The Earl's Desire (23 page)

He released his mouth from hers and started to drop wet little kisses on her face. He kissed her eyes, he kissed her pink cheeks, he kissed her chin and then down her nape. Her soft body molded with his. He moved lower, kissing her shoulder. He shifted the robe down her arm. The action exposed one of her breasts. He stroked her arm, his thumb slightly touching the side of her breast.

Christine shivered in response, and she purred like a cat. The places where his hands touched her sent ripples of sensation along her nerves. Her body was inflamed with this love heat she had never experienced before.

“
Am I hurting you yet?” he whispered into her ear. She shook her head and tried very hard to respond, but her wits seemed to have disappeared.

He repositioned her, moving her limbs so that both her legs were now on either side of his waist. Christine shivered at the action and gasped out.

“
Merrick, I—”

Merrick kissed her mouth then, to silence her. “Trust me, little sweet,” he said and lowered his head to kiss her throat.

Her head whirled. She could not think anymore. Aye, he told her to trust him, and, amazingly, she did. She let him do things to her, things he told her that would not hurt her at all. Things she saw him do to Lady Maria Ferguson, and she too had longed for him to do such things to her. Now he was doing these things to her, and, Lord, but it was wonderful.

Merrick lowered his head to kiss her throat and down to the valley of her breasts. The soft white flesh tasted like silk blending with red wine and had the aroma of lavender. He was drunk—drunk with the sweetness of her. She tasted like honey.
She was delicious.

As if by his command for more, Christine lifted her head back and her body up for his access.

He laughed at her acceptance of what he was doing to her body. He moved his hands down to caress both her legs, stroking her thigh. He pressured her limbs to encircle his waist, and she did his bidding.

He lowered his head down farther, kissing the swell of her breast, and he pushed down the rest of the garment to reveal her other breast. Merrick hastily took off his shirt. In seconds, the top half of his body was naked. When this was done, he hurriedly caught hold of her and started kissing her again. He stopped kissing her and looked into her eyes. There he saw her desire for him.

“
Merrick, I-I don’t understand this.” She put her hands on his chest.

“
Hush, don’t be afraid, sweet. I won’t hurt you.” He took hold of her chin so that she could look into his eyes. She smiled up at him. Merrick lowered his head and kissed her throat while his hands moved down and caressed her body. He lowered his head and stopped, staring at her breasts.

She moved her hands up his shoulder, touching his muscular arm. He felt so strong and hard.

He lowered his head toward her breasts, and hungrily he savored one with his mouth.

Christine gasped, her body jumping with sensation. Good God, she never knew that such a thing existed.

“
Oh, Merrick—” She felt thrilling sensations exploding through every nerve of her body. She almost screamed out for the pleasure was so hot and electrifying.

Merrick sucked and licked the small breast with his tongue. He played with the small pink nipple with his strong teeth—luring it, dancing with it until it surrendered, swelling upright at his bidding.

“
Merrick!” she gasped out. She shook her head at the sensations. He moved his hands up, caressing and stroking hard in urgent need along her thigh.

“
Merrick—” she whimpered. This feeling she was having was scaring the hell out of her.

He lifted her up and placed her gently down on the bed.

God, she was making him drunk.
His head was spinning—his blood was aching with need—the need to be inside her. She had pushed him to the brink of insanity.

He caught her arm and felt her stiffen. He looked up to her face and saw her fear. Terror of the unknown, he thought. Nay, not now. He wouldn’t want to scare her. He’d have to woo her to have her trust him fully until she had nothing to hold back.

He moved up and kissed her forehead.

“
Rest well, my sweet. I won’t hurt you,” he said.

“
I’m sorry, Merrick,” she whispered.

“
Nay, my sweet.” He stroked her hair.

There were three knocks at that moment. They both turned to look at the door at the same time. Merrick frowned.

“
Somebody is the door,” Christine said.

“
Wait here,” he said. She nodded.

He went to open the door and saw Ross standing in front of his door, looking very pale with concern.

Ross turned, rushed to him, and said, “My lord, I’m sorry to have interrupted you.”

“
What is it?” Merrick asked.

“
A maid, Claire, Lady Anne’s maid, she is missing,” the butler stated quickly.

“
How long?”

“
The guests have just arrived, and Lady Anne came back to alert my wife that her maid was not in her room waiting for her. Lady Anne said that she hasn’t seen Claire since after teatime. Claire wasn’t there to attend her for dinner, and she has been gone since.”

“
God, that was about six hours ago. I better come down and sort things out.” Merrick turned back into the room without further ado.

“
Aye, sir.” With that, Ross went down the hall without a concern as to why Merrick was half-dressed, his dark hair in a state of mess, and his mouth swollen from kisses.

Merrick was shocked to see Christine all dressed up and ready for action. She was in her male clothing again, and her curls were a wild tangled mop on her head.
She was gorgeous.
He just wanted to ravish her there.

“
We must go down now, Merrick,” she broke through his thought.

Merrick raised his brows. “Go down now?”

“
Aye, I heard the two of you talking. Come, we must find that maid,” she said and rushed toward the door. Just as she went past him, he seized her roughly by the wrist and swung her back against his chest. She looked up at him. “Merrick, ’tis past time. We must go now.”

“
Nay, my sweet. You will not attend to this matter, do you understand?” He took hold of her chin.

She shook her head. “Merrick, ’tis very important. A person is missing. Why, I’m so glad it wasn’t you.” She stared up at him.

“
Me, too. I’m glad it wasn’t you, but hear me well, my sweet, you will not help in this matter. I want you to stay here.” He released her then and started to put on his shirt.

“
But, sir…”

“
No buts.” With that, he went out the door and left her.

FIFTEEN

The servants were in the drawing room. Merrick was standing near the hearth with his hands behind his back.

“
All right then. We all know what we are here for. I need to ask if any of you have seen a maid; her name is Claire. Tell me now if any of you have seen her for she’s been missing for six hours.”

The servants shook their heads.

“
So nobody has seen her since this morning then?”

They shook their heads again.

“
Then we must start searching at once for her life might be at stake here. Now I want the women to—” He saw Christine enter the room. “Search in the Hall and the men outside, in the fields, in the woods, in the garden, and in the stables. I want all of you to report to me by midnight if possible. Now all of you, off to search.”

As the servants gathered into groups and one by one departed in search for Claire, Merrick stalked straight to Christine. He caught her arm and said, “What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in your room.”

She just smiled up at him. Suddenly, all his anger dissipated.

“
I’m a member of this house too, so I deserve to know what is going wrong and to search for Claire.”

Damnation, but she is too beautiful for my peace of mind, he thought as he stared at her. “It’s not your problem. I order you to go upstairs.”

“
No, my lord, I won’t do that. ’Tis not fair to the others,” she told him.

“
I don’t give a damn about what’s fair and what’s not. I’m worried about you. Now, I want you to go to your room… no. In fact go to my room and sleep. Sleep in my bed right now for I found your bed much too uncomfortable. Go now.” He dragged her out the door and into the hallway.

“
Nay, Merrick!” She pulled her arm from his grasp. “I will go and help with the search,” she said, angry now at his high-handedness.

“
Are you not doing my bidding? Are you disobeying my order?” he inquired, eyeing her.

She lifted her head proudly. “Nay, Merrick. I’m going to help search, and that, I think, is the right thing to do.”

“
Very well then.” He shrugged his shoulders and came to her. He caught her by the shoulder with one hand, and with the other he caught her head. He thrust his face down and took her lips. He kissed her, not to give her pleasure but to teach her a lesson not to argue with him again.

Her lips hurt. She cried out at the soreness
. The damn man!
She hit him on his chest with her fist, pushing him away from her, but that only made him pull her tighter and closer toward him. He released his hand which was holding her arm, and he cupped her breast instead. Christine gasped out in response.

He released her abruptly. God, he couldn’t stand this—he couldn’t seem to think when he was near her.

“
You drive me mad, my sweet. It would be best if I dumped you in my room and locked you in,” he said.

Christine looked up at him in confusion. He quickly lifted her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs.

A shadowy figure came out of its hiding place behind a door. The woman stared after Merrick and Christine with her eyes narrowed. She put her hands to her chest and gripped tightly at the muslin material of her gown. Her heart was beating furiously, and all she felt was hatred and jealousy. With trembling legs, she staggered out of her hiding place. Her head started to feel dizzy, and she leant on the table beside her for support.
With God as her witness, she vowed to get even.

* * *

Christine poked her head out the door. She scanned the hallway. It was quiet. No one was in sight. She slid out, ran down the hallway, down the grand stairs into the kitchen, out the back door, and into the darkness. A gust of chilly wind whooshed past her. Branches and leaves swayed in tune with the stirring air. They made music together with the echoing of the muttering crickets like drums beating on a midsummer night.

She tiptoed across the cool grass. Her shadow loomed and blended with the darkness, gliding into the garden. She halted and scanned the area around her. She then pushed her way into the thick bushes and started calling Claire’s name. Well, she wasn’t going to miss out on the search now, was she?

As she wandered deeper, the bushes were getting thicker. She suddenly stopped as a thought struck her. Somehow, she thought she had been here before. She looked around in the darkness and listened more intently. She thought she heard a sound—nay—a cry. She stood still, listening, searching. There it was again. It was a cry, a painful cry, a cry of agony.

She followed the sound. Then something caught her legs. She fell on the grass. She scrambled up, touching the object near her legs. It was just grass. She stretched out her hands, seeking what was there. Then her hands touched something, something soft and warm. Fear set in, her pulse raced.
Oh God!
She moved her hands farther. It was an arm, and she could feel heat coming from the person. She heard a moan. She jumped back, releasing the arm.

“
Help.” The word was barely a whisper. She had to strain her ears to catch it. Oh God, she thought. It must be Claire. She rushed forward.

“
Claire, is that you?”

No reply. She moved her hands up, touching the face. “Claire, can you hear me? Are you all right?” she asked.

“
Help… please.”