Nothing But Time (24 page)

He pulled back, letting Kate see the hot desire in his eyes before his mouth once again ravaged hers.  Kate’s moan of satisfaction followed
,
boiling up from deep inside. 
Pulled off the ribbon that bound her hair,
Brand’s big hands ran through her hair and down her back massaging their
way
to her hips. 
Once there, he gripped
tightly pulling her down even as he t
h
rust up against her.

Kate felt a quivering in the pit of her stomach as she felt Brand’s hard length pressing against her core with just the barrier of her underclothes and his trousers between them.
  Overcome by more
than mere feeling, she felt
wild desire set her chest trembling.  Weakly
,
her
head fell to the side as yet another tumultuous moan escaped her and Brand to
ok advantage, raking his teeth and
tongue down the side of her neck before setting those lips hotly to the tendon at the curve of her shoulder.

Whimpering desperately, Kate clung to Brand’s shoulders wondering at the fires that were burning so hot, so out of control.  She had wondered, had fantasized about how it might be if Brand ever truly let go, but this!  It was beyond her wildest imaginings! 
Nothing had ever ma
de her feel this way.  No one!
It was incredible! 
Lust was washing over her with wave after wave of
rapture
.  The
very
core of her person was trembling and it had all happened so quickly.

Arching her back desperately, she pushed herself against his erection once more, her head spinning dizzily.  Dropping back against him, Kate fou
nd his mouth with hers
.  Wild little cries were escaping her, passing from her mouth into his as his hands came up to cup her breasts.

“Brand,” she whispered shakily.  “Oh, my God!”

Kate’s voice cut through the lust-crazed haze that engulfed Harrowby. 
Gathering his wits, h
e
pushed the instinct that had driven him moments ago aside and
focused on what he was doing.  He felt the weight of her breasts against his palms, felt the heat of her core pressing against him, felt her trembling breaths pant against his cheek.  He felt his own heart beating a rapid tattoo inside his chest, felt his own hands shake uncontrollably with wanting.

He squeezed her breasts once more
,
feeling her nipples through the fabric of her dress. 
He caught them
between his fingers and clos
ed
in on them.  Kate gasped and threw back her head, her dark hair swinging back over her shoulders.  Harrowby watched her face as he rolled her nipples between his fingers once more.  Her moist
lips parted, her eyes closed.
That look of abandoned ecstasy sent a flare of pure male satisfaction through him.

Leaning in, he pressed his lips to her throat, stroking the soft skin roughly with his tongue, glorying in the feel of her arms wrapping around his head to keep him there.  Her slender fingers raked his scalp, pulled at his h
air before diving down into his shirt to stroke his shoulders.  Seemingly dissatisfied by what she could reach, she huffed and pressed her arms between them to work the buttons on his shirtfront.

Shoving his hand up under Kate’s bunched up skirts, Brand found bare skin above her stockings.  He stroked her thighs feeling the
flesh
quiver
beneath his hands. 
His hands continued to burrow under her pantalets until he cupped her bottom in his palms.  She was not a soft woman.  Her legs and bottom were firmly muscled and he enjoyed f
eeling the strong clenching of
those muscles as he hands pressed along.

“Please.”  The
ardent
plea in Kate’s voice told him that she
was his for the taking
.  He could have her right there in his offic
e in a moment.  Harrowby might even t
ake her right there in the chair, prop her up on the desk or toss her on the floor ravishing her with all the mad lust that was roaring in his veins.  And he wanted to.

By God but he wanted to.

Drowning in passion as she was,
i
t took Kate a
while to feel Brand’s withdrawal.  Sure enough, however, she became aware that his roving hands had stilled.  Though he was still
panting, his posture had become stiff once more.  A cry of denial rose silently from her.  How could he?  Was it just her
who
was lost like this?

Despair welled up irrationally in her and Kate fell against Brand’s broad chest in defeat.  She could hear his heart beating wildly, feel the trembling of his limbs,
the brushing his lips across the top of her head
but still he had the control to stop.  His arms came up around her shoulders and Kate sank int
o the strength of his embrace, taking comfort in those strong arms before she pushed back and climbed off his lap with a sigh.

Her eyes raked over him, his posture relaxed as he leaned back in the chair, his shirt askew, blond hair mussed.  Like a man who just rolled out of bed.  An ache burned through her chest, longing and sadness smoldering together.  Or perhaps frustration.  He had pushed her to a point Kate had never been before, rendering her to a mindless puddle of lust.  It was dizzying, unshakable.

Not that she had wanted to shake it, but it wasn’t like her to leap from a little playful seduction to complete loss of control so quickly.  Against her own morality, Kate knew that she would have surrendered without a second thought if Brand had chosen to take her right there and that just wasn’t like her.  However
,
instead of feeling regrettably loose and easy or ashamed at her behavior, Kate was more disappointed with Brand for not being as defenseless against that passion as she was.  It left her with a lingering feeling of desolation.

She didn’t want to be alone in this.  Insanity, when shared, seemed to make it all more sensible.

“I can’t be the only one feeling this thing, can I, Brand?  Am I forever going to have to ask you to kiss me before you’ll do it?  Is it just me?  I mean, I can be sitting there just talking to you as innocent as pie but then it all turns on me.  I go from friendly banter to flat-out lust in record time.  I think you do, too.  Don’t you?”

He already had.  The moment the word
lust
had fallen from her lips
, he’d bee
n rampant with desire
once more
. 
Clearly,
however, he had hurt Kate with his rebuff.  “I know I have told you that I like you a great deal, Kate, but you are right in assuming more.  I do find you an incredibly lovely and desirable woman.  A part of me would like nothing more than to take you to my bed.”

Kate’s bright green eyes darkened with his softly worded confession
.  “But you won’t. 
Why, Brand?
  Because an earl doesn’t trifle with the help?
  Can
I say I think you’re taking it all a
bit too far?  Granted
this
went farther than I had planned but is it really so horrible?  So wrong?  Haven’t we gone beyond employer and employee yet?  Is that how you
still
see me?”

It should have been how he saw her but Harrowby knew saying that he saw Kate only as an employee
at all
would be a lie.  He saw her as a woman.  A luscious, gorgeous, passionate woman.
  His refusal to take her went beyond
her status… beyond his own
honor, he realized
abruptly
. 
The desire wasn’t the problem, he did not regret it.  It made him feel more alive than he had in years.  The problem wasn’t even how strongly i
t shook his moral foundations, though h
e knew wanting Kate should feel wrong.  Kate tempted him to stray from what he knew was the proper path and he hardly felt the guilt he should.

No, i
t was more an issue of respect at this point.  He might want her with all the strength of his being but
i
t would be wrong to take
her
knowing it would never be more than that. 
He could offer her nothing, Harrowby knew.
There was no chance that he might make an honest woman of her if they engaged in an affair. 
He valued their blossoming friendship too much to cheapen her by making a mistress out of her. 

He liked her too much to make her an object of ridicule.

Harrowby watched Kate make her way to the door.
Her posture was weary as if his dismissal had sucked the joy from her very soul.  Perhaps it had.  I
f
he had learned one thing about Kate it was that she put her whole self into the things she did.  She held nothing back.  It was but one of a multitude of things he enjoyed about her.

One of the many qualities he envied.

How could he explain to her those reasons
?  How did one reach a point with another person that it was acceptable to bare all?  A jolt of humor shook him then.  Kate, it seemed, had no problem with such intimacies, even on incredibly short acquaintance.

Kate
turned back at the door to look at him once more and
sighed
,
shaking her head.
“Do you have any idea how sexy you look just sitting there like that?”

“Sexy?”
H
e repeated
the unfamiliar word
.

“So incredibly sexy.”  Kate shook off the remainder of her disappointment and turned to leave.

“Kate?”

Kate
looked
back and
watched Brand slowly pull open a drawer and reach under a short stack of loose paper to pull
from beneath it
a
bundle
of
paper
bound
with a string. 

His book.

She could see the trepidation on his face
as he rose and walked toward her holding the bundle out.  She
almost felt the urge to refuse the book
, sensing that Brand had only found rejection in such moments of trust before
. 
It was apparent that he was uncertain about placing that faith in her but at the same time
attempting to
reaffirm their friendly standing. 

His indecision washed away Kate’s disappointment in his rebuff.  She kept forgetting she was not only in a different time but in a different world.  Things that had become commonplace in her time had vastly different connotations here.  Casual sex as she knew it, didn’t equate here – though the des
ire she felt
for him
was
anything but casual.

She needed to cut the guy some slack.  Give him time to come around to her way of thinking if she wasn’t content to live with his. 
Somehow,
she would make him see that their mutual enjoyment of one another wasn’t going to permanently scar his honor.  

If she couldn’t, Kate knew that having his company was far more important than having his person.  She wouldn’t risk that in the end.

“I hope you enjoy it,” he said by way of apology.
  “It’s a tale of a man’s visit to a world filled with fantastical creatures and kingdoms at war.”

“Thank you, Brand.”  Kate took the package and hugged it to her chest. 
“I’m sure I’ll love it.”

“Kate, I…”  Brand shook head ruefully before leaning forward and brushin
g a tender kiss across her fore
head.  “Good night, Kate.”

“Good night, Brand.”

The Henley Royal Regatta

Henley-on-Thames, Buckinghamshire, England

Late
June 1876

Henley-on-T
hames was a charming town sitting on the border of the counties of
Berk
shire and Buckinghamshire
south of Ramble House on the Thames
.  It was filled with quaint buildings, their architecture clearly marking periods in history from Tudor to Georgian to Victorian, each one packed end to end on Hart Street near Falaise Square where the Ramble House coachman dropped Kate and Nathan off the next morning. 

The fair coinciding with the Henley Regatta was already in full swing, the lane lined
,
not only with its normal storefronts
,
but also
with vendors of every sort serving up food and amusements for the hundreds who had come to watch the races.

Reminding Nathan once again to stay close in the
t
ight crowds, Kate took her charge
’s hand and weaved through the throng
thinking that a fair was the same in any time or place.
 
Noise.  Crowds. 
Too much food. 

“The Henley Regatta was first run in 1839 and lasted just one day but everyone loved it
so much that the next year the M
ayor of Henley decided to make it two days long,” Nathan told Kate cheerfully as he trotted along beside her long strides as they walked
down Hart Street
.

“Where did you learn that?” Kate asked as she took in the sights
, sounds and smells that surrounded them
.

“
Uncle Brandon
told me,” Nate said
, though his head
was whipping from side to side as
well as
his attention was caught and snared by sight after sight
.  “He also said that he suspects one day it will be even bigger though
it’s already one of the premier
events of the Season since Prince Albert took notice of it.
”

Kate paused when Nathan stopped in his tracks and saw that
a nearby vendor showing off a
hand-made toy had snared his attention
. 
His
wooden puppet
danced merrily when the stick attached to its back was jiggled, its
loosely hinged limbs
swinging back and forth. 
It was just the sort of useless fodder that was typical to any arts and crafts fair she’d ever seen
back home
.  Of course, her sister and she had long joked that in Minnesota there wasn’t
a
single fair one could go to where someone wasn’t selling a peach pit loon either.
Kate
explained
the concept of a
peach pit painted
and feathered
to resemble
Minnesota’s state
bird
as she towed Nathan along beside her
.

Of course he laughed.  Who wouldn’t? 
It was ridiculous.

So ridiculous that it had become their favorite descriptor of any
goods sold at such affairs
.

Soon Nathan was back to reciting a history of the town as they continued down Hart Street toward the river.  Nathan pointed out the
sixteenth
century tower of St. Mary’s church and just beyond that was Henley Bridge.  Once they passed the church
and the inn just behind it
,
the Thames was laid out before then
.
Kate was captivated by the view of the river and the
picturesque
Henley Bridge with its five stone arches.

As they passed the inn, Kate discovered that t
he Thames was lined by a deep cobbled walk and fronted by buildings.  The walkways were already
swarming
with spectat
ors vying for the perfect view of the races
,
as was the
bridge, which
was crowded
with
carriages
.
Despite the crush, Nate rushed up to the bridge
,
waiting impatiently for Kate to join him. 
Nate pointed upstream. 
“
See that island in the distance?  That’s Temple Island.  There is a folly on the island and on the river right next to that is where the racing will start. 
T
he course is a mile long and this
bridge used to b
e the finish line but only for the first
year.”

“
Aren’t you well
informed today,” she exclaimed, leaning over the rail to
study the structure. 
She could easily see why they would change the finish. 
Any misdirection by the coxswain might send a boat straight into the stone pillaring that supported the arches.  “
So, w
here does it end now
, Mr. Smarty Pants
?”

“Across from
that inn
just
there
,” he told her
,
pointing
back to the inn they had just passed
.  “Uncle Brandon said we should try to find a spot near there or farther up to watch the finish from
if the bridge was too crowded
.”

“It does seem rather packed,” Kate commented, “but the bank doesn’t look much better.”  In fact, the entire area was a crush of bodies and conveyances. 
The water
way, too,
abounded
with boats of all sorts
teeming
with even more spectators.
It was a wonder that
the boats in the races would be able to find their way successfully downriver with the waterway so congested. 

On the left bank
near
the large inn that marked the finish line, Kate saw
a
fenced
off area brimming with onlookers who were clearly of a different class than those who lined the streets. 
Before she could even ask, Nathan answered her question.  “That’s the
Steward
s
’
Enclosure, I
’d wager
.”

Kate examined the elite members of the club that sponsored the racing.  The men were all almost identically dressed in gray or
black
morning suits with wide cravats and top hats.  Some carried a cane or had stickpins in their ties with jewels so large Kate could see them even from the distance. 
Like a live-action scene from
My Fair Lady
,
all
t
he women were beautifully gowned in summer pastels trimmed in lace and fringe.  Some carried lacy parasols as well but, to a one, all wore large brimmed hats, each more extravagant than the last. 

There was one thing that hadn’t changed from this time to her own.  British nobility was known for being well ha
t
ted.  The wedding of
William and Kate had garnered
some
watchers who were only interested in seeing the variety of millinery it would showcase.

At least there were none present as bad as those the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie had worn to that event.

“I guess that’s where your uncle will be watching the races from,” Kate said looking over the
massed crowd
for Brand’s distinctive physique.

“Actually, he won’t.
”
Nathan
pointed again and
Kate looked across the river near
the other end of Henley Bridge
. 
“
He’ll be at the Leander Club when he’s watching races, I suspect.
”

“When?”

Nathan simply smiled but it was an expression Kate had seen on her nephew’s face often enough to know that there was m
uch more going on.  “What’s that look for
, Nathan Ralston?”

“
I
t’s supposed to be a secret.”

“Really?” Kate turned to give Nathan her full attention.  “What sort of secret?”

“Well, I suppose I can tell you,” he considered.  “I’m sure Uncle Brandon wouldn’t mind.”

Now Kate was intrigued.  “What is it?”

“Uncle Brandon is going to compete in the races today!”

“Get out!  Are you kidding me?”

“No
t at all
, I’m
quite
serious.  He told me so himself.”

“
I can’t believe he didn’t tell me! 
When is he racing?” she asked but Nathan wasn’t certain, so they searched out a vendor hawking the programs for the two-day event and searched through it together.  “What event is he racing in?”

“He should be participating in the single scull and the coxless pair rowing,” Nathan told her
as they scanned the sheet together
.

“Pair?” Kate asked, distracted
by that new information
.  “Who would he pair with?”  There hadn’t been another gentleman about the house since she arrived other than the fathers who had accompanied their daughters to the house party.

“Uncle Brandon told me he has a friend from University who he used to race with who is also a member of the Leander Club though he is not a peer,” Nathan told her.  “Nicholas Weller is a
tabloid
editor now, I think Uncle Brandon said.  Mr. Weller has been trying to
get Uncle Brandon to race
with him
again
for years.”

“And now he is,” Kate whispered to herself
wishing her eyes would reach so far as Temple Island. 
“We’ll have to watch for him then.  When is his first race?”

“The
coxless pair
is at half ten,” Nathan said reading from the schedule, “and it’s…” he checked the clock on the tower in the center of town, “only just after nine o’clock now.  Can we find a snack before we go
and
watch, Kate?”

Growing boys, Kate thought with a smile.  For
ever hungry.  “Of course we can
but
then
we need to find a good spot to see him from.”

“
First food
,” Nathan
insisted
as they wandered to an area where the food vendors were set up.

An hour later, Kate and Nathan had found
an
excellent location
near the center of the bridge
to view the races
from
.  Other boats
,
which had been clogging the waterway through the morning
,
had been moored
to the side
leaving their view unobstructed.  While they waited
for
Brand
’
s race, other
s were run including a pair of exhibition races and the coxed eight, a crew of eight oarsmen led and steered by a coxswain. 

Between races, Kate was challenged by Nate’s youthful urge to climb onto the bridge’s stone rails.  It seemed each time she turned about he was climbing up to sit on the top, straddling it and once, to her horror, standing on it.  No matter how many times she berated him or threatened him, he’d do it again.  And he was so quick, as well!  He could swing a leg over before she had the chance to blink.  “Enough, Nathan!” she finally snapped, pulling him off the rail for the sixth time.  “If you don’t stop, I’ll have to ground you or worse.”

“What’s grounding?” he asked.

A discussion of the definition of that concept as well as ‘time out’ calm
ed the spirited lad until he
finally seemed content to merely hang by his armpits across the stone rail and continue with his recital of regatta history and rules. 

There were, she learned, events specifically for student or club teams and others that were open to any competitor. 
Though Kate
was by no means educated on rowing
, there
seemed to be
very little difference she could see between the sport
,
past and present.  When Nathan went on and on about the subject, a curious Kate could not help but ask him about the source of his knowledge.

“Uncle Brandon
took
luncheon with me
yesterday
,” Nathan told her between bites of meat pie.  “He told me all about what to expect.”

While it gladdened Kate to learn that a familial affection was growing between uncle and nephew, she wondered why Brand hadn’t mentioned it to her.  Nathan just shrugged her concern away.  “Uncle Brandon wanted to surprise you when you saw him racing and thought it best that we didn’t talk about it with you present.”