Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I’ll just be off, Miss,” the maid called. “Unless you need something afore I go?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Enjoy your afternoon,” Caroline replied. She was seated at a desk before the parlor window, scribbling away at her next book. Her hands were a bit ink-stained which was a good sign; in writing, dirty hands meant an active mind.
Caroline sighed as she heard the front door shut.
With the maid out and Aunt Susan and Uncle Ross on an overnight trip to visit friends, Caroline had the entirety of Windward Cottage to herself for a few hours. A good thing, too, because she needed to finish this bloody manuscript.
Her publisher in London was eager to have another Mr. Winthrop book on the presses. Eddie at least would be sweet about delays, but Sybil was something of a taskmaster. She needed things done in a timely manner. Lady Sybil Forsythe had been a dutiful daughter, but Lady Sybil Devereux was something of a gracious general.
Caroline smiled as she finished a sentence, put down her pen, and stretched.
She looked around the cottage’s small downstairs parlor, enjoying the crackle of flames in the stone hearth and the wintery sea fog rolling down the lane.
The Masquerade at Seville had made a startling amount of money for Devereux Bros. Publishing already. Caroline’s share came out to nearly fifty pounds, and that was only the beginning. Now that the book was completed, more people would buy it.
“The trouble is, how can one possibly write a second book?” she muttered to herself. Apparently, some young ladies had written to “Mr. Winthrop” begging him to have Imelda and the Devil reunite. But Caroline wasn’t sure how to do that. When a love story was over, that was all. Wasn’t it?
Once again, she thought of her final glimpse of Gabriel before shutting the door between them forever.
Caroline shut her eyes tight and thought of the wounded, almost wild look of him. A tear threatened, and she struggled to quash it. In many ways, she’d finally attained the life she’d always wanted.
Her family was out of dire financial circumstances; Eddie and Simon and Papa were happy; Caroline no longer had to be in charge of the house and could fix her mind solely to doing what she liked, writing. And to top all that off, she was now a success! She had money, real money, and could possibly become fully independent if things kept on as they were.
Her every dream had come true. So why was she still sometimes utterly low?
“Lord Rockford wasn’t part of a dream.” She sighed to herself. “He was instrumental to the plot, that’s all.”
She’d keep saying that until she could somehow believe it.
Caroline pulled her shawl about her shoulders and returned to writing. She only absently noticed the sound of a carriage pulling up outside the gate. She thought it might be her aunt and uncle home early.
Ah, well. Caroline might get a little cottage of her own one of these days if she could earn enough with her books. Sybil and Eddie could come visit along with Simon, and perhaps in time Caroline’s nieces and nephews would come for tea, too. That would be heavenly, wouldn’t it?
Caroline frowned when a powerful knock came. That couldn’t be her uncle. Who was it, then?
“Hello?” She got up and went to open the door.
When Caroline did, she found the Earl of Rockford standing outside, looking the very devil himself with that scowling demeanor and that rugged, masculine form that hadn’t softened an inch since they’d parted.
His eyes flashed green fire; his square jaw squared further. “Caroline,” he growled.
Caroline swung the door shut in his face.
Somehow when one got exactly what one wanted, it created the most fearsome panic. She tried to figure out what to do. Would running out the back be best, or should she hide upstairs? There came another knock at the door.
“Caroline?” His voice was muffled through the wood. Gabriel sounded perplexed now. “Open up, it’s a bit damp out here.”
Oh, bloody hell. Caroline hated cowardice worse than almost any other trait, and she especially hated it in herself. She would not run from this situation. She would face it. Caroline opened the door again, and the erotic scowl on the earl’s face had lessened to a mild sneer of confusion. That was only slightly less attractive, so she decided it was safe to let him inside.
“However did you find me?” she asked as Gabriel stepped into the house.
“I had help from a friend of yours,” he replied, sounding amused. “Mr. C.D. Winthrop wrote about this place in his latest novel.”
Caroline’s eyes widened. Drat it all, she should never have taken inspiration from her immediate surroundings!
“Yet again, my pen leads me into all sorts of trouble,” she grumbled.
Gabriel turned slowly in the space, and the very sight of him set her blood to flame.
The domestic cheer of the cottage clashed with how large and rough-looking he was. She shut the door and pressed her back to it; if she didn’t keep herself firmly rooted to something, she was liable to go flinging herself at him with abandon.
“This place is charming,” he said, his voice gruff.
“Yes. My aunt and uncle should be back soon,” she lied. Caroline knew it would be beastly not to offer him refreshment. “Would you, um, care for tea? Lord, how long have you been traveling? All the way from Derbyshire?”
“Tea would be excellent, thank you. And I’ve not come that great a distance. I’ve taken a house in Bath for the winter.”
Ah. Well, then this had been a long journey rather than an epic one. That made her feel a little better. An epic would imply some great swooning romance at the end. A long journey just made one rather tired.
“I’m afraid the maid’s also out. It’s her afternoon off. But I can manage.”
She didn’t know what to do with herself as she filled the kettle and set it over the fire, as she laid out the teapot and cups and brewed the leaves. In truth, every moment of the six months they’d been apart had felt like a vise was clamped to her temples, squeezing her that little bit harder every single day. Now, with Gabriel’s presence, the pain was gone and she could think clearly again.
The earl sat before the fire and watched Caroline’s every movement with rapt attention.
“I, um, hope you’ve been well.” Her voice almost failed her as she poured the tea.
“I have not been.” He never looked away from her face once, not even when he took the cup from her. “As a matter of fact, the whole blasted year’s been a misery.”
“I’m sorry.” She winced, sitting down herself. “Has society been so very beastly?”
“It has,” he muttered.
“Oh dear. I’d hoped that time would slow the spread of gossip.”
“You misunderstand me.” He set the cup down, his tea untouched, and leaned toward her. Caroline’s breath caught in her throat. “I’ve never been more respectable or successful. I’ve firmly taken over matters up at Havenlock Hall. The Rockfords are once again the preeminent family in Derbyshire. The past London Season was tolerable, and my ongoing reception by the best families in Bath suggests all problems are firmly in the past.”
“Then I’m glad for you.” She smiled weakly. “How can everything be a misery?”
“The answer is obvious. I cannot stand society because you are not there.”
Caroline had been raising her cup to her lips but his words disarmed her. Or rather, dis-cupped her. With an unladylike swear, she felt it tumble out of her hand to land with a thud on the carpet.
“Oh, bugger me. That hurts!” she hissed, wincing as some of the hot liquid splashed in her lap.
“Are you all right?” Gabriel was on his feet at once, ready to charge at the problem.
As if even an earl could fend off an already-spilled cup of tea.
Caroline knelt on the carpet, picking up the cup and dabbing with a napkin at the tea stain spreading on the floor.
“It’s no trouble. I’m clumsy as usual.”
Gabriel knelt on the floor before her, and Caroline once again froze. His very nearness intoxicated her the same as strong drink would. She felt dizzy and leaden-limbed, wanted nothing more than to slip forward that last tiny distance and rest herself against him.
Instead, she compromised and gave him her fallen cup.
“Erm. Put that back, would you?”
“What did you think of my declaration just now?” The earl seemed even moodier than usual. Astonishing.
“Which one?” she asked, both because she needed time to think of a reply and because she just wanted to hear him say it again.
“The only declaration I made! The statement that I cannot stand society because you are not in it, doesn’t that sound familiar?”
“I was only testing the limits of your immediate memory, my lord. You know I make a habit of such things.”
“Oh, I do know that,” he growled. “I know that you love nothing better than to tease and torment me.”
“If you were only less amusing when tormented, I might not go to such lengths.” She raised her chin, her demeanor haughty, yet Caroline did not rise from the carpet. Nor did Gabriel.
“I’m afraid there’s only one remedy to my torment, Miss Devereux.” Gabriel took her hand in his. She nearly drew away to hide the ink stains, but the sight of them only seemed to embolden his spirits. “It’s astonishing what a cure the mere touch of your hand is.”
Caroline’s heart was pummeling her chest, and her body felt warm and weak as he turned her hand over and pressed his lips to her palm. She took a shuddering breath, reveling in the full, warm press of his mouth and the scratch of his incoming stubble.
Gabriel kissed every one of her fingertips in turn, not minding at all the ink upon them. Well, it had dried by now, anyway.
“Is this why you came here, my lord? For a little restoration?”
“Restoration? I think it’s more like a bloody resurrection.”
Gabriel chuckled, pushing up her sleeve gently to kiss the inside of her wrist. Caroline’s whole body was alive to every sensation now, from the press of her breasts against her chemise and stays to the softness of the carpet beneath her knees.
“I’ve wanted you, Caroline,” he whispered. “I’ve spent every night of the past six months pacing my bedchamber, thinking only of you. Not just the night we shared, but every moment that came before it.”
Her lips parted and she moaned softly as he pulled her against him, his arms circling her waist.
“Every impossible moment with you, every argument, every understanding, every kiss and caress ignited my soul and stoked the fire until I could finally, finally possess you. I’ve never known anything as perfect or as right.”
As Gabriel spoke, his lips brushed lightly over her forehead, her cheeks, her neck as she tilted her head back to receive him. Every single touch was the mere impression of a kiss, but every one of them burned themselves into her body and her memory. Caroline valued words, but all of them had deserted her now. She was at the mercy of this man and his kiss and his suggestions. And she bloody loved it.
“Even though it all began so badly for us?” she whispered.
“Who gives a damn how it started? What matters is how the thing ends. I thought you writers understood all that.” With mounting hunger, he pressed her near and kissed the corner of her mouth, drawing a sigh from the depths of her being. She wanted to rest against someone else, to deliver herself to another person for the first time.
Not just any person, but him. Gabriel Kane, Earl of Rockford, was the only man in the world who could give her excitement and rest at the same time.
And while she would rest later, right now, it was excitement she craved.
“You do realize I’ll have much to learn. I’m not a natural housekeeper, after all.” She teased him by kissing him lightly upon the line of his jaw. Gabriel was still as a predator awaiting the moment to carry off his prey.
“My mother will be only too happy to teach you, provided you don’t wish to ship her off to the West Indies for what she did.”
Caroline smiled. “No. She did that for your sake. To protect you. I can understand risking my reputation for that. In fact, I could understand risking my very life.” Her lips and his hung so tantalizingly close now, she felt their breaths mingle. A line of heat crept slowly up her body, beginning in the space between her legs.
“Risking life for love is my job,” he murmured.
“Oh? Because you are a man?”
“No.” He held her face in his hands, devoured her with his gaze. “Because I love you, and that means I’ll never let harm come to you. I won’t let you risk yourself like that, not ever.”
“You love me, then?”
“Beyond comprehension.”
Caroline hadn’t known you could really cry with happiness. Indeed, her few tears shocked Gabriel.
“Damn it all, have I done something wrong?” He wiped the tears away.
“Never mind about that, my lord.” She twined her arms around his neck, her body throbbing with expectation. “For now, you should understand a very simple truth: I love you as well.” She’d been bursting to say those words for months, and had been miserable to know she’d never get the opportunity again. She would not waste this one.
Gabriel held her, his hands running up and down her back. She could feel the heat of his touch through the thin muslin of her gown, and Caroline knew then that she needed him too much to ever let him go. She would always need him.
“You know this means you’ll have to marry me, don’t you?” His very grin was hunger itself.
“How could I refuse? After all, you braved the roads in winter all the way from Derbyshire to see me.”
He frowned. “Madam, I’ve told you I came from Bath.”
“But when we tell the story to our children, we must change that detail. Derbyshire sounds more dramatic.”
“Well, you’d be the expert on dramatics.” He kissed her throat, his lips tracing the hollow at the very base. Caroline allowed herself to fall back slowly upon the carpet, to luxuriate beneath his weight. “Should we stop?” he whispered.
“Why would we stop now?” She could almost burst from anticipation.
“Your aunt and uncle. They’ll return soon.”
“Not until tomorrow.”
He pretended hurt. “You lied to me?”
“I’m afraid I have a marked tendency toward deceit and wickedness.” She lay beneath him, gazing up with wanting. With determination to have everything she craved, now and tomorrow and forever after. “Does that make you want me less, my lord?”
“You’re mistaken, my lady. I find now I can’t wait to possess you a moment longer.”
Caroline allowed full possession, and she was determined to possess in turn.
She savored every sensation, the feel of his callused hand cupping her ankle, her calf, sliding along the expanse of her thigh. She shivered as he untied the ribbons of her stockings, as he rolled them down. Her hair fell out of its pins as she and the earl kissed, his tongue prodding at her lips while his fingers traveled along the bare flesh of her leg, her inner thigh, all the way to the sleek, secret core of her.
Caroline shuddered and gasped when his fingers parted her and he touched the very flower of her sex. She gave herself over to the pleasure, the pleasure of the fire beside her, of the soft rug beneath her back, the heavenly, sinful joy of his lips burning upon hers while his fingers worked her to the climax.
“You have no idea how many nights I’ve wasted dreaming of only this,” he whispered. Caroline’s muscles began to tense in glorious anticipation as the ecstasy was upon her. “I wanted to hear your breath when you come. I wanted you to moan my name.” He traced the most perfect center of her bud with devastating ease. The man was a god and a demon in one, his control was so deft. Caroline arched her back as the completion drew so near, so near…
“Gabriel. Oh.” She kissed his mouth then, as if guided by some erotic spirit, kissed and then lightly bit down upon his neck. She loved to hear him growl with pleasure, and clung tight as her hips lifted, as the heat of the pleasure finally reached its highest point and her whole body shuddered in the relief of being set free.
The world was color and fire and music as the pleasure came in waves, as Caroline came undone with his name shouted and groaned to the ceiling. She lay beneath him, pinned and loving the way he felt upon her.
Gabriel undid the buttons on her gown. Caroline rolled over underneath him as he revealed every inch of her skin, his lips caressing her shoulder and the back of her neck as he rid her of the gown. They both sat up as he ripped off his cravat, his coat, and vest, as Caroline nearly ripped his shirt with her eagerness.
“As the Countess of Rockford, you’ll have to learn greater decorum in the bedroom.”
“A woman shouldn’t rip a husband’s shirt, you mean?”
“No. A lady should finish whatever she starts.” He sounded so smug, and Caroline thought it only right to undo him a bit.
She bit lightly upon his nipple, which made Gabriel gasp. Her hands made fast work of his belt, his trouser buttons. But when she began to lie back down upon the floor, urging him to cover her yet again, she was given a surprise.
“Oh!” She gasped as Gabriel flipped her expertly. He lay upon his back before the hearth and Caroline straddled him.
She was in only her chemise now, one of the sleeves having slipped fully off. Her left breast was revealed to Gabriel, and she tilted back her head and moaned as he returned her favor from before, licking and then suckling her there before at last biting down. She shivered as his hand caressed the small of her back, as he cupped her bottom.
“I intend to enjoy myself today,” he whispered as he brought Caroline’s slick core in perfect alignment with his own hard length. He gazed up at her with ravenous hunger, and also with a total sense of worship. Caroline had felt like a god when she created characters and had them do what she directed, but with that light in Gabriel’s eyes, that utter abandon with which he looked at her, she knew at last how it was to be a goddess. To be simply worshipped for the fact of her existence.
“Oh. I have missed this,” she murmured as she teased him, the thick girth of him prodding at her opening. She bit her lip as the stretch began, as she felt her body accept the very tip of his before she lifted off of him. The Earl of Rockford gasped beneath her, his jaw clenched.
“You are the most wanton minx in the world.” He sounded brutal, furious, and absolutely spellbound.
“As it turns out, I enjoy wantonness nearly as much as wickedness.” They both uttered a soft groan as she finally slid down around him.
Caroline had not known speechlessness much in her life, but every instance of it had been with Gabriel. He filled her with fury, with passion, with yearning and with hope. Now, finally being joined with him again in every meaningful sense, she could think of nothing to say to equal the pleasure, the relief, the sheer ecstasy.
Caroline tilted her hips ever so slightly, riding him as he watched her with masterful determination. Gabriel clasped her thigh, nudging her and instructing her to take him as deep as possible. He showed her how to move, how to take control of his body as he gave her back every drop of pleasure she sought.
The fire heated her already flushed skin as Caroline moved up and down the length of him, moaning in astonishment as she felt him go deeper inside than she’d ever thought possible. Their harsh breathing came in unison, as did the hard, brisk slap of their bodies as they barreled toward their climax.
“Together, then?” Gabriel whispered as he looked into her eyes. She leaned forward, her hand slipping into his. It fit perfectly.
“Always together.” She had barely spoken the words when the ecstasy seized her in its lightning grip, and she felt her mind come undone as she tilted her head to the ceiling and shouted his name.
Gabriel surged within her at the same moment, and then she was lying down upon his chest, his hand playing through the tangled mass of her hair. They were dewy with sweat, spent, and, Caroline knew, thoroughly contented.
She pressed her cheek over the powerful drum of his heart and knew that she would spend the rest of her life in such positions. That there was no ending in sight to this story begun between them, however haphazardly.
Gabriel chuckled.
“What is it?” she asked, feeling drowsy and blissful.
“Well, there’s another reason I sought you out.” He kissed the top of her head. “I never thought I’d feel sorry for the Devil, but I thought he and Imelda parted badly at the end of Masquerade at Seville . Do you think you might write another?”
“My publisher’s asked for quite the same thing.” Caroline brushed a few strands of black hair from his eyes. She gazed down upon him, feeling worshipped and adored and adoring all at once.
“Shall you give the poor Devil one more chance, then?”
Caroline pretended to think it over carefully. “I believe everyone deserves a second chance,” she replied.
Gabriel rolled her over and paid devastatingly thorough attention to every inch of her throughout the rest of that afternoon. All the while, Caroline reveled in her own second chance. There’d be no need of a third.