The Dukes' Christmas Abductions (9 page)

“Yes,
I do. He’ll wish me well and laugh at my expense that I had to go through time
and space to find the one woman I want to marry.”

Clara
tensed and shook her head.

“I
told you, I’m not going to marry you. I want to marry for love and… umph.”

Daniel
shut the infuriating woman up by kissing her while speeding up his thrusting.

“Yes
you will, even if it takes me the rest of your days to convince you of it.”

Chapter Nine

Clara
woke up on her own the next day. By herself in the big Regency four poster bed
with bright sunshine streaming into the room, signaling that she must have
slept half the day away. She could almost believe that she had dreamt last
night’s strange happenings. Were it not for the soreness between her legs and
the feel of Daniel’s cum slowly slipping out of her as she gingerly moved into
an upright position, she might well have believed that to be true.

As
it was she hugged her arms around herself and grinned as she recalled the
events of last night in glorious Technicolor detail. It was a wonder she could
walk at all this morning as she padded across to the wet room to relieve
herself and freshen up a bit.

Her
reflection in the mirror gave her pause for thought. She looked happy, truly
happy and she was honest enough with herself to admit that was entirely due to
her time travelling duke. Where was he, she wondered? Padding back into the bed
chamber she picked up her mobile phone and whistled through her tears.

It was
2.00 PM in the afternoon, and James had said the estate solicitor would be
around in the morning for the reading of the will. The whole thing was still a
mystery to her. At some point in the early hours of the morning Daniel had read
the rest of the letter to her. A fair part of it has been this Kit fellow
ripping off Daniel, just as he’d said he would, and she smiled to herself as
she recalled the affection in Daniel’s voice when he’d talked of Kit and his
wife.

It
had reassured her greatly that by whatever quirk of fate this whole thing had
happened, Vicky… no Lady Victoria… was happy in her times. She could only hope
that Daniel would be happy in this time.

A
noise from the sitting room brought with it the scent of freshly brewed coffee,
and mindful of the fact that it was probably James, she grasped a robe draped
over the chair at the writing desk perched in front of the window, just in time
to see the solicitor’s Range Rover speed away up the winding drive that led to
Haversham House.

Daniel
would have had his meeting then and would now be installed as the Duke of
Hockwell, long lost heir to the Haversham Estate, and by default her employer.

Good
grief, I’m a walking cliché. I’m sleeping with the boss.

That’s
if he didn’t sack her. Would he even have a need for a curator now, that he was
the duke and in charge of the family fortune?

The
thought that she might never see him again hurt far more than it ought to, and
Clara shook her head against her fanciful thoughts. You just didn’t fall in
love with anyone that quickly, did you? That was the stuff of romance novels, that
was all.

The
door to the bed chamber opened, effectively cutting off her maudlin thoughts.
Far from James it was Daniel carrying a tray with coffee, and what looked like
brunch. It wasn’t the incongruous sight of this Regency duke doing such a
menial task, however, that took her breath away. No, that would be due to the
sight of Daniel in modern day clothing. The faded designer jeans clung to his
strong legs, and hugged the impressive bulge at his groin, which she was now
intimately acquainted with. A light jumper, the sleeves pushed up to reveal his
corded forearms, completed the ensemble and made her mouth water and her pussy
clench.

One
night of sex and I’ve turned into a nymphomaniac.

Daniel
winked at her as he sat the tray down on the writing desk, dislodging a leather
bound book that thudded onto the floor. He bent to pick it up with a frown and
Clara’s fingers itched to grasp the globes of his ass and squeeze them as the
denim stretched over them.

Naturally
he caught her staring when he turned around book in hand, and he smirked.

“As
much as I’d like to take you up on that invitation, dear girl, you’ll be too
sore, and besides you need to eat something to keep your strength up first.”

He
laughed when she blushed, and handing her the book, dropped a hard kiss on her
lips.

“That
looks like one of the diaries Kit’s wife was always scribbling in. No doubt it
will put your mind at rest as to the whereabouts of your friend.” He nodded at
her sharp intake of breath, as she opened the leather bound volume to the first
page.

She
recognized Vicky’s writing immediately.

December
1815

Dear
diary,

Today
has been a day full of surprises, not the least to discover that…

“Good,
god, you’re right, this is Vicky’s writing and she seems to have started this
the morning after she was abducted.”

“Abducted,
you say?” She looked up at the amusement she could hear in Daniel’s voice.
“Strong word that, abduction, and it mirrors the tone of the will, which was
amusing to say the least. I do believe Lord Reginald Danvers might have been
quite mad.”

Daniel
poured her a cup of coffee, handed her it, and taking the diary out of her
hands, flicked through the pages with a whistle.

“This
is a day by day account of their life together it seems. There must be more of
these. I wonder where we would find them. I must ask my curator.”

He
grinned in his most mischievous way yet, when her sip of coffee went down the
wrong way, and he leaned his jeans clad butt on the edge of the writing desk,
seemingly waiting for her to recover.

“I
am still the curator then?” She flinched when both his eyebrows rose, and he
inclined his head. Right now, modern clothes or not he looked every inch the
haughty Regency duke again, and her heart beat faster. How she loved that look
on him.
Loved?

No,
no, no, I can’t be in love with him.

“Of
course you are. The estate solicitor was full of praise for the work you’ve
done here.”
 
He frowned and inclined his
head. “I owe you my heartfelt thanks for getting us out of the mess your
predecessor left us in.” He put his hand up to stop her immediate denial.
Truly, though he hadn’t been that bad, and the conditions imposed by the will,
were bizarre to the extreme. “No. let me get this off my chest. I will take me
weeks, if not months to sort through all the paperwork, and I can’t think of
anyone else I would trust to go through it all with me, and not pull the rug
out from under my feet.” He stopped to smile at her, and Clara’s heart beat
faster at the approval she read in his eyes.

“It’s
okay. That’s my job, and I’m glad to see you’ve given up on this marrying me
nonsense.”

“Did
I say that?” His voice held an edge of steel and made her pussy tingle. “As you
keep telling me this is the twenty first century, and thus I can see no reason
why my wife could not also hold down gainful employment.”

Clara
was glad she hadn’t been drinking or she would have spat her coffee out.

“I
told you, I won’t marry without—”

“Love,
I know. Neither will I, and I will just have to convince you that I’m a man you
can fall in love with then, won’t I?”

Epilogue

Haversham House, three years later

Clara
giggled as Daniel, the Duke of Hockwell, shouldered open the door to their
bedroom, and with an exaggerated huff carried her across to the four-poster bed
and collapsed with her on the modern memory foam mattress.

“Good
lord, woman, what is in that dress of yours, stones?”

“Well,
my lord, you did insist on a grand wedding with all the trimming and this
family heirloom of a dress. It weighs a ton and I can’t wait for you to peel me
out of it.” She smiled when Daniel kissed her nose, having had to push several
yards of material out of the way to find that part of her.

“True,
but it was my mother’s dress and when we found it in the attic I knew I wanted
you in it. Mama would have approved and you looked radiant.”

“Flattery
will get you nowhere.” Clara gasped as her new husband somehow found his way
under the multitude of petticoats that came with the dress and cupped her bare
pussy with his hand.
Liar
. It would get him everywhere, not that she
intended to divulge that nugget of information to him. Some things were best
kept to yourself.

“I
don’t need to flatter my wife. You, sweet thing are all mine, now, and what a
naughty duchess I’ve got. All wet for me already and no underwear. Mama would
be outraged.” He slid one long finger inside her, and Clara moaned as her body
instantly responded to the man she loved.

“No
she wouldn’t. I know fine well that they didn’t wear any undergarments in those
days.”

Daniel
curled his finger upward while pressing his thumb to her clit, eliciting a low
moan from Clara.

“No
wonder my overachieving cousin ended up with seven kids.”

Clara
gasped and then pouted as Daniel withdrew his fingers and licked them clean
with a devilish gleam in his eyes.

“I’m
glad cousin Linda managed to attend anyway. You could definitely tell she was a
descendant however many times removed from Kit and Victoria.” He grinned and
shrugged his shoulders. “We tried to work that out but gave up after goodness
how many greats.”

Clara
swallowed hard and nodded her agreement when Daniel got off the bed and
proceeded to shrug out of his wedding coat and tails, and opened the bottle of
champagne that James had left to cool for them on the nightstand with great
aplomb. Having filled a flute each with the bubbly liquid he handed her one,
and they clinked glasses, grinning at each other like love sick fools, which
was, of course, exactly what they were.

True
to his word, Daniel had set on a course of determined seduction, following on
the morning of what they now laughingly called
The Dukes’ Abductions.

Just
like any good romance novel their abductions had ended up in a happy ever after
for all concerned. Through the meticulously kept diaries they had eventually
discovered, they’d learnt all about the lives of Vicky and Kit, and Clara knew,
Daniel had appreciated knowing how his cousin’s life had turned out as much as
she had appreciated the knowledge that Vicky had been happy.

For
his part Daniel had adapted to life in the twenty first century with great
ease. The fact that he hadn’t been afraid to lean heavily on her for guidance
had been a pleasant surprise and had meant that Clara had fallen in love with
him even more.

So,
last Christmas when he’d very formally had gone down on one knee in front of a
crowded ball room, she had been only too happy to accept.

“Penny
for your thoughts, at least I think that’s the right expression. And I hope
they are about me, or a man could get jealous seeing the love of his life
smiling like that about someone else.”

Clara
grinned at the mock pout that accompanied those words, and she stuck her tongue
out at him.

“Careful,
there, girl. I got you to myself now and you don’t want to start your honeymoon
with your behind on fire.” At her moan in reply he grinned. “Then again, maybe
you do, and I shall be most happy to oblige. I have a new flogger with your
name on it, girl.”

“Is
that supposed to be deterrent,
my lord
?” Clara fluttered her eyelashes
at him and Daniel burst out laughing.

“Minx,
just as well I love you.”

Clara
sobered, and a thrill of excitement went through her at his husky words.

“As
I love you, my duke.”

The End

www.dorisoconnor.com

Other Books by Doris O'Connor:

www.evernightpublishing.com/doris-oconnor

www.ravenmcallan.com

Other
Books by Raven
McAllan
:

www.evernightpublishing.com/raven-mcallan

If you enjoyed this book,
you may also like:

Tunnel of Love by Leah Grant

Ghosts of Kingston Cottage by Libby Bishop

Found in Flames by Rose
Wulf

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com