Page 47 of Indecently Employed
He shook his head. “No, darling. I was startled, that’s all. Your complexion was so delicate, I thought you a mere babe. I thought myself…” He exhaled, then smiled at her fondly. “I thought myself safe from your pretty smile and ample,” he hesitated, eyesdrifting down to her uncovered breasts, “charms.” He flashed a devilish smirk.
She flushed, and tugged the blankets up to cover herself. “But I don’t understand.”
He reached out for her, pulling her close. “Don’t hide yourself, love,” he murmured against her ear, gently tugging the sheets back down. “You’re gorgeous.”
She leaned back, offering her neck to him, which he gladly took, dropping long sensuous kisses along its length as his hands stroked her heavy, glorious tits. Christ, he wanted her. Completely. But not until he could be sure he’d not curse her with another of his bastards.
Shetsked mockingly, dampening his ardor. “You still haven’t explained yourself,Mr. Sedley.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m Mr. Sedley now, am I? That’s quite alright, I believe we can work with that.” He drew her to him again, kissing her roughly.
“No,” she laughed against his lips, a joyful sound that did something strange to his chest. “No, I truly wish to know.” Her brown eyes changed and became serious. “Please. Tell me you didn’t think me too old… too…” her voice dropped to a whisper, “spinsterish.”
“Oh, my darling girl,” he growled, drawing her in, cradling her head against his chest. “No. Nothing of the sort. Only that I’ve never had an eye for young misses just out of the schoolroom, or silly young things naïve to the world. Once I knew you were neither, well…” He dragged out the last word, making it sound almost like a purr with his deep baritone voice. “I knew I’d never be able to keep my thoughts from you. From your lips, your eyes… the way you discussed astronomy as nonchalantly as the weather and… and yes, your absolutely, astonishingly perfect tits.”
She gasped, feigning shock at his crudeness. But the suggestive smile that followed only stirred him more. They came together again, falling back to the bed as they shared several slow, deep kisses. Ajax felt he could die a happy man with her in his bed like this.
After a time he pulled back, his mind working. “Charlotte is quite fond of the spirits, isn’t she?”
Susanna blinked several times, catching up with his return to their previous subject. “I would say so, yes.”
“Do you think she might actually have some sort of talent for it? Clairvoyance, divination, what have you?” He felt foolish saying the words, but somehow he knew she wouldn’t judge him too harshly.
She pressed her lips together, considering. “I believe her talent lies in observation and a nimble mind, like all so-called mediums.” She reached out to him, combing her fingers through a lock of hair that had fallen into his face. “For there’s no such thing as ghosts,” she added with a sweet smile.
He felt his heart constrict. Grabbing her fingers, he brought them to his lips. He couldn’t kiss her enough. He wanted to devour her. “Ah, but you’re a lover of novels.”
“That’s different. A good story is a good story, is it not?”
He traced the line of her arm, up and down. “And ghost stories are the best kind of stories.”
She shivered and pulled her arm back, propping herself up with it. “One of them, yes, I’d agree.”
Ajax felt so drawn to her, so protected here with her. Whatever this was between them felt like a sanctuary, a shelter from the storm of the outside world. Here in his solar, in his boyhood fantasy of a medieval castle, they could keep one another safe. Just the two of them.
Perhaps that was why he said it.
“I’ve a story. A ghost story. One that I’m writing.”
Her eyes lit up. “Truly?”
“Truly. I’ve published a couple before, under anom de plume. Perhaps you’ve seen them? InThe Monthly Revel?”
She shook her head apologetically. “I have not read that magazine, I confess.”
He felt a surprising disappointment. “Ah.”
“But I would love to read them.”
He wanted to immediately roll out of bed, run to the chest of drawers across the room, unlock the middle cabinet, and produce the neat stack of magazines for her. Then he’d likely hustle her back to her room, a lamp in one hand and her clothing in the other. He smiled at the mental image, finding himself exceedingly fond of the idea of a nude Susanna rushing down the halls of Gallox Castle, clutching a stack of Chester Rokeby’s middling periodical to her bare chest.
But he kept his composure, and instead merely nodded. His secret was safe with her. She belonged here, with him. Warming his bed. Reading his books. Saving himself from his own damning thoughts.
The hour was late. Still, he bent over and kissed her headily, and soon she was eager again, her nails raking across his back, her hips lifting from the bed, pressing against his hardness. As he took her breast in his mouth once more, he cursed himself silently for his poor planning. He didn’t know how much longer he could have her like this, wet and yielding, without giving her a thorough fucking. He’d have to procure a French letter before the aching need swallowed him whole.
Ajax found himself in an uncommonly good mood, so much so that Mrs. Nathan’s eyebrows shot up her forehead when she found him whistling in the breakfast room like some blasted matchstick boy. He then waved off her requests for householdpurchases with the affable suggestion that she buy the entirety of Beverley if she saw fit to do so. She nodded, all the while trying to swallow her tiny smile before sweeping out of the room.
He then tracked down Gideon in the study to inform him that they would be riding out to the coast tomorrow, with Theo to assist Charlotte.
