A Little Mischief (24 page)

He had hoped to stay away from her. It would have been better if he could have, but he couldn’t deny the gripping attraction, the inexplicable desire that he had to be with her, to touch her, and to possess her. He only knew that the time he spent alone with her was worth any risk he had to take.

Daniel moved Isabella to the darkest area of the garden and drew her into his arms, once again bringing her softness against his hardness. Throughout the night he had been sexually stimulated by her beauty, their challenging banter, and his out-of-control craving to be with her like this.

His hands tightened on her waist for a moment before he let them slide up her side to the peaks of her breasts, which he easily felt beneath the thin fabric of her clothing. He looked deeply into her desire-bright eyes as his hands fondled and massaged the fullness of her breasts.

Daniel slid his hands up her chest to lightly caress the base of her throat, and then he slipped her dress off the crest of her shoulders, exposing to his view more of her beautifully soft skin that glowed like alabaster when heated by candlelight.

“You enchant me, Isabella.”

“That is good.”

“Mmm. Your skin feels like satin.” He gently rubbed the tops of her shoulders to keep her warm.

“I’m glad you think so, my lord.”

Daniel let his fingertips creep up to her face. He cupped her cheeks between his hands as his lips once again found hers in a ravishing kiss that stole his breath. She sighed with pleasure and Daniel grew hard. His lips molded to hers with insistent pressure as the urgency of wanting built inside him.

As they kissed, the flick of his tongue once again moistened the silky inner surface of her lips. He explored the depth, the corners, and the top of her mouth enjoying every stroke, every taste, and every soft breath she took.

Isabella leaned into his embrace, pressing her body closer to his, letting him know that she didn’t want him to let her go. He listened to the soft sounds of satisfaction that wafted past her lips as he awakened her to the sweet, fulfilling stirrings of womanly passion.

On a husky whisper he said into her mouth, “I’ve wanted to do this all evening.”

“I thought you’d never find a way for us to be alone so you could kiss me again.”

Daniel shuddered and the tightness in his groin grew, torturing him to madness.

“I don’t know how I’ve denied us this pleasure.”

“I don’t know why you wanted to,” she answered without her lips ever leaving his, and her body rose to meet his.

Daniel knew. It was wrong. Society said so, but right now he didn’t care. He had Isabella in his arms. He wanted it. She wanted it. Right now that was all he intended to concentrate on.

Their breaths and lips met in a long hungry kiss that stirred already heated passions. He liked that she didn’t shy away from his aggressiveness, but responded by matching him kiss for kiss, touch for touch.

His lips left hers, and he kissed the soft skin underneath her jawline and over to that soft sensitive spot behind her ear that he’d wanted so much to kiss and taste. His tongue stroked skin, and he felt her shiver with anticipation.

Daniel pressed his nose to the edge of her hair at her nape. She was warm. He breathed in the heady scent of fresh-washed hair and soap that clung to her. He gently blew his hot breath into her ear, and it thrilled him to hear her delicious gasps of enjoyment.

Daniel chuckled lightly. “Did that please you, Isabella?”

“Oh, yes. It gave me chills of pleasure, my lord.”

A shiver of satisfaction coiled inside him. “Then I’m doing it right. Shall I do it again?”

“Yes, please don’t stop.”

“I don’t intend to. Not yet. I need a few more kisses to see me through the night before I let you go.”

Isabella arched her head back to give him access to wherever his lips wanted to go. He gently blew in her ear again and again while he ran his hands down her spine to her buttocks and back up again. With his tongue he left moist kisses up and down her neck and across her exposed chest and shoulders.

“I love the way you smell, the way you taste, and the way you respond to me as a woman should respond to a man.”

“You have shown me how, Daniel.”

“I know.” Daniel’s voice was so husky with desire he barely got the words out to finish what he wanted to say. “You are so desirable, Isabella, and you tempt me beyond my control.”

“Is that a good thing, my lord?”

“Yes and no,” he murmured.

Daniel moved his open hands down to the swell of her breasts beneath her dress. With eager fingers he slipped her dress farther down her arms, which exposed the front of her undergarments. He worked on the tiny buttons that ran down the front of her undergarment while his lips caressed her neck and shoulders with fervent kisses meant to keep their pleasure high.

He wanted her badly.

“Lift your breasts out of your corset for me,” Daniel said, “and let me kiss them.”

Isabella leaned away from him, not questioning him at all. He watched as her white gloved hand reached beneath her undergarments and gown and pulled out the most beautiful breasts he’d ever seen.

Daniel felt as if his heart tumbled over. Her nipples were a tempting brownish-rose color. They were hard and pointing right at him. Her skin appeared as creamy as the finest alabaster.

He bent his head and quickly suckled first one and then the other, trying to keep both warm with his mouth while he pressed her soft womanhood against his hard, burning need.

Daniel wanted to feel the weight of her breasts but knew if he moved his hands, her softness would fall away from his throbbing shaft, so he settled for giving his attention to her breasts as she cupped his head to her chest and answered him with soft feminine sounds of pleasure that were a lover’s delight.

He held her securely, possessively, thinking he would never let her go, wondering how he could get her skirt up and his trousers down.

“You are so responsive,” he whispered hotly against her skin. “I’m so glad no man has touched you before now, before me.”

“I’ve never wanted any man to touch me like this, Daniel. Only you,” she answered. “I can’t believe how I’m feeling. It’s all so new. Just a few moments ago I was cold, and now I’m so hot I feel flushed.”

Daniel listened to her heavy breathing and knew she was as caught up in their passion as he was. Sucking gently, he savored the exquisite taste of her breast while his hands continued to press her buttocks to his throbbing hardness.

A soft moan of pleasure wafted past his ear, and Daniel became more desperate to plunge inside her. He couldn’t believe how she came alive under his touch, how much she enjoyed how he could make her feel. When he touched her he was powerless to bank the fires she’d started inside him.

They kissed and caressed over and over again, enjoying the taste, the feel of each other, relishing this time together. Daniel let his hands leave her backside and move to fondle and softly squeeze her breasts while his thumb skimmed the nipples, pushing him further and further over the edge.

He kissed her forehead, her eyes, and her lips with wild abandonment. All thought of where they were and who she was left his mind. He wanted her. Nothing else mattered.

He dragged his lips away from hers and frantically searched around him for a place to lie down so he could enter her and ease the hard excruciating ache in his loins. He saw nothing but the cold stone floor and the damp, leafy herb garden.

Through the fog of sensual desire, Daniel looked at his options, and then he took a deep aching breath and came to his senses.

Oh, bloody hell.

What was he doing? He couldn’t treat Isabella this way. She wasn’t a trollop to be taken in the kitchen garden.

His breathing labored, he pulled her tightly to his chest and whispered, “Isabella,” softly, reverently.

Isabella cupped her hands to his buttocks, pressing him to her. “Oh, please don’t stop, Daniel. You are making me feel so wonderful.”

“I know and you don’t know how much that pleases me.”

“Then why stop?”

“No, Isabella, listen to me. We must. I am not going to finish this here in the garden where servants or any of the guests can stumble upon us. I can’t do it.”

“Why?”

He squeezed his eyes shut and rested his cheek against the top of her head while he calmed down from the heat, the exhilaration, the out-of-control passion that she ignited in him.

Damn his need for her that stole all his chivalry. Damn the weakness she created inside him.

He set her away from him. The look in her eyes, the expression on her face told him she didn’t understand. He had to see that she did.

“Why? Because the only way I can finish what I’ve started is to back you against the wall and lift your skirts like you were a common harlot on the street. Do you want that?”

Her eyes rounded in shock.

Daniel didn’t like talking to her that way, but he had to make her understand the gravity of what they had been doing.

“No. I didn’t realize what would come next.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“You were making me feel so wonderful, I didn’t want it to stop.”

“And I didn’t, either.”

He couldn’t look at her. Instead he focused on her clothing and started rebuttoning her lace-trimmed shift. His fingers felt stiff and swollen as if he had all thumbs.

“I’ll do it,” she said and turned her back on him to finish arranging her clothing.

“We seem to have fallen into a dangerous pattern of being far too intimate.”

“Yes, I think I now understand that some rules shouldn’t be broken.”

“That’s right. We must stop this, Isabella, and stick to solving Throckmorten’s murder. If I try to kiss you again, you should slap me.”

She turned back to face him with a gasp on her lips. “That’s what Auntie Pith told me to do if you should try to kiss me.”

“She’s obviously a wise woman. You should listen to her.”

“I couldn’t slap you for something I wanted, Daniel.”

Except for her lips she didn’t look as if they’d been so passionate. A bit of the lace from her corset was showing, and he tucked it inside her dress.

“You must. Isabella, we can’t keep searching for dark corners to have a liaison. I need your help with this. If not we could end up ruining both our lives.”

He saw that she took a deep breath and pondered what he’d said.

“No matter what you say to the contrary, I know you will marry someday. A passionate woman like you should be married.”

“And of course, you are looking for a proper wife who can be your countess and give you children and nothing else. No love.”

It seemed so hollow when she said it like that.

“No passion,” she said.

No
passion?

Yes, of course he wanted passion if he could find a wife who wanted it. Most titled men preferred that passion come from their mistresses, not their wives. That’s not what Daniel wanted.

“I think I understand now, Daniel,” she said. “I shall rebuff you should you desire to kiss me again.”

Oh, I desire it all right.

“Yes, that is what you must do. And, Isabella, it would help if you gave me the handkerchief so that we would not need to see each other again.”

“No, my lord. I couldn’t do that. If you insist, I will give up my meetings alone with you, but I will not give up the intrigue.”

“All right. I’ll go inside first and make sure there’s no one about to see you return.”

Daniel retreated into the house feeling like the lowest scoundrel. He had been no gentleman. Isabella was not the kind of woman he expected to be drawn to. She was too open-minded. He needed a woman who would obey him and be a proper countess, not a woman who wanted to chase after a murderer.

Daniel opened the door and stepped into the dimly lit hallway. As the light from the oil lamp struck him, so did another light dawn on him.

He’d made one hell of a mistake. He was falling in love with Isabella.

Seventeen

Maybe the most astonishing news is that Lord Colebrooke seems to have eyes for no young lady other than Miss Isabella Winslowe. The two of them seemed to take an unusually long time over the buffet table at a soiree last night. Rumor has it that if they had spent any longer in the refreshment room they would have had to apply for a special license to wed!

—
Lord Truefitt,
Society’s Daily Column

Daniel laid the tittle-tattle sheet aside and picked up his cup of tea. “Rubbish. All of it.”

“For sure?” Chilton asked, looking at him from across the large dining room table as they lingered over their morning meal. “You looked rather smitten by Miss Winslowe when I saw you with her in the refreshment room last night.”

Chilton was handsomely and expertly dressed for the day in a loden green jacket and gold striped waistcoat while Daniel had remained more relaxed with his collar and neckcloth loose. He saw no need to finish his dressing until just before he planned to go out.