A moment later, while still trying to calm her breathing, Susannah felt Race’s body shudder, and a broken gasp tore from him. He slowly lowered his chest to hers. Susannah’s heart pumped erratically, and she turned her face into the hot, damp crook of his neck. Now, she finally knew what had been missing in her life for so many years, and she couldn’t help but wonder how she was going to live without it.
“Susannah, tell me I’m not dreaming. Tell me I’m here in your bed making love to you.”
Her hands played in the hair at his nape. “Have you dreamed of being here with me like this, too?”
“More than once. Often, since the first time I saw you in my music room I knew I wanted to be right here with you beneath me.”
She ran her hands over his smooth, strong back and smiled at him. “Being with you was better than in my dreams. Your touch was so much more than I expected.”
He rose on his elbows and chuckled as his gaze drifted down her face. “I’m glad to hear I exceeded your expectations and won your approval.”
His eyes were glowing with joy, and she didn’t know when she had ever felt this good, this complete, this satisfied.
“Immensely so.”
“Since you are so pleased with my, ah—shall we say performance—so far, I think I should dig into my bag of tricks and show you a few more things, don’t you?”
Susannah laughed and hugged him to her.
And so he did.
* * *
“Race,” Susannah whispered much later as she kissed his cheek. “It is dawn. You must go before the servants start stirring about in my house and yours.”
He looked up and saw her leaning over him. He smiled. “Susannah, my servants have seen me come home at every hour of the day and night, admittedly sometimes not properly dressed.”
“However,” she countered, “we must be circumspect concerning my servants. My life has not been as varied or as colorful as yours, and I can assure you my servants have never seen me improperly dressed, and I think they would faint if they ever saw a man in my bed.”
He let the backs of his fingers trickle down her cheek, her throat, to the valley between her breasts, while his gaze held steadily on hers. “I understand, but I do hate to leave you. The air has just enough chill to make your body impossibly warm.”
He kissed her shoulder, the crook of her neck, and let his lips travel to the tip of her breast. “Hmm, I think I might decline to leave and stay a little longer.”
Susannah rolled away from him. “I think you will not. But if you behave and leave now, I might invite you to return another night.”
Race rose on one elbow. He looked so roguishly handsome with his hair tousled, his eyes shining with laughter, and his broad chest gleaming in the early light of dawn.
“Susannah, after what we shared, you could not keep me away.”
Eleven
My Dearest Grandson Alexander,
Here are words from Lord Chesterfield that are worth putting to memory: “Having mentioned the word Rake, I must say a word or two more on that subject, because young people too frequently, and always fatally, are apt to mistake that character for that of a man of pleasure; whereas, there are not in the world two characters more different. A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character and to ruin his fortune. By-the-by, let me tell you, that in the wildest part of my youth, I was never a rake.”
Your loving Grandmother,
Lady Elder
“My lord, are you awake?”
Race’s lashes lifted to the bright light of day. He rolled over to see his valet standing over him. The short, thin man’s eyes were rounded in fear. His hands were held in tight fists at his sides, and his moustache quivered. Race’s gaze darted around his bedchamber. No other person was present in the room, and nothing seemed out of place. He had no idea what was wrong with the servant.
A quick glance at the clock on the mantel told Race it was just past nine o’clock. An ungodly hour to be awakened, especially after spending the night as he had in the bed of the most desirable woman he’d ever met. His lids gently lowered as his thoughts quickly took him back to Susannah’s bed.
“My lord, are you awake?”
“Yes, what is it, Jenkins?” Race muttered, keeping his eyes closed, not wanting to be distracted from the pathway his thoughts were leading him.
