Chapter 24 #2
Her sudden expletive made Colt laugh. He suspended himself above her with one arm, the cords of his muscles flexing under the strain.
He held his prick rigid for one moment longer, then released it as he plunged inside her.
He covered her mouth with his, suffocating her cry of delight.
She gripped him like a vice, and he struggled to contain himself, especially when her moans grew louder.
As their rhythm quickened, Colt lifted his upper body and gently coaxed her legs upwards, facilitating even deeper access.
Sarah stretched her hand up to his chest and let it graze down over his muscles. “You’re lovely, Robert,” she panted. She hooked one leg over his shoulder, then the other, her eyes twinkling.
He cursed inwardly as his pleasure increased, all rational thought leaving his head. How did one woman have the ability to make him lose all control?
As he thrust into her, frantic now, Sarah hardly made any sound. Her eyes fluttered and lips parted, as though their movements together were driving her to greater heights of ecstasy, beyond the capacity to even cry out.
Suddenly, Sarah opened her eyes and lifted her head off the pillow. She gripped his shoulder with one hand and caught his bottom with the other, digging her nails into his skin as she pulled him closer.
This movement, along with the ardent look in her eye, was too much for Colt to bear.
He plummeted over the edge, his entire body jerking in rapture.
In the same moment, he felt Sarah begin to pulse around him.
Time stopped there for a while, with nothing but -Sarah’s trembling, and then she grew still and soft beneath him.
They lay together for some time, their limbs entangled, waiting for their breath to be restored.
Colt, who always prided himself on taking appropriate precautions to avoid siring a child, questioned how Sarah had distracted him so totally from sensible thought. That had also been the case at the masquerade, and yet he felt strangely unconcerned.
Sarah smiled up at him; he studied her intently.
“You smell glorious,” he announced, inhaling her hair.
“This cannot happen, Robert.” She rolled to lie on her stomach beside him.
He traced the taut skin on her back with his fingertips, making her flesh prickle under his touch. “I think we have proved that it very much can happen, my dear.”
“And I shall never forget it, but this nonsense must stop. I will not take you as a lover.”
Her words wounded him. “I never knew you to be cruel, Sarah. You have allowed me to glimpse ecstasy, and then you want to take it away?”
“It is not yours to keep, Robert.”
“But I want it to be mine. I want you, Sarah.”
“No, you don’t, Colt. And I could not live like that. The only way I might sustain your interest is to deny you mine. The moment I revealed feelings, I would lose you. How fatiguing and unfair for both of us.”
Words eluded him. Whilst she had awakened in him a powerful new category of desire, he could not dispute that his behaviour to date confirmed her theory.
“I can change,” he pleaded, snaking an arm around her and pulling her against him.
“I do not believe you, Robert.”
He pressed his face into her hair, kissing the top of her head and bundling her against his chest. “Let me try.”
He wanted to try.
Sarah said nothing.
They remained thus for some time, exchanging no further words, until a discreet tap at the door interrupted their silent reverie.
“What is it?” Sarah called, scrambling off the bed and reaching for a sheet to cover her naked body.
Colt similarly plucked through the tangle of bedding to try to find his garments.
“Miss Pace has called for you, Mrs Fortescue. She is awaiting you in the front parlour.” The voice of Sarah’s maid sounded neutral and without judgment.
Sarah cursed. “Thank you. Please get her something to drink and tell her I shall be with her presently.”
A fit of laughter seized Colt. Sarah shot him a disapproving glare, which served only to exacerbate his mirth. How mortified his dignified darling would be trying to explain to Georgina what had just transpired between them.
***
Ten minutes later, Sarah, pink-cheeked and hair unkempt, entered the parlour with Colt following languidly at her heels.
His own attire left little mystery as to what had transpired.
His shirt, now creased, would have made his fastidious valet wince, and he had barely bothered to fashion a knot out of his neckcloth.
“Georgina,” Sarah said, saluting her friend with a kiss on each cheek.
“You are both here, excellent,” Georgina said, greeting Colt as well, shaking his hand and sitting down.
She did not seem set to query either their appearance or their entry together. In fact, she did not really look at either of them.
Colt picked up the glass he had been drinking before and settled himself on the sofa once more. The dark circles under Georgina’s eyes were more pronounced than ever. She appeared tired and worn down. This was becoming the norm for her. He sat forward and regarded her closely.
“How have you progressed with Mr Coombes and those infernal vowels of his?” Sarah inquired. “Surely Mrs Gardner has relented and returned them to you? Or did you steal them after all?”
Georgina shook her head. “I stole a faro box, though.”
“I thought Colt was jesting!” Sarah admonished.
Colt rubbed his face. “Damn it all, George. How is a faro box meant to help anything?”
Sinking back onto the sofa, Georgina launched into her story, starting with her impulsive decision to steal Mrs Gardner’s faro box, and her subsequent discovery that the box was as corrupt as Mrs Gardner herself.
Her tale peaked when she described how a brute assaulted her on her doorstep following the masquerade, making vulgar reference to Henry and posing further threats, yet giving her a reprieve until Sunday to come up with a plan.
She concluded the story with the final extraordinary anecdote of her spending the day in a Bow Street prison, together with a visit from Mrs Gardner herself.
Colt felt a sharp pang as he realised his friend had fallen into trouble of this magnitude. Violent attacks? Threats of death? Ellis and Montgomery, in their ruthless pursuit of control, had increased the stakes.
“For now, Arthur is safe, as I have sent him to stay with Edmund. No, Colt, don’t grimace so.
As long as they are discreet, no one should suspect he is there.
” She yawned, desperate for sleep. “My father, on the other hand, is another matter. While I was imprisoned, Mrs Gardner made a thinly veiled threat towards him. I am trying to induce him to leave town, but he is being the most stubborn wretch about it.”
“Between us, I am sure we can furnish Arthur with the funds he needs to pay off the debt and interest, and perhaps even leave him with some left over to set up his household. That would allow him to marry this lady of his and be done with the whole affair. I don’t want you involved with this anymore, George,” Colt declared.
“I fear it is too late for that. To be sure, Arthur might have whatever sum of money he needs, but he wants the vowels, Colt. He understands what they mean. And besides that, I must bring them all to justice.”
Colt recognised the glint in her fierce blue eyes. Trying to reason with her was futile.
“But to risk yourself, and even your father …” Sarah ventured slowly.
“Papa will return to Yorkshire directly. And I will not stop until I have destroyed their enterprise.”
A tightness formed in Colt’s stomach. Georgina thought to protect her father, yet she seemed not to consider the danger she was in herself.
“By attempting to bring down Solitaires, you will be waging war with some very powerful people, George.”
A muscle twitched in Georgina’s cheek. “Yes. Those ‘people’ killed Henry, Colt. Are you suggesting I sit by and do nothing?”
“Only that you exercise caution. The benefactors financing Solitaires will be insisting that Mrs Gardner prey upon people like Arthur. You cannot truly know who else is behind this, beyond Ellis and Montgomery and their hired muscle.” Colt paused.
“What do you know of Lady Mortimer’s involvement, for example? ”
He could see Georgina shift in her chair.
Sarah leaned in and held Georgina’s hand. “This may have nothing to do with Elizabeth.”
They both glared at Colt. He wondered why they always cast him as the villain when he only meant to help.
“I did not say she was to blame for all this. Only that you may be dealing with some very rum customers, my girl. It’s time for you to take this seriously.”
“You have no idea how seriously I am taking this, Colt.”
This only worried him more.