Chapter Twenty-One

While Lucas and the footmen lumbered into the hackney with the assailants, and Etta departed in Kat’s carriage, Marcus carefully placed Mr. Gingham onto one of the seats of his carriage before he and Kat settled on the opposite seat.

He told his coachman to take them to the closest hospital, which turned out to be Saint Mary-le-bone, only a short carriage ride away, and they stayed with Mr. Gingham until he was assessed by a doctor and deemed out of the woods. Gingham was concussed, though badly battered and bruised, but the doctor confirmed it was nothing life-threatening and that a night in the hospital would do the world of good for him.

Marcus was a bit frustrated that Gingham couldn’t seem to even remember being assaulted let alone remember contacting Kat regarding any information over the Chameleon.

“Hopefully, his memory comes back soon,” Kat said, as he helped her into his waiting carriage.

“I wouldn’t count on it.” Marcus sat down next to her, and almost immediately had to restrain his hands from pulling her onto his lap. She’d just been through a traumatic incident and the last thing she’d be thinking about was being ravished, even though somehow, amidst all this chaos, that was at the forefront of his mind.

“In a way, it was indeed fortuitous those men were there for me,” Kat said as the carriage steered its way through the early afternoon traffic of the cramped London streets, heading to the War Office.

“How so?” Marcus asked.

“Well, they stayed until I arrived.” Kat shrugged. “And we now have them in our custody, so we can question them and find out who sent them.”

“The very fact you were targeted is unacceptable.” Marcus grunted. “This entire situation is getting out of hand.”

“How so?” She mimicked his words back to him.

He narrowed his eyes. “Lord Burton was murdered last night, and then you were attacked today and had to fight off three men on your own. It’s got to be related.”

Kat sighed heartily. “Trust you to only see the dangers instead of the progress we have made.”

“Progress? Kat, I don’t want to see you getting hurt.” The very thought was like a vise around his chest.

“You can’t wrap me up in cotton.” She placed her hand over his as it rested on his lap.

The touch instantly calmed him, and he intertwined his fingers with hers. “I have to keep you safe, especially now.”

“Now that we’re lovers?”

“Yes.” He turned to face her, expecting to see perhaps sarcasm in her eyes, but instead there was an earnest truth radiating from her gaze. “The idea of you hurt is… I don’t know… It’s troubling. Intolerable.”

She smiled softly up at him and cupped his cheek with her other hand. “I’m fine, Marcus. I can protect myself. If those men were paid to either attack me or kidnap me, then it means someone is worried. That’s a good thing.”

“Your definition of the term, and my own, differ greatly.”

“Yes, I’m beginning to see that.” She sighed again and dropped her hand from his face, though she didn’t move her other hand from his. “Why did you ask Lucas to have Mr. Dartmoore brought in? I know we need to speak to him, but won’t he refuse to talk if we make things too official, bringing him to the War Office?”

The loss of her touch from his cheek was strangely disappointing. “Did you notice the rings the men were all wearing?” Marcus asked, trying to get his mind back onto the priorities.

“No.”

“They were the same rings as the one Dartmoore was wearing, a ring with the Corinthian Club symbol on it.”

“That must have been the extra jolt of pain I felt when that one called Jimmy hit me.”

His jaw clenched. “You were hit?”

“Yes, it was a fight, after all,” she said, her hand squeezing his. “Truly, his fist only glanced my side.”

“Perhaps you should wait outside while I question him.” His voice was clipped as a fury unlike any he’d experienced washed over him. Someone had dared to hit his Kat?

His Kat. The thought stopped him cold. She wasn’t his. He couldn’t think of her like that. He wouldn’t. Simply because they’d embarked on an affair together didn’t mean he had any claim to her. Nor did he want any claim to her. A claim meant something permanent, and that was the last thing he needed. He was angry at himself for even thinking it.

He cleared his throat and returned to the matter at hand. “Who was the one that hurt your knee?” He’d noticed her slight limp as they’d left the bookshop. “Was it this Jimmy, too?”

“Why? Are you planning to teach him a lesson for daring to strike me?” she asked. “If you are, I’d like to watch.”

The comment seemed to wash away his anger and he couldn’t help but smile. “You truly are incorrigible.”

She grinned back at him. “Completely. Now, how long do you think it is before we arrive at the War Office?”

Marcus glanced out the window of the carriage to the thick traffic of a London afternoon. “At least forty minutes or more, I’d say. We haven’t even got through Piccadilly yet.”

“Perfect,” came her silky reply, as she closed the curtain next to her and then reached across him and did the same with his.

“What are you doing, Kat?” He gulped, having a rather good idea of what she was up to, but wanting to check all the same.

“I was just thinking to myself earlier that starting an affair in the middle of hunting an assassin was going to prove difficult,” she began, her hand letting go of his and starting to trail across his thigh, toward his waist. “Especially in terms of finding the time to actually continue our affair. As we have at least forty minutes alone together in your carriage, I think we should make productive use of the time. Don’t you?”

“Here, in my carriage?”

She grinned. “Why not? Can’t it be done here?”

“Of course,” Marcus grumbled. “But I don’t have any rubber sheaths on me.”

“Luckily, I do.” She pulled out a tin from her reticule.

Marcus felt a throbbing pain at his temples. “Why?”

Shrugging, she opened the tin, and sure enough there was a brand-new rubber sheath inside. “After you used one, I was curious, so I went and bought one from the apothecary before I met Etta at the bookstore. I must admit, I thought it could come in handy at some point between us, and it seems I was right.”

“You went into a shop and purchased one of these?”

“Don’t worry, the man behind the counter didn’t know who I was,” she rushed to assure him. “Though he did nearly faint when I asked for one.”

Marcus drew in a long breath and then let out an equally long sigh. “I can honestly say I’ve never met another female like you.”

“Thank you.” Her whole face lit up.

“It wasn’t necessarily a compliment.”

“You know it was.” She gave him a gentle tap on the cheek with her hand, then reached down and picked up the rubber sheath. “Now, do you want to put this thing on, or do you want me to?”

The thought of her rolling the thing on his cock instantly had him as hard as a rock, his shaft straining against the material of his trousers, begging to be released. “You’re maddening and so goddamn desirable that I can’t say no to you.”

He grabbed her by the waist and swung her onto his lap.

The soft sound of her laughter brushed along his ear, and it was then he knew he was lost. This woman could get him to do anything, of that he was certain. The thought scared him like nothing else, but then she wiggled her delightful derrière against him and his fear was replaced with desire.

…

Kat was thrilled when he pulled her onto his lap, and she gripped his jacket as his lips met hers and gently coaxed them apart. His tongue stroked hers, all but demanding a response, which she was happy to give him.

Ripples of pleasure coursed through her, much like they had the other night when he’d bought her to the peak of her climax again and again. She wiggled her bottom against the hard length of him.

He groaned and then with a flick of his wrist, ripped off her skirt. “Remind me to thank Madame Arnout when I next see her. Your special skirts are brilliant for this sort of thing.”

“I don’t think it’s what she had in mind when designing them,” Kat replied with a grin, as she helped him unbutton her trousers and then his. “But they certainly are extremely practical for an affair, aren’t they?”

“Very much so,” Marcus murmured as the pads of his fingers began to rub against her undergarments at the junction of her legs. He kissed her again, and slipped a finger into her wetness.

“I want you so much,” she whispered.

“You can feel how much I want you, my lady,” he said, panting as he slipped the rubber over his thick, pulsating shaft. “Straddle me, darling.”

“Like a horse?”

He chuckled lightly. “Yes, just like that. Guide my cock into you when you sit on me and then ride me.”

“Oh. So that’s how it’s to be done in a carriage?” How fascinating. She straddled him as he’d instructed, until she felt the tip of his shaft pressing against her. She couldn’t stop the moan from her mouth as he slid inside her and filled her completely.

“You can set the pace, my darling.”

Kat had never felt so bold as when she slowly moved herself up and down on his cock, the bliss from doing so starting to build sharply inside her. “Oh, Marcus, you feel so good inside me.”

“I know,” he grunted. “You’re tight and wet for me.”

The feeling of pleasure was too intense. It felt like she was about to fall from some great height. She began squirming against him.

“Yes, that’s it, my darling,” he whispered against her lips, his hips thrusting up to meet hers. “Allow the sensation to consume you.”

Deeper and deeper he moved himself inside her, and she returned his thrusts with equal fervor. Reaching the peak together, Kat closed her eyes in surrender as her whole body clenched and surges of pleasure erupted within her.

She managed to peek up at Marcus, who had his eyes closed but was wearing an extremely satisfied smile on his face.

“I think we’ve found another excellent location to conduct our illicit affair.” She knew she needed to get off him and get her clothes back on, but she didn’t want to feel the loss of him from inside her just yet.

“I can honestly say you’ve brought out the caveman in me,” Marcus replied as he opened his eyes. “I’ve never done that in a carriage before.”

“Really?” Kat asked as she reluctantly pushed up and off him, grabbing her trousers and fumbling them on.

“Yes, really.” He pushed aside a small portion of the curtain and peeked outside. “Damn, we need to make haste. The carriage is nearly at Cumberland House.”

“Excellent,” Kat purred, swinging on her skirt and beginning to clip up the fasteners. That meant it was nearly interrogation time. And considering the wonderful mood she was in, which usually seemed to follow an encounter with Marcus, she might just go easy on them.