He could only pray his gamble would work.
If it didn’t, he might lose her again. But when had he ever possessed her? She’d left him two years ago. Everyone knew that. Her presence here, at this house party, and in this particular company was driving society’s gossips wild with fevered speculation as to just how he intended to deal with her.
Jonathan Ford, the Earl of Buckley considered the couples moving in graceful harmony on the dance floor. Claudia was dancing, of course. When did she ever sit still? The more she shone, the further he’d retreated, and the more outrageous she’d become...
“Are you going to speak to her, Jonathan?”
He looked down to see his mother positively bristling with indignation beside him.
“Of course I will.”
“She probably doesn’t even realize we are here!”
“I should imagine not, Mama, or else she wouldn’t have come.”
She sighed. “I’d try to speak to her myself, but last time I attempted it she laughed in my face and created even more scandal.”
“When was that?”
“At Lady Bridlington’s garden party.”
Ah, he remembered that day rather well. According to the well-meaning friends he’d encountered the next morning, his wife had been found wandering in the conservatory with some young debutante’s intended, and had laughed when the young lady in question had burst into tears and called her heartless.
She wasn’t heartless.
He knew that.
And his mother should’ve known better than to have interfered. That incident had culminated in him confronting her. After ten disastrous years of marriage she’d run off the very next night with his best friend.
The music ended in a loud crashing chord and the men bowed to their ladies and led them off the floor. Claudia’s laughter reached him as she stroked her partners sleeve and smiled at him. He wasn’t sure if he’d reacted in some way, but a second later, she looked over to where he stood, and her blue eyes widened.
He inclined his head a subtle inch, and watched as with a little toss of her golden curls she turned away and dismissed him, relegating him to his dark corner as if he didn’t exist. Jonathan briefly closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. He’d thrown the dice. He just had to pray that his legendary good luck held.
* * *
Claudia forced herself to smile up at Captain Mark Elliot, her acknowledged flirt, and her best friend in the world, but he was no fool.
“What’s wrong? You’re trembling.”
“Jonathan’s here.”
“Your husband?” Mark gave a quick glance around the crowded ballroom.
“Who else?”
Mark led her to a chair, took her fan away from her and gently waved it in front of her face. “But you said it was time to seek him out yourself.”
She glared at him. “Not yet! I’m not ready.”
He had the audacity to smile at her. “Let’s be honest, love. You’ll never be ready.”
“But I’m tired of this—why won’t he just let me go to the devil?”
“I don’t know.” Mark’s expression grew serious again. “Which is why you have to be brave and speak to him.”
“I’d rather flirt with you.”
“Only because you know I’m immune to your wiles. Why do you think he didn’t chase after you? He knew you’d be quite safe with me.”
Claudia looked away and encountered the steely glare of her mother-in-law. She blew her a kiss and had the satisfaction of watching the dowager countess’s face harden with contempt. Claudia couldn’t blame her. Having a daughter-in-law whose whole life was a scandal couldn’t be easy, especially when she knew how much the dowager adored her only son.
Poor Jon…
“Lady Buckley? I believe it’s our dance.”
She stood in one graceful motion, reclaimed her fan from Mark and turned toward Sir Hubert.
“Actually, if you wouldn’t mind, Sir Hubert, I’d rather like to dance with my wife myself.”
Jon’s calm voice shuddered through her and she struggled to breathe. She’d forgotten how wildly he affected her senses. She turned toward him, keeping her gaze on the immaculate white knot of his cravat and the diamond pin securing it.
“Of course, my lord.” Sir Hubert chuckled. “Quite happy to relinquish my spot.”
He bowed and backed away leaving Jon facing Mark who gazed right back at him.
“How nice to see you again, my lord.”
“A pleasure, Captain Elliot.”
“Do you intend to call me out for absconding with your wife?”
“Now, why on earth would you think that?”
Mark grinned. “I knew you’d be reasonable. I kept her safe, you know.”
“Indeed. I am most grateful to you.”
Claudia stepped between the two men. “I am present, gentlemen. If you wish to have a discussion about me, I’d prefer to be included in it.”
“I’m sure you would, love.” Mark said. “Now, go and dance with your husband before he changes his mind and challenges me to a duel. I’m considered a fair shot, but he is unbeatable.”
She placed her hand on her husband’s sleeve, and allowed him to lead her onto the small dance floor. She didn’t speak as she curtsied and he bowed, and they joined hands to circle each other clockwise and then counterclockwise.
“How are you, Claudia?”
She executed the turn and changed hands with him. “Well enough.”
His gloved hand easily enveloped hers. “I apologize if seeing me was a shock.”
She risked an airy smile in the general direction of his austere face. “Did I appear shocked? I cannot imagine why.”
She dropped his hand and retreated to the corner of her set where she curtsied to the other lady and circled around her. It was all too soon before she was beside her husband again, and had to repeat the whole sequence of steps.
“Then you are annoyed because I was civil to Captain Elliot?”
“Of course not! But I resent the implication that the pair of you somehow decided my fate for me.”
“Rest assured that did not happen.” His grip tightened. “At first, I had no idea where you’d gone. I was beside myself.”
Hearing the pain in his voice, she had no answer for him and turned gratefully back to her new partner until the circle of the dance brought her face to face with her husband again.
“You are trembling.”
“It is rather cold this evening.”
“And your gown is falling off your shoulders and made of the skimpiest of materials.”
“It’s the fashion in France.” This time she did look up and flinched as she met his dark brown eyes. “Don’t you like it?”
His gaze moved downward. She deliberately shrugged her shoulder until the tiny puffed sleeve slid down her arm.
“I like it very well. I’m not sure if I wish other men to see you so becomingly attired.”
“Some of them have seen far more of me than this.” She twirled away and looked back at him over her shoulder. “You’d prefer me in sackcloth and ashes, no doubt?”
Incredibly he smiled. “And on your knees? It does have its attractions.” She stumbled, and he caught her neatly by the elbow and set her straight.
“What do you want, Jon?”
“Just to talk to you.”
“That’s all?”
“I assumed that was all you would allow me to do.”
“Then I’ll agree to meet you at your solicitors when we both return to London. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To begin proceedings to get rid of me?”
With a murmured apology to the others in their set, he yanked her right out of the dance and onto the terrace. She didn’t even try to resist. She’d given the gossips far too much ammunition in the last few years to need to add to it now.
Eventually, he stopped, dropped his hold on her and half-turned to stare out into the night. She considered walking away, but something about the rigid set of his broad shoulders made her stay and face his anger. God knows she deserved it.
“I don’t want to fight with you anymore.” He sounded as weary as she felt.
“I don’t want to fight either.”
The corner of his mouth turned up slightly at one corner. “Then I suppose that’s progress. Why did you come back?”
“Because I was tired of running?”
“More progress?”
“Or it might be that your solicitor threatened to cut off my allowance if I didn’t.”
He turned fully to look at her. “And which was it?”
“Actually, I received your insulting letter when I’d already reached Dover.”
“I meant no insult. I merely wished to settle things between us. If you were already in England, I assume you thought it was a good idea, too.” He hesitated. “Is there someone else?”
“There have been hundreds, thousands of others, you know that. You’ve had me watched. I didn’t realize until we returned to England that Mark was writing to you from the very beginning as well.”
“I was glad to hear from him.” He hesitated. “He was my best friend. I lost him as well as you.”
“But it seems his friendship with you trumped his original decision to accompany me. I should’ve known I couldn’t trust him.”
“But you could. He kept you safe.”
“Apparently for your benefit, not for mine, which is a matter I intend to take up with him as soon as you return me to the ballroom.”
Jon shrugged. “He didn’t do it for me. He had to leave England to avoid a scandal of his own, you know that.”
Her hands curled into fists. “But thanks to him, if I’d turned up pregnant on your doorstep, you would have been able to document my indiscretion, and turn me off without a penny.”
His faint smile disappeared. “You are very quick to decide what I will, and will not do. Am I really so easy to read?”
“You’re a man, aren’t you?”
“We’re not all the same.” His voice softened. “I’m not your father, Claudia.”
“Yet, you bought me from him.”
“I didn’t appear to have a choice in the matter.”
“You could have—” She choked back the words, tried to summon an airy smile. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
But he refused to stop talking. “I wanted you. He wanted money. Should I have walked away and left you until another man came along and offered him more?” He sighed. “You were seventeen and ready to be married. He was intent on selling you to someone under the guise of a courtship. Am I to be blamed for that as well as everything else?”
“You are impossible.” She flung away from him and started to go back inside.
“We still need to talk, Claudia.”
She refused to turn around. “I heard you the first time. I’ll meet you in London after this party.”
Fixing a smile on her face she rejoined her companions and pretended to enjoy her evening. There was no sign of her husband. Had he got what he’d wanted and left for London to await her there? She’d meet him at his solicitors. It was now a matter of honor.
As the clock struck two, she made her way up the stairs and entered her allotted bedchamber. A single candle by the side of the bed barely illuminated the room. Claudia leaned back against the door and closed her eyes. Her gown was so insubstantial, she hardly needed her maid to help her out of it and with a bit of perseverance she could untie her own stays.
After a deep breath she went toward the mirror and spent a moment attempting to untangle her fair hair from one of the diamond clips that held it in place.
“Damnation!” She whispered as her hair caught on the metal pin again. She ripped it out bringing unwanted tears to her eyes. A slight movement behind her warned her that she was not alone. She spun around to find Jon sitting in one of the chairs by the fire.
She barely avoided screeching. “What are you doing in here?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I sent your maid away. Do you need any help undressing?”
“Get out.”
“Of my allocated bedchamber? I don’t think so. The house is full to bursting. It’s to be expected they’d put a husband and wife in the same room.”
“Not us. If you won’t leave, I will.”
“And disturb our hosts and their staff at this hour? Are you really so against sharing a space with me for one night?”
She held his gaze but he refused to look away. “Damn you,” she whispered. “What do you want?”
He rose from his seat and came over to her forcing her to look up at him. He’d already taken off his coat, cravat and waistcoat and his shirt was open at the neck displaying a goodly portion of his throat and chest.
“To help you out of your gown, for one thing.”
She turned her back on him in a flounce of petticoats and stood still as his warm breath feathered over her neck.
“There are two buttons at the sides. I can manage the pins on the bodice.” She said stiffly.
His hands slid over her shoulders and continued downward. “You are still cold.”
“I’m always cold. Don’t you remember?”
His fingers stilled at the sides of her gown. “Not with me.”
He unbuttoned the flimsy dress, and the bodice gaped forward over her small bosom. She unpinned it and allowed the gown to fall to the floor in a rush of butter soft silk. He started unlacing her stays and she closed her eyes as he tugged and turned her to his satisfaction until she only wore her shift and stockings.
“Beautiful,” He murmured and kissed her throat and then down to her shoulder.
“Don’t.”
“Kiss you?” He did it again. “I’ve never stopped wanting you.”
“Why not?” She pushed away from him and took two steps back, crossing her arms over her breasts.
He considered her for a long moment. “Because you’re my wife.”
“But I ran away from you!”
“I know.” His smile was bitter sweet. “But that was hardly your fault, was it?”
“Jon, I ran away with another man. I disgraced your family name. My own father disowned me.”
“You left with Mark Elliot who is hardly a threat to me, and, forgive me for saying this, but your father was a fool.” He shifted his stance and sat on the end of the bed to remove his shoes. “I do regret that you didn’t feel able to confide your true feelings to me, but I hardly gave you the opportunity to do so, did I?”
“You have decided it was all your fault, then?”
“Not quite all of it, but I am aware that I failed you.”
Unexpected tears blinked in her eyes. “Don’t be kind. I’m no longer a child.”
“I never thought you were one.”
“But I was a stupid, naive ignorant child who thought the solution to all her problems with her father and her husband was to run away and pretend they didn’t exist.” She drew an unsteady breath and walked over to stand between his knees. “I deserve your anger.”
Reaching up he cupped her cheek. “But I’m no longer angry. I’m not your father, or your jailer. I just want you to be happy, Claudia.”
She turned her head until her mouth brushed his fingers. His breathing hitched and she slowly licked his thumb and then drew it into her mouth.
With a groan he drew her head down and kissed her mouth until she opened to him. When she drew back she whispered. “One night, Jon, that’s what you asked for isn’t it? One night for us to share the same space without fighting.”
He nodded wordlessly, his gaze fixed on her lips as she returned to kissing him, his whole body straining toward her. She moaned and entwined her hand into his hair drawing him even closer.
Picking her up, he sat her on his lap so that she straddled his thighs, his fingers sliding beneath the thin muslin of her shift to cup her buttocks and press her against the already prominent bulge of his shaft. She obliged him by rocking into him, her breasts crushed against the muscled expanse of his chest and her already needy sex aligned with his cock.
“Take it off.”
She tugged at his shirt and he immediately obeyed her, undoing the placket of his pantaloons and reaching down to pull the shirt over her head. She purred in satisfaction as his flesh was exposed to her view.
“You’re still beautiful, Jon.”
“You thought I was beautiful? Claudia I terrified you.”
She paused to look up into his half-amused, half-aroused face. “I’d never seen a naked man before our wedding night. I wasn’t prepared for—” She ran a fingernail down his sternum. “All this.”
“I should’ve waited. I wanted to, but I was afraid your father would find out I hadn’t consummated the marriage and hatch some devilish plot to steal you away from me.”
“You were probably right.” She shivered. “He never liked to give away his possessions.”
He cupped her chin. “I’m still sorry that I didn’t take more care of you. I blundered around like an ox for years.”
She circled his nipple with her fingertip. “You could’ve been the most considerate and expert lover in the world, and I suspect I still would’ve hated it.” She pinched his nipple hard and his cock jerked against her core. “I didn’t know what to do with my feelings. My aunt told me to lie still and not to scream. I didn’t know that wanting you was acceptable. In truth, I think I was more afraid of myself than I was of you.”
“Why?” His voice sounded hoarse as she deliberately continued to play with his nipple testing his reaction to her, using her new experience to understand each shiver and hiss of his breath as she tormented him.
“Because I liked your hands on me, your mouth, and your body…” She murmured. “I liked the power it gave me over you—a man who could beat me to death if he chose simply because I was his wife.”
Beneath her he went very still, his breathing uneven as she slid her hand lower to toy with the opening of his pantaloons. His cock was already pushing past the restraints of the satin and she closed her palm around it.
“I didn’t appreciate the gift of power you offered me, for years.”
“And now?”
She squeezed hard and he moaned her name. “Now I want to give you what you deserve.”
* * *
Jon forced himself to open his eyes and look up at his wife. “You don’t have to do that. You promised me one night. I can…do without anything else. I just want—”
He gasped as her hand tightened in his hair yanking his head back. His heart stuttered in his chest and threatened to stop.
“But it’s not about what you want, is it Jon? It’s about what I choose to give you. I’ve spent two years observing men and women in some of the highest courts and the best brothels in Europe. Mark said I needed to understand everything about sex before I considered returning to you.”
“Why?” He whispered.
Her smile was dazzling. “Because I believe I know what I need to do now. What I didn’t understand, then.” She paused. “Get down on your knees.”
“Claudia—”
“Do it, Jon.”
He lifted her off him and did what she told him lowering his gaze to the hem of her shift and her stockinged feet.
“I saw many things that shocked me, and some that stirred my senses. The sight of a strong man on his knees beside a woman was surprisingly…arousing.” She reached down and stroked his hair. “Especially the ones who were naked and collared. Take off your clothes and put your hands behind your back.”
A shudder ran through him and he shoved his pantaloons and underthings down. His cock was hard and wet and caught on the linens, but it didn’t stop him stripping and returning to his knees. Claudia sat on the side of the bed in front of him and waited until he was completely naked before opening her legs to reveal the glories of her sex. Her hand returned to his hair and urged him forward.
“Kiss me, here. Make me come.”
With a groan, he obliged her, swirling his tongue through her already gathering juices, circling her bud until she was pushing up against him, drowning him in her pleasure. Her hand tightened in his hair and he worked her harder, barely able to breathe, but willing to suffer anything in order to bring her to fulfillment.
She sighed, and he felt the slight throb of her climax, and shoved his tongue deep inside her to experience more. Her fingernails dug into his scalp but it was a good pain, spurring him on to make her climax again and again. When she released him he was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling and his hands clenched together in the small of his back.
“Now, get on the bed and lie on your back.”
She moved out of his way as he climbed unsteadily onto the bed. Who would believe that the renowned, accomplished, rich Earl of Buckley was taking orders from his wife?
While he gathered his scrambled thoughts, she got back on the bed, his cravat in her hands.
“Put your hands over your head, Jon.”
He forced himself to meet her gaze. “I’m not sure—”
“Don’t lie to me. I know that you crave this. It’s exactly what you asked me to do to you two years ago.”
“And made you run away and leave me.” He said hoarsely.
She wrapped one hand around his throbbing shaft and looked down at it, rubbing her thumb over the wetness gathered on the crown. “I didn’t understand why you needed this.” She bent down and licked him clean making his hips jerk forward. “I didn’t understand why it excited me so much.”
He offered her his wrists, then, his throat dry, his heart thumping so loudly that he was certain she could hear it.
“Thank you.”
She wasn’t gentle as she tied him up and raised his hands over his head to attach them tightly to the headboard of the bed. But he didn’t want gentle, he wanted her to own him, to make his body do anything she required of it.
He shivered as she ran her hands from his bound wrists to his chest and then down his sides to his hips.
“Do you like this, Jon? Being bound and helpless before your wife?”
He could only nod, his gaze fixed on hers, and his whole being focused on what she would do to him next. She pushed his knees wide and knelt between his thighs. His cock kicked up, yearning for her touch but she made no effort to stroke him.
“You are beautiful. I could sit and stare at you all night.”
“Please don’t. Please touch me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Do I have to remind you that this isn’t about what you want? Do I have to gag you?”
He closed his mouth and stayed mute as she stroked his thighs, and his flat stomach avoiding his needy cock until he was biting down on his lip to stop himself from begging. He almost gave in when she climbed off the bed and went over to her dressing table. She returned with something in her hand and resumed her position between his thighs.
She showed him her silver-backed hairbrush, one of a set he’d given her as a bride gift.
“Do you like this?”
He shivered as she brushed his skin with the bristles making circles on his chest, catching his nipples and chest hair, tiny aches and stabs of pain that made his cock harder and wetter with every determined stroke. She continued on down over his stomach, his flanks and the more tender flesh of his inner thighs.
“Please…” He whispered. “Harder.”
She obliged him until he was shuddering and writhing against the sheets as his skin heated up and became sensitive to the individual scratch of each rough bristle. He closed his eyes against the myriad of sensations and was rewarded by the smack of the cold metal side of the brush against his skin.
“Don’t shut your eyes. I want you to see what I’m doing to you, Jon. I want you to tell me that this is what you want.”
“I…” He met her gaze. “I want this. I crave this.”
She smiled at him and then swept the bristles of the brush from the root to the tip of his cock making him plant his feet on the covers and almost buck off the bed. She did it again, varying the pressure of the stroke until he was panting her name and begging for release.
She put the brush down on the bedsheets and stared at his cock. “But I don’t want you to come, yet. I want you to wait until I say you can.”
He could only manage a jerky nod before she leaned in and licked his throbbing crown, the tip of her tongue delving into the slit and making him even wetter. He flexed his hands within his bounds and then curled them into fists, his fingernails digging into his palms as he fought the desire to come into her warm luscious mouth.
When she drew back he almost forgot himself and cried out. But she gave him no time to think as she sank down over him and his cock disappeared inside her. Her hands came to rest on his shoulders as she raised and lowered herself over his straining shaft. He sought her mouth and she gave it to him, nipping at his lower lip, biting him as she climaxed and he tasted his own blood.
His seed gathered low in his balls and he started to tremble.
“Please, I can’t stop myself, please., let me come…”
Her nails dug into his already sensitized flesh. “No, wait.”
“God, Claudia, I can’t…”
She pulled away from him and he regretted the loss of the clasp of her flesh, his cock now cold and exposed without her heat around him.
“Come then.”
For a moment he wanted to snarl out a denial, but his body reacted to her command and he let himself go, in a series of pulsing, jerking jets of come that soaked his stomach and dripped down between his thighs. She watched him quietly and then dipped her fingers into the pool on his stomach and licked them into her mouth.
“You’ll need to improve your stamina, Jon. I’ve seen men who can hold out for hours.”
“After two years of waiting for you?”
She considered him. “You haven’t had sex since I left?”
“How could I?” He swallowed hard. “If you couldn’t bear to put up with my needs, how could I inflict such perversions on others?”
She swirled her fingers in his come again, and this time brought them to his lips. His cock kicked up again as he licked them clean.
“So why do you intend to divorce me?”
He sighed. “Because no woman should have to be tied to a man like me.”
She leaned in and cupped his cheek, forcing him to look into her eyes. “Jon, you should be divorcing me because I ran off with your best friend, not because of any perceived perversion on your part.”
“I understand why you ran.” He licked his lips and tasted both of them. “I’ve already told you that. You should be free to choose a man you can love and respect, not someone like me who needs…this.”
She considered him for a long moment. “But what if I like—this? What if I want to be the only woman in the world who knows that the Earl of Buckley likes to be tied to his bed by his wife and used for her pleasure?”
He shuddered as she stroked a possessive hand over his cock. “I would be…honored if you wanted to be that woman. But I have also promised not to coerce you into anything. I forced you to marry me, I forced you to stay with me and ended up with nothing, I won’t make that mistake again.”
Her smile was beautiful to behold. “What do I have to do to convince you that I want to take on my full responsibilities as your wife? Keep you tied up all night and make you service me until you run out of seed?” She tightened her grip on his cock. “Beat you with your own riding crop?”
“Claudia…” He whispered. “Just tell me that you will stay, and I swear that when we are alone in our bedroom, I’ll do everything you tell me to do. Everything.”
“Only when we are alone?” She kissed his mouth. “Oh, Jon, I am so sorry, so sorry for everything I’ve put you through.”
“You are forgiven, love. Now, will you untie my hands so that I can hold you properly?”
She drew back and looked at him and then down at his cock. “When I’m ready, Jon, when I’m quite ready.”
* * *
Dear Reader,
Loving Michael is a short story connected to two previous Diable Delamere books, Educating Elizabeth and Redeeming Jack. I do hope you enjoyed it.
Also included as a bonus in this book is A Right And Proper Apology, a short Regency story which was previously in an anthology and needed a good home.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review at your favorite retailer.
If you want to read more of my books, please check out my website and consider joining my newsletter for the fastest updates and early contests to win new books.
Thank you for reading!
Kate Pearce