With Love in Their Corner (The Boxers of Brook Street #1)

Chapter Nine

A n hour later, as she unlocked the door and let them both into the building, she said, “My father has three meetings on his schedule this afternoon, but has promised to be home for dinner by eight.”

“And your brother?” the earl asked as he prowled about the downstairs office, poking into various shelves and nooks while she closed and locked the door behind him. His gaze went over the closed Venetian blinds as well as the shade drawn to hide the window glass on the door, but he said nothing.

She shrugged. “He has his lessons with tutors. In a few days he’s due to spend a month with a friend at that boy’s father’s country estate. It will be a relief not having to worry over him for a bit.”

“What is upstairs?”

“A small apartment where we lived before Papa’s business started doing well, which allowed us to move to Mayfair.” Carefully, Cecilia put a stack of envelopes as well as already opened invoices on top of the leatherbound ledger book and rested it all on the corner of her father’s desk. “Would you like to see it?” She led the way to the back room where they could access the narrow wooden staircase.

“Of course.” He stood aside and gestured for her to proceed him. “When did the move occur?”

That small consideration and nicety left her breathless for a couple of seconds. “Uh, perhaps a couple of years before James was born. It was already cramped quarters and would have been trying to have a baby in the mix, but I remember Papa being so proud he could provide an actual townhouse for us all.”

Their footsteps echoed on the treads, but as soon as she unlocked the door and let them both into the living space, the nostalgia and comfort of being transported back to a time of security assailed her. A time before she’d known how ugly and horrid life could be.

“Don’t mind the dust covers. We took some of the furniture with us to the new house. If there is much work for Papa or he wants to meet ships coming in after-hours, he will sometimes sleep here.”

“Well, it is quite convenient.”

“Yes.” It was hard to breathe with him so close and his big presence filling the space. Being alone with him like this was much different than being alone with him in the boxing salon, quite possibly because she was in skirts.

But what difference did that make?

On that second level, aside from the common room—or parlor—there was a small kitchen with a stove for boiling a kettle or perhaps warming a stew or soup, and there were two bedchambers on the floor above. She tried to imagine what the earl thought of the simple living space, but it proved a difficult task, for he kept his own counsel, and his expression remained inscrutable.

Needing something to occupy her instead of standing about watching him like some sort of moony schoolgirl, Cecilia went to the windows in the parlor and opened the draperies. “Our housekeeper comes in once a week to tidy and dust.”

“Ah.” When Lewis joined her at the window, she trembled at his close proximity.

“When I was a girl, I used to stand at these windows and watch the ships in the harbor, both leaving and arriving. But my favorite ships were the ones embarking on adventures. I tried to imagine where they were going when they reached the open waters and all the wonderful things those sailors would see.”

“Is adventure what you want, Lia?” The inquiry was asked in such a low voice she had to strain to hear. “Or are you a woman who can find adventure wherever you are?”

“I haven’t given that much thought over the years.” She turned to regard him, and nearly tumbled into the green-brown pools of his intense eyes. Why did it feel as if she were on a precipice, wondering which way she might fall? From his own admission, he needed to marry, and if she wasn’t a suitable candidate, he needed to leave her in peace. Heated, consuming kisses aside, she refused to be relegated to a mistress while he made someone else legitimate. “What do you want, Your Lordship?”

“I… No one has ever asked that of me before.” For long moments he stared at her as shock followed by admiration reflected in his eyes. Then, he nodded. “Honestly? It’s you, Cecilia. In this moment, I want you .”

Gooseflesh raced over her skin. “Oh?” Her heart beat out a rapid tattoo while she struggled to puzzle out his true intent.

“I can’t think about my future, but I know that I want you in this moment.”

It was perhaps the most honest he’d been with her, for raw emotions left his voice graveled. “I appreciate your frankness.”

“I have found no purpose for dancing around an issue.” A muscle in his cheek ticced. “However, I can understand if my words have shocked you. After all, we have known each other but a week.”

“And yet have shared some very intimate kisses.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Either you have felt something for me or you were only using me to amuse yourself.” It made all the difference to determine which.

“I would never hurt you, Lia.” He rubbed a hand along his jaw that was shadowed with light stubble. “Surely, you’ve felt the attraction, the desire, between us?”

“I have.” She might be on the shelf as her father had said, but there were proprieties, and she refused to fall victim to a man again. “Such things are highly scandalous. I grow tired of only being wanted as either a punching bag or a convenient place for a man to stick his wick.” If her words were vulgar, so be it. They were true, and as he’d said, there was no use dancing about an issue.

“I adore how outspoken you are… or have grown since we met.” When the earl cast a glance about the parlor and then returned his gaze to her, a gleam had entered his eyes. “We are quite alone with no one scheduled to interrupt us…” He grinned, and her heart fluttered.

You are naught but a silly widgeon, Ceci.

“I…” What did it say about her character that she wanted him as much as he allegedly did her? “I am not a fast woman.” Wary and desperate, perhaps, but not fast.

“No, you are not, and if things grow out of hand or you find yourself frightened, you are quite skilled in drilling a knee into a man’s privates.”

She snickered. “It is the quickest way to elude an attacker.”

“True.” When his expression shifted and reflected wicked hopefulness, the rest of her resistance crumbled. Before she could offer up a protest, he scooped her up into his arms, chuckling when she squealed. “From the first day you walked into my boxing salon in that wretched disguise, I have wished to explore every inch of your body.”

“Such gammon.” She snorted in derision, but at the same time, there was something romantic about being in a man’s hold as he carried her across the room to one of the low sofas. “Was it such a terrible disguise, then?”

“To me, yes.”

“Yet we have known each other a handful of days.”

“There is an invisible connection between us that has bedeviled me from the first. Why else do you think I kissed you during our second lesson?”

“Only after I kissed you first.”

“Another truth.” He had barely released her, let her feet find purchase on the floor before he tugged her onto the sofa with him. “You’re certain you wish to do this? There might be certain consequences….”

“Hush, Lewis.” Cecilia smiled even as the reality sent cold apprehension into her stomach. She tugged at his cravat. “I know my own mind and accept whatever fate gives me.” Then another thought occurred to her. How would he react to the fact that she wasn’t an innocent? Would he consider her soiled goods?

“You are a brave woman; I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”

“Such pretty words you use, yet you claim your brothers are more charming.” She knew next to nothing about him, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed her somehow, over and above the physical sense.

“I have my moments.” After removing her bonnet and letting it drop to the floor, he held her head between his large hands, stared into her eyes and then he claimed her lips in a gentle kiss that managed to both steal her breath and ignite tiny fires in her blood.

Immediately, Cecilia was lost to the tide of sensations he invoked within her. She looped her arms about his shoulders—oh, they were so broad and muscled!—and sought to kiss him back, and when that familiar meeting of mouths wasn’t enough, she sighed against his lips. “Show me in no uncertain terms how much you want me.”

“I think you’ve gained far too much confidence with your lessons.” Yet he dragged his lips down the side of her throat. When he reached the crook of her shoulder, he nibbled and licked her skin while tangling one hand into the mass of her hair. Pins fell to the hardwood with tiny pings .

“Whose fault is that, Your Lordship?” she barely managed to mention as shivering pleasure spiraled along her spine.

“Indeed, I’ll take full responsibility.” With a few yanks and tugs, he had her dress up and off her body. The petticoat, stays, and shift soon followed, then there was truly nowhere she could hide from his intense regard. “Better than what I imagined,” he whispered, and still he caressed and touched her skin until her bones held the strength of cooked porridge.

“Oh!” She toppled backward against the bolstered end of the sofa, and he followed, came over her body as if giving her pleasure was his only purpose in life. Breasts, nipples, ribcage, navel, mons, nothing escaped his attention.

And, dear heavens, it was so different from sharing intercourse with her former fiancé.

When she thought he’d leave off to undress, he didn’t. Instead, he explored her body with hands and lips. Lewis encouraged her to bend one leg at the knee so he could press featherweighted kisses to the inside of her trembling thigh. The slight scrape of his stubble created another layer of delight, and she lost the ability to breathe. When he moved on to her other thigh, Cecilia shook from anticipation and need.

Every time she reached for him, he batted her hands away. “Lewis, please!” The man was quite vexing.

“This is your first time; I want you to enjoy it without the distraction of worrying over my pleasure.”

“I…” She forced a swallow into her suddenly dry throat. “Before we go further, I should confess I am not an innocent.”

“What?” For a few fleeting seconds, he looked at her in confusion.

“Years ago, I let my fiancé bed me. I thought if I did, he might stop beating me…” Saying the words aloud didn’t portray her in the best light, but there was nothing for it. “However, he was much more skilled in beatings.” A sheen of tears rose into her eyes.

“Damn.”

“If you wish to stop—”

“No.” The earl shook his head. “Even in this, you deserve so much more than you have been given, and I can assure you, I am not like him.” And he was once again over her, his fully clothed body covering hers… protecting her. The drag of the fabric over her sensitive nipples made her catch her breath; the cold press of the buttons on his jacket to her belly elicited a sigh of pure appreciation.

“Lewis…” She couldn’t remember what she wished to say, for this was simply lovely.

“Let me do this, let me show you how women should be treated.”

A snort escaped her. “Even if this is highly scandalous?”

“That is quite subjective, my girl.” He claimed her mouth with such drugging kisses that her mind spun. All thoughts vanished beneath a haze of passion. Over and over, he drank from her, and when he probed the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue, she gladly opened, inviting him in.

The feeling of falling assailed her despite her reserve and her wariness; he was different, and it surprised her.

Dueling with his tongue slowly replaced sparring with him as one of her favorite things. There was simply nothing quite like the slide of silk against satin, and with each pass, heat seeped into her veins. Every time he chased her tongue, she imagined him thrusting into her with a very different part of himself.

“Even in this you are a quick learner,” he whispered against her lips.

“Mmm, I must have a good teacher.” Was there a limit to how long one could be kissed? Cecilia didn’t know, but she gave as good as she got, let him teach her the finer points so she could mimic what he did, and as always, it wasn’t the slobbery, off-putting affair her fiancé had shown her. All the while, she plucked at the buttons of his jacket, because she needed to see him.

Every last naked inch of him.

“Please let me—”

“Not yet.” He encouraged her arms over her head, and with his lips against the underside of her jaw, said, “I have other plans for you just now.”

Hadn’t he already explored her body, bedeviled her with kisses designed to tease and arouse? When he eased a hand between her thighs, her legs shook. Still bent at the knees, they provided a cradle for him to rest, and as he stroked his fingers along her folds from top to bottom, a sigh of pleasure escaped her. “Oh!”

“I’ll take that as permission to continue.” And he continued to tease her. Every time he slipped those talented fingers downward, he dipped one of them into her passage. “Ready so soon?”

“Do hush, Lethbridge.” Unable to do anything else, she attempted to regulate her shallow breathing and keep her eyes open, but whenever one of those digits invaded her channel, she sucked in a surprised breath. “If you wish to play, do it, but stop tormenting me.”

“That is half the fun, Lia.” The earl then parted her flesh and encouraged her swollen nubbin out of hiding. She gasped. The touch of his fingers and the application of various degrees of friction quickly sent her hurtling toward a glimmering something she’d never experienced before. “Lewis, I… I…”

“Your fiancé was a blooming idiot if he didn’t put in the time to make you spend.”

“I won’t argue with you.” Further words fell out of her desire-soaked brain, for with every pass and circulation to that tiny bundle of nerves, she felt as if she’d jolt out of her skin. Dear heavens, how was she to survive such titillation?

It took next to no time for her whole world to revolve around the heated kisses he continued to give her and the insistent strum of his fingers on that little button at her center. Bands of pressure built and stacked low within her belly. Though Cecilia writhed beneath him, he didn’t leave off with his torture.

“What are you doing to me?” Her words came out stilted and choked in a whisper.

“It’s quite all right if you fly. That is the point, after all.” His breath steamed the shell of her ear; the weight of him pressed her into the brocade cushions of the sofa.

“But, I…” She scrabbled for purchase as the sweet torture went on, and then, quite suddenly, her whole body stiffened. A wave of bliss crashed into her, and she succumbed to it. He truly did send her flying, or rather, pinwheeling into the heavens. Shivers went through her body, tickled into her nerve endings as she shook with the release.

“That certainly didn’t happen the last time,” she finally managed to gasp out when sanity returned. Her body felt lethargic, yet restless hunger remained. “I hadn’t thought…”

His chuckle reverberated in her chest. “I am not nearly done.” Lewis eased off her, and as she watched, he divested himself of every stitch of clothing he wore.

Oh, finally!

If she’d thought him beautiful stripped to his waist for that bare-knuckled fight, his naked form was quite spectacular. Lean and muscled in all the right places, his belly and abdomen flat and slightly ridged. Toned thighs set off his erect member perfectly, and not even the various bruises and scrapes that decorated his skin could detract from the vision of him. “I wish I could paint.” As he joined her again, she stroked a hand along his abdomen, and when the muscles contracted beneath her fingers, her mind drifted to all the naughty places she’d like to visit with him.

On him.

Oh, how she wanted to play! The notion surprised her because she’d assumed she wouldn’t want anything like that with a man again.

“Even with the bruises you still find me attractive?” he asked as he took her into his arms once more and reacquainted himself with the crook of her shoulder.

Heat went through her cheeks as tingles danced down her spine. “Attraction doesn’t merely stop at someone’s physical looks. You are so much more than that.”

“Ah, Lia. Somehow, I think life is about to grow far more complicated than I thought.”

“There are worse things…” The hard, hot length of him twitched insistently against her thigh. Trembles went through her muscles, so she distracted herself by exploring his back, his shoulders, his chest, glancing her lips over his bruised and battered flesh. The scent that clung to his skin was intoxicating. She kissed as many parts of him as she could before he once more took possession of her lips with a kiss of his own.

“What will you do when you can’t box any longer?”

His body went taut. “I honestly don’t know, but if I keep having poor showings like you saw a couple of days ago, my career will be over long before my body breaks.” His voice was tight, rough with emotion.

“Sometimes life isn’t about winning, Lewis. It is about trying, fighting, getting up when you fall.”

“Perhaps, unless one needs the coin.” He kissed her again, preventing further discourse, and as he settled himself more comfortably between her splayed thighs, the tip of his member bumped her opening.

Tingles of need cascaded down her spine and tightened her nipples. Feeling daring, Cecilia slipped a hand between them to cup his equipage. This was so much better than anything she could have imagined. His hiss of surprise echoed in the room, and wishing to experiment, she gave him a gentle squeeze. “I wish we had more time so I could investigate this properly.” Did that make her sound like a wanton?

“I’m going to spend prematurely.” He chuckled but removed her hand from his person. “It’s been far too long for extended play.”

Had their boxing relationship enhanced those feelings? The primal feel of his body pressed into hers as well as the throb of need deep in her core whisked everything she wanted to say out of her mind. “Then you shouldn’t wait any longer.” She wrapped her legs around his, and when she slid one of her hands down his back to squeeze a buttock, he groaned and ground his hips into hers. “Claim me, Lewis. Show me I’m not making a mistake.”

“You aren’t.” Concern warred with desire in his voice. He put a hand beneath her hip, and then with one powerful thrust, he penetrated her body and didn’t stop until she was fully impaled. Then he paused, found her gaze with his. “Damn.”

“I agree.” Being completely claimed by this man she’d known only a week, the man who patiently taught her how to punch and defend herself… Well, it was beautiful. Tears stung her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. Once she’d wriggled beneath him and into a more comfortable position, she gave him a nod. “I like this. It is so different from that last time.”

“So it should be.” He grinned and she was at sixes and sevens from the wickedness in that gesture. “The right man does make a difference.” Then he moved, slowly in and out of her passage, and every push and pull gave her different layers of friction and pleasure. “Lift your hips each time I stroke into you. That will help you find a rhythm more quickly.”

“Oh, goodness!” How lovely was the press and surge of two bodies coming together in the most ancient of ways. Pleasure threatened to drown her. With her feet flat on the sofa, she was better able to meet his thrusts, and all too soon the slap of flesh against flesh echoed in the room, punctuated by their sighs and moans. “Lewis, I need more.”

“So do I.” Then the beat changed. The earl dug his fingers into her hip, as he pistoned ever faster while he moved his other hand to one of her breasts. “I’m not going to last.”

Deeper. Harder. Shorter. Each stroke demanded her full attention.

“You are so lovely.” She peered into his face. Such intense concentration held his expression, and then she didn’t care. Every time he speared into her, that familiar pressure mounted, bigger and bigger, until finally, she shattered again, and the surprise of that second pinwheel into bliss provoked a keening cry that she didn’t bother to try and stifle.

As contractions rocked Cecilia’s core, the earl thrust once more. He immediately followed her into that void full of white light and velvety nothingness. His member pulsed. The warmth spreading through her passage solidified the intimacy of the act. When her fiancé had come, it had been traumatic, and he’d left right after. Tears escaped onto her cheeks, for this had been like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

Seconds later, Lewis collapsed on top of her, and his weight further worked to bring her closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him, holding his head to hers while her heartbeat hammered, and her breath rasped, and she shivered back into reality.

“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted in a shocked whisper.

“I’ll wager that is a first.” The earl rolled onto his side, taking her with him, then he held her in his embrace while she listened to the strong, fast beat of his heart. “I’m glad I could share this with you, but if something should come of this coupling, I—”

“No.” Interrupting with a shake of her head, she interrupted him. “I don’t know if I want a man permanently in my life, but I do know I don’t want one out of obligation for any reason.”

What they had shared in this moment was enough. He hadn’t promised the future, and she never demanded it. Things were complicated for them both, and perhaps their paths would go in different ways once their lessons concluded.

“But—”

“Hush, Lethbridge. Don’t ruin this.” She bussed his cheek. “We can work out any frustrations in the salon with the sandbags.” For now, she basked in the glory of being bedded by a man who knew what he was doing, and it had been everything she’d dreamed it would be. “But perhaps we shouldn’t repeat this until we can both puzzle out a few things regarding our lives.”

He nodded, and once more nuzzled the crook of her shoulder. “Agreed, yet this isn’t the end of our relationship, Lia. It can’t be.”

Only time would tell.