Page 110 of The Trouble with Anna

“Hmm. Perhaps not. Perhaps I’ll start with this….” Little kitten licks from his base to his head, each causing his breath tohitch and his thighs to tighten until she thought she might crack him in half.

He growled and it sounded painful.

Anna gave a tiny smile and returned to her work with the fierce concentration it deserved. She’d broken lots of horses, but this was her first time breaking an earl.

CHAPTER42

JULIAN PULLED YET ANOTHER PIECEof straw out of Anna’s dark hair, a feeble effort when the mass of it was tumbling out of its pins and the straw wasn’t half as incriminating as his stupid grin, her dazed look, and the sloppy state of their clothing. Besides, he had nothing to hide. He wanted all of London to know what he’d been up to with Lady Anna Reston in his grandmother’s stable.

Now all he had to do was get Anna to agree to a special license and he could drag her out of London and off to Clare, where there were any number of surfaces to flatten her against. He’d tuck her up in bed for days at a time, feed her up on scones and clotted cream and proceed to exhaust her completely, so all that came out of that querulous little mouth of hers was “Yes, Julian” or “More, Julian” or “Oh dear god, Julian, what a splendid man you are.”

His whole body thrummed in satisfaction and he had to laugh. Perhaps that last thought was a step too far, but he’d be more than content with one of those huffy little breaths she took each time his mouth touched hers.

He shrugged on his jacket, tied a careless knot in his cravat.

Anna surveyed him, her frown growing. “How do you do it?”

“Vigorously, and with feeling.”

Her cheeks went pink. She turned such delicious colors when he teased, it was all he could do not to nibble her. And now he was aflame too, and it wasn’t his cheeks.

Special. License.

He relented. “How do I do what?”

She flapped an accusing hand. “Look so…”

“Lordly? Commanding?”

Anna glared at him. “Sounwrinkled. You were just rolling me around and—”

“I submit we were both rolling.”

“You’re impossible!”

He hauled her to him for a quick kiss. “Countess, for you I am easy. And if you don’t stop distracting me, I shall forget my true purpose for tracking you down to the stables and prove it to you. Again.”

“But you tracked me down to the stable to give me my ring, and also to—” Anna stopped abruptly. Too late. She’d already stumbled into the hole she’d dug.

“Yes,” he agreed solemnly. “Also that. But I have one last reason.”

Julian straightened her dress, extracted yet another piece of straw from her hair, and tugged her hand gently, leading her toward the farthest stall.

“A wedding present for you, although I’m afraid it lacks originality.” He swung the stall door open. “You may recall that I’ve given him to you before.”

Anna took one look inside the stall and froze. He could see her mind whirring with a million little calculations, all of them ending in a dying wheeze. Poor darling. He could almost feel sorry for her, if the moment wasn’t so deeply satisfying.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

“Yes, it’s Charon. Yes, I’ve bought him for you again. Insteadof gawping like a fish, you might say ‘Thank you,’ or ‘Oh, how wonderful.’?” He paused, cocked his head. “Perhaps you might say, ‘Dear god, Julian, what a splendid man you are?’?”

She collapsed with laughter, and it slayed him to see her so unguarded, so full of joy. “I hope Hartley fleeced you badly!”

He shook his head. “No, lightning,youfleeced me badly. Hartley merely acted as my proxy.”

Her little mouth fell open.

He nodded apologetically.

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