The Regency Redgraves: What an Earl Wants / What a Lady Needs / What a Gentleman Desires / What a Hero Dares

Jessica didn’t take that bit of information in immediately, either. She was too busy wondering how Gideon would have managed to produce a blue rose, if she had chosen the blue. Knowing the man, he’d probably have just dipped its stem in an inkpot until he’d achieved the proper shade. “Oh?” she said belatedly. “Who is he?”

“Not he, but she. And it’s Lady Katherine, his lordship’s sister, come into town for new boots or some such thing, and if I were thirty years younger, I’d be wearing rosebuds myself. Oops, nearly tripped there, didn’t you? You have to be careful where you step, Jess.”

He was trying to tell her something but without really telling her. “Yes, I suppose I do. In every way.”

They reached the first-floor foyer. Richard turned toward the closed doors to the drawing room, but Jessica held him back. “What is she doing here?” she whispered fiercely.

“I told you, something about new boots. Now come along.”

Jessica looked closely into her friend’s face. Saw the slight twitch of his left eyelid. “What’s going on, Richard? What’s really going on?”

“Now why would you be asking that?”

“I’m asking that because you never forget your handkerchief. I’m asking because Gideon doesn’t wear posies. I’m asking because nobody told me Lady Katherine was expected. I’m asking because the doors to the drawing room are closed. And I’m asking most of all because your eyelid is twitching.”

“It is not,” he said, and it twitched again, just as a small bead of perspiration made its way down his temple.

“It does when you’re lying. You may bluff with impunity at cards, but never with me. Something is awaiting me on the other side of those doors, and that something is more than Gideon’s sister.”

“I told him to send somebody else upstairs to get you,” Richard said, sighing, making use of his handkerchief to wipe at his brow. “Adam, for one. I still don’t think he realizes what’s going on, he’s so busy making a total ass of himself, running around tables and chairs in those bloody stupid red heels of his, trying to avoid the dogs. I have to ask the cook for a marrowbone for Brutus. He won’t let the fool alone. Just come along, Jess, won’t you? You knew this was inevitable, in any case.”

“I knew what was—”

The double doors were flung open, and Brutus, closely followed by Cleo, was escorted into the foyer by Thorndyke, who was holding some sort of raw meat chop aloft with two fingers, his expression one of extreme distaste. Jessica quickly bit her bottom lip until the butler and his tongue-lolling admirers had disappeared behind the baize door at the end of the hallway, and then released her delight in peals of laughter.

“Oh, good, she’s not a stickler. We can’t have one of those.”

The voice was female, and it had come from inside the drawing room.

“Lady Katherine?” Jessica whispered the question, as they were still near the stairs and could not see into the drawing room.

Richard nodded. “Beautiful. One might say exotic. But without a single air or touch of starch about her. Had me shake her hand rather than bow over it. And she’s wearing riding clothes, says there’s time enough later to change if she has a mind to, which she doesn’t.”

Jessica considered this for a moment. “But you think I’ll like her.”

It was Richard’s turn to consider. “It’s like with the earl, Jess. I don’t think you have a choice.”

“And since they heard me laugh, no choice about going in there,” Jessica agreed. “Richard, do you sometimes think it was easier when it was just the two of us?”

“No,” he said, grinning. “I like the gravy boat I’ve somehow been dropped into too much to say that. And so do you.”

Jessica was still smiling as she entered the drawing room, still hanging onto Richard’s arm, that smile only fading when she began taking inventory of its other occupants.

There was Adam, dressed this evening in shamrockgreen jacket and fawn pantaloons, bent over one of the many couches, snapping at the seat with his handkerchief, probably to dislodge any dog hair.

There was Lady Katherine Redgrave, exotic as Richard had said, in her deep burgundy riding habit as she all but sprawled on another couch, both arms stretched out along its carved wooden back, one long booted leg crossed over the other in a highly unladylike way that flattered her all hollow.

One thing Jessica could say about the Redgraves, at least the three she’d met; they certainly knew how to relax and didn’t appear to much care where they were when they did it. And, oddly, the more they relaxed, the more on guard you felt you needed to be.

Her ladyship’s darkest brown hair, glinted with golden highlights, was piled haphazardly atop her head, several softly curling tendrils escaping the pins in a way many would suffer hours of curling sticks and poked pins to achieve. Her eyes were huge and dark and slightly tip-tilted, her mouth wide and pink and lush, her nose rivaled the perfection of the profile on Jessica’s new cameo, as did her creamy complexion.

She tilted her head in Jessica’s direction. And winked.

Jessica smiled in return, hoping she looked pleased rather than terrified.

And there was Gideon, standing at the mantel at the far side of the room, dressed in his usual impeccable black and white, the rose visible on his lapel, seemingly deep in conversation with…who was that man, and why was he wearing—

“Oh, my God. Now? Tonight? Is he out of his—Richard, why didn’t you tell me about—Now?”

She must have spoken that last word above her strangled whisper, because Gideon and the man wearing the starched white collar of the church turned to look at her.

And that’s when the world stopped.

He left the clergyman where he stood and crossed the wide expanse of the drawing room in his coolly determined way, making a dead-set at her, his dark eyes never leaving her face. Smoldering. Yes, that was the word. He was smoldering. All sophistication, all his devilishly handsome dark good looks, all his fine clothes and finer physique enough to cause her to forget to breathe.

“Damme,” Richard breathed quietly, in some awe. “If there was ever a man who wanted a woman…”

Jessica quickly lowered her eyes, praying they hadn’t revealed what Richard had seen in Gideon’s. Because if there was ever a woman who wanted a man…

She dropped into a curtsy and held out her gloved hand, some bit of her brain remembering what she’d been taught a lifetime ago, as a young girl preparing for her Come Out. Gideon bowed over it, turning her hand at the last moment in order to press his kiss just below the pearl button fastening the soft kid against her wrist. The tip of his tongue touched her heated flesh and was gone, leaving her branded.

Richard melted away, physically removing himself. The rest of the world simply disappeared, as they, the room they gathered in, the entire city of London, were no longer important.

“Tonight?” she asked when she could finally locate her tongue.

“God, yes. Tonight,” he answered quietly, his tone all fierce seduction as he drew her arm through his and walked her back into the foyer, just out of sight of the others. “You flatter the gown just as I knew you would. I know what lies beneath it, and what lies beneath that. The silk of your stockings, the laces that lift and mold your breasts. The fiery center of you, the memories that have driven me mad these past endless days. I’ll be undressing you with my eyes for the eternity of time we have to yet get through until I can turn thought into deed. You must be gentle with me, Jessica, for I’m a man who has touched the silks that now touch you, imagining how I will rid you of them with reverent hands and delicate kisses, a man who is now rapidly approaching the end of his tether.”

She opened her mouth, and the silliest words in all the world popped out. Perhaps because she had wondered and then hated herself for wondering. Men had needs. She knew that, certainly. She hadn’t realized women could share those needs, but she did, now, thanks to him. That he would wait for her, however, astounded her. “You’ve been celibate these ten days?”

“Gives you pause, doesn’t it, knowing my reputation?” he asked, at last gifting her with a half smile, one that made him look younger, even vulnerable. “But I made myself a promise, and I keep my promises, although if I hadn’t been able to secure the Special License this afternoon, God only knows how I would have made it through another night without breaking down your door.”

“I’ve thought much the same,” she admitted, feeling heat flow into her cheeks…and other parts of her body. “I have this new…curiosity.”

“You’ll have to tell me about this curiosity. In some detail, please, and I will attempt to satisfy it all…also in some detail.”

The small bud of pleasure between her thighs, which he’d awakened from its lifetime of innocent slumber, contracted and released, sending a ripple of sensation throughout her body. Her skin tingled. Her nipples strained against the silk lining of her corset. Her knees could barely support her. If this was what his mere words could do to her…?

He touched the back of his hand to her cheek. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes, your pupils gone all dark and wide. There’s heaven and there’s hell in what we humans desire, Jessica. But the past is the past, and now we start fresh. From now on, for us, and only between us, we reach for the stars.”

“You’re…you’re a remarkable man. Arrogant, always bound and determined to get your own way…but remarkable.” She watched his own eyes go dark and felt herself leaning toward him, angling up her chin for his kiss.

“Haven’t you finished yet, Gideon? Should I help? Jessica, please marry the man, which he’s assured me you want to do, although I can’t see the attraction, frankly, and let’s go in to dinner. I’ve been on horseback nearly all day, and I’m famished.”

Jessica lowered her head, the spell between Gideon and her broken.

He took her arm once more and turned Her about to see his sister standing a few feet away, one hand on her hip, her left boot tapping against the marble floor. Her grin was very nearly unholy. “Oops,” she said cheekily, clearly a young woman devoid of fear. “Are you going to growl now, Gideon?”

“Not tonight. Jessica, allow me, please, to introduce you to my sister, the incorrigible but kind Lady Katherine Redgrave. Kate, my bride, Jessica.”

Jessica dropped into a curtsy, realizing Gideon had not added Linden to that introduction. But as he’d said, the past was the past. “My lady.”

“Kate. My name is Kate, and since you’re about to become my sister, I think we can also dispense with curtsies, considering it would be I curtsying to you if Gideon ever gets this ceremony behind us. Gideon, the man is quoting sermons in there, and the fool is attempting to make limericks of them. Oh, that wasn’t nice of me, was it, Jessica? Your brother is a very…That is, he’s a well set-up young—” She hesitated, flashed a smile that could bring down kings, and ended, “He’s a bit of an adorable twit, isn’t he?”

“Of the first water, although only a woman would include adorable in that description,” Gideon agreed, laughing. “I could have had Brutus and Cleo fully trained by now, if I put my mind to it. But I’m enjoying Adam’s discomfort too much. Jessica, I asked Kate to come to town to bear witness at the ceremony, along with Richard. As I left the invitation rather late, Kate chose to travel the final leg via horseback, her groom in tow and her carriage containing her luggage lagging behind. But she is obedient,” he ended, grinning at his sister.

“Dying of curiosity, more like,” Lady Katherine admitted. “And, not that I don’t appreciate having you include me, brother mine, why didn’t you just have Trixie fly on over here on her gilded broom to bear witness? Oh, wait, I believe I’ve just answered my own question.”

“Not really. She has other plans this evening in any case.” He looked toward the doorway. “I suppose we should get this over with.”

“How could any woman refuse such a romantic proposal?” Jessica smiled at Kate, who winked at her yet again, and the three of them at last entered the drawing room, Gideon guiding them directly toward the fireplace and a clearly uncomfortable clergyman.

“Jessica, there you are! Quickly, what rhymes with leper? All I can come up with is pepper, and that won’t fadge.”

“Adorable,” Kate said again, in some amusement. “And much preferable to the way he’s been attempting to impress me with his clearly irresistible charms. Whoever let him off his leading strings this soon was overconfident in his hopes.”

“Yes, about that,” Jessica said to Gideon as the clergyman hastily arranged everyone in the proper order in front of him. “Adam told me a few things this afternoon. Shocking things. We should talk about them.”

“Tomorrow,” Gideon promised as the clergyman pointedly cleared his throat and opened his prayer book.

In the next few minutes, much more quickly and even prosaically than she could have imagined, Jessica became the Countess of Saltwood. She hadn’t really given much thought to that particular result of marrying Gideon, even after Lady Katherine had earlier joked about curtsying to her. Many people would now curtsy to her, address her as my lady, or your ladyship. Just the sort of thing she had once daydreamed about a lifetime ago, back in the days of her innocence.

Now Gideon, by wedding her, had given her back what he so clearly thought was the life she deserved. He’d married her because he felt the Redgraves owed her something, that was clear. But he also desired her. She hadn’t thought about desire as a young girl awaiting her first Season. She certainly hadn’t thought about it during her months with James, except to think men were no better than animals in the forest.

Yet when Gideon looked at her with desire in his eyes, she knew the trappings of society meant nothing. The titles, the curtsies, the balls, the nights at the theater, all of it.

How strange that her father and stepmother had clearly been preparing Adam for what was to come, but had not attempted any such education with her. Considering her father’s plans for her, that did seem odd. Unless that was to be her appeal…her ignorance. Her innocence.

Unless…unless her father had never planned any such thing for his daughter and had only been obeying someone else, who’d demanded her from him, demanded his obedience. James had been afraid of someone. Had her father been equally terrified? Cowed enough or frightened enough to allow his own daughter to be sacrificed? Yes, that seemed the more logical explanation, not that she could ever forgive her father, no matter how deep his fears.

Jessica looked down the length of the dining table to see Gideon watching her, and realized her wandering mind had been taking her to a place that had no place tonight.

He raised his wineglass to her in a sort of salute, and immediately Lady Katherine took up her own, rising to her feet. “Since my brothers are not here to do the thing properly, I suppose it is up to me to propose a toast to the Earl and Countess of Saltwood. Which I hereby do.” She raised her glass higher. “To a long and happy life, Jessica, even if that means having Gideon in it. Cheers!”

“Oh, hear, hear!” Adam agreed, also on his feet, glass raised high. “To a long and happy life, Gideon, even if that means having me in it!”

Everyone laughed, as they were hopefully meant to do, and Jessica gazed at her brother in real affection. He’d be all right, he truly would. They’d all be all right, in time. Because Gideon would see to it. She truly believed that.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WITH KATE YAWNING into her hand and Adam thoroughly in his cups and half-asleep in his chair, Gideon exchanged a meaningful glance with Richard, who immediately stood up, stretching and yawning and then quickly apologizing for his lapse.

“Quite a day for an old man like me, quite a day,” he said, smiling at Lady Katherine. “Would you do me the extreme favor of allowing me to escort you upstairs to your chamber, my lady?”

“What was that?” Adam stumbled to his feet, blinking. “I can do that. I’ve always wanted to escort a lady to her bedchamber, damned if I haven’t.”

“Adam!” Jessica exclaimed from her seat beside Gideon. “You really must learn to not say everything you think!”

“He thinks?” Gideon asked quietly, eying the curls at Jessica’s shoulders, the ones he’d been manfully resisting wrapping around his finger this past hour or more. But it hadn’t been easy goings. “It is rather late, Richard, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, my lord. After a long day,” he added helpfully, and then winced as the mantel clock struck ten. Many carriages were just now leaving Portman Square, for an evening round of parties. “All things considered, that is.”

“You’re all as subtle as a sharp jab to the ribs,” Lady Katherine said, but then held out her hand to Richard, to allow him to help her to rise. “I held out as long as I could, as I’d like to think part of my mission in life is harassing you and Max and Val, Gideon, but I will admit I’m more than ready for my bed.” She looked to Richard and Adam. “And I would greatly appreciate both you fine gentlemen accompanying me upstairs. To my door,” she added, shooting Adam an amused look.

“We’ll all go up,” Gideon said, holding out his hand to Jessica. He wouldn’t look at her, because she might smile at him, and if she gave him one more ounce of encouragement he might just take her here and now, on the couch.

The way she looked at him from beneath her lush lashes, the way she held her spoon as she sipped her soup, her endearing habit of touching her hand to the middle of her breasts as she leaned forward to listen to the conversation. He’d even envied her serviette as she’d dabbed the fine linen against her lips.

It hadn’t been her fault. He knew that. She’d done nothing out of the ordinary. She hadn’t purposely teased him. She had only to breathe to make him want her.

Ten days. Who knew ten days could be so long a time? He’d given Gwen her congé, even introduced her to Freddie Banks, who much to Gwen’s delight immediately offered her his protection. He’d harassed a modiste and her dozen seamstresses like a man possessed. He’d petitioned the church for a Special License, pretended not to know his grandmother’s favored way to secure, well, favors. He’d paced the floor each night, he’d counted the hours each day. He’d stared at the locked door between his and Jessica’s bedchambers and suffered the torments of the damned.

And all for a woman he barely knew. A woman who was now his wife.

He’d wanted her. In the beginning, it had been that simple. Because what he wanted, he took. Had always taken. He’d never seen any reason to deny himself anything.

But he’d never wanted anything the way he wanted Jessica.

And now he had her.

They entered her bedchamber together, his hand at the back of her waist. He turned and closed the door. Turned the key.

They moved farther into the large chamber, to see it was subtly lit with candles and the light from a small fire, the curtains on the four-poster bed tied back on one side, draping the other three. The coverlet was turned down, a confection of ivory lace rather artfully arranged atop it.

He couldn’t believe he wasn’t seeing a scene welllaid for seduction.

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Where are your women?”

“I dismissed them for the night.”

He cocked his head to one side. “You did? And why was that?”

“I don’t know. The note I found this morning. The new clothing, the necklace…all of it. I had…hopes,” she said, and then stepped closer, raising her hands to his neck cloth, deftly beginning to undo it. He decided to help, quickly dealing with the buttons on his waistcoat and shirt.

His smile brought a hint of color to her cheeks. “You had two eyes in your head when you saw yourself in this gown, and knew I couldn’t see you tonight and then simply walk away.”

“So now you know how I feel, every time I look at you. It was only the once…but I can’t forget it. How you made me feel. I hadn’t felt anything, Gideon, not in a very long time. But this was new, what you made me feel. I wanted…I want to know if it was real, what I felt. I want to know if there’s even more. Is that wrong? Please tell me it’s not wrong.”

He was already straining almost painfully against the fabric of his pantaloons. “I want to be inside you so badly.” His hands went to her back, seeking out the row of buttons, dispatching them quickly. “I want to make you mine. But I don’t want to rush you… .”

“I may already be ahead of you,” she told him breathlessly, tugging his shirt free of his waistband as she began backing toward the bed. “Let’s don’t talk anymore, Gideon, please?”

He picked her up at the waist, her arms going around his neck, and continued on toward the bed, smiling as he saw the pink rose petals strewn across the sheets. He hadn’t been overly enthusiastic about Jessica’s request Mildred and Doreen act as her ladies’ maids, but now he believed they were both wildly underpaid.

He put Jessica down and quickly finished the job of ridding her of the dusky-rose gown, leaving her clad in an ivory lace corset laced in front with pink satin ribbons. The corset was purely ornamental, not fashioned for any other purpose than the joy he’d find once he’d slid open the laces to touch the treasure beneath.

For now, however, it could stay where it was, softly molding and raising her perfect breasts. The French drawers, however, had to go.

They went.

The silk stockings stayed. The necklace stayed. The golden circlet of diamonds remained on her left hand. The pins, and there were blessedly few of them, submitted to his search, and her glorious red hair was free, tumbling, enticing.

There was no time for his evening coat; it was too well fitted, for one thing. Jessica, bless her, had already managed to undo the buttons of his pantaloons. He was so ready to explode, no more than a few deep hard strokes from bursting. Reciting lines from Paradise Lost in his head wouldn’t help him now. He couldn’t even remember the damn words.

He hadn’t felt this way since…No. He’d never felt this way. Never.

She slipped her hands inside his opened shirt, and his skin felt scalded by her touch. With a low groan of need, he lifted her onto the edge of the bed and spread her thighs, pulling her legs around his back even as he plunged into her, knowing she was ready for him.

“Yes! Gideon—yes!”

Yes, his mind echoed as he drove into her. Yes, yes, yes!

And then it was over. But it wasn’t over. The long days and nights of unbearable need had been addressed, but not the want. Because he would want her for the rest of his life.

He laid her back on the rose petal-strewn sheets, lifting her legs onto the coverlet, and smiled down at her. She looked unfocused, lost in a dream, her limbs loose, her hair spread out on the pillows like a living thing. He’d done that. Him. He would banish her past. He’d chase away every last shadow. He felt allpower-ful. She made him all-powerful.

Gideon stripped off the rest of his clothes and joined her in the bed, placed a kiss on her mouth with a gentleness he didn’t know he could feel. “At least we’re still breathing,” he said as she smiled up at him. “We could have killed each other, you know.”

Jessica caressed his cheek. “But now you’re no use to me for at least an hour,” she said, her tone teasing. Unafraid. Even daring.

Leaning over her, supporting himself on one elbow, Gideon located one end of the bow securing her corset, began slowly pulling on it to release it. “Not entirely.”

He began kissing her just at the top edge of the corset, and then inched his way down even as the laces were undone. He kissed her breasts, licked at them, paid special attention to her taut nipples until she moaned quietly and raised her hips.