The Rake's Ruined Lady (28 page)
‘You have kept it all this time...?’ Bea breathed softly. ‘Show it to me...please...’ she coaxed hoarsely when he hesitated in opening the lid of the little box. Reaching out a single digit, Bea stroked the tiny cluster of sapphires embedded in a thin golden shank.
‘I bought it because the blue stones match your eyes. I hoped you might be swayed to accept it with such a sweet thought attached to it. Then my pride took over...’
Bea raised her eyes to his face, seeing for the first time a bashfulness shaping his features, making him look appealingly boyish. ‘Indeed, there was no need for you to have felt ashamed of your gift,’ she reassured him. ‘In fact, if you were to allow me to choose between the two...’
She reached out a hand and removed the small golden band from its resting place. Handing it to him, she extended her left hand towards him.
‘I will marry you, Mr Kendrick, even though you have made me wait far too long to hear you ask me to be your wife.’
After he’d slipped the sapphires onto her finger she curled the digit, securing it in place.
Springing to his feet, Hugh whipped her up into his arms, making her gasp as he spun them both about. ‘You’ve made me the happiest man, even though you don’t like your flawless Golkonda diamond.’
‘Oh, I do, Hugh!’ Beatrice cupped his abrasive chin between her palms. ‘Of course I do. But this is my betrothal ring...the one I always wanted...the one I would so proudly have worn three years ago.’ She extended her finger, admiring the small blue gems. ‘That other, finer gift you may give to me another time...perhaps on the birth of our first child...’ she murmured, blushing.
Hugh let her feet drop to the floor in a way that sensually slid together their bodies. ‘Well, I want to see you wearing that diamond, sweet, so we’d better start on making our family very soon.’
With a confidence that stopped her heart he covered her mouth with his in a kiss that was simultaneously demanding yet reverential. Keeping their faces fused together with a hand cupping her scalp, Hugh manoeuvred them slowly towards the armchair. He sat with Bea on his lap, deepening the kiss as he repositioned her to sit facing him, straddling his thighs.
Swift fingers worked open the buttons on her bodice and the ribbons of her chemise. With teasing leisure he lowered his mouth to the breasts he’d exposed, feasting on the plump milky flesh like a ravenous man. One of his hands swept up her skirt, his fingers caressing the soft inner skin of her thighs with long strokes that stopped a hair’s breadth from their apex.
‘Hugh...’ Bea groaned, throwing back her head and squirming against the tormenting pulse rocking her body. ‘Should we not go upstairs? I don’t care—honestly I do not—if you make love to me properly before I go home. But I must return because they will all worry where I am...’
She gasped in a shuddering breath as his hot mouth and tongue tantalised a rigid nipple. Bea gave herself up to the tension building within, parting her thighs to his artfully sliding fingers. Her panting grew shallow as her back arched, then an explosion of pleasure made her buck wildly against him.
Hugh drew her face forward, soothing her bruised lips with a courteous kiss. ‘Did you like that?’ he asked gently as she collapsed like a rag doll against his shoulder.
Bea nodded slowly, feeling too enervated to speak. A moment later, when her heartbeat had steadied, she glanced up at his shady jaw. ‘Do you want me to take off my clothes so you might also like it?’ she asked shyly.
Hugh buried his lips in her hair. ‘I’d like that more than anything, sweet, but not now...it’s not right...’
‘I want to please you. I don’t care what you do...’ Bea started, but a gentle finger laid on her pulsating lips silenced her.
‘But
I
care, sweetheart,’ Hugh said. ‘I’ll not take your virginity like this. I want to savour every second of our first proper time together. I want us to share a feather bed covered in silk sheets. I want to enjoy your beautiful body for hours and hours—not snatch a few minutes’ release on an armchair with the servants listening at the keyhole.’
Bea started in his arms, darting a horrified glance at the door. ‘Do you honestly think they are?’ she wailed in a whisper.
Hugh chuckled. ‘No... They wouldn’t dare, if they value their employment with me.’
‘Mrs Monk will do her best to smear my name.’
‘Your name will soon be my name, and after that nobody will give a damn for a word she says. And neither should you...’ Hugh terminated his concise reassurance with a light kiss on her brow. ‘Besides, I’m conscious of the fact that I’ve been a rank hypocrite where you’re concerned. I’ve protected my sister and Louise from ruined futures, yet would have made you my mistress and put your reputation in jeopardy.’ He dropped forward his head, quite bashfully. ‘I’m sorry... I can’t help wanting you, so I’d do anything to have you and keep you always with me...’
‘You don’t have to do anything but love me...that’s enough, Hugh,’ Bea said softly.
As she snuggled, satisfied, into his shoulder Hugh neatened her clothes, doing up buttons and laces with an expertise that might have worried Bea had she not been still pleasantly dazed with sensuality.
‘I’ll get a special licence and we can be married before the end of the week. Just a quiet affair—if you’re happy with that?’
Bea nodded dreamily, feeling utterly content. ‘There is just one thing I would ask for...’
‘You can ask me for anything, sweet, and I’ll grant you your wish,’ Hugh said.
‘I should like us to honeymoon in India... I should like to meet Shay.’
Hugh’s eyes whipped to hers. ‘I was going to offer to cut my ties with them if you wanted me to. I never thought I would ever do so for anyone. I’m very fond of my...of Shay,’ he corrected himself. ‘But I realise you might find the situation hard to accept.’
‘I understand why you keep in touch with Shay and his mother,’ Bea said softly. ‘I expect you support them financially, don’t you?’ She tilted her head, watching his expression. ‘I really don’t mind...in fact I think it is very worthy of you to do so.’ She kissed his stubbly cheek. ‘I’m not jealous of Shay or of Rani. I believe you, you see, when you say your future wife is the only woman you want.’ She urged huskily, ‘Take me to India, please; I should love to meet your adopted son, and you said you would grant me anything I wished for...’
Hugh turned to her, a new depth of adoration for her burnishing his golden eyes. ‘Of course I shall take you to see my boy,’ he said huskily. ‘And when we have our first child, and he or she is old enough, we shall go again, if you would like to, so the children can get to know one another.’
‘That sounds perfect...’ Bea cuddled into him.
Hugh suddenly buried his face into the warm curve of her shoulder. ‘It is time to go and see your father and tell him our wonderful news.’
‘You will certainly be his good friend now.’ Beatrice choked a little laugh, tangling her fingers in his glossy hair. ‘I know I have driven him to despair on occasion with my recklessness; he will be pleased to be rid of me, I’m sure.’
‘He has my sympathy.’
Hugh lifted his face. His lashes, wet earlier from his bath, were again clumped with moisture.
‘You are a wild and wanton young woman,’ Hugh scolded on a sniff. He took her mouth in a kiss that bordered on bittersweet pain before transforming into a tender salute. ‘But I think I know a way of taming you, Beatrice, that we’ll both like very much...’
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Historical.
You dream of wicked rakes, gorgeous Highlanders, muscled Viking warriors and rugged Wild West cowboys from another era.
Harlequin Historical
has them all! Emotionally intense stories set across many time periods.
Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Historical every month!
Connect with us on
Harlequin.com
for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
ISBN-13: 9781460337127
THE RAKE’S RUINED LADY
Copyright © 2014 by Mary Brendan
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.