Chapter 29

Captain Johnson and his crew maneuvered the Killarney into her berth minutes shy of nine o’clock that evening. The four Thorndykes entered the King's Inn after thanking the ship’s captain for his excellent service. Antonio summoned the Westhaven coachman for new instructions on the trip across England.

“Harold Coachman, I’ve unexpected news for you. Weston’s former duke, James, and his duchess are not dead as they were thought to be,” he explained. “They’re with us here in Holyhead. They had been rescued and were deposited in Ireland.”

“Glory be,” the coachman exclaimed, his eyebrows reaching skyward in astonishment when he heard the good news.

“We’ve changed our travel plans. We’re going to London, to Weston House, before returning to Westhaven.”

“Aye, Yer Grace, I’ll make sure everythin' will be ready for ye. When do ye want us to start on our way?”

“As early a start as possible, I think. Hopefully, the trip back will be faster than when we arrived here. Have the Weston coach outside the inn at seven o’clock tomorrow morning,” Antonio told him.

“Aye, Yer Grace.” The grizzled coachman mumbled to himself in complete bewilderment as he hurried to tell his companions. “Glory be, can ye imagine that? The duke and duchess are alive. 'Tis a miracle…that's what 'tis…a miracle.”

A night's lodging for the additional pair of Thorndykes was ordered. Both couples opted for dinner in their rooms. It was early when Antonio and Caroline finished eating. She removed her clothes behind a screen and drew on her nightwear while Antonio slid out of everything but his shirt and breeches.

“Come over here, Caro,” he beckoned to her with a crooked index finger. She slipped onto his lap, twining her arms around his neck. Pushing aside her robe and nightrail, he nuzzled between her shoulder and neck, taking small, loving nips.

“Tatu,” she giggled, leaning away from his mouth. “That tickles, m’lord.”

“Is that all?” With a furrowed brow, he drew back. His teasing sounded like complaining rather than concern. “It’s meant to do more than tickle. I must be losing my touch. Here, let me try again,” he said, dragging his mouth across her cheek to the beauty mark on her upper lip. When his lips reached her mouth, he demanded more, but she pulled away saying, “No, no, stop. We have to talk.”

“Later, querida.” Antonio’s voice rumbled from deep in his chest, like a lion ready to devour a tasty treat. “I don’t want to talk. I have other things on my mind.”

“Ravenous beast! Stop this business, now. We need to talk, Tonio. We’ll have no privacy again until tomorrow evening.”

“I know,” he muttered, trailing hot kisses across her bosom while heading to a sweeter destination.

“Tonio…listen to me,” Caroline insisted, gently pulling at his cropped hair with both hands and wrenching his seeking lips from her breasts. “Let’s talk first, then afterwards…”

“Si, I suppose you’re right, corazon,” he agreed. An exasperated whine laced his voice. “But must we do it right now. I want…”

“I want that, too,” she whispered breathlessly, running a caressing fingertip across his sensuous lips. “We’ll get to it…just a little later.”

Impatiently, he straightened up and loosened his hold on her

“What will happen now that James and Lorena are alive…and back in England, Tonio?”

“I’m not certain how this matter will be handled, Caro. When we get to London, I’ll speak with the Thorndyke solicitors. They should be able to advise us as to how the situation is to be resolved.” Antonio tilted her chin with his knuckles so she could look into his eyes. “But I fear, querida, that you’re no longer a duchess…and I’m no longer a duke.”

“Oh, Tonio.”

“Do you mind so much, Caro?” he went on without waiting for her answer. “I’ll inherit my father's title one day, but until then, you’ve married a man with merely a courtesy title.”

Did she regret her loss of station?

Caroline shut her eyes and kissed her husband, long and deep, reassuring Antonio silently that the loss of a duchy or its title didn’t matter to her. Pulling her lips from his reluctantly, she said, “I’ll say this only once, m’lord, otherwise, I’ll never hear the end of your arrogance.” Hazel eyes delved deep into his as she whispered, “You…” She lightly touched a finger to the tip of his nose. “Are the most wonderful, handsomest, exciting…uncommon man I’ve ever known or wanted. And I want every tiny bit of you that belongs to me, now and forever.”

His answering smile was what she needed to see.

“Then, amour, it’s time we stopped all this talk and moved on to more pleasant things, no?”

“Oh, you’re an uncompromising beast, Tonio…”

“Aren’t you glad?”

Caroline didn’t resist when Antonio picked her up and carried her to the waiting bed. Laying her down very gently, he stepped back to strip off the rest of his garments. She lay still, watching him.

He’s truly beautiful, she thought. His handsome face, his strong, naked body. Everything so exciting and different than mine.

She’d not yet been bold enough to explore more of his masculinity.

Leaning over her, Antonio pressed one knee onto the mattress and joined her on the bed with a growl of desire. They may have spent hours making love in the Killarney’s cabin, but he still couldn‘t get enough of her. His upper body moved atop hers, his mouth seeking. He rubbed his lips gently back and forth on hers. His tongue probed until she gave him a sultry smile and opened a path into her mouth. Eagerly, he slipped inside, the same way he would slip into her hot, wet core when he made her ready.

“What will it be like to have a mere viscount make love to you, Caro? Different from a duke?” Melding skin to skin, lust escalating into passion, he almost forgot his question.

“I can only imagine you making love to me,” she sighed. “I want no other, Tonio—only you.”

He groaned his pleasure and dragged off the rest of her clothing. He began a downward pilgrimage to her full breasts and tempting nipples. Teasing her, he circled the pale pink crests, nipping gently until she clasped the sides of his head, urging him to suckle. He smiled wickedly, his lips halting their momentary progress.

“Black archangel!” she scolded. “You know what I want.”

Antonio teased and teased until Caroline gently pummeled his cheeks, until he finally drew a nipple into his mouth and sucked so hard she felt sensations careening along a sizzling path to her innermost core. He pulled his head out of her grip, changing direction. His mouth traveled across her ribs and belly. Seeking, he rubbed his face in the curls between her thighs and inhaled the womanly scent that told him she was ready for intercourse.

His words were muffled by urgency. “I need to taste…Dios, let me do this, querida…”

Questing fingers spread her plump labia to expose the target of his desire. He gazed at her sex, buried between the pouty lips. Stroking her bud with long, slow, erotic sweeps of his tongue, gorging on her essence, Antonio devoured her juices as if she were as savory as honeycomb.

Letting out a momentary yelp of surprise, at first Caroline fought his new ministrations, gasping, and feeling embarrassed. “Oh my goodness, Tonio! Oohh, heavens…”

Antonio didn’t let her stop him.

Finally, she relaxed and gave in when the sensations building inside had her burning with need. He exposed the swollen clit and took it into his mouth, pulling on it, hard.

Caroline jolted upward, off the mattress. Simultaneously, Antonio pushed two expert fingers into her drenched opening and tickled her pleasure point. He kept her there, panting for breath, on the brink of ecstasy. Sensations radiating from that spot were agonizingly, excruciatingly wonderful. Caroline felt an aching need to fly skyward into the star-spangled black velvet with her climax. Her loud outcry was wild with release, like nothing she had ever experienced.

“Tatu! Oh, my love, I must be dying!”

She came down to earth finally, whimpering softly, eyes squeezed shut, begging him, “Please, please, hold me tight…”

He held her.

She wept silently, acknowledging her weakened vulnerability to him and his caresses whenever he made love to her.

Antonio felt only the heat of passion that inflamed them both before that. Panting from breathlessness, he lifted his head and watched tears trickle from beneath the corners of Caroline’s thick lashes. An explosion of masculine ego and delight filled him, assured he’d brought her to a monumental moment of pleasure. He rested his cheek on her belly where she lay limp and unmoving. When she didn’t stir, he glanced up. “Caro? Are you awake? Are you all right?”

“Hmm?” she murmured, slowly opening her greenish-hazel eyes, drowsy and sated with visible satisfaction. She urged him up her body, and he leaned his forehead against her shoulder, burying his face in her bountiful softness. She detected the faint odor of musk on his mouth.

Mine, she thought. Just as he is mine.

Her arms tightened around him, and she planted tiny kisses over his hair.

He lay quiet.

She was about to tell him how wonderful it felt when she remembered. “You…you didn’t…”

“No, not yet, corazon. Rest a moment. We have all night.”

If she fell asleep, he would be left wanting. “No, Tonio. I want to make love to you now.”

Without waiting for his answer, she eased her shoulder from beneath his head and sat up. When he turned on his back and started to respond, she stopped him with two fingers against his lips.

“Let me.”

She’d never made love to him. He had always made love to her, or they made love together. This time, his pleasure knew no bounds. He desperately wanted her to touch him.

“Si, mi esposa. Love me, por favor,” he whispered huskily.

At first, her fingers sought the broad planes of his chest, searching through the black, curly hair for the rigid tips of his nipples, stroking and pinching them as he did with hers. His body tensed as her hot tongue touched one.

“Dios, Caro,” he choked erratically, as she moved her mouth and licked downward over the middle of his stomach. His skin twitched under her lips as she progressed.

She grasped his engorged erection, her fingers closing around him. His manhood jerked in anticipation. Her tentative caresses were agony—and ecstasy. Bracing himself, Antonio showed her how to move to pleasure him. He gritted his teeth, enjoying what she did to him. Her touch was heaven but he was worried he might spill his seed too soon.

Her exploring mouth and fingers sent fiery shards of desire racing through his nerve endings. It was unholy torture not to flip Caroline over on her back and plunge his cock into her. But he lay quiescent and let her have her way with his body.

“Does it feel good?” she asked, glancing up at him almost shyly.

“Arrgh, si, amour,” he exhaled and hissed through his teeth as if in pain. His body was a mass of rippling, pulsing sensations, all focused on the part of him that she played with like a new toy.

“I’m hurting you. Perhaps…” She loosened her fingers, but he grabbed her hand and tightened her grip. His eyes bored into hers so she held on.

He was rapt with tension, enjoying her touch, but didn’t know how much longer he could control himself. Her innocent play was a flame setting him on fire, driving him loco with need.

Hesitantly, she bent and rubbed her lips over the velvety tip of his erection. He jumped as though scorched. “Nombre de Dios, Caro! Stop!”

Startled, she released him. Quickly he lifted her and straddled her over his hips.

“You didn’t like it, Tonio?”

“Ah, bella,” he said. “I liked it much more than I can tell you.”

“Then, did I do something wrong?”

“There is never a wrong way to make love between you and me,” he rasped, breathing hard. “But we’ll do this together. Come.”

He placed her hands on his shoulders, and she leaned forward. Watching his face, her breasts dipped close, hanging like ripe fruit from a tree. He licked and nipped, then took a nipple into his mouth to assuage his hunger…and hers. Streaks of desire seared to Caroline’s core as Antonio’s mouth worked its magic.

“Let me show you, querida.” Antonio grasped her slim hips and speared her gently onto his rampant erection. She sighed with genuine pleasure as he slid in deeper and deeper. She’d never felt him so thick and long…and hot. Urging her onward with the pace he wanted, she slid up and down his shaft, loving the feel of him inside her body, at first, slow and tantalizing. As need for fulfillment became more deliberate and urgent, Caroline threw back her head and rode Antonio faster and faster.

“Ah…it’s good, Caro, mas grande,” he whispered, raising his hips and thrusting as she continued to meet his movements. “Don’t stop, love,” he begged. “Hurry, whatever you do. We’ll soon be there.”

He reached between their bodies and stroked the swollen bud between her labia. He took her to the precipice after one final plunge into her slick cavity. Feeling Caroline convulse, Antonio tensed and shuddered with a release so powerful it had him soaring in a blinding burst of jagged lightning, thunder pounding blood between his ears.

Her quivering body clenched around his, and she felt his warm seed spurt time and time again into her womb.

* * * *

Caroline lay quiet atop him in the afterglow, languid, her head on his chest, their bodies still melded, her legs spread on either side of his while she rubbed her arched soles unconsciously along his hairy calves. His arms enclosed her, his hands stroked gently up and down her spine.

“We’re going to kill one another one day,” he claimed, chuckling with hearty male conviction. Raising his head, Antonio looked down at her, saying, “Jesu, Caro, do you have any idea what you do to me?” He felt her lips twitching against his skin.

She kissed him in the middle of his hairy chest and said, “It’s my wish to die like that, Tonio, wrapped in your arms.” She ticked his nipple with a fingertip and watched it grow hard. “Sometimes I think I do…die a little. But please, not quite so soon, hmm?”

“Te amo, mi corazon, para siempre. I love you. Never leave me.”

He loves me! Her heart soared in joy. If he says so, I must believe him.

Not wanting to break the spell enclosing them in the warm cocoon of their loving aftermath, Antonio couldn’t stand the agony from his wondering. “When James and Lorena return to Westhaven, it will no longer be our home, Caro. We should stay only as long as we’re needed.”

Silently, she nodded against his chest, lightly tracing the bony edge of his jaw with a smoothing fingertip, savoring his declaration of love.

“Will you come with me to Spain, querida?” he asked, blurting it out without any thought of finesse. He leaned down, peering deep into her eyes and waited to hear her agree.

“To Spain, Tonio?”

“Yes, Caro, to Andalucia.”

Abruptly, she sat up and swiveled to face him. “Leave England? For a visit, you mean…as we planned?”

Straightening, he sat up and grasped one of her hands with his and held it tightly, almost painfully. “No, querida, to stay…to live in Spain.”

Caroline’s breath hitched in her throat. She was forced to squeeze her eyes shut, stunned by his admission. He had finally murmured the words of love she had wanted to hear so desperately, and now, he was asking her to leave England forever—abandon the country where she was born and grew up and expected to die. To leave a place she may never see again, or her brother, either. To leave her homeland and move with Tonio to Spain.

Antonio’s nerves coiled with worried thoughts as he watched his wife’s thoughts streak across her countenance. She was silent so long, he stumbled on to explain. “There’s no reason for me to stay here, Caro. I can do what I dreamed of more easily in Spain. But,” he continued carefully, knuckling her cheek and nudging her eyes to open so he might read what she was thinking behind them. “I can’t do it without you, my love. My need for you overshadows everything else. Can you understand? Do you see how much I love you and need you now that we found each other?”

“But, Tonio,” she hesitated. “Hal…Crestwood…”

“Hal will likely marry soon, too, Caro. He’s been searching for a suitable bride. You know that. He’ll choose someone, wed her, and bring her to Crestwood as his wife.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I know you’re right. But Spain…to live in a strange, new land…so very different…” Her voice trailed off, her additional thoughts cloaked in silence. She searched the face of the man she loved—the man she knew she could never be without. His strong arms had held her, comforting and enfolding her close, after their tumultuous lovemaking. That, too, she could never do without. She realized finally, that she would follow him to the ends of the earth if need be.

Perhaps, Spain is not so far away after all.

Caroline inhaled audibly while Antonio waited for her to go on.

She replied at last, quietly and with conviction. “A title never mattered to me, Tonio. I hope you know that. But I love you deeply, my Spaniard. I’ve loved you for many years, so how could I let you go now?”

His face glowed with happiness—and relief.

“It’s my dearest wish to spend the rest of my life with you.” Caroline smiled, openly, love shining out of her hazel eyes. “Yes, of course, I’ll go and live in Spain with you, husband.”

Antonio didn't wait. He hugged her to him and rolled her over, covering her body with his. Smiling down at her, he took her mouth in a tender kiss that soon escalated into a deeper one of renewed commitment for both of them. Entwined that way, they lay quiet before falling asleep.