Page 10 of A Wager With A Rake
“I’m the one who made you that wet,” he called out to her.“Your fingers are soaked, aren’t they?”
A moan was her response.
“At least tell me how many fingers you are using.”
“Three.”She sounded so near, just on the other side of the door, fucking her fingers where she stood.A mere two-inch-thick wooden door separated him from what he knew would be perfection.
His imagination worked each of her moans into images of his tongue flicking her pearl, wishing he could break down the door and replace her fingers with his.
Her moans grew louder and closer together, and he knew she was close.
“That’s it, Tess.Come for me.”
She cried out a few obscenities and loud moans, and he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket just in time to capture his spend before he painted her door with his seed.It was one of the most intense orgasms he could recall, and he was hardly sated.
“Let me in, Tess.Please let me lick you clean.”He’d spend the entire night there if she wanted, licking and tasting her orgasm while he drew several more from her.If she’d just open the damned door.
“Good night, Court,” she said in a singsong voice.The minx had known what she was doing.She knew what she drove him to, and she was proud of herself.
And he was even more intrigued and impressed by the enticing woman.And then an idea came to him for something he would purchase her as a gift.Imagining her expression when she opened it caused him to grin as he tucked himself back into his breeches.If she had intended to tease him, he would send her something to ensure she thought of him each time she set about touching herself.
Chapter 4
3 days later
Theodosia
Theodosiapacedthemaroonand cream parlor of Matron Manor, the gathering place for the Widows League.She anxiously awaited Lady Andover to meet her so she might find a solution to her predicament.When she arrived, she hadn’t been certain who would be in residence, but she hoped they might have more ideas than she’d be able to come up with on her own.
Without ownership of Rosewood, she would have to economize should she need to buy a much smaller home to live in.She had been counting on the income the estate would generate to help secure her investments and pay for upkeep.When her father lost the deed in a round of cards with Court, he had cost her everything.
She hadn’t wanted to believe it was true.During the carriage ride back to Town from Rosewood, she told herself—during the moments she wasn’t thinking about the late-night scene with Court—that somehow her father had tricked Court.And she would prove she was the rightful owner of the property.But it would seem that Court was in fact in possession of the correct deed, now lawfully in his name.And there was nothing she could do about it.
“My dear,” Lady Andover said, sweeping into the room.She donned a deep sapphire day gown in the height of fashion that complemented her perfectly styled light brown hair.The grey color of her eyes was almost identical to her own.The woman was elegant and still quite beautiful for a mature widow of theton.“I must apologize for keeping you waiting.”
“Not at all.I am uncertain there is anything you can do regardless, but I am out of options.And figured I should go over everything with someone else and see if I’m missing something.”
Lady Andover motioned for her to take a seat as a maid entered with a tea cart.
“There is nothing that two intelligent, cunning women and a pot of tea can’t resolve,” Lady Andover said, reaching for the teapot to pour out for them both.She handed Theodosia a saucer with her cup on it and then settled into her seat with her own cup.“Now tell me what this is about.”
“My father gambled away a property that was supposed to belong to me in the event of my husband’s death.”
Lady Andover eyed her curiously.“Surely your solicitor would agree that he is not legally entitled to do so, so the property remains yours.”
“Upon a deeper investigation, it would seem that the solicitor who’d drawn up the marriage settlements for my father and Dundas worked in a clause that the property would revert to my father’s name if Dundas wasn’t at least the age of ninety when he passed.I take it my arse of a father assumed Dundas wouldn’t make it to such an age, thus returning the property back to him.Dundas either didn’t care that the clause was there or didn’t bother to read it.He had what he wanted.”
“A young virgin bride to provide him with an heir,” Lady Andover said, finishing Theodosia’s thought for her.
Theodosia nodded, then took a fortifying sip of her tea.“At least he never got the latter part from me.”
When she had learned of the underhanded efforts that her father planned and plotted, with little care for her future, rage coursed through her entire body, threatening to set fire to everything around her.It served as further proof that he cared not if she was provided for or ended up on the streets.
If she hadn’t still been living in the townhouse the new Dundas still generously allowed her to call her temporary home, she would have taken to shattering the expensive vases and china.Her own father didn’t give a whit about her, as long as he could continue his gambling, drinking, and philandering.
All that after he’d essentially sold her to Dundas.In most contracts, the father must pay the dowry, but in her case, Dundas wanted to wed her so desperately that he paid her father for that privilege, including providing the funds that Theodosia inherited upon his death.But her father was required to provide the estate for her to live in as a widow.Her father probably assumed she’d bear a couple of children before her husband died, which would give her access to their primary estate until the heir had reached their age of majority.She supposed she should be grateful that her father hadn’t been able to steal her funds from her as well.
“And,” Theodosia continued with a sigh, “I can’t afford to buy the property back from the man who won it from my father.Even if he is a friend of mine, of sorts.”Theodosia’s cheeks heated thinking about how she’d left things with Court.She’d snuck out the next morning before he’d awakened, not wanting to face him after the way she’d teased him.Even if it had been the only intriguing erotic experience of her life.
