Chapter 21 #3
“I wasn’t planning on escaping, Max.”
“I don’t want to be disturbed.” He allowed his gaze to travel over her body. “I’ve missed you in my bed.”
“We’ve scarcely been apart.”
He walked over and cupped her cheek. “True, but I find I no longer like sleeping alone.”
She leaned into him, her cheeks flushed. “It is rather … lonely.”
“May I help you out of your gown?” Max asked.
She looked up at him. “Don’t you think we should talk first?”
“Not particularly.” He bit her throat, and she shivered. “I want you naked and screaming my name first.”
She sighed, her fingers already busy on the knot of his cravat. “As you wish.”
He cupped her bottom, bringing her tightly against his already erect cock. “I’m hard for you.”
She rolled her hips in a most provocative manner, and Max decided he didn’t have time to undress her after all.
He placed his hands around her waist and sat her on the side of the high bed.
He shoved up her skirts, knelt on the floor, and applied his tongue to her most sensitive parts, licking her lavishly until she gasped his name, and came against his mouth.
With a growl, he stood up and released the buttons of his breeches to expose the hot, hard length of his cock. He pushed into her and held still to experience the pleasure of her body tightening around him.
“God,” he said as he started thrusting. “I’ve no time for finesse.”
“Don’t stop,” Allegra ordered him as her feet climbed to his hips and held on. “Don’t you dare stop.”
She came again and it took all his willpower not to join her.
He eased his thrusts, but she kicked him like a horse until he sped up and then screamed her approval as they came together in a frenzy of pleasure that he’d never found with anyone but her.
After he’d come, he stayed where he was, just holding her until his cock slipped free.
She gave an elaborate shudder. “That was wonderful. Shall we undress, or do you wish to speak to me now?”
“If I undress you, I fear I’d not resist the temptation to have you again,” Max admitted.
Allegra pushed a tendril of damp hair away from his face. “I feel the same.”
He smiled at her. “We can talk just as we are?”
“I suppose we are still quite decent.”
Max helped her down from the bed, and she waited until he rebuttoned his breeches. He escorted her over to the fire, and they sat down opposite each other in the two wing chairs.
Max cleared his throat. “Well. Perhaps I might speak first.”
“Be my guest,” Allegra said.
“Why did you come?”
“That’s hardly you speaking first, is it?” Allegra objected. “That’s you asking me a question in order to elicit a response, which means that I have to do all the talking.”
“Your arrival has changed things,” Max said. “I assumed we might discuss matters when I returned home.”
“I suppose that depends when you were planning to return,” Allegra said.
“Tomorrow.”
Allegra blinked. “Oh. I thought—I mean, I assumed—that once you were here, you’d want to stay longer.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because this is more your milieu.” She gestured at the suite.
“What if it no longer is? I’ve been here for a few days, and all I can think of is going home.”
Her expression softened. “That’s very sweet, but we both know you are a fashionable gentleman about town, with many friends and activities to divert you.” She took a quick breath. “I knew that when I agreed to marry you and accepted it. I want you to be happy, Max.”
“And if being here no longer makes me happy, will you accept that I choose to live at Blanchard Hall?”
“It is your home.” Allegra met his gaze with her usual clear-eyed honesty.
He half-smiled. “It’s the first place that’s ever felt like home to me.”
“That’s wonderful.” She leaned forward and patted his knee. “You’ve certainly made it a house to be admired. You should be proud of yourself.”
“It’s not the house, Allegra. It’s you.”
She went still.
“You make it home, and that’s why I want to live there.”
“That’s …” She cleared her throat. “A lovely thing to say.”
“It’s taken me a long time to realize it, but I’m in love with you,” Max said. He held his breath for a moment. “You make me want to be a better man, which is ridiculous, because as you’ve already pointed out, I am quite extraordinary already.”
“You don’t have to say that.” Allegra looked away.
“That I’m extraordinary?”
“No, that you’re in love with me.”
“But I am,” Max said simply. “You’ve ruined me.”
“How so?”
“I no longer have the urge to gamble to excess, engage in reckless behavior, or bed every woman in sight, and it is all your fault.”
She sat back, a smile quivering on her lips. “I won’t apologize.”
“I should think not. It is quite a feat. You’ve tamed me, fair lady. I am yours, and that’s the end of it.”
A dimple appeared on her cheek. “Oh, dear. I appear to have ruined a rake.”
Max grimaced. “I think I did that to myself, but it is deeply satisfying. And, as everyone in society will continue to blame you, regardless, I believe I’m at peace with it.”
He leaned over and took her hand. “And now it’s your turn.”
“I wanted to give you the choice to be free of me, Max. I promised you that on our wedding day,” Allegra said. “But it was too hard. I realized after I’d sent you away that the thought of you being unfaithful was unbearable.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Max said.
“That’s why I came to London.” She hesitated. “To ask you to reconsider our promises to each other, and to tell you … I loved you, too.”
“It’s about time you admitted it,” Max said, even as his own heart sang. “I mean, it’s been obvious to me since we met that we were destined to be together.”
“You are such a liar.” Allegra shook her head, but she was laughing. “I loathed you at that point.”
“You knew.” Max kissed her hand.
“There is another reason that I came to London,” Allegra said.
“To see my father?” Max asked. “I notice that the two of you get along famously.”
She bit her lip. “No, this is something far more personal.” Her hand settled over her stomach. “I believe I’m with child.”
Max simply stared at her.
A frown appeared between her brows. “Is this news unwelcome?”
He came out of his seat and knelt in front of her, his hand moving to cover hers.
“Good lord.”
“You’re not horrified, then?”
“Not at all.” Max struggled to clear his throat. “It’s wonderful news.” He looked up at her. “Thank you.”
All her love was in her eyes as she started to smile. Max rose to his feet and pulled her out of her chair, and into his arms.
“Thank you,” he whispered again against her throat. “If this doesn’t make my father realize I’m a respectably married man, nothing will.”
His beloved poked him hard in the ribs.