Chapter Seventeen
Grosvenor Square
Mayfair, London
I’ve won her.
Gregory couldn’t help but marvel at that. Hell, he’d practically stolen her out from under the viscount’s nose and then absconded with her.
And I would do it again in a heartbeat.
“Thank you for accepting my proposal.” He put his nose into her hair and simply breathed in the lily scent of her. “I don’t know what I would have done had you refused.”
“You are clever. I think you would have figured it out.”
“I doubt it. You are the key.”
“Such gammon,” she whispered. “The gesture, the horse, everything, is incredible and much appreciated.” When she laid a gloved hand to the side of his face, he turned his head so that their gazes connected and she smiled.
“If you hadn’t already won my heart, that would have done the trick.
” It was too shadowy and dark to see properly the emotions in her face as the horse danced beneath them, but he could imagine them well enough.
“I thought I wanted to just be your mistress, thought it would be enough merely enjoying the physical aspects of that, and while that was well and good—wonderful even—I eventually wanted more from you.”
“I know, for I felt the same way.” Daring much, he laid one of his hands on her thigh while guiding his horse with the other.
A shiver racked her body. “When I thought I’d lost you, when I turned away from you that night at the opera…” Her voice caught, and the sound went straight to his heart.
“I think it was needed, else I would never have taken a good, hard look at myself or found the courage to come here tonight.”
“You always had that courage; it just was lost beneath expectations that were too heavy for you to carry on your shoulders.” She fiddled with a button on his tailcoat as she focused her gaze on his messy cravat. “I’m sorry if being with me costs you clients.”
“If all goes well, our story will become sensationalized gossip and bring clients in merely out of curiosity.” It was odd to have this conversation on the back of a horse in the dark, but then, it oddly seemed to fit their history.
“Were you on the verge of an episode before I came into the room tonight?”
“Yes.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “It was all too much.”
“Do you still feel afraid? Feel that everything is spinning out of your control?”
For long moments, she remained quiet then she nodded. “I do, but can I tell you a truth?”
“Of course.”
“When you are near, some of my anxiety fades. I feel I can manage it better.”
“Good.” It was difficult to maneuver the reins with her riding like that in front of him, but all he wished to do was take her in his arms and kiss her.
Soon enough. “I’m glad I can give you that.
” There was so much he wanted to say, but most of it would keep.
“I do love you, Constance. So damned much, which is surprising after the two weeks we had together.”
“These things happen. It was how it was between Samuel and me as well.” She lightly patted his cheek. “I love you, Gregory. That is all.” Her sigh whispered across his cheek. “My very own hero.”
“You love me.” There was no question there, just shock and a modicum of relief even though she’d told him that a week past.
“Mmm.” She dragged her lips beneath the underside of his jaw. “Quite desperately.” Emotion graveled her voice, made even more thrilling in the dark. “It is familiar but quite different from what I had before with Samuel.”
“Well, we are two different men.” His lips twitched. “And I hope you’ll love me differently than you did him.”
“Always.” The dear woman playfully smacked his shoulder.
For long moments, they rode in silence, and with each trot of the horse’s stride, Constance’s side rubbed against his chest. Desire shot through his body to lodge in his shaft. Damnation, why was it taking so long to get through Mayfair?
“It has been far too long since we’ve been together.” Slowly, she undid the buttons on his tailcoat then started on the knot of his cravat. “It would be in your best interests to reach somewhere private soon.”
“I am doing my best.” At this point, his home was the closest to their location.
Then the need to touch her, to do something to show her how much he adored her grew too strong.
“Bloody hell, you tempt me beyond reason.” He put a hand to her cheek, slid his fingers into her upswept hair, and then he kissed her with all the tenderness he could muster while on horseback.
After breaking the kiss, Constance pressed her lips to the spot on his throat she’d just uncovered from undoing the cravat. “I cannot wait to have you naked, to take what I want from you and give you the same.”
Dear God, he adored her spirit. “How can I deny you anything?” For that was exactly what he wanted as well.
He slapped the reins against his horse’s side in an effort to move the animal along quicker.
By the time they arrived at his townhouse, his shaft pressed against the front of his evening breeches, and he was hard enough to drill through the stone facade of the building.
As soon as they came to a halt, Constance dismounted, nearly tumbled to the street, for the equine stood at a good height. “What of the stallion?”
“I’ll pay a groom to return him to the stable where I got him.” After talking with a young man who rushed out of the house, Gregory led her up the short walkway and into the entryway.
“Finally alone.” She threw herself into his arms, set out to kiss every available part of him with a frenzy he hadn’t encountered from her before. “I missed you so much,” she said between kisses and nips and licks as she frantically undressed him.
“So I can see, but perhaps we should do this upstairs.”
“Right.”
Never had he ushered anyone up to the third level so quickly. Barely had he gained his bedchamber and closed the door behind them before she was once more in his arms.
While kissing her, clothing was wriggled out of and fell to the wood flooring. “I know exactly what you’re struggling with,” he managed to get out as he relieved her of the gown he admired so much.
“Have we wasted too much time?” After she’d loosened the laces at the back of his waistcoat, she uttered a cry of victory when she relieved him of that garment.
“I don’t think so. The absence was needed so we could both think clearer.
” Pausing to press her back against the wall, Gregory shoved his hands beneath the hem of her shift, tugged it up and off her body.
He wasted no time cupping her breasts. “I can’t wait until we wed.
” Damn but those warm mounds of flesh were perfect.
Seconds after he teased the nipples with the pads of his thumbs, they hardened from his play.
“Neither can I, but there are things we need to discuss.” Her eyes in the dim light glittered, and he’d wager the same need coursing through his veins would reflect in those dark depths.
“Easily accomplished at another time.”
She nipped the underside of his jaw. “Send me flying, Gregory. I need to feel you inside me. All of you.”
With a groan, he claimed her lips in a savage kiss.
While holding a breast, he dipped his head and suckled one straining tip.
When she moaned in encouragement, he rolled the other nipple, kept her against the wall with a knee jammed between her thighs, and nearly went prematurely over the edge himself while she grinded on him.
He wasn’t gentle in his approach; he didn’t have the patience, for he wanted her far too much.
Each time she pleaded in a whispered voice that she needed more, he gave it to her tenfold.
Licks and nibbles to her nipples and the fragrant skin of her neck, grew into light bites and nips that would further enhance her arousal.
The sounds of her enjoyment echoed in the dark room.
“Damn your teasing.”
“I need to have some fun after you nearly ripped out my heart.” Sliding a hand between her thighs, he delved his fingers through the damp curls shrouding her sex.
While he brought that pearl out of hiding, he made love to her mouth as if he had all the time in the world.
As soon as he’d spread her flesh to make the nubbin more prominent, he rubbed the flats of his fingers over the bud over and over without relenting.
Her moans and the way her fingers dug into his shoulders urged him onward. The dear woman undulated her hips, put a hand atop his to hold him tight to where she wanted him the most, but he kept her trapped between the wall and his body, and still he worried the hell out of that button.
“Ah!” Constance curled a hand on his chest and caught some of his hair in the process as she fell into that release.
Those tiny pricks of pain distracted him from his own need as it throbbed through his shaft.
“Only you can work my body like that.” Her breath came in short pants, but she grinned up at him.
“Perhaps we are just that close.” A chuckle escaped him, for they were well matched in carnal pursuits.
Though he moved away from the tempting picture she made, he paused to wrench off a boot since he hadn’t undressed fully.
“Haven’t even reached the bed yet.” Suddenly, his future was brighter than it had ever been.
The other boot was removed as quickly as the first.
“When have we ever needed a bed?”
No sooner had he shucked out of his breeches and made short work of the socks than Constance launched herself at him.
He caught her in his arms but tumbled backward onto the bed with her sprawled over him looking like sin and scandal with her light brown hair falling in curly waves about her shoulders.
“As I said before, you’re gorgeous. Painters would kill to render your likeness on a canvas.”