He dropped to his knees before her, burying his face into the fabric of her skirt and twisting the material as he pressed his very being into her thighs, desperate to make her understand.
***
Charles remained immobile. How was this possible? How did this beastly lord she’d impossibly come to love now debase himself before her, nearly prostrate on the ground? She didn’t like what she saw. This was not her haughty jailor. Had she tamedhimsomehow?
Her hand fell to his head, fisting his short curls as she forced him to look up at her. “Roland Rutherford Wellesley, get up, damn you, and stop acting a fool puppy when you are a grown pirate of a man.”
His eyes blazed back with a fire that shot straight to her loins.
“I kissedyou, just now, and we both know it, so the blame falls squarely on me. Nor am I opposed to marriage, sir. I have been opposed to the manner in which you have thrust it at me, presumptuous and demanding. But if you give me your word that you will treat your wife as your equal—that you willgrant me my freedom at last—I may consider your suit more . . . seriously.”
His eyes sparked with a look that made her legs wobble.
Yet still he did not rise but remained on his knees, hands merely bunching her skirts higher, till he reached her folded stocking tops, his hands slipping further to the bare flesh above, then higher still to the insides of her thighs, grabbing her there until she gasped, “Roland!”
“I take it you prefer pirates to puppies, love?” His eyes burned with as much hunger as her own.
“Lord Wells,” Charles only half protested, “I must insist you unhand me.”
“Miss Merrinan,” he said with a grin, “I’m afraid I can no longer do that, as I intend to abscond with you instead.” His hands at her thighs slid slowly further up to roundly cup her bottom, lifting her over his shoulder as he rose, her body suddenly draped across him like thieves’ booty.
Charles let out a shriek from upside down across his back, his hands still up her skirts. “You can’t seriously?—!”
“Oh yes.” He laughed. “I think I must.” He removed one palm to lightly smack her bum, making her yelp again in protest.
“Roland, put me down!”
“Not now, Fox. Later I promise to lay you flat on your back, darling, but right now I believe theTondemands a scandal and I, for one, have every intention of delivering.”
And with that he strode back into the throng of onlookers, Charles slung over his shoulder like the spoils of the sea. He carried her through the crowd of awed and gaping faces to proudly announce, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the future Duchess of Allendale.”
He turned her so her head, and not her derrière, might look out upon the throng, before he swung her around so thathe faced theTonhimself. “Apologies for our swift exit, Ladies, Gentlemen.”
Wells took off without a look back. The future Duke of Allendale had claimed a wife at last.
“I’ve had a license for days, you know,” Wells told her the moment they were inside the ducal carriage, wheels rapidly trundling off. He figured his mother could suffer a ride back with the Enrights.
“Have you now?” She smirked.
“Yes, so anytime, really.” He stared intently at her. “You’ve only to say the word, Miss Merrinan.”
“And what word would that be, my lord?” Her foot reached out to slide up the inside of his calf, seated as she was across from him.
He groaned. “Merciful God in heaven . . .”
“You wish me to saythosewords, sir?”
“No, you minx, come here.” He hauled her into his lap, his hands finding new ways to punish her.
“Lord Wells,” she managed to get out between his rough handling and the shower of kisses he rained down on her, “where, pray tell, are you taking me, sir?”
“Home.” He buried his face in her hair, its many pins long scattered to the carriage floor.
“Where is home, sir?” she breathed.
“Cumberland.” He kissed her neck. He could not stop kissing her. “Only first you are coming to my parents’ townhouse, to meet my father. You are not setting foot at the Enrights again.” He immediately adjusted his tone. “Forgive me, Charles, but I cannot abide your mother’s family.”
“Neither can I.” She laughed. “Only I rather like my new lady’s maid, Roland. Might we steal her from them, do you think?”
