Chapter Five
Her declaration hung between them. Against all of his training, John stopped and moved closer to his wife. Despite the rushing of the sea nearby and the fading footsteps of the smugglers, he could hear her breath and see her clear eyes watching him.
She had not admitted any affection earlier. Then again, he hadn’t given her time to do so.
“This is not a trick?” he asked. He wondered if perhaps she had simply said as much to stop him from leaving.
Cate shook her head as she wrapped her arms around his middle and slid underneath the folds of his coat, seeking both warmth and contact.
“Why would I lie to you?” Her mouth sought the underside of his neck.
She kissed his skin and made it hard for him to focus on anything but the feel of her lips. He could hardly muster a reply.
“Please,” she whispered shakily. John understood she did not want him to leave. He wanted nothing more than to continue what they had started when they’d slipped away from the ball. Her physical response had been magnificent and captivating. There was so much more they still had yet to discover.
Leaning down so their faces were level, John whispered, “How will you be able to stand having a coward for a husband?”
“Better I should have one alive than dead.” Cate stared back at him, her stubbornness clear. “I will happily explain how outnumbered you were…”
“I must hide behind my wife’s coattails,” John groaned, knowing all too well how his fellow officers would react. He detested the idea of their judgment.
Cate’s arms dropped as she shook her head in annoyance.
“You are being a greater fool than I ever imagined possible.” She was blunt.
In his heart of hearts, John knew she was right.
Besides, if he were to follow the smugglers, he would be leaving Cate to fend for herself on her journey home.
“You would see me returned to my father’s care, for even as a widow, might I be reliant on his tender mercies?
After everything I risked to escape him, and—” She trembled.
At that moment, John knew his best course of action.
He might’ve believed that his first duty was to the navy, but now it was to his wife.
“Come,” he said, “We’re going back to the hotel.”
“Together?”
“Aye.” He took hold of her fingers. When Cate tightened her grip, John knew he had made the right decision.
*
The Dower Royal Hotel was quiet and seemingly empty when the pair slipped inside.
Everyone had gone to the assembly rooms. Or so John thought, as he grimly approached one of the bays, eagle-eyed for an approaching shipment.
His thoughts cut through the water, anticipating any messages between the enemies he failed to apprehend.
Cate stood by his side, entirely focused on reaching their chamber.
Her head was bent forward. She had silently accepted his coat as it draped over her shoulders during their journey back to the hotel.
He knew he should be focused on what would have been his mission.
Instead, his traitorous mind kept flicking back to more amorous activities, especially when they crossed into their bedchamber.
“Make a note,” Cate said, as she placed his coat neatly into the case and drew off her gloves. “Copy down every last thing you heard and remember from tonight.”
Unable to help himself, John chuckled sadly. “I am not sure my commanding officers would wish to hear all of it. They will be rightly furious with me.”
Cate’s cheeks pinkened. With a playful thwack, she hit his arm and drew out a sheet of paper from the nearby desk, laying it flat. “I will go and find us some provisions while you work. When I return, I will recount everything I overheard in the assembly rooms. That way, we will have an account.”
Following her logic, John set about recording what he remembered, trying to omit any more romantic elements or illusions of what the two of them had been doing together.
“I fear half the town is involved.” John paused as he peered down into the street below.
Thick, all-encompassing darkness hid most of the surrounding buildings, but an edge of unease crept through the place.
It was as if a whisper had been uttered for secrecy and treason, and everyone was listening to it.
“I have recorded all that we heard and what you have recounted.” This investigation wasn’t off to a bad start.
“I do not know if I believe quite half,” Cate continued, “from what I overheard, though it is far more common than many would like, or they think it harmless. Just some of them wishing for brandy and the women for a new silk dress…”
“It will cover their sins of treason with such statements.”
“I did not say I believed them,” Cate replied soothingly.
She came to stand by his side and glanced over his shoulder at all he had written.
As she leaned over the page, he breathed in her sweet scent of rosewater, noticing that she had slipped her evening dress off and stood now only in her chemise.
He should have been used to the sight. After all, they slept side by side.
Having now won her heart, John did not think straight.
“What are you doing?” She gasped as his hands snaked around her waist, pulling her onto his lap.
“Something I have wanted to do for months. Something I should have done on our wedding night. I am making love to my wife.” He kissed her neck, delighting in her response.
Cate giggled. The sound was almost heavenly to his ears. “I hope it is not merely to distract you from the illegal activities going on around us.”
Getting to his feet, John swung her up in his arms, maneuvering her toward their shared bed. “Surely you know me better than that,” he teased.
They collapsed on the coverlet, their hands eager to explore each other’s bodies. When Cate fingered his hardening length, her prediction of him forgetting everything else came true. There was nothing but them.
When he’d torn apart her chemise, the material ripping in a satisfying manner, he beheld the most blissful sight he could have ever imagined.
She had the loveliest body, with heavenly breasts, a neat waist, and a hidden core covered by blonde curls.
As he explored her pinkening petals with his fingers, she cried out for more.
In his eagerness, he captured her rosy nipple between his lips, his touch firm and curious.
Cate arched into him, her hips aligning perfectly with his.
How he wished to simply plunge into her, but she deserved the most beautiful night.
He trailed his mouth between her breasts, kissing, licking, and enjoying the taste of rosewater, salt, and skin.
She was the most divine woman that he could have ever imagined.
When he nudged against her curls and dipped in to lick at the soft wetness, he was gratified by her strangled gasp. She was so responsive.
With his mouth and fingers, he pleasured her, exploring Cate’s core with as much tenderness as he could until he’d wrought from her another release.
She lay gasping, radiant all over in the light from the stars, as John crawled up her body, positioning himself at her entrance, nudging his cock against her wet center.
“My love.” His voice was raw with need. “Open for me.” He pressed into her, easing inside inch by inch.
Her body was eager and wet for him, welcoming him inside.
Cate wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him fully, as their tongues danced and their hips met.
Leaning down, he stared at her, buried deep within her body. “You are my angel.”
Cate, mere inches from him, grinned. “My hero.” Her voice was teasing but beneath lay an edge of desire. A feeling that John could relate to all too well.
With gentle persistence, he started to rock back and forth.
The motion was soft at first, giving her time to become familiar with the sensation before they were both swept up.
It gripped him immediately as he watched her cry out again.
He lost himself in the sharp and all-encompassing sensation of his own release.
They lay together as their breathing slowly returned to normal. Although it would never feel normal again, John told himself, everything with Cate was special.
“We cannot stay here for Christmas,” she whispered, hugging him tightly.
“Nor can we go to your family’s home.”
“No.” She shuddered.
“Do you wish to tell me what your father did?”
“He believed in beating his children. Viciously. With a leather belt and buckle. Since I was the last child left, I received the most of it. I knew if I was not wed this Season…my fate would be terrible when I returned home,” she confessed. “My sisters were never…they never suffered as much as I.”
“You can tell me whatever you wish.”
“My father blamed me for my mother’s death. She died giving birth to me. And then when it took me multiple Seasons to…to…”
John interlinked his fingers with hers, offering her his courage to continue, to say whatever she needed to.
“I knew there was no one amongst the beau monde whom I wished to marry, and I had spoken to my aunt who said after the Season, I could come to live with her. I would be old enough. My father could no longer force me back. That was why I asked Hepworth to kiss me. To ruin me. So that my father would release me. I thought I should be shunned and sent to my aunt.” She sat up in bed and stared at John.
“It was not a good plan, but I was desperate, and Hepworth agreed. He is not as bad as some people say.”
John moved away to collect a washcloth and to clean them both. He turned back to her at this remark. As he approached, he said, “If that rake had any honor, he would have married you.”
“For both our sakes, I am grateful he did not.”
“True.” John finished cleaning her up, and then climbed onto the other side of the bed, pulling her close to him. “I wished you had asked me.”
“I did consider it…” She blushed at this, “but I thought your sense of duty, your position…would make that impossible.”
“You are safe now.” John knelt before her, “I will never fail to protect you.”
“I know.” She kissed him. Her mouth was warm and tempting. “I suppose the last thing left for us to decide is where we should go when we leave here?”
“To my home in Yorkshire.” John leaned back amongst the pillows, pulling Cate into the crook of his arm. “There will be snow and a proper Christmas pudding. Oh, and the best roast potatoes you ever did see. My mother will be thrilled to meet my new bride.”
“And those damned smugglers?”
“Let’s worry about that tomorrow,” John said as he rolled his bride over and started kissing her properly again.
THE END