Chapter Fifteen
Marian awoke to Gaspard making love to her from behind.
She was lying on her side, sleeping peacefully, when she began to have dreams of a man touching her in her most sensitive places.
By the time she opened her eyes, Gaspard was taking his pleasure with her, his hands on her breasts and rounded belly.
Marian was too tired to actively participate, so she simply let him have his way with her.
It didn’t even bother her that Millicent was in the other bed because she never woke up when things were going on around her.
The woman could sleep through the Second Coming.
The entire trip had been like this – Gaspard slipping into the room Marian shared with Millicent and then slipping out at dawn again and Millicent was never the wiser.
When Gaspard was finally finished, he tried to hold Marian close but she pushed him away.
“Nay,” she muttered. “You are too hot. This room is too hot.”
Even though she’d pushed him aside, Gaspard was still running his hand down her torso. “The fire is banked,” he said. “It is cold in the chamber. I was simply trying to warm you.”
Marian rolled onto her back. The dawn was breaking outside her rented room, which was the same room she’d stayed in the night Ronan had exiled her from Ravenscar.
They were very close and would be at Ravenscar this morning, something that would have normally made her quite eager but she couldn’t seem to manage it.
It had been a long journey from London and she was exhausted.
But she was determined to come.
Just a few more hours and she’d be at her destination.
As she lay there and gazed at the ceiling, Gaspard leaned over and began sucking on her nipples.
Marian imagined how shocked Ronan would be when she showed up at Ravenscar, unannounced.
She began to smile when she thought of berating the man and how that would crush his spirit.
She greatly anticipated the look on his face that told her he was defeated and crumbled, that she had the upper hand on him and forever would.
She’d lived for that moment since receiving that missive in London informing her of her husband’s activities.
But more than that, she’d been contemplating what Gaspard had suggested those weeks ago, how he could do away with Ronan and they could live on the man’s wealth as they traveled the known world.
At first, she’d been resistant to the idea because Ronan represented safety when it came to her affairs – she could have all the flings she wanted to have but couldn’t marry any of them so long as she was already married.
But with Gaspard, that opinion had slowly changed. More and more, she was coming around to his way of thinking. Perhaps a world with no Ronan would be best for her. It would guarantee her the status of a respected widow without the encumbrance of a husband.
Maybe that’s what she wanted, after all.
“Gaspard,” she muttered. “I have been thinking on your offer.”
“What offer?” he asked, his mouth still on her nipple.
She put her hand on his head, pulling him up by the hair and forcing him to look at her. “Your offer to kill Ronan.”
He looked surprised. “You are thinking about that now?”
He was a little miffed that he hadn’t been able to arouse her, but Marian wasn’t concerned with that. “We will be at Ravenscar today and we must have a plan,” she said quietly. “Just how do you propose to kill him?”
Gaspard propped himself up on an elbow and looked at her.
The change of subject didn’t please him but, on the other hand, perhaps it did.
This was what he’d wanted all along – Marian and her husband’s money without the interference of the husband himself.
Therefore, he struggled to focus on her question and not on his semi-aroused state.
“I do not know,” he said honestly. “I will have to decide that when the time is right. When do you want me to do it?”
Marian scratched her head, pondering the question. “As I recall, there are cliffs all around Ravenscar,” she said. “There is a drop down to the rocks and the sea. Mayhap you can catch him on the wall walk, unaware, and push him over the side. That would be the swift way to do it.”
Gaspard appeared thoughtful. “I would have to be very clever,” he said. “If he saw me coming, I would not have the advantage of surprise.”
“Mayhap I will be on the wall walk to distract him and you can sneak up behind him.”
Gaspard nodded. “That would work,” he said. “Are you willing to do it?”
Marian nodded. “I was not in favor of it at first, as you know, but the more I think on it, the more I have come to the conclusion that it is the only thing to do,” she said. “The man has shamed me with the de Brito widow and I will not stand for it. I am better off without him.”
“And better off with me,” Gaspard said, a smile on his lips.
For now, Marian almost said, but she held her tongue.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to marry Gaspard although she had no hesitation in traveling with him and doing whatever she pleased.
Only she didn’t want Ronan around any longer, reminding her that she was married, reminding her of that terrible choice she’d made when she’d seduced the man.
She should have never done it but he’d been hung like a bull and that had intrigued her. Truth be told, it still did.
But now the de Brito widow was getting that part of the bull.
Speaking of bull…
Somehow, discussing a murder put her in the mood for love, so she wrapped her arms around Gaspard’s neck as her mouth slanted over his.
Gaspard responded immediately and strongly.
Soon, Marian was on her back with her legs spread as Gaspard thrust into her.
She tried to keep quiet because Millicent was still sleeping. Or, so she thought.
Little did she know that Millicent was wide awake and had been for quite some time.
And she’d heard every word.