Alyssa had a bit of trepidation as she followed Travell back to the manor, which was nonsensical, of course. Triana had been her dearest friend for more than two decades. And yet, as she walked inside the foyer with Travell, the butterflies in her stomach were insistent.
However, the instant Travell’s sister spied Alyssa she rushed over and enveloped her in a firm hug. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here with Lady Alwan died.”
Tears immediately stung Alyssa’s eyes. “Thank you.” As they pulled apart, she realized now how much she’d truly missed another woman to talk to, one that she could trust. Looking into Triana’s blue eyes, her black hair styled in a becoming chignon on her head, Alyssa realized that while this woman might be a married duchess now, she was still the same dark haired girl she’d run through the woods with.
Triana must have felt the same, for she squeezed Alyssa’s hand and said, “It’s so good to see you. I’m glad you were here when we arrived.” She glanced warily at Travell, who was in conversation with the duke. “I hope my brother hasn’t been too unbearable.”
“Not at all,” Alyssa returned. “In fact, we had just returned from a walk to the Roman Ruins.”
This caused the other woman to laugh. “Oh, I haven’t thought of that place in years! It was definitely one of your favorite places.” She tilted her head to the side. “How is it being back at Breyton Hall? Is your cousin a kind man?”
“Everything is fine.” Alyssa attempted to reassure her friend, but Triana looked at her steadily, having known her long enough to know when she was trying to conceal the truth. So, in an effort to turn the subject away from her, she waved a hand. “Enough about me. I want to hear all about your adventures in Italy.”
Alyssa watched as Triana’s face became animated as she spoke of the various cafes she’d traveled to, and the marked differences between the continent and England. “Certainly the weather was more improved. It didn’t rain continuously!” As she continued to speak, it was readily apparent that she truly was a happily married woman. Her eyes shone with a continuous twinkle and when she spoke of her husband, her cheeks turned a becoming shade of pink.
After a brief recounting, Triana promised her that they would continue their conversation when they could sit down and catch up thoroughly.
She turned to Travell and said, “I was surprised to return and discover that you weren’t in London. I thought nothing could drag you away from the city.”
At this point, Travell rubbed the back of his neck. “Indeed. About that—”
“Perhaps we should retire to the parlor?” Alyssa suggested.
Travell looked at her gratefully. “Yes. I think that would be best.”
Triana glanced between them and narrowed her blue eyes suspiciously. She had always been rather keen on ferreting out secrets. “Am I missing something?”
Alyssa walked over and threaded her arm through hers. “Dearest, I really think you should sit down.”
Half an hour later, Triana was sitting rather silently, her husband’s arm around her waist for support, while Alyssa and Travell sat across from the newly married couple and did their best to ease the shock of the earl’s return, and his current condition.
Finally, Triana’s blue eyes beseeched her brother’s. “Does… Mama know?”
“Not yet.” Travell released a heavy breath and Alyssa ached to comfort him, but other than a light hand on his arm, she dared not offer anything further, for something more would suggest a closer acquaintance. “I’ve left word at Abernathy House, but you know as well as I do that our mother doesn’t appear with a simple summons. She will be along in due time.”
“Indeed.” Triana obviously couldn’t disagree, for she changed the subject, asking, “Could I speak with this… mesmerist? I should like to hear his opinion.”
“Of course.” Travell rang for the butler, and when Ives appeared, he said, “Please send for Dr. Perimore.”
“Yes, my lord.”
In the silence that followed, Triana stared at the clasped hands in her lap, and then lifted her gaze to Travell. “I can’t believe that you’ve been dealing with all of this on your own.”
“But I haven’t been alone,” he countered, shooting Alyssa a look that warmed her midsection. “Alyssa has been a great help to Father.” He paused with a slight lift of his lips. “And to me.” He turned back to his sister. “She’s been here nearly every day to check on us.”
“I see.”
Alyssa knew that tone and her gaze quickly shifted to Triana, who was watching her with a rather knowing expression. “My Blue Ladies are here,” she rushed to add, and even added Travell’s title for further confirmation that they were still only friends. “Lord Curdiff was kind enough to allow me to use the conservatory at Rosewood, now that Caroline has remodeled the one at Breyton Hall.”
It was enough for the gleam in Triana’s eyes to dim to a sympathetic sparkle. “I know it must have been difficult for you to leave London.”
Alyssa shrugged. While she was thankful that the focus had been turned from her and Travell, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with this line of questioning either. “It was, but it’s not as if I could stay there as an unmarried woman without a proper chaperone.”
“Do you know what you intend to do with the townhouse?” Triana asked.
She shifted in her seat. “It’s being taken care of.” She didn’t yet have the heart to tell her that it had already been sold.
“Tri, really.” Gabriel admonished his bride. “I don’t think Lady Alyssa wishes to discuss this subject at the moment. Perhaps when you’ve had some time to catch up on your own you can interrogate her all you wish.”
Tears instantly struck her eyes. “I’m sorry, Aly. I didn’t mean to…” Triana sighed as she laid her head on Gabriel’s shoulder, appearing at a sudden loss for words.
Alyssa watched as her husband held her close, his hand rubbing soothing circles on her upper arms. It was in that moment Alyssa started to feel like she didn’t belong there. While she’d long been friends with Triana and had considered Rosewood more of a home than Breyton Hall, as she watched the couple across from her, she realized that these people were family, while she was nothing more than the outsider looking in.
And as Triana began to start a new life of her own, Alyssa realized that things would never be the same. Those carefree days of inventing new worlds at the ruins, and standing together along the walls at the ballrooms were gone. Triana was a wife now, a duchess, with great responsibilities. Soon, she would be a mother. They would always be friends, but eventually their association would become nothing more than a murmured greeting at a ton gathering, and a few moments of conversation over afternoon tea.
With a sudden tightness in her chest, Alyssa rose. “If you’ll excuse me, I should… check on my roses.” It might have seemed like a rather inane excuse, but it was all she could think of to get away.
Alyssa rushed to the conservatory, her breathing heavy and uneven. The moment she shut the door behind her, she walked over to her Blue Ladies and attempted to draw on the comfort that they always provided. But today, they were oddly silent.
A single tear splashed on one of their sapphire petals and she gripped the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white. Get a hold of yourself! There is no need to be crying! But even as she chided herself, the quiet sobs continued.
Not until she heard the shuffle of a boot behind her, did she spin around with a gasp. Travell was standing in the doorway, his expression unreadable. She turned away and wiped at her tear-stained cheeks, but the moisture continued to seep out of her eyes, even though she told herself to stop being such a watering pot. Of course, he had to notice that she was upset, but she grabbed a set of nearby trimmers and pretended to speak as if nothing was amiss.
“What are you doing here?”
“Tri and Gabriel are speaking to Dr. Perimore. I thought I would give them a chance to talk to him alone.” He paused. “I came to see how you are.”
“I’m fine.” She waved a hand, but refused to look at him, her chin still quivering with emotion. Desperate to put some distance between them, she went around the other side of the table where most of her face was shielded by an overgrown rhododendron.
She heard him close the door and take several steps into the room. “I don’t think that’s true.”
Don’t do this to me! She wanted to shout. Don’t you dare back me into a corner like this, not when I’m feeling so vulnerable, when just the slightest touch of your hand could send me over the edge…
“Of course it is.” She tried to laugh, but all she did was manage to sniff rather guiltily. And so it became a game of cat-and-mouse. She moved through the foliage in the glass-enclosed structure, while Travell continued his pursuit.
As a bead of perspiration began to travel down her back, Alyssa tried to blame the humid temperature in the conservatory, but that wasn’t the only reason for her distress. Heat didn’t make one heart’s pound with anticipation, nor did it cause one’s pulse to flutter. No, that was all due to Travell and his towering figure that had neatly blocked off any hope of escape she might have otherwise had.
Glass enclosed three sides of the room, but as she faced the brick wall of the manor, she knew there was nowhere else to go. She set the trimmers down and laid a hand on the brick, the only thing there that was cool to the touch. She closed her eyes and laid her forehead against the wall, a harsh sigh escaping her chest. She couldn’t help but compare this barricade to her current situation. She might imagine that America would be the cure to all her problems, but she couldn’t outrun her own mind. These torturous thoughts would remain with her whether she was in England or across the Atlantic. She would always have a hole in her heart when it came to Aunt Pearl. Alyssa told herself she’d cried all the tears she’d had when Lady Alwan had been placed in the ground, but as the weeks passed without her kind shoulder to lean on, Alyssa realized that her grief still remained. It didn’t matter if she had started wearing lavender to appease Caroline, it wouldn’t change the fact that her heart was still broken.
Or that Travell would never truly love her.
“Alyssa.”
A traitorous sob escaped her when he put a gentle hand on her arm. She desperately wanted that touch, the show of human emotion that the Duke of Chiltern had shown to his wife, the kindness that she’d been denied after Pearl’s passing.
But that wasn’t all she wanted.
She slowly turned to face Travell, and through the haze of her tears, she could see that handsome face before her, watching, waiting patiently for her. With trembling hands, she lifted them to his face and whispered two words, “Kiss me.”
***
Travell couldn’t have denied Alyssa that simple request even if he’d wanted to — which he didn’t. He’d been aching for another sweet taste of her lips for days, so he bent his head and captured her mouth with his.
He set his hands on her waist, drawing her closer to him as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders with an almost pleading whimper. He knew she was hurting, and while he imagined he was the worst sort of scoundrel for feeling as though he were taking advantage of this moment, he reminded himself that she’d wanted this. In turn, he desired nothing more than to bring that brilliant smile back to her face, to make her feel pleasure instead of pain, to erase it altogether, if that were even possible.
But that might take more than a kiss to accomplish.
Did he dare?
Travell slowly slid his right hand up the side of her ribcage, stopping just below the curve of her breast. He broke the kiss just long enough to see her expression when he rubbed his thumb over her nipple. Even through the confines of her stays he could feel the hardened tip and he had to clench his jaw.
Alyssa’s lips parted and so he did the same with her other breast. When she didn’t stop him or pull away, he cupped the full mounds in his hands, and lightly kneaded them through the material of her gown. When he started to move away, she clutched his wrists and opened her expressive brown eyes, dark from her desire. “Don’t stop.”
Travell swallowed thickly, not sure if he should have started this. If she pushed him away, he wasn’t sure he could stand it. His control was hanging by a thread as it was.
But he forced himself to put aside his own needs and went one step further into his own torture by freeing one of her creamy, pert breasts. He nearly groaned as he spied that perfect, pink nipple. He lowered his head and took the peak in his mouth, sucking gently, as he rubbed his tongue over every inch of that soft flesh.
Alyssa moaned and so he urgently tugged down another section of her gown. Once they were both on display, he took turns laving one and then the other until she was panting heavily. “More. Please, Travell…”
He closed his eyes temporarily. God, he was going to lose his bloody mind. But until she told him to stop, there was no way he was going to end this sweet torment now. While he might leave this room unfulfilled, he damned sure wasn’t going to allow her to do the same.
***
Alyssa could tell that Travell was lifting up her skirts, but it wasn’t within her power to really care. The attentions he’d showered upon her thus far had been so… incredible, her body a thrumming beat, the pulse between her legs especially insistent, that she knew there had to be something else as equally powerful to ease this ache.
The moment he touched her, she cried out, all sensation flooding to that one area. “Again,” she demanded, and he complied by rubbing his hand in a rhythmic motion in that single spot over and over again.
Stars danced behind her vision as she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the brick. He took advantage of her position by kissing a hot trail up her neck, but the moment he licked her ear, her hips jerked of their own accord and she knew she was close to… something.
He returned to her breasts and as he nipped one of the buds, the intensity between her thighs grew to a fevered pitch.
“Travell…” she moaned his name as her legs began to shake.
“You’re so beautiful, Alyssa.” His voice was harsh as she started to climb the precipice. “Look at me. I want to see you.”
She opened her eyes to see his face just inches from hers. Each exhale mingled together, and as her lungs hitched, her breathing faltered as a wondrous feeling that she couldn’t even describe clutched her entire body. It coursed through her veins as hot as liquid lava, as powerful as a tidal wave, and as Travell leaned forward to kiss her, the pleasure continued until she was finally sated and set on the shore where peace and calm surrounded her.
The next time she opened her eyes, it was to find Travell still standing before her, but her gown had been set to rights and his glorious hand was no longer under her skirts.
“How are you feeling now, Alyssa?”
She could see the unease in his expression and she could tell he expected to have a reluctant female on his hands. Instead, she walked forward and touched his cheek with her hand. Any regrets she could save for later, when she was in the privacy of her room. But not now, not after what he’d just done for her. “I’m fine. Thanks to you.”
He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’d be glad to comfort you anytime, my lady,” he murmured softly, his blue eyes twinkling with a slight touch of wickedness.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, my lord. How about we just take it one day at a time?”
He grinned and offered her a light bow. “I can only hope you have need of me tomorrow.”