Chapter Thirteen
“You have to understand.” Adele said along with expressive hand gestures. “Aubrey hasn’t shown the slightest interest in any woman since he lost poor Annabelle, so it’s a shock to us to arrive and hear that he has gotten married.”
Aubrey listened in for a minute before he made his presence known.
“I’m sure it’s very startling,” Maeve replied.
“You must tell us everything!” Alora declared.
“No, she mustn’t,” Aubrey said as he came through the door to join them. “Mind your own business, you annoying harpies.”
“When have you ever known us to do that?” Aurora asked.
Aubrey laughed. “Very true.”
“Well, one of you needs to tell us how this happened,” Adele said. “We have a right to know.”
“You do not have a right to know,” Aubrey said, “but all I’ll say is that the moment I met Maeve, I wanted to know her.
I wanted to know everything about her, and when I was lucky enough to convince her to become my wife, I was smart enough to get it done before you ladies could arrive and talk her out of it.
” He put his arm around Maeve and glanced her way to make sure she was all right.
She smiled, and he felt something inside him settle. She’d met his mother, father and sisters and was still smiling at him. He recorded each of those things as victories. “I require a moment alone with my wife.”
“Honestly, Aubrey,” Aurora said. “In the middle of the day?”
“I wish to speak to her.”
“Of course you do,” Audrey said as the others cackled with laughter. “We’ve been newlyweds, too.”
Aubrey pulled a disgusted face. “Don’t put those thoughts into my mind.
” Before the girls could pursue that line of conversation, he led Maeve inside and up the backstairs, hoping to get to their bedroom before they encountered family members.
He was relieved to see the hallway clear of relatives and followed her into the room, closing the door behind him.
Leaning against the door, he released a long breath full of relief.
“All things considered, I think that went rather well, don’t you? ”
“Your mother was very displeased.”
“She often is displeased, but I made it clear to her that I’m quite delighted with my choice of a wife, and I’ll tolerate no detractors, even my own mother.” He pushed himself off the door and went to her, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her.
“Did you tell her about the house?”
“I did, and she suggested the former staff ought to be prosecuted. I suggested she ought to be.”
“You didn’t!”
“I did, and I meant it. I put her on notice that the staff no longer reports to her and that unless she wishes to be shunned by polite society, she will be kind to my wife as well as the men and women who work for us.”
“She must be so angry.”
“I care not if she is. I have always been a good and faithful son who respected his mother and father, but as I grow older, I have learned that respect must be earned, not bestowed.”
Maeve placed her hand over his heart. “I find this protective, fiercely loyal side of you very . . . attractive.”
The statement became his favorite thing anyone had ever said to him. “Do you?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Going up on her tiptoes, Maeve kissed him while Aubrey stood perfectly still, stunned and aroused to nearly the point of madness by her taking the initiative for the first time.
He forced himself to stay still, to see what she would do, and she didn’t disappoint.
With soft, almost delicate brushes of her lips over his, she had him clinging to the edge of sanity, and when she added light dabs of her tongue, he snapped, wrapped his arms around her, hauled her as close to him as he could get her and devoured her.
She met every stroke of his tongue with one of hers, buried her hand in his hair and tugged on it to get him even closer.
Aubrey lost track of time and space and anything that didn’t include her and having more of her right now.
It didn’t matter to him that they were in a house full of family members or that they’d given his sisters plenty to talk about by disappearing this way in the middle of the day.
As he continued to kiss her, he eased them onto the floor, making sure he was under her to soften the landing.
She broke the kiss and stared at him, seeming as stunned as he felt. “What’re you doing?”
He grasped handfuls of her skirts and eased them up and over her fine backside. “This.” As he spoke, he turned them so he was on top of her.
“Aubrey, we can’t. Not now. We’re expected for luncheon with your family.”
“We can. We’re newlyweds. They’ll understand if we miss luncheon.
” He focused his attention on her neck, nuzzling her with kisses and light dabs of his tongue as he pressed his rigid erection against her core.
“You can’t leave me in such a state. They’ll surely notice and be relentless in the grief they’ll give me. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”
The withering look she gave him was one that wives everywhere would recognize.
Freeing himself from his trousers with one hand, Aubrey kissed his way back to her lips, which were swollen from their earlier kisses. “We’ll be quick and only a few minutes late to lunch.”
“You’re never quick.”
He snorted with laughter. “I’ll be this time. I promise. You’ve got me so worked up, I won’t last but a minute.”
“Why am I always the one who is blamed for these situations?”
“Because it’s your fault that you’re so beautiful and alluring and soft and sweet and . . . ah, God, so ready for me.” The flood of moisture between her legs was nearly his undoing.
“That is your doing.”
“Ah, love, that is our doing.” He slid into her and bit his lip—hard—to keep from spending as soon as her tight, wet heat surrounded his cock. In all his life, nothing had ever felt better than being inside his lovely wife. “You feel so sinfully good.”
“As do you.” She combed her fingers through his hair in a gesture so loving and tender it made his heart skip a beat and the breath get caught in his throat.
He’d promised to be quick, but he hated to rush something that felt so damned good. Sliding a hand under her, he grasped her bottom and held her tight against him as he began to move faster.
She looked up at him, his gaze connecting with hers in a moment of perfect harmony that made him shiver and falter.
“Are you all right?”
He shook his head. “I’m quite undone by you.”
“And that is a bad thing?”
“On the contrary. It’s the best thing to ever happen to me.” He captured her lips in another torrid kiss as he continued to move inside her, the crisis growing and multiplying until it could no longer be contained or denied. “Maeve . . .”
“Yes, Aubrey. Don’t stop.”
He would never stop wanting her, loving her, needing her.
The realizations came over him like a tidal wave, one after the other.
In her he had found his perfect match, like Derek with Catherine and Simon with Madeleine.
He understood now why they had risked anything and everything to have the women they loved, because he would do the same to protect Maeve and their fragile bond.
He would do whatever it took to feel this way for the rest of his life.
She raised her hips to meet a deep stroke of his cock, and that’s all it took to break him.
Aubrey reached the summit with a shout that came from the deepest part of him, his fingers digging into her hip and shoulder to hold her still as she experienced her climax right along with him.
“Shhh, they’ll hear us.”
“I don’t bloody care.”
Breathing hard, he collapsed onto her, every muscle in his body lax in repose. He couldn’t have moved if he’d had to.
Her arms encircled him as her fingers continued to comb through his hair, filling him with a profound feeling of well-being and contentment.
“That was not quick.”
His low chuckle rumbled through his chest. “I found myself exceptionally inspired by the magnificence of my wife and couldn’t rush perfection.”
She laughed, and as always, the sound of her laughter delighted him. “You’ve made a terrible mess of me. I’m going to need to change my wrinkled dress.”
“I love to make a mess of you.” He cupped her cheek and gazed down at her. “I love every minute I spend with you.”
“I quite enjoy our time together as well.”
“It makes me very happy to hear you say that.”
“I hope you didn’t wonder.”
“No, not really.” Aubrey still wondered if she were with him for the protection he could provide or because she genuinely cared for him.
He didn't know, and that uncertainty was the only thing keeping him from telling her the truth of how much he cared for her. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly as he realized he’d once again been careless about preventing conception.
If she ended up pregnant, that would keep her with him, or so he hoped.
The uncertainty detracted from the happiness she had brought to his life and left him with a grinding fear of what would become of him if it turned out that she was only with him so she wouldn’t be taken home to Ireland to face murder charges.
Over the next week, Maeve found herself waiting. For what, she didn’t know, but she fully expected something to happen, something unpleasant that would destroy the bubble of happiness she had found with Aubrey.
His sisters had been friendly if reserved in their welcome of her. The children had been lovely, but they were unaware that they shouldn’t be too warm toward their uncle’s new wife due to her lowly heritage.
In America, the Irish were treated as second-class citizens, which she had known before she came, but with few options available to her, she’d come knowing she would most likely be able to find work there.
She hadn’t expected to meet a man of society who had taken an immediate and overwhelming interest in her, nor had she ever expected to find herself married to such a man.