Dancing With A Devil (44 page)

She pulled back, scarcely able to take a proper breath at the unrestrained possessiveness gleaming in his eyes. “Scandalous,” she whispered throatily.

He pressed a kiss to the vein on her neck where the blood pumped through savagely. “I’m sorry you’re angry with me.”

She smiled wickedly, enjoying the widening of his eyes and the dawning smile of realization that tugged at his lips.

“
You want me to ruin you?”

She batted her lashes playfully before coyly looking down. “Only if you think you must in order to ensure I’m yours.”

Grinning, he swept his arms under her legs and picking her up held her against his chest.

Laughing, she pressed a hand against his shoulder. “Someone might see us.” She didn’t personally give a fig what the
ton
said. After all, she would be Trent’s wife, and if she knew him it would be sooner rather than later. But she would hate for her actions to cause her aunt heartache or Trent’s mother concern.

“
No. I brought my carriage, so you can hover inside. If it makes you feel better, stay down until we reach my house.”

A thrill shot through her, dampened only by one dark shadow still hovering over her life. “Trent, will you help me find Richard? Do you know someone we can hire to locate him?”

A twinkle filled Trent’s eyes. He kissed her on the tip of her nose and then said, “Leave it to me. I know the perfect man, and if it is at all possible, I vow he will find your brother and bring him home to you.”

Audrey hugged Trent as he set her on her feet, grabbed her hand and tugged her around the low-hung tree toward his carriage in the distance.

She pulled to a stop as they neared it. “Will you tell me all the details of your meeting? I want to help.”

He winked at her. “As soon as I know more details, I’ll tell you. Come.” He let down the carriage stairs and helped her inside. “Let us think on only the two of us for tonight.”

She nodded and closed the curtain to the carriage window. With a smile, Trent shut the door and the carriage dipped as he took the driver’s seat. Nerves made her stomach turn as the carriage moved out of the park, yet excitement filled her as well. She loved Trent with all her heart, and she wanted nothing more than to spend the first night he’d declared his love for her in his arms.

“
You’re certain of this?” Trent asked as he took Audrey’s hand and led her down the garden path that meandered beside his London townhome and to the garden house that set at the back of his property well hid from anyone’s view.

Audrey nodded. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”

Her words still confirmed what she’d been saying since he led them out of Hyde Park, but her voice quivered. He paused on the darkened trail and turned to her, brushing a branch out of his face as he did so. With the sun waning, shadows loomed over her forehead and eyes and made seeing her expression difficult. He tugged her gently to his chest, then encircled her small frame. When she sighed, slipped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his heart, a knot lodged in his throat.

He leaned his face into the top of her hair and inhaled the scent of honeysuckle that always lingered on her. His chest tightened almost painfully. The love he felt for her robbed him of the ability to speak for a moment. More than anything, he wanted to spend the rest of his life making her happy, and despite the fact that he’d dreamed nightly of holding her naked in his arms since the day he met her, he’d wait until they were married, if she had any doubts. But how to get her to be truthful with him?

“
Audrey.” He kissed the top of her head and hugged her. “I don’t want you to ever lie to me, even if you’re worried you’ll displease me. I’d rather be momentarily annoyed than either of us breach the trust our marriage must have.”

Her shoulders sagged and he inwardly cursed. So be it. They would wait until their wedding day. His hardened body tensed at the thought. What he needed was a tub of cold water to cool his lust.

She leaned back, so he could just see her somber expression. His heart twisted at the worry on her face. “Darling.” He cupped her cheeks and kissed her fully on the mouth. “Do not fret yourself. Many women are scared of what happens between a man and a woman. Once we’re married, I’m sure a bit of your tension will ease.” A disgruntled smile stretched across her mouth, but he forced himself to continue. She had never been with a man, after all, and it pleased him to think he would be the only one to ever know her intimately. “I’ll be very gentle on our wedding night.”

When Audrey erupted into laughter, he frowned. She leaned into him, her soft chest pressing against his hard one, which did nothing to dampen his lust. The woman would be the death of him.

“
I’m not nervous about what occurs between a man and a woman. Whitney and Sally are married and have told me a few things. So rest assured, I know exactly what to expect.”

Imagining the sort of education she might have gotten from Whitney and Sally made him bark with laughter. He plunged his hands into her hair and drew her face near his. He nibbled first on her upper lip and then her lower, reveling in the soft mewling noises that came from her and the way she squirmed under his administration.

He’d been a fool to think she would be afraid to be with him. She was a passionate woman. Leaving one hand braced around the slender nape of her neck, he moved the other to her exposed collarbone and traced a slow path across her chest. A hiss of air escaped her, and his already hard body strummed with the desire touching her inflamed in him. He swallowed and searched his mind for what he had meant to ask her. Oh, yes, the concern on her face. “Something is worrying you. If it’s not what we will be doing when we join, then what had you looking upset?”

She gazed down, but he cupped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Tell me. Let me soothe your fears.” With his hands. His tongue. His―he groaned at the direction of his thoughts.

She blew out a long breath. “I’m afraid I’ll fail to compare to
her
.”

Damn Gwyneth. Even dead, she caused problems. It was time to bury her once and for all. He placed his hands gently on Audrey’s cheeks and stared into her eyes. “There are many different levels of love, Audrey. I’ll not deny I loved Gwyneth at one time, but it was the most simplistic layer of love―the one where someone intrigues you and captures your attention and then your passion. There was never time for more to develop and then when I really came to know who she was there was only room for pain. But with you―” His emotions rose up and choked him. He cleared his throat. “Ah, my love, with you, our love is complex, rich, multilayered. You have my respect, loyalty, passion, admiration, heart and soul. You have everything within my power to give to you and when I hold you in my arms there’s not a speck of room for another woman in my heart or my head.”

She flung herself at him as if his words had released her fears. Thank God.

Audrey’s heart filled with aching happiness as she grasped clumsily at Trent and kissed his lips. His confession set her free. She was no longer afraid he might think of Gwyneth. Her only fear now was wasting a single moment of this night. “I love you.” She crushed her lips to his, desire curling in her belly, tightening her loins and making her breasts grow heavy with need.

His mouth moved over hers, hard and possessively. She needed more. Wanted more. When his hands roamed up her back in an exploring motion and slid back down in a seductively slow slither, she whimpered into his mouth. He answered her with a throaty chuckle as he curled his fingers into her burning flesh and squeezed her bottom repeatedly.

For a few moments, she stood locked in his embrace, a prisoner to his feverish kisses that matched the intense need burning within her. She had no desire to back out of his arms or stop the building passion, so when he pulled away and buried his head against her neck she protested with a cry. His panting breath tickled her ear as his hands came to her hips and tugged her against his hard erection. “If we don’t go inside the garden house I’ll take you on these hard steps and you deserve better than that.”

She giggled at his thick, unsteady voice. It amazed her that she had the power to elicit such unbridled need in him. “I wouldn’t mind being taken here one bit, except for the fact that I worry someone might chance by.”

Trent groaned. “No danger in that. The servants know not to come out here, unless I specifically instruct them to, and Julian is no doubt being tucked in bed by his new nanny. Besides that, too many trees surround the garden house for anyone to see us. Still it might be uncomfortable.”

The cautious expression on his face made her smile. “I rather like hard spots,” she said, plucking her hands on her hips and allowing her gaze to travel down between his thighs.

“
Then let me oblige you, my love,” he growled.

Her gaze flew to his as he cupped her breasts and slipped his fingers over the top edge of her bodice, giving the material a hard jerk down. Her breasts spilled forward into his hands and hot desire exploded within her.

He lowered his mouth to her left breast and flicked his tongue over the hardened bud. She squealed with delight and pleasure. “More,” she whispered, burying her hands in his thick hair and tugging his mouth more firmly over her breast. His tongue circled the bud slowly, each delicious swirl around her sensitive skin making sensations spark through her from her breast all the way to her toes. She arched her back toward his mouth and almost screamed with delight when he took her farther into his mouth and began to suck greedily. Her breast tightened almost unbearably and her body throbbed from the inside out.

He moved his mouth away from her breast only to claim her other one and lavish it with the same wicked attention. Within seconds, she clung to him, her legs too weak to hold her upright. Somehow, miraculously, he seemed to sense her state and held her with one muscled arm gripped around her waist.

The need within her built. She wanted to touch him. See him naked. Explore his body as he was exploring hers and bring to him the same place he was taking her. She tugged his head up. “I want to touch you. And see you everywhere.”

A sensuous smile pulled at his mouth. He stepped back and stripped off his clothes, layer by heart-pounding layer. When he got to his shirt and pulled it over his head, she thanked God for the now full moon as the corded muscles of his abdomen rippled with the movement of his powerful arms. He tossed the shirt away, bent to tug off his boots and then stood for a second, perhaps to let her drink him in.

She did, ravaging his gleaming flesh with her eyes, and when she couldn’t resist a second longer, she flew against him, running her hands over the hard ridges and secretive planes of his sculpted body. His muscles jumped under her exploring fingers and her heart jumped right along with his body. She lowered her trembling, eager hands to his breeches and fumbled trying to get them undone. His large hands covered hers at once, calming, stilling, reassuring. Together they undid the ties and she pulled his remaining clothing down until he was able to kick the layers away.

She didn’t have time to right herself. Strong hands came under her arms and pulled her gently up the length of his overwhelming body. The heat of his desire singed her through the thin material of her gown.

He raked his eyes up and down her length and motioned her to turn around. When she did, his hands circled around her body just below her chest and hauled her up against his body so that the length of his need prodded her lower back. She threw her head back with longing as a moan escaped between her pulsing lips. He slid his hands slowly over her exposed, sensitive flesh, gently pinching one bud and then the other. She gritted her teeth against the scream of pleasure that wanted to erupt.