Chapter Twenty-Nine

Damn everything, she was beautiful. Gregory had mentally prepared himself as he rattled down the road to Lynton Park, making a vow that he’d approach her with sense and subtlety. After reading her note, he’d spent a full day struggling to forget her, but then had realized that he couldn’t walk away. He’d seduce her, delight her, pleasure and thrill her until she came to realize that he was serious. He wanted to stay with her, always. He’d been the fool, not Julia.

Now here she was, on the road to London. When he’d heard her musical voice speaking with the innkeeper, Gregory had frozen in his seat. He’d hoped violently that Julia was on the road traveling east for the same reason he was headed west.

But if she weren’t coming to see him, if his presence merely bothered her, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand it. So he approached her with cold caution. Gregory had never before given anyone the power to hurt him like this woman could with the slightest word or gesture.

But God, she was beautiful. After being parted from her a mere three days, Gregory became entranced by her lips and eyes all over again. His trousers tightened with the simple thought of the sensuous body that lay hidden beneath her clothes. Even her faint lilac scent was enough to get him hard.

If he couldn’t have this woman, life was scarce worth anything. But he would not come on too strong. Fear of rejection had held sway over his life so far, and he would be a master of his fears and himself.

But when she’d asked him why he should come looking for her, Gregory knew he could not play this as carefully as he wished. With Julia, nothing was safe. That was what made her so irresistible.

Gregory pulled out the glass slipper she’d lost at the queen’s ball and offered it to her. His wife did not take it.

“Oh. You found it,” was all she said.

“You might be a touch more impressed. I’ve traveled a great distance to return it to you.” He could not seem to resist teasing her. The indignant flush upon her cheeks always highlighted her beauty.

“Well. One glass slipper seems like a lavish but pointless gift.” She finally took it, though.

“Indeed. One glass slipper would be a most ostentatious and ridiculous object,” Gregory replied. “However, I came to reunite it with its mate. I believe two such ridiculous objects become something quite wonderful when paired together.”

Julia’s breath hitched. Her lips parted, and her eyes softened with wonder. Fuck, Gregory could have shouted in triumph. What he read on his wife’s face was pure relief.

“I agree that two are better than one.” She cleared her throat. “Shoes, that is.”

Gregory knew that both he and his wife were the sort of people to hide their feelings out of an instinct for survival. So now he dared, with everything he was or had, as he took her hands into his.

“You’ll find people pair together very nicely, too.”

“Gregory.” That was all she said, only his name, but it was the sweetest sound from human lips he’d heard.

“I came to see you because I’ve been a damned fool,” he growled. “I should have known you would never debase yourself with someone like Campbell. I should have trusted in you.”

“I should have been more patient with you,” Julia whispered. “Miss Winslow told me about your parents.”

He stiffened and wanted on instinct to pull away from her, but his wife held on too tightly.

“The past makes no difference,” he said.

“It makes every difference. They allowed you to believe that you were not enough to be loved, but you’re so much more than they could possibly imagine. You’re brilliant, and wonderfully alive. You’re strong, but there’s a tenderness in you no one else can match.” Damn everything, the woman allowed a few tears to streak down her face and didn’t attempt to hide. He’d never seen Julia this open before. “When she told me what you’d endured, all I could think of was that awful note I’d left for you. I had to find you and tell you to forget all that, if you can, and to forgive me.”

“Forgive you for what? For putting up with my theatrics and flaws?” Gregory could feel the blood pulsing at every point in his body. He bent his head and pressed his lips to the palm of his wife’s hand. Julia gave a soft moan at that slight touch; she wanted him, as he wanted her. How could a man like him have earned this luck? How could he ever let her go again?

The answer was simple: he never would. He would spend his life making this woman so excessively happy she’d never dream of leaving.

“I could have talked with you after the ball.” She stroked his cheek with her other hand, her every word and gesture gentle with love. He doubted that Julia had ever allowed another person to see her as open and vulnerable before. She had given him the rarest gift of all: herself, and her love. He would be a bloody fool if he fouled this up.

“I’d refused to speak honestly with you for days. Why should you have tried again after that? I’m afraid you’ll have to accept that I’m the fool here, Julia.”

That old, mischievous flame seemed to ignite in her, which delighted him. Gregory needed her fire as much as he craved her sweet acceptance. Those contradictions were what made Julia herself, and he desired every bit of her.

“I assure you, sir, that I’m every bit as capable as you are of being foolish.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it. In fact, this is the rare circumstance where I have acted the greater fool. You must allow me to savor this unusual achievement.”

“To think I’d yearned to see you again.” But the corners of her mouth twitched as Julia attempted to suppress all of her glee.

“I yearned to see you, my lady. To touch you.” Gregory leaned nearer, becoming lost in the intoxicating closeness of her. “To taste you once more.”

The front of his trousers strained against his burgeoning excitement, and Gregory believed he’d lose his damn mind if they didn’t procure a room this instant. He could not wait to return to Lynton Park in order to claim her.

“Er. Beggin’ your pardon,” the innkeeper said. The man stood before their table, a foaming mug of ale in one hand, a bowl of stew in the other. “Would you be needin’ anything else, Yer Grace?”

“My wife and I wondered if you’d be so kind as to arrange a room for us?” Gregory said.

The innkeeper set the food down, blustered something between agreement and apology, and hurried out to do just that.

“My lord, you shall scandalize the man,” Julia teased. “He must know exactly what we have in mind to do.”

“Oh? Then he has an impressive imagination.” Gregory smiled. “I have some truly scandalous ideas.”

…

Moments later, he and Julia were secured in their own room with the door locked and the windows shut tight. Gregory’s instinct was to grab the woman and throw her to the bed in his passion, but he wanted to linger. He wanted to drive her wild with anticipation, to need him with the same desperation he needed her.

Julia moaned when he kissed her, and kissed him back with equal strength. He held his wife’s wrists when she began to undo his cravat. Gregory’s whole body was burning with expectation, but he would take his bloody time.

“I’ve been in agony for three days,” he hissed. He pressed Julia’s body to his, allowing her to feel the straining excitement of his manhood. Soft tendrils of her golden hair had already come undone, and she sighed with anticipation as he slid an arm tightly around her waist. Gregory kissed her neck and whispered in her ear. “If I don’t fuck you now, I’ll die.”

“I couldn’t have that on my conscience.” But Julia’s attempt at levity crumbled as her mouth found his once more. Gregory traced his hands from her shoulders to the small of her back to the plump swell of her ass. Julia sounded undone as he unfastened one button, then another.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to do without the comforts of a lady’s maid this afternoon,” he said.

“You’ve proven yourself very adept at undressing me.”

“Hmm. Excellent point. We might fire your maid and save the twenty pounds a year.”

“Gregory, my love?” She kissed him with aching sweetness. “Do be quiet.”

“I shall be silent, so long as you are quite vocal.”

With those words, he let Julia’s gown fall from her shoulders to pile on the floor. His wife’s chest rose and fell with excitement, her breasts quivering. They were held up beautifully by her stays, and it seemed to Gregory almost a shame to spoil the picture. But then again, she was even more lovely when naked.

A splendid dilemma, indeed.

Julia’s whole being shivered as he loosed her stays and removed her petticoats, leaving her in only the slip of her chemise and her stockings. Gregory was so hard by now he might pass out before he had her fully undressed.

As if reading his thoughts, Julia spoke up.

“Don’t tease me now. If I don’t have you inside of me soon, I shall run mad.”

“You’ve missed me, then?” He slipped one strap of the chemise from her shoulder. The garment hung low, revealing the sumptuous orb of her breast. Gregory cupped her naked breast, eyeing her pink nipple as it hardened beneath his touch. Julia leaned back in his embrace as he put his lips to her body, his tongue circling round and round her areola. “You missed this, Julia.”

“I was miserable without this. Without you.”

Despite everything, the tumult of their absurd courtship, the uncertain movements of their marriage, she was miserable without him.

“You love me, then?”

He did not mean to speak the words, especially not with that amount of urgent need. Gregory allowed her to lift his face and hold it in her hands.

“I love you beyond words and reason,” Julia whispered. “And for me, that is something extraordinary.”

“Yes. Well. You yourself are something extraordinary, madam.” Gregory could not believe this. Every wish he’d harbored since he first laid eyes upon this woman had been actualized. Beyond words or reason, she loved him. “I love you, Julia. More than I believed I could love anyone or anything.”

She said nothing else after that, but the whimpers and moans she gave as he continued to undress her stimulated him all on their own. Soon, she was naked and in his arms.

“Allow me. Please,” she murmured as she tugged at his cravat once more.

“Quick, if you like. I want to be inside of you,” he growled.

He shed his clothing with Julia’s help, and then lay atop her in the vastness of the inn’s bed. Julia arched her back, moving beneath him in a silent plea. Gregory couldn’t stand it any longer; he’d burst if he didn’t take her. He kissed her deeply, savoring the groan she gave when he slid into her. Julia was wet for him already, her body so welcoming to his.

Gregory whispered her name over and over, all other thoughts and words having fled as he moved. Her body melded with his, and her groans of satisfaction sped him to greater heights.

“I can’t lose myself so soon,” he rasped. Gregory clutched at the headboard, timing his thrusts so that he did not go out of control. Beneath him, Julia writhed in mounting ecstasy as he drove her nearer to her peak.

“We have all the time we need.” Her mouth formed a delectable O as her end hastened. “You can lose yourself in me again, my love. And again.”

And again, and once more after that if he had the stamina, and he would. Gregory felt her release, the silken ripple of her body around his as Julia came with a great, euphoric cry. He tried to keep up his pace, not wanting their first coupling of this reunion over so swiftly, but he couldn’t manage such stoicism. Gregory finished, this time inside of his wife, spilling within her as he unburdened himself fully. He lay atop her then, his lips in her hair, feeling the bird-like patter of her heart as it began to slow.

“We should spend the night here. It will be dark soon,” Julia said.

Gregory frowned. “It’s barely two o’clock.”

“Well. Time flies.”

She made an excellent point. Throughout the rest of that afternoon and well into the evening, the time sped by.