Page 126 of Rules for a Bastard Lord
“Really?”
“If Jeremy lived. If they paid him back.”
“But how are they to do that?”
Bram shrugged. “Dupe some other poor sot. I have no idea.”
“But Jeremy?”
Bram turned, pressing a kiss to her delectable shoulder. And then he scraped his teeth along it. He settled himself between her thighs because he couldn’t stop himself.
“Bram!” she huffed. “What about Jeremy?”
He looked at her and grinned. “Getting better every day. His fever broke this morning. Clarissa and Dicky are tending him hand and foot because they know if he sickens, then they’re back to the menagerie.”
“And necklace-eating goat!”
“Unless it was the chimp.”
She giggled. “Of course…oh!”
He thrust into her, and she welcomed him as she always did. Then he began a slow, easy build, relishing every second inside her. Beside her. With her.
So long as he was with her, everything was wonderful.
“Oh Bram,” she murmured. “I love you.”
I love you too,he thought.With every fiber of my body and soul. You are my heart, my life, my everything.
But he never said a word.
And a half hour later, he crept out her window.
*
“I received anoffer of marriage today. Two, actually.”
Maybelle was still dressed when he came to her room. She’d just returned from a ball and dismissed her maid two minutes before. He slipped in through the window, silent as usual, and she blew him a kiss in greeting.
He smiled back, then settled onto her pillows, his pose so relaxed that he looked decadent. When she spoke, she kept her voice low as she washed off the kohl that rimmed her eyes.
“Eleanor is relieved. She feared I wouldn’t get any decent offers.”
“You’ve had offers before?”
She nodded. “No one suitable, according to…well, everyone.” She listed off the first three gentlemen who had vied for her hand.
He nodded. “Blighters, every one.”
“I didn’t even hear about them until days later. Grandfather refused them without consulting me.” She was miffed about that, but as they were spendthrifts in search of a fortune, she didn’t complain.
“And today’s offers?”
“Those are more interesting, according to Eleanor.” She shook out her hair and began brushing it. “Joseph Mincey. Second son, barrister, respectable income.”
“Mmph,” he said in dismissal as he uncoiled from his place on the bed. “He’ll never make more money than what he has now. No political savvy and indifferent ability with the law. You can do better.”
“That’s what Eleanor said.”
