Page 81 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
The woman who rose from the water of her bath minutes later admitted two truths. She felt better physically, clean andalert after far too many days bumping along frightful roads in a conveyance.
Secondly, she felt the lack of her traveling companion, soon to be her lover and husband. She was at odds and ends without Kane. None of his smiles. Or jibes. No demands. No scintillating gazes from those gray eyes that melted her bones and stirred her insides to raw appetites.
Her future would be filled with no need to fend off his kisses and caresses. Within hours, she could freely embrace all her hot, wet yearning to have them. All he had to give.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kane stood backfrom his floor-length mirror and lifted his chin as his valet tied his cravat. “Make it simple, Clement.”
“But,monsieur, to be wed requires a dashing appearance.
Kane was already dashing to his bride. Wasn’t he? “Only my fiancée’s aunt will attend, Clement.” That was the best part—and the worst of this morning.
Yesterday afternoon, Countess Nugent had sent him a note filled with her displeasure at his impending marriage to Gus. She declared she would go as witness to their union, but for appearances only. He perceived in her reluctance a disapproval he wished did not exist. However, he would not address it. If he attempted, the lady could argue with him. He would not have it.
He would have Gus to wife. Her aunt and British marriage laws aside, Gus had agreed, and if that was to taste bliss with him again or if it was to secure his protection from those in power, Kane cared not. He wanted her in all the ways he could have her.
Even though he witnessed hesitancy from his bride, he vowed he would wipe it away with kindness and sex. Even love, if he could show it to her before he dared express it in words.
“Finish this, Clement. I will not be late.”
Anthony Merry, the British envoy, had a few foibles. One was that he was always punctual. It helped compensate for the fact that he had never learned the art of diplomacy.
“Ass,” Kane muttered, and his young valet paused.
“Monsieur le Comte?” His servant’s hands fell to his side, Kane’s cravat in his hands.
“Not you, Clement. I wonder at the finesse of a member of our delegation.” Kane had heard that Bonaparte sarcastically called Merry “Toujours mai.”
Kane snorted. “Ever Happy,”my foot.The man had received Kane weeks ago as if Kane were his puppet. Keeping him waiting for two hours yesterday, Merry had relented and agreed, after much ado, to eleven o’clock this morning for the wedding.
Kane would have had it at eight. But Merry was not congenial until after eleven. Or so the man said with frustration at Kane’s insistence.
All I want is this marriage done, legally.
Kane had certainly had enough of waiting for his right to have Gus. Sitting in a carriage, biding his time, especially the last three days on their way back to Paris from Varennes, had been a trial. He’d been hard every day, every hour, for more than two weeks in Gus’s presence. The temptation to kiss her senseless and seduce her had been grueling.
He shifted his stance now as Clement reached for his frock coat. The mere thought of Gus as his own in only an hour had him hard as the floorboards beneath his feet.
“Remember what I said about after the ceremony, Clement?”
“Oui, monsieur.” The young man bit his lower lip, attempting to hide his grin.
Kane reached out and ruffled his hair. “I suppose it is no secret?”
“No,monsieur. the whole house knows. Else how—”
“Exactly.”
*
“You marry infashionable June,” Aunt Cecily said with a satisfaction Gus had not seen since her return and engagement announcement. The lady fidgeted, her hands restless, unusual for one so tranquil. Gus had no time or presence of mind to ask why that was.
Their carriage neared Anthony Merry’s rented house, and Gus’s excitement sent thrills through her blood. She told herself to ignore her aunt’s behavior. Instead, she examined those in the streets on their way to the shops along the Champs-Élysées. “To whom does it matter?”
“Those in London. It’s the season for weddings there.”
“I care not.” In her haze of desire for him, she had put aside temporarily her need to complete her work for Amber and whatever part her network remained in operation. She was not proud of that, but she itched to have this man. Have his hands on her and his body inside her. The only thing of importance to her this morning was that she would be with Kane within minutes.And forevermore.
