Chapter Twenty-Four
Claudia curled up to his bare chest and pulled the bedsheet up to cover them both. She smiled, easing any lingering concerns that he may have hurt her. William did not know what had taken them. One moment they had been kissing in the garden. The next they had been all over each other in his bedroom, claiming each other’s bodies with a vigour that was as joyous as it was desperate. They had ravaged each other as though this was the last day they’d ever spend together, and instead of telling him to slow down, she had asked him to do quite the opposite. Until she had screamed out his name and they had both collapsed, breathless and exhausted.
Maybe it had been a way to claim at least a bit of each other when everything around them seemed so uncertain. Or maybe they were simply discovering all the ways they could be together. It was so easy to explore their desires. She was confident in her own skin, and she did not tire of reassuring him when his inexperience made him undeniably clumsy.
He felt Claudia’s gaze on him. He turned to see her grey eyes looking at him with a mixture of admiration, desire, and profound tenderness. Nobody had ever looked at him that way.
‘Darling.’ He kissed her cheekbone.
‘I can’t tire of looking at you,’ she whispered.
‘You look at me like I belong to you. So look on, please.’ He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. ‘I haven’t thanked you for the cravat yet. I almost fainted when I saw the box.’
‘Does this mean I have the licence to spoil you whenever I see fit?’
‘Please. I am not above accepting gifts from my ridiculously wealthy lover.’
‘You shall be spoiled, then.’
He pulled her even closer, tucking her head under his chin. Had the others not been home, he would have prepared her a bath. He would have washed her, towelled her dry, and brushed her hair, so she would know how precious she was to him too.
He traced shapes on her naked back absent-mindedly. She was with him, in his house, in his bed. Until now, they had lived two separate lives, but now they were intertwining at last.
‘You are still so pale, Will.’
‘I’m fine. It was just a very rough night.’
She sat up next to him. His eyes glided longingly over her firm breasts and the diamond necklace around her neck. She had asked him whether she should keep it on with wicked smile.
‘Would you like to tell me how it happened? Your nightmares, I mean.’
‘I ran into St Cross yesterday.’
‘What! Did he hurt you?’
‘No, darling. Not at all.’
He nuzzled her face as he explained what had happened, and the nightmares St Cross had unleashed. His heart raced and he held her tighter. He tried to keep at bay the monstrous image he had seen yesterday with a litany of promises.
I will keep you safe, Claudia.
I will never let you come to harm.
I will stand up for you every single time, like you did just now.
But the catastrophic scenarios multiplied before his eyes—she would leave, he would not be able to keep her safe, St Cross would get to her first, he would be powerless and lost like before the body of his mother—
‘Will.’ She placed her warm palm lightly on his chest. ‘I am here with you. I will look after you. I will sit with you whenever your nightmares come. You will never be alone with them anymore, yes?’
‘Yes—Yes.’
‘Breathe deeply. Like this. Good.’ She reached for the glass on his bedside table. ‘Here, have some water.’
He took a sip of water and rubbed a hand on his face.
‘I’d much rather not talk about St Cross, Claudia. But yesterday I happened to learn something about him.’
‘Oh?’
‘When I collapsed after meeting St Cross, I was at Viscount Caiani’s palazzo. He happens to be…uh…the man who offered me a fortune for your artefacts, and I had just withdrawn from the deal.’
‘Oh, Will, those things are yours, I told you. I would never want you to choose between me and your dreams—’
‘No, Claudia. It was the right thing to do. And let’s talk about that another time, please. Caiani had the kindness of bringing me home in his carriage, although I’m quite sure he wanted to wring my neck. I don’t even remember what I said to him, but I must have spoken about St Cross, because he told me something I hadn’t anticipated. St Cross is up to his neck in debts. And with the wrong people to boot.’
Her eyes widened.
‘He gambles at the Tempio di Venere . Heavily. Neglects his estate. Mingles with the wrong crowds. He owes money to a couple of really dangerous people here, and back in England too. Caiani says some of his creditors are getting very impatient.’
Claudia’s eyes flitted around the room, her hand to her lips. She was planning. Calculating.
‘I had been suspecting something of the sort. And that changes everything.’ Then she hid her face in her hands, wearily. ‘I will have to go talk to him, won’t I?’
‘I can come with you, Claudia.’
‘That would only make it more difficult. Besides, I won’t be alone. The Rabenstein twins are arriving in Rome tonight. We all have a bone to pick with St Cross. They will all come with me if I ask.’
‘Oh. I see.’ He could not suppress a little disappointment that he’d want them with her, but not him. But Rabey had told him that Claudia was family to them, hadn’t he? That they had grown up together, summer after summer in Rome. And that the four of them were bound together not just by their shared childhood, but by a pain deep and obscure, which made Rabey’s eye glaze over and his lips tighten. Rabey had not said so openly, but he seemed to think that Claudia was the last thing standing between the Rabensteins and madness. William only wished that his friendship would eventually prove him otherwise.
‘I am grateful that you would want to come with me,’ Claudia said warmly. ‘But this is between us and him.’
‘I understand. But I would do anything to protect you, you know it, Claudia?’
‘You don’t need to keep me safe.’
‘Neither do you. But you also stepped between me and my brother. Because that’s what people do—’
—when they love each other.
He hesitated. She cared for him, that was plain enough. She was willing to give a chance to their romance. But she had not replied earlier when he had asked whether she could love him one day.
‘Will?’ She caught her breath, alert. ‘What were you going to say?’
‘That…that for as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve been looking after each other instinctively.’
‘Yes, I care for you, Will,’ she said softly.
‘I care for you too.’
A charged silence fell. They were dancing around the issue. They were both trying to get something out of the other, some sort of definition, or a reassurance that there was an “us”.
She gazed into his eyes for a moment, leaving his feelings nowhere to hide. He sought her mouth just so he wouldn’t utter the words that were blossoming in his heart.
I love you, Claudia.
I just want to make you happy, whatever happy means to you.
‘Will…’ she breathed on his lips.
Her fingers grazed against his chest, against his belly…and then lower, on his groin, finding him swelling under her palm.
‘Claudia…dear God…’ He placed a hand on her wrist. ‘How are the two of us ever going to get anything done if we’re always all over each other? My business will collapse.’
She just laughed. She kissed his chest, then lower down, until her mouth was on his shaft, wet and warm. His member sprang up, fully erect.
‘Claudia—’
‘What is it, pet ?’
His cheeks flushed. His member spasmed.
‘Nothing?’ She smiled wickedly. ‘I thought so, pet.’
She wrapped her hand around his aroused manhood. Her delicate fingers sent a jolt of excitement right through him. Her eyes went hazy and murky. She was pure need .
‘Look at you.’ Her husky voice made him ache for her tongue on his sensitive, swollen tip. ‘You are always so ready for me. You are such a good…’
A wicked grin hovered on her face. His breath caught.
Damn it…
Just say it. Please. Say it.
Claudia?
Say it, say it, say it!
‘Claudia— Please .’
Her eyes flickered with irony.
‘You are such a good boy,’ she drawled huskily.
He inhaled deeply with a pleasure that was at once ache and relief.
‘Now, William Campbell, I seem to recall,’ her soft lips grazed against his ear, ‘that you had something in mind. Something involving an expensive cravat and my fingers?’
Lord almighty!
‘I d-did say s-something along those lines.’
‘Well, I d-don’t believe it until I see it.’ She mocked him affectionately. ‘Unfortunately, the cravat is downstairs. And you can’t go retrieve it in such a state, can you pet?’ Her gaze lingered on his desperately engorged member. ‘So you will have to put those thieving hands of yours behind your back. Like this. Good boy. Now…’
She wickedly licked her fingers, almost causing him to climax on the spot. Then she sought his mouth and pulled his lower lip with her teeth.
‘Are you all mine, Will?’
‘Wholly. Entirely.’
‘Show me. Open your legs for me.’
He flushed as he complied. He had never been so exposed before her. It made him delirious with want.
She looked at him with evident self-satisfaction, then she placed her palms under his knees and bent them.
‘Now sit quite still and watch me undo you. And not a sound, yes? We don’t want everyone to know what I’m doing with you…’