Page 76 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
He extinguished his cigar and threw the stub into the flowerbeds. ‘Let us be naughty and abscond. I do not want to go back in there. I have a better idea than waltzes.’
She glanced at the open French door.
‘Come on, my rebel. They know you are safe.’
Her loyalty belonged to him first, and she did not want to bridle her wild, restless stallion tonight when he had only just earned his freedom again.
‘Come on.’ He grasped her hand. He must have seen the decision in her eyes.
They ran down the steps and across the lawn.
‘Where are we going?’
‘To the lake!’
He pulled her on.
With her free hand, she lifted her evening dress above her knees and ran as she had done earlier. When they ran from the formal garden into the meadow, the long grass swiped at her legs, and their footsteps flooded the night air with the scents from the heads of clover.
She was breathing hard when they reached the water.
The lake was absolutely still, reflecting the night sky and the full moon.
Andrew slowed to a walk, but led her further around the lake, not stopping until the house was out of sight.
‘Here.’ He stripped off his evening coat and lay it down. Then released the buttons of his waistcoat.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘We are going for a swim, sweetheart.’
‘Andrew, I am in an evening gown.’
‘Did I say we were swimming in our clothes? Undress.’
‘What if someone comes?’
‘We will make lots of noise and they will hear us and leave us in privacy.’
‘They will think…’
‘That we are a newly married couple enjoying ourselves.’ He dropped his waistcoat on the grass.
‘Andrew—’
‘Mary. We are married, no one will judge.’ His fingers pulled the knot of his cravat loose. ‘If you say no, you will always wish you had said, yes. Do not lack courage.’ His cravat slid from around his neck. ‘Let me undo your dress for you.’
Giving in to his urging, she turned her back.
He released one button, then the next, his fingers brushing against bare skin. ‘You are not wearing stays, or a chemise.’
‘The satin falls better with nothing beneath, underwear spoils the silhouette of this dress, and now I am married I may be daring and wear what I like.’
‘See, I said you were a rebel. You should have told me earlier you wore no underwear beneath, I would not have bothered dancing,’ he joked as his fingers released the rest of the buttons. When they were loose, his hands slipped about her, beneath the satin, and cupped her breasts. His lips brushed kisses across her neck as his palms squeezed.
When she had met him in the dark glasshouse, long ago, hiding from her family, his caresses had been dangerous and desperate. Now they felt like home; a place she wished to be.
‘This has just become my favourite dress,’ he said as his fingers slid it off her shoulders and in one fall, the dress slithered to the ground, leaving her wearing an odd combination of gloves, stockings and shoes.
