Page 31 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

If he’d known what was good for him, Derrek would have taken Jeremy to bed after their silliness was done. Or in the morning, before they sprung up to face the myriad tasks in their new day. Or that night, once they’d returned home to each other’s company. He did nothing, however, even though Jeremy looked at him with a far away look at times, as if he would not use the excuse of burning sausages to stop Derrek from taking what he wanted should he try again. Everything Derrek wanted and usually took without thought was right there, on offer to him, but he hesitated.

He hesitated. For ages. Him. Derrek Talboys, who had been in love once, had his heart broken, and now made it his habit to enjoy the sins of the flesh without remorse whenever he wanted. He was not the sort of man to hold himself back when his cock pointed the way forward.

But Jeremy was different. Jeremy was sweet and brave. He was clever and more innocent than he knew himself to be. His smile did more to arouse Derrek than the glimpse of backside he’d caught when accidentally spying on Jeremy bathing out in the garden on a particularly warm evening. Jeremy’s kindness did more to draw him in than any rude gesture or suggestion that they should find their pleasure in each other without strings attached. The calm days and soothing nights that they spent in the cottage, letting the rest of the world pass them by, were some of the sweetest Derrek had ever experienced.

There was no way to skate around the truth. Derrek had fallen in love.

I suppose you are laughing at me, he said in his thoughts to Joseph, whom he knew was looking down on him from whatever heaven he’d found his way into.I swore I would never fall in love again after you, but here we are.

He and Jeremy lay in bed before dawn on the day of the May Day celebrations. Derrek hadn’t slept as well as he should have, considering how much activity would take place later. He’d been too consumed with his attempts to ascertain whether Lord Albert truly was back in England and whether he might come anywhere near Maidstone Close. More than that, he was increasingly frustrated by the truth that he needed to be in London to continue the investigation rather than guarding Jeremy as he lived out his hidden life as a happy village seamstress.

But most of all, Derrek could not sleep because it felt entirely too wonderful to have Jeremy’s lithe body, made stronger in the last few weeks from all the walking and exertion necessary to live a country life, draped over him as his dove snored softly. Already, as had become a matter of course, Jeremy’s cock was half-filled as it pressed hotly into him.

Derrek huffed a sigh and ran his hand from the arm that was not trapped under Jeremy over his face. “This is madness,” he muttered.

He needed to push things along, to do what he always did and jump the fence of that first time between them so that the two of them could move on and concentrate on other things.

Except that he loved Jeremy and wanted more for and from his dove than a quick tupping. He wanted Jeremy to be fully ready, for their first time to be something special and beautiful, not his ordinary, careless buggering.

Because he was in love, dammit, and love changed all the rules.

“Enough of this nonsense,” he mumbled to himself, making a firm decision. “If not now, when?”

With a bit more force than he should have, born out of his exasperation with himself, he rolled Jeremy to his back, pinning his dove under him and waking him up in the process.

Jeremy began to suck in a breath as sleep left him suddenly, but Derrek stopped it with a long, sensual kiss.

One that was not nearly as satisfying or enjoyable as it should have been considering the troubles of breath in the morning.

“Is it morning already?” Jeremy asked sleepily, wriggling underneath Derrek enough to make himself more comfortable and to drive Derrek half mad.

“Soon,” Derrek said, brushing his hand up Jeremy’s side over the soft fabric of his nightshirt. “I thought, as we are both awake and in tight proximity, we might begin our celebrations of May Day with a time-honored, pagan ritual.

Still hazy from sleep, Jeremy yawned and asked, “What ritual is that?” Before Derrek could do more to open his mouth to answer, Jeremy tensed and tried to sit up, saying, “Bollocks, I cannot. Clary and some of the young women from town asked me to go flower picking with them before the celebrations begin this morning.”

Derrek rocked back, kneeling on the bed by Jeremy’s side, his drawers badly tented, staring at his dove. “Flower picking?”

“Yes,” Jeremy said, seemingly ignorant of the intention Derrek had had just moments before. “I’ve been told it’s a time-honored ritual to pick flowers in the meadows at dawn on May Day so that they might decorate the festivities. I can already see the first hints of dawn outside, so I’d better get a wiggle on.”

Derrek could do nothing but sit back, mouth half open incredulously, as Jeremy scrambled out of bed, lit the lantern on the bedside table, then headed straight for the washbasin in the corner.

As he lifted the pitcher to splash water into the bowl, his entire body went rigid. He put the pitcher down and pivoted to face Derrek. “You were trying to seduce me,” he said in a whisper. “That’s the ritual you were referring to.”

“Er, yes,” Derrek said, feeling more awkward than amorous.

Jeremy’s face and neck went bright red, which should have enhanced Derrek’s state of arousal, but somehow made him feel like he’d attempted to do something underhanded.

“I am so sorry,” Jeremy said, taking a few steps back to the bed. “I must be the thickest man in Kent for not understanding that. Only I had just awoken, and I do not necessarily think clearly when sleep has just left me.” He paused, blushing even more, then gathered a handful of fabric near the bottom of his nightshirt, like he would peel it off over his head. “Would you, um, do you want me to come back to bed so we can try again?”

Derrek almost laughed. “No, dove,” he said, getting up and heading for the door so he could take himself outside to wash, as had become his habit. “The moment has passed. Something like that should have had more planning in it at any rate.”

“Oh. Alright,” Jeremy said, possibly disappointed, following Derrek with his eyes as Derrek left the room and headed out of the cottage.

Once he was out in the dew-kissed pre-dawn of their garden, he puffed out a breath and scrubbed his hands over his face, then he laughed at himself. Already, he was second-guessing his second-guessing. He and Jeremy were long overdue for a bit of horizontal amusement, and the longer they put it off, the more things like they had just experienced would happen.

“Well that’s a delightful sight to find after walking all this way in the dark.”

Derrek nearly jumped out of his skin as he finished his morning ablutions at the pump when Miss Jones stepped out of the darkness of the trees and into the swiftly lightening garden. He had removed his drawers to wash in the cold water, and Miss Jones got an eyeful of the full sight of his body.

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