Sacked (To Love a Governess Regency Short)

Sacked

Jane Charles

The characters, places and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or
dead,
is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Sacked

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without written permission.

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http://www.JaneACharles.blogspot.com

Chapter 1

Elizabeth Claywell yawned as her foot hit the landing of the second floor.

Her charges, five young girls, were barely awake.

The nurse would see to their breakfast and lessons were hours away. She needed a strong cup of tea before she even contemplated teaching.

Images of her uncle telling her that he arranged a marriage merged with images of one of his old friends who came to the estate to offer for her had kept her tossing and turning. The gentleman in question was sixty-years-old if he was a day. Toward the early morning hours she dreamed of Lord Fairfield, his blond hair and laughing blues eyes, a hand held out to her, beckoning.

She took it and her body warmed at his touch.

Elizabeth
hated waking from that part of the dream.

She felt safe with
Fairfield
, and in this home, but she also knew it was short lived. As soon as her uncle found her, he was certain to drag her back to
Berkshire
to marry the gentleman he had chosen.

It was six months ago she ran away, heading toward
Scotland
where her mother’s family still lived. She stopped briefly in Northumberland and stayed when offered the position as governess.

Lord Fairfield was beside himself with what to do with his new charges, nieces, and she happened upon them as he was trying to put them all into the carriage.

They wanted a trip to the confectioners instead, though one had set off after a bunny.

Elizabeth
came upon the family and helped
Fairfield
get each of the girls situated.

After an impromptu interview he offered her the position of governess.

Elizabeth
looked up just as she rounded the corner and stopped.

The door to Lord Fairfield’s chamber was open and he stood in the center of the room, next to a chair, wearing nothing but his britches.

The hard planes of his smooth chest robbed her of breath and the flat planes of his stomach rippled when he bent forward. A blond curl fell against his forehead and her hand itched to comb it way from his face while the other one wanted to explore the ridges of his abdomen.

She knew that she should move on, pretend she hadn’t seen anything and allow the man his privacy, but she was rooted in that spot at the end of the stairs.

He raised his arms above his head and stretched.

Elizabeth
likened it to a feline just awakening from its nap. Not just any cat, but a tiger or lion, or perhaps panther.

Her pulse quickened and as much as she told herself to avert her eyes and continue onto the kitchen, she just couldn’t.

She had been intrigued by
Fairfield
since their first meeting and her attraction to the man had grown daily.

Alone, at night and in her room, she wondered what it would be like to know him not as employer and governess, but as gentleman and lady.

Had her uncle decided her fate belonged with a man like
Fairfield
, she would have never run away. She was just as certain
Fairfield
saw her as nothing more than the woman who taught his nieces and kept them entertained and out of trouble. And, it would be highly improper if he did view her in any other light than his employee.

He bent to one side and then the other and she was mesmerized. When his hands dropped and he turned his eyes locked on hers.

Elizabeth
knew her face must be as red as the poppies from her uncle’s garden if the heat was any indication.

Lord Fairfield didn’t say anything but the side of his lip curled into the hint of a smile and he took a step in her direction.

Elizabeth
willed her feet to move but they wouldn’t. Her body had a mind of its own and was not obeying her today.

When he was half way to the door he stopped. “Please, come in, Miss Claywell.”

On their own accord her feet finally decided to move.

But not in the direction of the kitchen, as they would on any proper young lady, but right into her employer’s bedchamber.

“Yes, Lord Fairfield?”

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

His eyes skimmed down her person and Elizabeth felt as if she had been burned.

She couldn’t recall her breasts ever feeling this heavy, nor her senses so heightened.

“Um . . . I mean . . . no, Lord Fairfield?” Now she was even robbed of speech.

Elizabeth dearly wished she could go back to bed and start this day all over again.

“You seemed to have been waiting for something.” He gestured toward the hall.

Her face heated a thousand times hotter than before.

Was it possible for a person to combust into flames from embarrassment?

“I . . .well you see. . . I . . . that is . . .”

He took a step forward and Elizabeth was unable to continue speaking.

He was so close his breath brushed against her cheek.

Then, he kissed her.

His lips were so gentle she about expired on the spot.

The sigh came out on its own accord and he must have taken it as an invitation for as soon as her lips parted, he plunged.

She had only been kissed a handful of times.

Those had been quick pecks out of sight of her chaperone and nothing like this. His tongue probed and she hesitantly touched hers to his.

Lord Fairfield groaned and delved deeper. His arm locked around her waist, bringing her against his body.

Elizabeth tingled from the tips of her breasts, now pressed against his hard chest, to the tips of her toes, and especially in the middle where a harder portion of his anatomy pressed against her abdomen.

The back of her mind registered what it was, based on long-ago discussions with her mother just before her coming out.

She should pull away, but the sensations were so foreign, so wonderful, she didn’t want to break contact just yet.

This is wrong.

She knew it was wrong, but her body stopped listening to her mind when she was still in the hall and it ignored her now.

Instead, she wanted to be closer, not that they could get much closer.

Breaking contact was not an option.

Her arms lifted and twined around his neck and her fingers played with the short curls at the back of his head. She had longed to run her fingers through these locks, but knew how inappropriate it was given he was her employer.

Employer
!

What was she doing?

Lord Fairfield’s hands roamed up and down her back, branding her with each touch. His mouth moved from her lips to kiss her cheek, before he gently nibbled on her ear, nipped her neck and trailed kisses down to her shoulder.

She was scorched each place he kissed and Elizabeth let her head fall back, lost in a sea of sensations. His hand closed over her breast, gently squeezing and molding it. “Oh, Elizabeth, I’ve waited for so long.”

So long for what
?

She couldn’t concentrate enough to voice the question or form an answer on her own.

He pulled at the top her bodice and she wanted to rip her dress off to give him better access.

When the proper and confining dress did not give way, his hands snaked around her back, swiftly undoing the buttons until her bodice loosened and the shoulders of her dress dropped to the top of her arms. Fairfield’s attention was back on her breasts in an instant, pushing the gown down as he trailed kisses along the edge of her chemise.

Her nipples tightened.

* * *

Jared couldn’t get enough of her, or get to her skin quickly enough. How long had he waited to hold Elizabeth? Weeks? Months?

She plagued his dreams at night, and his thoughts during the day.

Most of the time he was in a half state of arousal when she was in his presence.

Now she was here, in his arms, welcoming his touch.

He slid the gown to her waist, her arms still trapped in her sleeves, but he didn’t care that she wasn’t touching him because all he wanted at the moment was to feast on her breasts.

The nipples were tight, straining against the linen of her chemise. He bent forward and took one in his mouth, suckled while his hand caressed the other.

Elizabeth moaned and arched her back.

He couldn’t have hoped for a better response. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her and the time had finally arrived.

He switched to suckle her other breast as his hand slid down her leg, pulling at the skirt until he reached the hem and pulled it up so he could touch her leg. It was covered in wool.

He stroked up until he reached soft skin just above the garter.

She clamped her legs tight but Jared suspected it wasn’t because she wanted to deny him, but because the pressure added pleasure. He would soon show her what pleasure was. His fingers met the curls of her womanhood, already damp and he bit back a groan.

With one finger he parted the folds and rubbed across her nubbin.

He heard a quick intake of breath and he rubbed across it again. Her legs parted slightly, allowing just a bit more access.

He needed to get her out of this dress and onto his bed so he could do this right.

Only a cad would take a lady, the first time anyway, while she was still standing with her arms locked in her sleeves so she couldn’t participate.

“Uncle Jared? Are you awake?”

Elizabeth stiffened at the sound of Julia’s voice and light footsteps skipping down the stairs, and yanked her dress up to cover herself.

He let the skirt drop before he turned Elizabeth so that his back was against the doorway and hastily buttoned her gown.

“Why are you hugging Miss Fairchild. Is she sad?”

He glanced over his shoulder.

Julia stood in the doorway.

Chapter 2

Elizabeth yanked away from Lord Fairfield. Humiliation and shame engulfed her.

“She is not sad, Julia. I just wanted to hug her.”

Elizabeth took a slow step toward the door, then another, and another before she fled from the room.