Page 108 of Scandalous Heiress
Two evenings later when Ada climbed into his mother’s borrowed Brentwood town coach, Victor was right behind her to return home to Hanover Square.To look at her was to witness how she had regained much of her confidence that he had stolen from her the other night.He’d wounded her severely, rejecting her, removing himself from her bed.Observing her tonight as she talked with his sisters and the other ladies, he noted how she sparkled.No hint of their marital discord showed on her face.She even looped her arm through his at one point in the drawing room and laughed up at him as if she still slept in his arms each night.Would to God he could allow himself to take her.
Her scent, her stride, every gesture of her elegant hands tormented him.Tonight, she was particularly delectable.She wore a vermilion satin gown that set off her bright eyes and dark honeyed hair, and to complement it, she used his wedding gifts of pearls and the cinnabar hair comb.She could charm a toad and had done so tonight with two of his party leaders.Victor ached to have her in his arms and show her how he did adore her.But if he did, if he weakened, he’d curse himself.Especially if he got her with child, then he’d have to force her eventually to go to China with him.And to ensure she did not lose the baby or suffer from the thousand and one diseases on ships crossing the seas of the world, he would have to remain here in England until well after she was safely delivered.He would never harm her.Not by demanding she accompany him to China nor by accepting any compromise she might offer and see her die or the baby along the way.
Over the past week, she’d been busy.It was not lost on him that all her efforts were sound logical ones.Ones that had turned in her favor.To ask her brother-in-law the duke of Seton to speak on his behalf socially was the easiest task she’d performed.He himself would never have been so brazen.Freddie and Arnie’s good words were a given.She’d given urgency to their utterance.Then too, the Wares had announced their intentions to support him and for that, he was indebted to them.But again, he would not have asked.In America, he presumed, one suffered no loss of face to ask for help.Nor did one flinch from the task.
Stepping into the foyer at home, Ada shed her cape into Powell’s care and sailed up the stairs.Taking the steps two at a clip, Victor followed and caught her elbow just as she would’ve entered her suite.
“May I please talk with you?”
Regal, cool, she nodded but stood her ground.
“Not here.”He was urgent, insistent.
“Why?The servants know what happens here.”
He ground his teeth and thrust open the door to their sitting room.He swung her inside.In the dark, the heavy drapes shrouding out the street gas lights, the sitting room was lit by only a small lamp.“I know what’s wrong here.And it’s not so easily remedied by teas and dinner parties.”
“Noted.”She stepped away from him but he got in front of her and drew her near.In the dim light, her complexion warmed, her eyes devoured him with hunger.
She blinked.Too soon, their glances broke and so did the enchantment.She tried to leave his embrace.
But he stopped her.“I thank you, Ada.But this cannot help.Even if I can persuade them to grant me the seat, I’ve lost half my business.”
“And you cannot gain it back another way?Without your prior investor?I don’t believe it.”
“You’ve seen your father and your brother not only survive but prosper.I understand how you can think that business is a matter of looking for the money from someone else.”
She arched her brows at him.“Then perhaps you’ve not met the right people.”
“I have!I do!But this nasty business with Richard has scared off not just my political friends but potential investors who now do not trust my judgment.”
“Then prove to them your judgment is sound.”
He dropped his hands at his sides.“Of course.Why didn’t I think of that.”
She snorted.“I’m leaving for Brighton tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I prefer it to London in the summer.The sea, the sky, the sand.They call to me.I like fish, too, you see.And I like it fresh from a good monger.”She pressed a hand flat to his chest in prayer or benediction he knew not which.“Do take good care of yourself.”
“You’re leaving me?”He wanted to laugh, to scream.
She stared at him, nonplussed, allowing the irony to sink in, he supposed.
“I’m going to our new home there.I sent word down yesterday.I must staff it, finish the furnishings.All of it.”She walked around him.
He stood with his mouth hanging open like a damned hooked trout.
“Oh, I’m taking the girls, too.Wu-lai.Powell stays here.I told him to hire a new cook, but we may not need her for long since you will soon leave for Shanghai.”And there, for all her bravado, was the precise word on which she lost all her hauteur.The mask of her indifference was just that.Her longing for him was a heartache so palpable he felt his own sore heart squeeze tight.
He had her in his arms in a thrice.He cupped her face, kissed her lips, her cheeks, her eyelids, her mouth.Dear god.Her mouth was bliss.She wanted him in spite of his failure and his callousness, and he needed her.Needed to taste her earlobe and to nuzzle the hollow of her throat, needed to kiss his way across the top of her bosom.He needed to feel the chiffon of her breasts in his hands, her nipples on his tongue.But the multitude of clothes meant he could not get to her breasts and he groaned.She murmured her own frustration, grasped his hand and led him to their bed.There, she sat, undid his buttons and his flies, then bared his stomach to kiss his hip bones and drive him to madness.On a cry, she lifted her petticoats, shimmied out of her drawers and shifted back upon the mattress.Then she led him down.
He sank inside her and gulped back a cry of triumph.He sought her mouth again.“I love you,” he told her.
“I know,” she whispered and with a hand upon his bare backside, pressed him farther into her.
