When he entered his rooms, he dropped her feet and let her slide slowly down his body until she hit the floor. “Wait,” she muttered against his lips as he bent his head with the sole purpose of devouring her. But she giggled into his mouth at the same time and didn’t act like she wanted him to stop at all. So, he didn’t. But then her hands smacked playfully against his chest. “A moment, Ashley,” she finally said, lifting her lips from his.
Some little part of her hesitance must have finally seeped into his brain because he realized she wasn’t nearly as amorously involved as he was. Damn his eyes. He forced himself to lift his hands from her body and walked across the room, then dropped onto the bench beside his pianoforte.
“Will you play for me?” she asked tentatively.
He harrumphed. “Isn’t that what I have been doing since I met you?”
Her eyes narrowed and she regarded him stoically for a moment. “Is it?” she asked. “I certainly wasn’t playing.”
“Never?” he asked. He probably sounded like an untried adolescent.
“Not even once,” she replied, her voice crisp enough to cut through the air like a knife. “How dare you diminish the feelings I have for you by accusing me of toying with you?” Her cheeks flushed scarlet and a blush crept up her neck. He’d never seen her angry. She was quite lovely. And a force to be reckoned with when she was truly in a temper, he’d wager. But in this case, he would bet he’d hurt her feelings more than angered her. And that made his heart ache.
“You have feelings for me?” He studied her face while he asked the question.
“Would I be here if I didn’t?”
“I was holding Ronald for ransom.”
She crossed to sit beside him on the bench. “I’d have come here even if you weren’t.”
He took her hand in his. “I want to marry you.”
She shook her head, negating his words as soon as they left his lips. “I can’t live in your world. I can visit it from time to time, but that’s all.”
“Do you plan to do that?” He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed the backs of them.
“Now that I have parents here, and they remember me, I suppose I’ll visit. But it won’t be enough to suit either you or me.” She shrugged. “It simply cannot be managed.”
“Tell me your secrets,” he prompted.
She laughed. “You tell me yours.”
He nudged her knee with his. “A compromise? I’ll trade you one of my secrets for one of yours.”
She looked at him askance, her gaze skeptical. But slowly she nodded.
“Why did you come to me that first night?”
Her face softened. “You think it was a plan, don’t you? To seduce you?”
He didn’t answer. He just watched her.
“It wasn’t. I was completely drawn to you.”
Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
“I know now that it was my mother’s fae machinations that drew me to you.” She grimaced. “That’s probably going to get too close for comfort, if we discuss it, however. May we move on to the next subject?”
He shook his head. “No. Let’s finish this one.”
“Her spell was for me to recognize the song of someone who loved me. To be drawn by it so I could find her. But in her spell-casting, she neglected to think that someone else may love me, as well.”
Ashley felt like hiding his head. He hadn’t even known how he felt until recently. How on earth could she know?
“It’s all right. You needn’t tell me.” She squeezed his hand. “I already know.” She tipped his face up to hers and touched her lips lightly to his. “And the feeling is mutual.”
“Your mother’s spell…” he began.
But she cut him off. “My mother’s spell drew me to you. It didn’t make me fall in love with you.” She laughed, a self-deprecating sound. “You did that all on your own.”
Ashley’s head spun with the news.
“My turn,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Did you love your wife?”
“Don’t you want to know if I killed her?”
“No.” She batted those dark lashes at him. “Not yet.”
He sighed heavily, taking a breath to bolster himself. “Did I love her?” He thought for a moment. “No. I never did.”
“Not ever?”
“No. She and I had nothing in common. We married to suit our families. She was frail from the day I met her. And only came to my bed because she was obligated to give me an heir.”
She tilted her head and listened to him. He’d never spoken of this to anyone. Ever.
“She was relieved when she found out she was expecting.”
“I would have been ecstatic,” she whispered softly.
“She was relieved because she no longer had to share my bed, you see. For nine months, she would be free of my affections. And, if we conceived a boy, she could be free of me forever.”
“You wanted more.” She didn’t ask a question. She just knew he’d always dreamed of more.
“I wanted a wife I could touch and talk to when I wanted, and not just when she was breeding. I wanted a wife I could tell my secrets to. Someone who would hold them dear.” Ashley shook his head. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized what was going on with her.”
“What was it?” Sophia’s brows drew together.
“She loathed my touch so much that she became ill whenever I was around. She got so weak that she took to a wheeled chair, so she could get about. She never left her bed unless someone forced her to do so.” He crossed to the sideboard to pour a drink. “I tried to be intimate with her. I tried to tell her things. I tried to talk to her. I spoke with her about my business ventures. About the investments I made. I would leave home to take care of business matters and always returned to her. She was so frail that I didn’t stay away for long, you see.”
“I do see…” she began. “You felt obligated to her care. Of course, you would.”
“She played me for a fool.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was a gentleman. A peer who approached me. He’d done quite well, and he often invested in schemes I was invested in. He was also seen in the company of my wife on occasion. I began to get suspicious. I planted some false information with my duchess to see if it would get back to him. It did. Every bit of it. He lost his shirt in the deal. And his stockings. And everything else.”
“He came to see me. Accused me of all sorts of foul things. Tried to blackmail me into paying him when he realized what I’d done. I refused. He threatened to harm my wife if I didn’t pay him. I never expected him to follow through.”
“Where is he now?”
Ashley finally looked up from his glass. “In Parliament. He serves his duties as though he’s not penniless and homicidal.” He shrugged. “I never could prove he did it. But I’m certain of it. I would bet my fortune and my family on it.”
“You didn’t kill her.”
***
Ashley looked wounded at her question. He chuckled, a sound without any mirth at all as he drained the last swallow of his drink. “Oh, I wanted to kill her. On more than one occasion. When I found out she’d been sharing a bed with this gentleman throughout most of our marriage. When I learned that she’d shared my business secrets with him. When I found out her illness was all a ruse to keep me from her bed. When he tried to blackmail me. I wanted to kill her. And I may as well have.”
“That’s why you never disavowed it.” She pressed her fingertips to her lips. “Because you felt guilty.”
“If I’d done as he asked, he wouldn’t have carried through with his threat. I thought he loved her a little.” He made that chuckling sound again. “I was quite wrong.
“The dangerous Duke of Robinsworth did
cause his wife’s death,” he said with a grimace. “But not in a way anyone would have ever expected.”
“You are not to blame for her folly.”
“I may as well have tossed her from the tower myself.”
“That’s not true,” she started. But he just shook his head.
“Enough with my secret. I’ll have another of yours now.”
She tapped her chin for a moment, trying to figure out what to tell him next. She may as well show him. She turned her back to him and pulled her hair over her shoulder. “Would you unfasten my gown for me, please?”
He gulped and stared at her for a moment. But not for long. He rose and began to work the fastenings on the back of her gown. When her gown was loose, he stepped back and away from her, and ran a hand quickly through his hair. “Don’t worry,” she teased. “I simply want to show you something.”
“Show me everything,” he groaned as a grin stole across his face.
She pointed to a nearby chair. “Sit,” she commanded.
He did so with no hesitation, aside from sweeping a hand down over his mouth, as though he wanted to wipe the silly grin from his face. It didn’t work. He regarded her closely, leaning forward with his elbows upon his knees.
“Would you close your eyes for a moment?” she asked.
He groaned, his grin growing even wider. “Must I?”
She couldn’t keep from laughing at his stricken look. “You must.”
“All right,” he acquiesced and he squeezed his eyes tightly together.
Sophia shoved her gown from her shoulders and untied her chemise at the neck, letting it fall to the floor. She wore nothing else, aside from stockings and garters. She turned her back to him and called forth her magic, letting her wings appear. It wasn’t often she summoned her wings when she was of average size. She fluttered them lightly, satisfied when she stirred the air just a little bit around her. She peered over her shoulder and saw that she made the lock of hair on his forehead lift.
“What was that?” he asked.
“You may open your eyes and see,” she said.
“Bloody hell,” he gasped.
Twenty-Five
Ashley had to remind himself to breathe. It was as though she’d stolen all the air from the room when she removed her clothes. There she stood, naked in front of him. But from her back arched pretty wings that matched the flushed color of her skin. They stood up taller than her shoulders. And dropped down low enough to cover her bottom. All he could see were her wings, the back of her head, and her pink garters and white stockings. Dear God, she was beautiful.
He forced himself to exhale and took a step toward her. “By the saints, you’re a faerie,” he breathed. Her hands were in front of her, one cupping each of her breasts, shielding them from his gaze. “Don’t come any closer,” she said, when he moved to walk around her. Her wing bent, wrapping around her enough to block his view. He stopped. “I’m not decent,” she went on.
“I’ll say,” he gritted out.
She fluttered her wings lightly, and the breeze she created washed over his skin, making his manhood spring to immediate attention. Or perhaps it was the sight of her naked that did that. He couldn’t be certain.
“What do you think?” she asked.
He reached out one tentative hand to touch her. But she jerked forward. “They’re very sensitive,” she warned. A slow flush crept up her body, and her wings blushed as well. Good God, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, flushing scarlet there the way she was. He pulled his hand back.
“I want to touch you,” he said, recognizing the hoarseness of his own voice.
“Could you get me your dressing gown?” she asked, turning her body so that her front faced away from him as he stepped toward the wardrobe to retrieve it. But as she turned, she faced his full-length mirror that stood on the floor by his dressing table. Her eyes met his in the looking glass, and she blushed scarlet. Her wings took an even brighter hue, turning a soft but startling pink. He turned his head, though doing so was the most difficult thing he’d ever done, and held his dressing gown out to her on a crooked finger. He felt it fall away from his hand and heard it rustle as she put it on.
“You can open your eyes now,” she said.
He slowly opened his eyes to her and wanted to cry with despair when he saw her wrapped in his gown, her pretty pink wings gone. “Where did they go?”
“I can make them come and go at will,” she informed him with a shrug. “They’re a little unwieldy beneath clothing.”
“They’re beautiful,” he said. He couldn’t come up with anything better than that. Just “they’re beautiful.” He probably sounded like a complete dolt.
“Thank you.” Another pretty blush crept up her cheeks. A clock down the corridor chimed the midnight hour, and she said, “My time here is drawing to a close.”
“You can’t go yet,” he complained. There had to be something he could do to make her stay. There had to be something.
“I have a few more hours,” she said quietly as she crossed to his bed and climbed atop it. “Let me sleep with you for one night.”
He dragged a hand down his face. He nodded.
She turned down the linens and the counterpane and settled herself against his pillows. He went to join her. “What shall we do to occupy the night?” she asked, a grin tugging at her lips.
He could think of plenty of things to keep them occupied. But he started with her stockings. Ashley picked her tiny foot up in his hand and tickled the bottom of it. She giggled and tried to jerk back from him, but he held fast. God, she made him feel like was an adolescent again. But then she suddenly stilled, her eyes hot and limpid.
***
Ashley trailed his hand up the back of her calf, sending tingles to every single part of her body, from her head to her toes. Her breaths were already shallow, and she could barely concentrate on anything but him. He tugged at her garter and rolled her stocking down her leg. Then proceeded to do the same with the other.
“Will you douse the lights?” she asked, hating to hear the quiver of her own voice. But she was frightened. He doused every light in the room but a single candle, his chambers growing darker and darker until there was a single dancing shadow playing upon the wall—his. She watched his graceful form as he began to shrug out of his jacket and waistcoat, and then tugged his shirt from his trousers and over his head. He sat down on the edge of the bed and tugged off his boots, laughing as he tossed them one by one to the floor with gentle thuds. He sounded more carefree than she’d ever heard him.
“Are you happy?” she asked. She could sense that he was. But her senses had been wrong in the past.
“Happy to have you in my bed?” he said as he shucked his trousers and crawled across the bed toward her wearing nothing but his smallclothes. “I’m bloody ecstatic.”
He reached for her in one quick move and she shrieked as he drew her beneath him. “Ashley,” she cried.
“Sophie,” he crooned in retort, as he reached between them and tugged open his dressing gown, which she still wore. He devoured her with his gaze as her skin was revealed, and he lowered his head to tease her belly with his stubbly chin.
“God, you’re exquisite,” he growled. His mouth traced a fiery path across her stomach and up to the swells of her breasts. He uncovered them with reticence, his breath leaving his mouth in a hot rush of air when he’d uncovered her. Sophia shrugged her shoulders from the dressing gown and reached for his hair. She threaded her fingers through his dark locks, pulling him tightly to her as he explored her stomach and the line beneath her breasts with his tongue.
He didn’t go any higher, seeming content to caress her, but her nipples were aching for his touch. She very gently tugged his head toward an aching peak, and he raised his gaze to meet hers for a moment as he drew
the tip of her breast into his mouth.
“Oh,” she cried out, arching her back to get closer to him.
He very gently licked across her nipple, watching her face as he did so, and then closed his eyes tightly as he burrowed more closely to her, seating himself between her thighs. She spread her legs for him, and he settled there.
“I’m afraid,” she whispered to him, her breath hitching in her throat as he moved from one breast to the other.
“I won’t harm you, Sophie. I promise.” He stopped his ministrations and looked up at her, as though he needed her permission to continue. She nodded, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth to worry it. He dipped his head again, taking her nipple back into his mouth as his hands played up and down her sides. He began to rock against the center of her, and she could feel the raspy coarseness of his smallclothes against her tender skin.
“Take those off?” she asked.
He lifted himself briefly to slide them down and over his feet. Then he came back to her and she could feel the length of him pressed against her. “Please tell me that you’ll be mine,” he whispered fiercely, looking into her eyes as he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She could do nothing more than nod as sensation swamped her. The pulse between her thighs grew more and more strong, and she had to remind herself to breathe.
Between them, his hand drifted lower as his lips met hers, and he slid his tongue very tenderly and softly into her mouth as his fingers found that little nub at the top of her sex that was pounding so strongly. She cried out at his tender ministrations, his mouth taking in her mewling little sounds as he breathed her in with every stroke of his fingers against her. Her hips began to arch to meet him. But then he replaced his fingers with his thumb and slid one finger inside her. Sophia nearly exploded. He stilled above her. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
She jerked his hair. “If you stop now, I will use all of my fae magic to do something terrible to you.”