Page 56 of The Society Catch
‘When did you realise?’ Joanna could not make herself believe this was happening.
‘When I found that lout Clifton mauling you. I held you afterwards and you fitted – not only into my arms and against my body. You fitted my heart and my soul. I told myself it was hopeless, but something, some instinct, gave me hope. I do not know what.’
‘Perhaps the shameless way I kissed you, the way I clung to you,’ Joanna said shakily. Feeling was beginning to come back to her limbs, she was conscious of breathing again. This was not a dream. Giles was saying these things to her.He loves me.
‘I thought you were lonely, that you were innocent and curious and trusted me. I hated that. I would have rather you thought of me as dangerous than as safe.’ He laughed harshly. ‘Male pride. Then I got that letter from Suzy this morning. I was a fool, I had no idea that I was hurting you, I was just so relieved that everything had been agreed about her marriage, for there is some history between the two families and for a while it looked as though it might not happen.
‘Then you swept out of the room and Hebe was looking at me as though I had just sworn at you and suddenly I realised what she had seen.Iwas the one you loved and you thought I loved Suzy. Such a coil and such an easy one to resolve I thought – until I saw your hurt and anger.’
He lay back against the pillows, his grey eyes steady on hers, waiting for her to speak. Joanna drew a long shaking breath and stared back, reading his soul in his eyes, reading the truth.Against all the odds, despite her foolish, romantic, unrealistic dreams, the things she had done that tried his patience, Giles loved her.
Carefully avoiding his injured leg Joanna returned to kneel beside him and reached out her hand. Her fingertips grazed down the side of his face and he turned into the caress until his cheek lay against her palm. ‘I love you,’ he murmured against the skin.
Chapter Twenty Five
‘Oh, Giles.’ Somehow she was in his arms, cradled across his thighs, and his mouth was hard on hers, possessive, demanding, rough with an urgency she returned as she curved her arm around his neck and kissed him back.
They fell apart breathless, laughing with relief. ‘Giles, what will the General say? He wanted you to marry the daughter of a marquis.’
‘He wanted me to be a Field Marshall as well. He won’t ever have that, but he is going to have a daughter-in-law he and my mother will adore. And what about your parents? They wanted you to marry an earl.’
‘They already know and love you and, from what Hebe tells me she wrote to them about Rufus, they will be so thankful you saved me from him they will fall on your neck.’
They sat there hand-fast, too overwhelmed to even want to kiss for the moment. Then Giles said, ‘They are going to want a big wedding, you know. After all the risk of scandal with you running away they are going to expect banns and weeks of planning. There will hordes of guests, a magnificent wedding breakfast… I will not see you for weeks because you will be buying your wedding clothes.’ He broke off to caress her face, ‘I am going to miss you so much. Still, it will give me time to sort out where we are going to live.’
Before she thought Joanna said, ‘I do not want to wait.’ Then blushed crimson.
‘We have waited a few weeks sweetheart, a few more…’
‘You might have waited a few weeks, Giles Gregory but I have been waiting for you for three years.’
A wicked sparkle came into his eyes. ‘You want to make love?’
Joanna tried to drop her gaze, found she could not andadmitted bluntly, ‘Yes. Giles, I am sorry if that makes me sound wanton and shocks you but I thought I had lost you for ever and it has been torture being so close to you every day and when we touch…’ She broke off in confusion only to be caught hard against his chest.
‘Are you sure?’ he said harshly.
‘Yes. I want to be yours. I do not want to wait for weeks and have Mama explaining things to me the night before. I do not want to worry that I will not be perfect on our wedding night.’
Giles laughed, a suppressed chuckle against her hair. ‘I rather think you are going to have to endure the pre-wedding talk from mama, unless you want to explain it is rather late.’ He tipped her head back and looked down at her. ‘Nothing would give me more pleasure than to make love to you now, my darling. I cannot help feeling this is all a dream and I need to have you in my arms to make it real. But only if you are quite sure’
He sounded very calm, very controlled, very reassuring. Then Joanna saw the banked fires burning in his eyes, felt the tension in his body and knew he was far from calm and the control was achieved only by exerting his will to the utmost.
‘Make it real, Giles,’ she murmured, letting her fingers tangle in his hair, pulling him down towards her. He shifted to hold her more easily and she felt rather than saw the stab of pain which ran through him. ‘Oh your leg, I am so sorry, I had forgotten.’
‘To hell with my leg,’ he said. His lips were nuzzling down the sensitive line of her neck until they found the edge of her gown where it touched her collarbone. His hands came up and searched for the fastening even as his mouth continued to explore the area where lace and skin met.
Joanna wriggled round to let his questing fingers find the buttons then, overcome by shyness, hid her face against his neck as he slid the bodice from her shoulders. Somehow it was off before she realised it, leaving her clad only in her thin summercambric shift and petticoat and her silk stockings.
She was still curled against him and his fingers seemed to find their way to her garters and be rolling down her stockings before she could have time to wriggle away. He took his time, letting his fingers linger on the sensitive skin behind each knee, the sharp point of her ankle bones, the arch of her foot. As he pulled off the second stocking he tickled her instep making her giggle despite her tension.
‘Giles,’ she protested, trying to evade his fingers, and was silenced with a kiss.
‘Making love can be fun, you know,’ he remarked. He released her lips and bent his head to wrestle with a bow fastening her chemise that had pulled tight.
‘Fun?’ Joanna was feeling so taut with nerves and desire that it was difficult to speak.
‘It isn’t all high passion and intense, serious pleasure you know.’ He moved onto another bow and Joanna realised that the chemise was slipping from her shoulders. ‘Can you remember that meadow where I found you after you had run away from Lady Brandon’s?’ She nodded, intent on his words, on watching his face. ‘Can you imagine making love naked in that long grass, tickled by those flowers, seeing just where buttercups would reflect gold on each other’s body? Then bathing in that shallow stream afterwards, splashing in cold, clean water?’
