Page 26 of The Lady's Guide to Well-Endowed Dukes
As for Miss Maitland, they needed to speak honestly—for him to find out her wishes and, if they were to part, to plan ways he could make amends.
Meanwhile, there was only one woman who filled his thoughts, and that was the wicked, irresistible creature lying beneath him.
As if to remind him of that fact, she gave a wriggle. “As wonderful and surprising as that was, I’d appreciate you untying me!”
Of course! He was a clot!
Moving off her, he loosened the sash and set about rubbing her wrists.
“You’re alright? I didn’t crush you?”
She moved onto her side, looking up at him like the cat that got the cream. “Perhaps I like being a little crushed.”
He gathered her to him again, and she immediately crooked her leg over his. All of her—lush and yielding—pressed to the hardness of his body.
“Stella.” He held the sound of it within his mouth.
She tilted back her head, inviting his kiss again, and for some moments they lay just as they were, lost to the sensation of closeness and warmth and the sharing of something he did not yet know how to name.
At last, she broke off, breathless.
“There is nothing I can teach you. You have all the skills to rouse your bride. She is fortunate indeed.” Though she laughed, there was an awkwardness to it.
“Let’s not talk of that now.” Rolling off the bed, he fetched the handkerchief from his jacket, and filled two glasses from the side—one with water and the other from a bottle of something stronger.
When he returned, she’d slipped off the silk wrap, and was lying altogether naked on her stomach, coquettishly displaying the lusciousness of her bottom. He held out both glasses and she took the brandy, warming it between her palms while he cleaned himself from her skin.
Lying beside her once more, he dropped a kiss upon her shoulder. “I feel as if we’ve known each other always, though I really know nothing about you at all.”
“And what would you like to know?” She swirled the liquid in its glass. “Whether I play the pianoforte, or sing? If I enjoy watercolors? Which novelists I most admire? Those are the sort of questions one asks of a woman one is courting.”
He wasn’t sure where to begin. He’d a feeling that ‘knowing’ Estela Bongorge would require long acquaintance; even then, she’d only reveal what she wanted you to see.
“Have you children?” It was a clumsy question, but an important one.
“I do not.” She sipped the brandy. “Just as a man has other spheres that occupy him beyond his family, so might a woman. I find plenty with which to busy myself.”
“Siblings?” He stroked the smooth line of her back, following the trail of his fingers with the light brush of his lips.
“A brother and sister. Charles may need to build another wing on the house if he sires more offspring. Esther recently married a country parson. They’re both content.”
He dipped to kiss the small of her back and the upper curve of her behind. “And your parents?”
She stiffened slightly. “No longer alive. It’s been more than ten years. A malady while residing on the Continent.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He placed his cheek where he’d kissed.
“I hardly saw them after I was married—and not a great deal before.” She answered in a matter-of-fact tone, but he sensed there was more to this particular piece of her history.
“What is it you’re thinking?” She twisted round, tipping him from his resting place. “That because they didn’t give me the attention I craved as a child, that’s why I’ve had so many husbands—not to mention lovers? That I’ve been hopelessly searching for my own little haven of contentedness?”
He winced. Clearly, he’d hit a nerve. “Aren’t we all searching for that?”
“Perhaps we are, but what makes you think it has eluded me? My marriages have been very successful, in their way.” She fixed him with a penetrating look. “And what about you, Lord Rockley? I take it there’s a reason you’ve reached the age you have without making it down the aisle. Shall we blame that on your parents? It’s a very convenient catch-all.”
Gently, he guided her to lay comfortably again. “No reason but my own inclination. I simply didn’t find anyone I wanted to ask; nor was there any necessity, since my brothers had thingsin hand. Michael, though a little younger than myself, already has three infants in his nursery. Besides which, there was my underlying fear of how I’d manage…”
He didn’t need to elaborate on that. Full coitus remained an obstacle to be overcome, in time.
