Page 37 of Not Quite a Lady
Against his body hers was warm and soft. He could feel her heart beating and her breath tickled his neck. He thought the scent of her skin would never leave his memory.
‘Lily.’
‘Mmm?’
Jack felt her lips move against the front of his shirt and fought down the need to seek them out again with his own.
‘Time you were in bed.’
‘Mmm?’ This time there was a decidedly mischievous note in her voice.
‘Your own bed, by yourself,’ he added firmly, wondering which of them was most in need of the reproof.
‘Jack?’ Her voice was muffled. ‘Jack, don’t you want to…to…’
‘No.’Yes, oh God, so much. Yes.
‘I don’t think I understand. You did not – I mean, I know what happens when a man lies with a woman, and that was not it.’
Ah, that’s my Lily. Questions and more questions until you get to the bottom of things.
‘It is one of the things that can happen. One of many things.’
‘Oh.’ There was a hint of worry behind the monosyllable.
Jack pushed the weight of her hair back from her face in an attempt to see her face, but Lily burrowed against him. ‘Am I still–’
‘A virgin? Yes.’
He could almost feel her thinking.
‘Good. I think.’
‘Definitely good.’ He had to tell himself that. And assuredly,he would be thankful for it in the morning, if his body ever stopped screaming at him for release.
He reached down and smoothed her skirts back over her legs, trying not to look at the whiteness of her thighs, the elegant curve of her calves.
There was a sigh so deep he thought it stirred the hairs on his chest, despite his fastened shirt.
Lily uncurled herself and sat up, hairpins falling to the floor as she did so. In the firelight her eyes glinted, but he could not read the emotions in them. ‘We had better find all of these before the housemaid does,’ she remarked prosaically, sweeping her hand across the carpet.
Jack sat back on his heels and began to search too. ‘What about your maid? Will you have to wake her to unlace your gown?’
‘Yes.’ Lily frowned at the handful of pins. ‘I wonder if there are any more of these. Still, Janet will just think I have let down my own hair, especially if I take off my jewels as well.’
She swept her hand across the woollen pile again and their fingers touched. Lily moved her hand until they intertwined. ‘Jack, I am sorry.’
Hell.Guilt hit him in the belly. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel ashamed of what had just happened.
‘I should not have behaved like that when you are too much the gentleman to take advantage of me.’ She bit her lip and looked him in the face. ‘I know perfectly well what would have happened if you had been Adrian.’
He closed his fingers hard around hers. ‘You did nothing wrong, other than to trust me. The blame is mine. It will not happen again.’
‘I will always trust you.’ She got to her feet, her hand still clasped in his, and he stood too. ‘Give me those pins. We had better see how the back door is secured.’
Lily hopped down off the stool, gave the garden door a last shake and went back to the salon for one final check. All seemed orderly and innocuous. The fire was smouldering safely behind the fire screen, the brandy glass was back on the tray, and one pearl pin glinted on the carpet. She stooped and picked it up.
What a strange, wonderful, evening. Lily lifted the branch of candles and shut the door. She had behaved with complete impropriety, she knew that. Inside she felt warm with the knowledge that she had been right to trust Jack, and guilty to think she had taken more, far more, than she had given. And yet, he had seemed content.
