Page 10 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
‘Ow! God.’
She stopped moving. ‘What is it?’
‘Your dear papa broke my rib, Mary.’
‘You did not say.’ She stood up, not wanting to hurt him.
‘When was the moment to mention it? I can take a punch. I am not complaining. After all, I did seduce you…’ He watched her as he spoke, as though judging her response. Deviltry flashed in his eyes as he sipped the brandy. ‘I seduced you because I want you, Mary. I am guilty of that. I should have asked for your father’s consent, but we both know I would not have received it, and… At some point along our path, I fell in love with you. I did not lie about that.
‘Yes, I urged you to marry me. But you came with me by choice…’ He lifted his hand. ‘Come back, sit down, you were keeping me warm.’
‘I will hurt your rib.’
‘I will worry about my rib. Come on, sweetheart, sit and talk to me.’
‘We are talking, but I do not think that is what you wish to do.’
His smile tilted sidewards, turning her stomach to fluid. ‘Ah, you got me. Come and give me a kiss, then.’
His words pulled her physically. It was hopeless pretending she did not want to be with him. She told Emily to learn from her mistakes, yethehad just admitted seducing her and she was letting him do it again.
She wanted to trust him, but he had not told her about the indecent offer he’d made to Kate… She had a sudden desire to be in control of her marriage and she knew a way to take control of him. She had learned his body’s reactions to her touch in the summerhouse, when he had been in the midst of seducing her.
She raised the hem of her dress, turning predator, lifting it above her knees, flashing the ribbons holding up her stockings.
He choked on his brandy when he realised what she meant to do, wiped his lips with the side of his hand, then put the glass down and moved his legs together, so her knees could fit either side.
She straddled him, in an intimate position, the skirt of her raised dress tumbling over their thighs.
‘You can get rid of these for a start,’ he said, catching hold of her hand then tugging off her glove. He smiled slyly, as he dropped her glove on the table beside his glass, lifting her hand and slipping one of her fingers into his mouth. He sucked it gently.
But this was about her taking control, not submissively being done to. She wanted to seduce him. She wanted him to know she had some control in their marriage.
She reclaimed her finger, leaned forward, her palm bracing his nape, and kissed him.Comeuppance.It felt like exquisite justice.
When her lips left his, he smiled.
Her fingers released the buttons of his waistcoat, as he tugged his shirt free from the waistband of his trousers.
‘Let me.’ She knocked his hand aside. He flinched.
She had forgotten his broken rib.
‘Don’t stop,’ he told her. ‘Just be careful.’
‘Let me see?’ She pushed his waistcoat off his shoulders, as he leaned forward so she could take that and his shirt off.
The vivid bruise stained half his side and looked like a messy artist’s pallet of reds, yellows and dark purple. Her fingertips gently touched his side. ‘You should have asked me to bandage it for you.’
‘You would not have bandaged me up at that inn.’ Petulance crept into his voice. ‘Not after your father and brother convinced you I was evil.’
‘I never thought you were evil. But you do have a devil in you that likes to hit out.’ He had not fought against their punches or their accusations when they were found at the inn, but he had used words to hurt them. ‘I know you asked my father about my dowry, and whether you should call him Papa, to upset him.’
A chuckle rumbled from his throat, then an expression said that too had hurt his rib. ‘Yes. But I only hit out at people who hit out at me. Enough talking,’ he said, in a deeper tone.
‘Your rib, Andrew…’
‘Darling, physical intimacy is the best painkiller. Forget my rib. I am half naked and beneath you.’
