Married At Midnight (31 page)

"Madam, you have before you a most ardent and obedient servant. Your very wish is my command."

Melodic laughter evidenced her delight over his gallant courtship. Spreading her skirts of silver blue satin, Raelynn sank into a deep curtsy, unconsciously awarding him with a tantalizing view of her breasts.

"Truly, sir, I've never seen a more eager knight. May I ascribe your haste to the exuberance of your passion?"

"Indeed you may, my love." Flames of green fire were kindled in his eyes as they swept the full, ripe curves of her bosom. When she straightened, his gaze delved into hers as his thin fingers untied his stock and and unbuttoned his waistcoat with purposeful intent. "I'm a man at risk, madam, sorely tempted by your beauty."

Bewitched by his mesmerizing stare, Raelynn raised her arms and began to uncoil the ropes of the pearls that entwined her hair. Soon the auburn tresses tumbled in carefree abandon around her pale shoulders and down her back. Lifting the strands

of pearls before her face as if they were a silken veil, Raelynn began a slowly swaying dance toward him, enticing him with a sultry gaze. Her soft laughter threaded through his mind like a siren's song, and he had no will to resist. The pearls slid to the floor unnoticed as his long, thin fingers encircled her wrists and drew them behind his neck. Slipping his arms about her waist, he moved with her in a slowly circling waltz toward the tall four-poster where a dozen candles burned atop the ornate branches of a pair of silver candelabras that resided on tables on either side. In the softly glowing candlelight his leanly chiseled face seemed suffused with a sun-bronzed radiance, and in that moment Raelynn was certain that her husband was as splendid looking as any mythical god of ancient lore.

Her breath came in quickening snatches as her husband seemed to strum the very fibers of her being, awakening her to the sensual pleasure of his caresses as his hands moved over her hips and buttocks and settled her closer against the manly heat

of him, igniting her imagination no small degree. It was a new and rousing experience to be courted in such a provocative manner, and Raelynn found herself being swept up in a whirlwind of excitement.

While his hands roamed with increasing boldness, her own trembled with eagerness as she unfastened the tiny studs of his

shirt to the waistband of his narrow-fitting breeches. There she paused in indecision, wondering if he would think her brazen

if she continued.

Savoring the fragrance of her hair, Jeff pressed his lips into the silken strands as he murmured encouragement. "Sweet love,

I give you leave to do with me as you desire. I am yours as you are mine." Still, he plucked open the top of his trousers to

ease her doubts. "It would pleasure me to be disrobed by my bride."

His teeth nibbled at her ear, sending waves of tingling warmth racing through her. Aroused by the strange sensations he awoke within her, she hardly noticed her hand brushing against his tautly muscled abdomen as she reached into his trousers to pull the tail of his shirt free.

The unexpected contact snatched Jeff's breath, and for a reckless moment he stood rigid, his head erect, his eyes half-closed

as his cravings pulsed like molten lava through his body. Goaded now by a raging hunger, he pondered the folly of snatching

her up and having his way with her without further delay. Then reason returned, and he let his breath out haltingly as he drew hard rein on his racing passions. Almost calmly he shrugged out of his shirt and laid it aside.

Oblivious to the exquisite torture which her touch aroused in her husband, Raelynn sighed with admiration as she stroked her hands along his ribs. The lightest brush of her fingertips fueled the fires of desire, and Jeff was like a man on a slowly turning rack of intense pleasure, being stretched to the very limits of his control.

Raelynn was impressed by the steely hardness of his rugged muscles and the broad expanse of his shoulders. In his sleek and well-tailored garb he had seemed more slender than athletic, and she had assumed he would be thin beneath the subtle padding of his fine fitting clothes, but as she could now see, such was not the case. Handsomely refined and trim, Jeff Birmingham had a physique that rivaled Adonis.

"You're beautiful," she breathed in awe, threading her fingers through the crisp dark hair covering his chest. "More beautiful

than I could have imagined."

Amused by her choice of words, Jeff raised a skeptical brow to a lofty angle and gave her a hint of a lopsided smile, the best his badly frayed restraints could manage at the moment. "Beautiful? Ah, madam, I fear you shade the truth with extravagance. Beautiful is a word I would use in an attempt to describe you."

Raelynn pressed her fingers to his lips and shushed him with a negative shake of her head. "You're beautiful to me, Jeffrey."

Slipping her arms about his neck, she raised on her toes and tested her rapidly expanding knowledge, snaring his lips in a seductive kiss. Jeff strove hard to convince himself that he had the discipline of a saint.

If not for the tidal waves coursing tumultuously through his veins and crashing in ever-strengthening swells of excitement against the crumbling wall of his

restraint, he might have succeeded. But then, he was only a man, and a newly espoused one at that.

His fingers played at the back of her gown as his mouth feasted on the sweetness of her response, searching, devouring, awakening sensual pleasures previously unknown to her. Raelynn found herself growing warm and pliant with the wine of desire. She hardly noticed when her bodice began to loosen over her breasts, only when his lips left hers. Her lashes trembled downward as his mouth trekked a searing trail along her pale throat, then his dark head dipped lower still to the fullness of her bosom, and she caught her breath at the ecstasy he aroused. The flames of passion licked upward, suffusing her woman's body with a fiery heat until she felt driven by a burning desire to make herself one

with this man.

The gown slid with barely a whisper of defeat to the floor, and for a long moment Jeff liberally drank from the brimming

chalice of her beauty. Clad only in a clinging chemise of satin and lace, his bride was a vision of perfection, a temptress

whose creamy breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing.

Jeff's own breath grew rushed as he struggled to curb the mounting demands of his body. His young wife fulfilled every facet

of his desires, and he was hard-pressed to maintain a patient and courtly manner, and not startle her with the fierceness of his

ardor.

Beneath the gentle urging of his hands, the satin straps slipped from her shoulders, and the shallow bodice slithered languidly down over the swelling fullness. On the very brink of full exposure, her breasts seemed to deliberately delay the descent of

the garment as if to coyly tease him. Raelynn watched him with bated breath, yearning for his touch, impatient for that moment when he would gather her to him. Her senses quaked in anticipation, and she leaned toward him invitingly, sending the chemise to the floor with a small shrug of her shoulders. Then her heart quickened beneath the slow, tantalizing stroke of his hands.

Her head fell back as she basked in the rousing pleasure of his caresses and the scalding heat of his mouth on her breasts.

Inhibitions were more quickly shed than the last of their clothing, and ere the latter settled breathlessly on the floor, no trace

of hesitation could be found. As if borne on a cloud, they drifted downward to the snowy white sheets of their marriage bed.

It was a seductive, hypnotic ritual of lovers, the pulsating thrill of search and discovery, a sweet and intimate prelude to the delights yet to come. It was the hunger of ravenous kisses, of passions unleashed, of silken limbs twining eagerly around a muscular body, and of hard flesh meeting soft. .. .

They were two beings bound in a sensual embrace as old as time itself, intent upon each other and their newly found ecstasy, poised on the very brink of ultimate possession. A long moment passed before either of them noticed a distant rumbling in the stillness of the night. A frown flickered across Jeff's brow as he realized the sound was not born of the wind blowing through the trees. Indeed, no bridegroom could have been more determined to ignore the intrusion, but try as he might he could not banish the noise to the farthermost reaches of the universe. It grew increasingly louder until it became the rattle of many

hooves thundering up the lane in front of the house.

Having failed to relegate the clamor to some distant clime, Jeff raised himself on an elbow and glared toward the bedroom

door through which the offending clatter drifted, totally incensed that some of his blundering acquaintances might have

chosen this precise moment to pay him a visit.

"I'll kill them!" he growled low. "So help me, if this is some kind of prank my friends have concocted, I'll kill the whole bloody lot of them!"

Sharing his disappointment, Raelynn trembled in frustration beneath him. Even now she could feel the fires cooling in his loins, while the ones in her own body still raged, yearning to be sated. "Who would visit at such an hour?"

Jeff heaved a frustrated sigh. "I'm afraid, my love, we're about to find out."

In the next instant, the front door slammed open, reverberating throughout the house, and a loud shout, heavily tinged with an accent, filled the halls.

"Vhere is zhe master of zhis house? Vhere is zhat rat who stole my voman?"

Raelynn gasped, vividly recalling her revulsion and rage when her uncle had tried to sell her to the German. "That voice!

Oh, Jeff! I'd know it anywhere!" She clasped his arm in distress. "It's Gustav Fridrich!"

Jeff muttered a curse as he rolled from her and came to his feet. Scooping up her chemise, he tossed it to her. "Quickly,

my love! Dress yourself!"

As he reached for his breeches and pulled them on, Raelynn slid to her feet and hurriedly settled her undergarment into place. "What will you do, Jeff?" "Gustav may reign like a ruthless barbarian over feeble old men, but here at Oakley, he'll soon learn he faces a different kind of adversary," he answered. "No man forces his way into my house without answering for it."

His words made his young bride quake with fear. " Tis foolishness to think that you can confront Gustav and his men alone, Jeff. You'll not remain unscathed. You've got to flee to safety before it's too late!"

" Ton my word, madam. What kind of man do you think me?" Jeff stared at her in astonishment. "I cannot flee and leave so many of mine at the mercy of that brute. I'd be a coward in my own eyes, as well as in yours."

Even before uttering her plea, Raelynn had known he would deny her request, but she had felt strongly compelled to beg him just the same. His reply was no different than her father's had been when Evalina had begged him to make haste and flee from England on a ship. Having had truth on his side, Lord Barrett had thought he'd be victorious over his enemies, but of course that had not been the way of it. Intuition had warned Raelynn that Jeff was a man who took honor and responsibility seriously, even at the expense of his own life, but lofty principles offered little solace to a bereaved widow.

"It didn't take long for Gustav to find out about us," she said, knowing only too well where the information had come from.

"I was wrong to think Cooper Frye would leave us alone," Jeff conceded. " 'Tis sure that he has had

some hand in this matter and has deliberately sent the German to vie with me."

"You will be careful, won't you, Jeff!" Raelynn pleaded in deep consternation. "No one can predict what Gustav will do if he's crossed. He could even kill you if he gets the chance."

" 'Tis not my intent to yield him the opportunity, madam," Jeff replied, tossing her a grin as he strode across the room. "Now that I've found you, I have much to live for."

Opening the doors of a large armoire, he took a wooden box from the middle shelf and removed a pair of matching flintlocks. After checking the priming on both, he slid one into the top of his breeches and clasped the other firmly in hand as he went to the bedroom door. Laying a hand on the knob, he turned to face her. "Lock the door behind me, Raelynn," he urged. "I'd not take it kindly if some wayward rogue slipped past me and bundled you off to Gustav's lair."

The door swung closed, and Raelynn stared in frozen dismay at the portal. She waited, expecting to hear some slight sound

as Jeff moved down the hall, but there was only the commotion created by the invasion of the brigands.

The loudness of their entry stripped away any hope that Jeff would be successful in holding so many men at bay. To be sure, if Kingston no longer was in the house, then her husband would be completely alone when he faced the ruthless rogue and his lawless band.

Her conscience reared up accusingly. This was her fault! Gustav Fridrich would never have come to Oakley if she hadn't

defied her uncle and run away! Burdened by a growing dread of what terrible disaster might befall her husband, Raelynn cringed inwardly as a deep gloom settled its murky shroud over her spirit, coming nigh to smothering her. If the dreaded