Chapter Twelve
The problem with seeing a woman come undone in a closed carriage was the time when said woman needed to exit the vehicle.
William worked to assist Charlotte in setting her clothing to rights while the conveyance rocked, signaling the fact that Dolan had jumped down from the box. “Quickly,” he whispered and hoped to God the other man didn’t pay too much close attention to either of them.
By the time the door swung open, William sat composed on the opposite bench from her, and Charlotte, for her part, looked more or less tidied with her bonnet on her head but the ribbon untied.
If there were a few more wrinkles in the cotton dress, perhaps it would be attributed to travel and not the two of them getting up to scandal.
Dolan stood back for William to exit.
He nodded his thanks, then extended a hand to assist Charlotte out. “I appreciate you arriving here as quickly as you could, Dolan. In the event you wondered, I am going straight to bed.”
Or hell, depending.
“Aye, Your Lordship.” The driver bounced his gaze between the two of them. “I’ll go and fetch the physician now.”
“Thank you.” Without a glance at Charlotte, he escorted her up the short walkway to the front door to the house.
The black-painted panel was quite welcoming, and he unexpectedly grew teary-eyed thinking that he might soon share this address with the woman clinging to his arm.
No sooner had he come through the wrought-iron gate than the door opened, and his butler stared at him with a tiny degree of surprise in his gaze.
“I’ll be in my rooms, Layton. Suffered a bit of an accident earlier, as you can tell from the state of my clothing. ”
“Shall I render assistance, Your Lordship?” Confusion flickered over the butler’s face.
“That won’t be necessary, Layton. Miss Primrose will see me settled into bed. My driver has gone off in search of a doctor. Once he arrives, give him tea before he comes up for an examination. I shall require a half hour to myself, for it has been a difficult afternoon already.”
And he damned well didn’t wish to be disturbed once he had Charlotte naked and writhing beneath him. What was started in the carriage was certainly not finished. It didn’t matter that his shoulder ached.
“Of course, Your Lordship.” Then he peered at Charlotte as they shed their outer things. “I’m glad you’re here to look after him, Miss.”
“As am I,” she said in soft, dulcet terms. “He’ll be right as rain in a twinkling.”
I will because I’m going to fuck you senseless in about five minutes.
What the devil had gotten into him? He had a fair idea.
Waves of awareness and need slammed into him like the perfect storm.
As soon as he and Charlotte began to climb the stairs, he tugged her into his arms once more.
“I can’t have enough of you,” he whispered against her lips as he manipulated the few buttons at the back of her dress.
“William!” The muted squeak that came from her only added to his urge to have her naked. “Servants can see.”
“I don’t care. Let them watch.” He reached for her skirting, but she hurried to the second level landing just out of reach. Then he caught her up and kissed her again. That was when she relieved him of his cravat. It fell to the stairs without either of them noticing.
“It’s so undignified,” she protested as they started up the last of the treads, headed for the third level.
“When is carnal play ever that?” As he claimed her mouth in a frantic kiss, he proceeded to pluck the pins from her hair. They pinged against the hardwood.
Once more, she darted away from him and trotted up the remaining stairs.
With a laugh, she waited for him on that landing, where he quickly ushered her into his suite and slammed the door behind them.
Then he took her into his arms and kissed her with even more authority because he couldn’t keep his hands off her.
Apparently, she felt the same, for she worked the buttons on his jacket from their holes and seconds later yanked the garment from his form.
His waistcoat quickly followed, along with his cuffs and collar.
Not to fall too far behind, he divested her of the day dress.
Garments fell to the floor as they slowly made their way through the dressing room and into the bedroom.
In short order, he toed off his boots. They landed with dual thuds onto the floor.
She removed her half-boots, and in between kisses, his fine lawn shirt somehow came off to be abandoned next to her stays and petticoat.
Damn, but being with Charlotte made him feel years younger and rejuvenated.
It was amazing, and he didn’t want it end.
The outline of her pebbled nipples was evident beneath the thin cotton of her shift, and another streak of desire went through him to land in his hardening shaft.
Nothing like this had ever happened to him with a woman who wasn’t a courtesan or mistress.
Charlotte was his for the duration if he wanted her.
A life with her could truly happen if he would only unlock his heart and let it.
Yet there was still a tiny piece of doubt lodged in that organ, preventing it from flying away into her keeping.
She ran her palms up his naked chest. “Is everything all right? You seem a million miles away just now.”
A chuckle escaped him. “I am well.”
“Feeling the aftereffects of your accident?”
“Not yet.” Then, watching her the whole time, William grabbed the hem of her shift and then brought the garment up and off her body.
As he let it drop to the floor, he raked his hungry gaze up and down her form.
“Dear God, you are luscious and beautiful.” Seeing her thus was every bit as rewarding as he thought it would be.
“Renaissance artists would fight to have the chance to put you on their canvases.”
“Such gammon, Wolcott.” But pleasure danced in her eyes.
“I may be many things, but I am not lying now.” Gently, he removed her spectacles then gave them a toss onto a nearby chair.
A wave of protectiveness came over him along with a certain fondness for this woman who’d been more or less forced upon him.
One by one, he removed the pins—again—from her hair that had been hastily shoved into the tresses in the carriage.
When he shook out the slightly wavy mass, that blonde waterfall went nearly to her waist, and he adored it, couldn’t wait to have his hands buried in the silky strands.
“Yes, you are beautiful, Charlotte. Never think otherwise.”
A pretty blush went through her cheeks as she reached for the waist of his breeches. “Thank you for that, and please forgive me. I can’t see clearly without my spectacles, but I wish to see you as nude as I now am.”
“Right. Of course.” Had she managed to put him beneath some sort of spell, then?
That would account for this fogged feeling in his muzzy brain, but he did as she asked and removed his breeches.
When he finally stood naked before her with his erection proudly at his center, he forced a swallow into his suddenly dry throat. “Well?”
Her gaze moved over every inch of him, and he would gladly die a thousand deaths to hear what she thought of him. “I have never seen a naked man before, not even my previous fiancé. He rarely removed his jacket in my presence.”
Briefly, he nodded. “I realize I’m not as lean as I’ve wished to be, and I never was a solider in the war—my father forbid it, you see—but I try to ride and stay active when I can…”
“Stop, William, you’re everything lovely.
” Obviously, she didn’t seem to mind as she took in every bit of his body with her gaze, drew her fingers over his chest and arms as she willed.
“I adore that you are not one of those men who is overly concerned about his face and form.” As she spoke, her fingers glided over his skin, and every touch was like a prayer.
“I’m glad you have a slight belly and these dear little areas over your hips that I can pinch your pudge.
” She did so, and he was immersed in heat.
“Of course, that’s coming from me, who is already larger and curvier than most ladies of the ton. ”
He shook his head to clear it. “Well, thank goodness for that, hmm?” Then the need for her got the better of him. With hunger voraciously growing in his gut, he maneuvered over to the bed, then lifting her up, he settled her on the edge of the tick mattress.
“William?” A trace of apprehension entered her expression.
“Trust me.” As he trailed his fingertips along her skin, her breasts, her sides, her arms, her hips, he coaxed her legs apart.
He fell to his knees, caressed the inside of her thighs, and when gooseflesh chased over her skin and her legs trembled, he grinned and put his mouth onto that flesh that seemed to call out to him. “So lovely.”
It took little time for him to be lost in the wonder that was her.
With each pass of his fingers over that slippery, swelling button, with each flick of his tongue on that button and her folds, he built a deeper connection to her than he’d had before.
Her hands were in his hair, both urging him closer and at the same time trying to shove him away.
But still, he worked her over as if sending her flying was his only goal in life.
When she made soft sounds of pleasure and encouragement, they spurred him onward, and he kept on until a keening cry broke from her throat.
That was the moment Charlotte shattered as she found bliss, and it was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever witnessed, like fireworks at an Old Year’s celebration.
Contractions in her core sucked greedily at his tongue as he thrust that organ inside one last time, then he pulled away merely to watch the emotions flit over her face.
“Good heavens,” she whispered, and then seconds later she slipped off the bed to land unsteadily on her feet.