lips quirked up at one corner. He looked so…contrite. She lowered her eyes to stare again at the hair on his chest. “More hurt than angry, I guess. How could you not tell me you were hired by my brother? I thought we were friends.”
Cage scooted up into a sitting position forcing her to sit up and face him. “Caroline, of course, we were friends. Are friends.” He maneuvered so that her legs lay across his lap. His hand lazily rubbed up and down her stockinged leg. “If I treated you like a true assignment, I never would have had to interact with you past a polite greeting. My job was to watch the people around you, to discover which of your jilted suitors could be the culprit. But you captivated me from the start. Pulled me into every crazy scheme you had.”
Caroline crossed her arms and huffed. She wanted to believe him, believe that what they had was more.
“I would not have found Grace if not for your scheme to infiltrate Devonshire’s party.”
“That’s true.” She let her arms relax. “I’m still mad at Andrew, though.”
Cage chuckled. “That’s for you and Gilchrest to work out. But I will say in his defense, his intent was to protect you from having to face those letters.”
Caroline bit her lower lip. She had indeed thought a lot about those letters over the past week. Each time, the words made her shiver with apprehension. Finally, she’d taken the pile from her writing desk and threw the lot into the fire, watching the vile threats turn to cinder.
“Let’s enjoy the time we have left before your birthday. It tore at me to part while you were angry with me.” His fingers lightly stroked her cheek.
“Why part at all?” Caroline drew in a deep breath.Have courage.“Maybe I’ve changed my mind. Maybe I am envisioning a new future, one with you in it.”
Cage’s eyes widened. He rolled off the divan and stood towering over her. “No, we can’t. You promised to break it off.” He backed away from her. Glancing left, then right, he grabbed up his waistcoat.
She stood as well, her anger returning at his panicked expression. “Is marriage to me so distasteful?”
