Chapter Thirty
Several mornings later Gerrit surprised Katie.
“Where are we going?” she asked when he led her past the large open excavation where the fossil hunters from town worked and where Katie had spent her days helping them.
“You will see,” he said mysteriously. About fifteen feet before they reached the area where he was working, he stopped and gestured to an undisturbed section. “This area is yours.”
Katie’s head whipped up. “Mine?”
He nodded, a faint curl at the corners of his mouth.
“All mine?”
“All yours. Miss Frampton and Mr. Nelson have both spoken highly of your care and patience, so it seemed time to give you your own patch.”
“They are just being kind,” she said, but flushed with pleasure regardless.
“They are not just being kind,” he demurred. “You have an instinct for this, and I believe you possess the patience necessary for the bigger finds.” He gestured to the area he’d just given her. “Who knows what you might unearth here?”
It was tempting—or habit, rather—to shrug off his praise, but then she thought about the past weeks and realized he was right. Not only did she enjoy the excitement of hunting fossils, but she did not mind the hours of painstaking labor required to extract something without destroying it.
“Thank you. I find that I have caught the fossil fever,” she confessed.
Although Dulverton merely nodded, Katie could see her words pleased him.
When she had first begun to accompany him, it had been his approval she’d sought.
But it had not taken many days before she looked forward to their daily digs for her own reasons.
It was no surprise to her that fossil hunting had become all the rage.
It was like solving a mystery and digging for buried treasure rolled into one.
Yes, it was dirty work, but that did not bother her in the least. Indeed, it reminded her of the best time of her life: her childhood, when every day had felt like summer and had been spent running free and exploring with her siblings.
Even Becky had noticed the change in her. And, aside from chiding her to wear a hat with a larger brim and netting when she was out in the sun, her maid had been delighted.
“You remind me of young Katie,” she’d said just last night as she’d brushed Katie’s hair and readied her for bed. “Full of life and excitement and optimism.”
Katie had scoffed at her friend’s embarrassing declaration, but the truth was that she felt better than she had in ages—in years.
As she looked from her very own section of the dig to where Dulverton had settled down to his work, she could not believe how happy she was.
Indeed, she would be almost completely happy if not for the matter of Jasper, who was still lurking in the area although he had not again accosted her.
Katie wanted to tell Dulverton the truth—to truly clear the air between them—in the worst way. She chewed her lip and pensively regarded her husband. Would it be the wise thing to do?
He was kneeling on one of the thick canvas pads everyone used to spare their knees.
His hat was pulled low, his hands bare as he exposed the delicate tracery of the long-dead creature’s tentacles.
When he turned his mind to something, as he was doing now, his focus was total, and he looked almost fierce.
He wore the same expression at the chess table.
And in bed.
They had gone from spending only an hour or so in each other’s company to spending most of their days and nights together.
They broke their fast together, traveled to the dig together, ate a midday meal and tea in the tent, rode home together, discussing the finds of the day, they were apart a few hours before dinner but back together, and alone, after dinner in the library where they played a few games of chess every evening and then worked on their own projects until bedtime.
Ah, bedtime… the best time of the day in Katie’s opinion, especially since Dulverton had begun to spend the night in her bed. True, he was always up and gone before she woke, but he was there all night. Sometimes they made love; sometimes he just held her.
“Is aught amiss?”
Katie blinked and saw that Dulverton had stood up and was approaching her.
“No, nothing is wrong. I am just… happy.”
The stern Duke of Dulverton smiled. It was not a half-smile or a wry smile or a cool smile, but a slow-growing full-blown grin. Who would believe the man had teeth?
Katie found herself grinning in return, vaguely aware the two of them were standing in the middle of a churned-up hillside like a pair of fools just…smiling.
***
“That is twenty-two games you have won,” Gerrit said, replacing the pieces on the board.
“You have won some, too,” Kathryn generously pointed out, replacing far fewer pieces on her side of the board.
“Four. I have won four. And what is worse than losing all those games is the fact that you trounced me using only fifteen pieces three times.” It had been his wife’s idea to give up a piece of his choosing—other than her king or queen—and she had still beaten him.
She bit her lower lip.
“Ah, you find that amusing, do you?” he demanded.
She pulled her lips between her teeth, but the corners of her mouth curled up all the same.
“Go on—laugh. I find it amusing, too.” He did. In a painful sort of way.
Kathryn laughed and then all the pain was worth it, just to hear her joyful gurgle.
You are a fool for her.
He was, but he didn’t care. In fact, he was grateful to learn that his father had been wrong about him.
Gerrit could feel strongly about a woman.
He’d known filial love, of course, but it was nothing like the powerful roiling sensation that seized control of him whenever he looked at—or even thought about—Kathryn.
Tell her.
Before he could over-analyze his impulse, Gerrit held out his hand.
Eyes wide and lips parted in surprise, Kathryn set her slender fingers in his palm.
“These past weeks have shown me how pleasurable and fulfilling life is with you. I am grateful every single day that you came to my bed that night to bridge the gap between us.” Gerrit enjoyed her blushing before continuing.
“Were you aware that Chatham spoke to me the day I made my offer to you?”
“I knew you had a meeting with him, although I do not know what was said.”
“He wanted to make sure I was not going to take revenge on you for being trapped into marriage. I assured him that I would not. I wasn’t lying—I truly believed I could be fair.
But right from the first day I was very unfair to you.
I was so hidebound by my first marriage that I could not see anything but protecting my own pride.
Will you forgive me for behaving in such a selfish manner? ”
Her green eyes glowed and she squeezed his hand. “I already have. And will you forgive me for behaving so combatively?”
Gerrit cocked his head. “Were you combative?”
She opened her mouth but then must have noticed the amusement in his eyes. She laughed. “Ah, you are teasing. Now that will take some getting used to.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “I will give you all the time you need to become accustomed to me.”
“I think you enjoy making me blush.”
“I do,” he said simply, and then gestured to the chessboard. “If you are quite finished thrashing me for the night, I propose we go to bed.”
“I cannot promise I won’t thrash you there, too.”
Gerrit laughed. “That is a challenge I cannot resist. Are you ready to go up?”
“I am.”
Gerrit stopped outside her bedroom door as he always did but took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her face up to his. “Come to my chambers tonight.”
Her delicate nostrils flared, and her pupils swelled. “Very well. When should—”
“Just give me enough time to shave and wash—ten minutes.” And then he gave her lower lip a light caress with his thumb before opening her door and gently pushing her unresisting body over the threshold. “No more than ten,” he said, and then shut the door.
***
Dulverton was lying in his massive bed, the sheets and blankets pulled up to his waist, his chest and mountainous shoulders bare when Katie entered his chamber ten minutes later.
She closed the door and then leaned back against it, finding it hard to breathe for some reason. Well, not some reason, but because her gorgeous husband was naked and staring at her, eyes blazing.
And he was gorgeous. Katie could not think why she had ever found him ugly.
Is that what beauty is in the eye of the beholder meant?
She could not believe that every woman didn’t find him irresistible.
He might not possess the lissome elegance so prized by tulips of the ton, but his powerful body, keen intelligence, and generous nature made him the masculine ideal as far as she was concerned.
It suddenly struck her that Dulverton, with his raw sensuality and complex personality was a man for an adult woman. Jasper, with his unthreatening angelic beauty, flirtatious manner, and frivolous self-indulgence, was the sort of man a young girl would find attractive.
“Come here.” Dulverton pointed to a spot beside the bed.
Katie tried for a sophisticated saunter but was so eager that she doubtless resembled an exuberant puppy.
But if her husband was amused by her enthusiasm, there was no sign of it on his stern face or in his darkened gaze.
“Take off your clothes—slowly.”
She swallowed hard and lowered her eyes to his thickly muscled forearms and broad-palmed hands which rested on the blankets covering him to his hips. “Um—”
“Look at me, Kathryn.”
Her eyes jerkily skittered up his taut abdomen with its narrow trail of pale, downy hair, to his broad chest, her breathing roughening when she finally met his eyes.
The muscles in his jaws were even more pronounced than usual, as if he was gritting his teeth. So, Katie was not the only one finding this encounter stirring.
Once she’d removed her dressing gown, she set it neatly over the bench at the foot of his bed.
“That is a lovely nightgown,” he rumbled. “Turn around.”
She turned in a clumsy circle, her face continuing to flame.
“Is that a new gown?” he asked, the bedding around his hips shifting and drawing her gaze to the thick ridge.
His hand curled around his erection and her eyes jumped to meet his.
“Answer my question.”
“Er, no, it is not new. It is part of my wedding trousseau.”
His arm moved slowly, his thick biceps bulging as he grasped himself over the blanket. “You look lovely in it. But you look even lovelier wearing nothing. Remove your gown.”
Katie’s fingers trembled so badly that it was a challenge to unfasten the tiny buttons at her throat. He had seen her naked before, of course, but usually it was in the throes of passion rather than blatantly disrobing before him.
She reached the last button far sooner than she would have liked. When she hesitated, he cocked one eyebrow.
Katie was grateful for the very-Dulverton reaction, which sent a jolt of defiance through her and made her want to wipe that smug look off his face. She pulled the gown over her head, stopping to stare challengingly at him before letting it fall to the floor.
His chest rose and fell faster; his stunning irises were mere slices of silvery gray. He pointed to the bed. “Up here. Now.”
Katie climbed the steps up to the high mattress with as much grace as possible.
“No,” he said when she would have laid down beside him. “Here”—he patted the bed by his hips, one hand on each side. “Straddle me.”
She considered the view she’d be affording him. “But—”
“Yes?”
She huffed a sigh, firmed her jaw, and shuffled from his ankles to his calves slowly.
He pulled the blanket off his hips, exposing his thick erection. “Right here,” he said, his eyes hooded.
Heart pounding, Katie inched forward, stopping only when she was above his bobbing member. She sucked in a harsh breath when his warm palms closed over her breasts and stroked lightly, her thighs trembling as she lowered herself onto his hard shaft, which nudged between her nether lips.
“You’re so wet,” he hissed as he rolled his hips, his slick crown rubbing her in exactly the right place.
“Yes, please,” she murmured, grinding against him as he took her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers and pinched and tugged until she was half-mad with sensation.
And when his hips lifted to pulse against her cleft a bolt of raw sensation shot from her breasts to her womb, and—shockingly—she climaxed.
Even in the throes of her bliss she heard Gerrit’s smug-sounding grunt as his hands slid around her waist and he lifted her until he could line himself up and then thrust inside her, the feel of him intensifying her contractions.
Rather than move inside her, he held still, his gaze pinioning her when she emerged from her erotic torpor, his thumbs tracing light circles on the tender skin of her pelvis as she came back to herself. “I love watching you come apart.”
Naturally, she blushed.
He cupped her hips with both hands and lifted her bodily with a show of strength that would have made her swoon if she had not already been boneless.
Katie frowned when he withdrew from her. “But you haven’t—”
“I know. Come up here. All the way,” he said, inching down the mattress.
“Gerrit?”
“Take hold of the headboard,” he said, not stopping until his head was between her knees. “Good. Now lower yourself over me.”
The comfortable fog of bliss that had surrounded her burnt away as she imagined how she would appear to him in such a position “Oh. Are you… certain?”
He made a sound that might have been a muffled laugh. “I am certain.”
Katie swallowed convulsively and lowered her hips. “Like this?”
“Just like that.” He looped his arms around her thighs and brought her down to his waiting mouth.
His tongue, which seemed longer than normal, snaked out and lapped at her.
When he closed his lips around her bud and sucked, her hips bucked and he gave a rumble of approval that vibrated through her entire body.
Her self-consciousness dissipated so quickly she knew she would be mortified later when she thought about it.
But that was later. Right now Katie ground against him, her hands clutching the headboard as she used him for her own pleasure.
She came apart with a loud, ragged cry, only vaguely aware when Gerrit lifted her up and then laid her down beside him.
“What are you doing?” she asked, a yawn distorting her words.
“Go to sleep, Kathryn,” he murmured, pulling the bedding up over her.
“But—you still haven’t—”
“Shhh.” He tucked her against his chest, the gesture so sweet and tender her eyes teared even though they were closed.
I love you, she thought, wishing she were bold enough to say the words.