Page 17 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

“ H ow are Derrick and Selina?” Diana asked as she entered Lucas’s study a week after the ball and shut the door behind herself, turning the lock.

He lifted his head from the letter he was reading. “Word travels fast.”

She smiled. “You can keep no secrets from me, my love.”

He got to his feet and held the letter out toward her as he came around the desk. “You can read it yourself or I can summarize.”

She took the note and set it on the desk top. “The second.”

“He is doing well. Still investigating outside the realm of the War Department or the guard. And probably doing more good. He was kind enough to send along some information about the viscount, but it wasn’t much more than we already knew.

” He frowned. “I find it troubling that all our routes of investigation bring up terrible things about the viscount and his eldest son, but never anything about young Henry. He’s like a specter, in a way. ”

She shook her head. “Yes. Which either means he’s entirely innocent of any ill doing or is just hiding behind the more obvious bad behaviors of his family.”

They stared at each other for a moment and then Lucas sighed. Diana could see the worry on his face. He stretched his bad arm a little and her frown deepened. “Is it bothering you?”

“Only a little. It’s the rain this week,” he said.

She motioned toward the settee. “Sit, Your Grace. Let me tend to you.”

For a moment his dark eyes cleared of all worries and filled with something else.

Something far more dark and dangerous. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of desire in his stare.

Even after all these years he had the ability to make her giddy as a young woman in the flush of first love with that look.

He drew her closer with his good arm and dropped his mouth to hers.

She opened beneath him without hesitation and their mouths and tongues met.

It was slow at first, no rush, but as the intensity of the kiss increased, control fell away.

She clung to his lapels, lifting into him as his hands dropped to the curve of her backside and he kneaded there gently.

“I think I’d rather tend to you, Your Grace,” he murmured against her lips, backing her toward the settee before the fire.

As she sat, he knelt down before her, his mouth finding hers again.

Now he was driven, his tongue stroking hers with the same rhythm he would drive into her body with shortly.

She melted against him, moaning his name as he cupped her hips and slid her lower on the settee.

Only then did he part his mouth from hers. His eyes were lit with need as he held her gaze while he glided his hands down her body, tracing the shape of her as she arched against him. He pushed her skirt up, up and up, over her knees, bunching it around her hips. He smiled to find her bare beneath.

“Even after all these years, you are a minx who surprises me,” he purred before he dropped his mouth to her thighs and kissed there, back and forth between them, his hot tongue tracing the flesh as he inched toward her sex.

When he pushed her legs wide, she dug her fingers into the edge of the settee and gasped with wanton desire. She still couldn’t get enough of him. And he seemed to know it, because she felt him smile against her sex when he finally spread her open with his thumbs and licked the length of her.

“Jesus, Lucas,” she gasped, her back bending with the pleasure.

He chuckled, but didn’t lift his head. He only focused more intently on her sex.

He swirled his tongue around her clitoris, then teased her by licking away.

She ground against him, her hands coming into his salt and pepper hair, her hips lifting in time to his tongue.

The tongue that now no longer teased, but stroked relentlessly against her clitoris.

The pleasure built, strong and immediate and she felt him tug her toward the edge where she could fly.

When she fell, he moaned, like her pleasure was as sharp for him as for her and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep her cries muffled.

It was only when her body stopped shaking that he lifted his head and smiled up at her. “I love your taste.”

“Show me,” she whispered as she tugged him toward her. He kissed her and she shuddered with the flavor of her release on his lips. She wedged a hand between them and opened his trousers. He cupped her backside, angling her as he took her in one long stroke.

They both moaned together, the sound merged and muffled by their kiss.

He took in long, sure strokes and she met him with each one.

They knew each other so well after all these years, they were so well-attuned to the other’s pleasure, that it was effortless to bring it.

She felt him pulsing nearer in the way his thrusts became less controlled and his breath grew hotter on her skin.

She dug her fingers into his shoulders as the second orgasm hit and he came along with her, pulling her flush against him as he came inside of her with a long groan.

They lay like that together for a few moments, the glow of sex warming them. Then he lifted his head. “You still amaze me. Every time.”

“Good,” she said with a brief kiss to the tip of his nose before she parted their bodies and tidied herself up. "I hope I still will when we’re ninety. ”

He laughed but it faded after a moment. The trouble returned to his stare. “I’m beginning to think that I… we …should just talk to young Cosgrove.”

Diana smiled. “We’re of a mind. I’ve been thinking the same thing.

Running around, having a little fun investigating together was fine at first, but now it’s seeming less fair.

And since there is nothing easily available to find, looking the gentleman straight in the face seems like a better tactic for determining his character and his intentions. ”

“Excellent,” Lucas said as he tugged her to her feet and kissed her again. “Then I’ll make the arrangements to meet with him and we’ll see.”

At that moment, there was a sharp knock on the study door. Lucas turned to open it, but before he could Diana heard Imogene’s voice from the hallway. “I know you’re in there!”

She smoothed her skirts. “Thank goodness for locks,” she said softly and Lucas tossed a glance at her with a wicked smile.

He unlocked the door and as he opened it, their daughter burst into the room, her face pink and her eyes filled with tears.

“Oh gracious,” Diana said. “Did something happen, dearest?”

She took a step toward her daughter, but Imogene held up a trembling hand. “I was out with Aunt Charlotte and the girls when we bumped into Aunt Sarah and Bethany.”

Lucas wrinkled his brow. “And?”

“Bethany said that her mother and father were talking about Henry Cosgrove. She overheard them say that you two were looking into him!”

Diana caught Lucas’s eye and immediately she saw he felt the same guilt she did. “Imogene…”

“Were you investigating a young man that I…I like?” Imogene asked. “Like he was some criminal from your past? Instead of just talking to me?”

“My love,” Lucas said gently, shutting the door and motioning for her to sit.

She didn’t, but neither Diana, nor Lucas commented on it.

“It is a parental prerogative for us to worry about your future. I’m glad you admitted to liking the young man, your mother and I noted that very thing last week at the ball.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but we’re always wishing for you to have the very best in everything. ”

“So you don’t think Henry could be the best?” Imogene burst out, folding her arms with a huff. “Why? Because he isn’t a blasted duke?”

“Imogene!” Diana said and now she moved forward.

“You are upset and I don’t begrudge you that, but you must mind yourself.

You know full well that your father and I don’t care if a man you like is the richest duke or the smallest pauper.

But if he is closer to the second than the first, then we must be certain he isn’t pursuing you because of your dowry and connections. ”

Imogene’s face fell. “But he isn’t. I know Henry’s relations are not…they have their problems. But he isn’t like them. If you’d only talked to me, you would have seen.”

Lucas reached out and took their daughter’s hand. Diana was pleased when she allowed it. The steam was going out of her anger. “We should have talked to you,” he said gently. “And we are talking to you now. You say you like him. Does that mean that whatever is blossoming between you is serious?”

Imogene caught her breath and Diana saw the world of hopes and dreams in her daughter’s bright eyes. She more than liked the young man. It was evident she was in love with him.

“Yes,” Imogene admitted softly. “We talk at every event. When he sees me, he immediately comes to my side or I to his. And I…I know he wishes to make a future with me. I know it.” She looked at Lucas and then Diana. “And I want the same.”

Lucas nodded slowly. “It was only yesterday you were the little girl I bounced on my knee,” he whispered.

“And now you are talking about marriage.” He touched her face.

“If you like him…love him… than that is more to recommend him than anything I’ve heard.

But I do want to talk to the young man. Your mother and I both do. ”

Imogene’s nostrils flared slightly. Diana could see the worry on her daughter’s face.

The uncertainty. But then she nodded. “Very well. I can invite him tomorrow if you’d like so you can get to know him better.

But you must promise that you won’t interrogate him like he’s going to be sent to Newgate if he fails your tests! ”

Lucas sent Diana a look that said he might do worse to the boy than send him to Newgate if he determined he was using their girl. But he nodded. “I will do my best.”

Imogene drew a deep breath. “I’ll send him word right away.”

She pivoted and hurried from the room. When she was gone, Diana slipped up to take Lucas’s arm. She rested her chin on his shoulder and looked up at him. “There’s nothing to it now. This is real.”

“Yes,” he murmured. “And it will be the most important interrogation-”

“Conversation,” she corrected with a little laugh.

“ Conversation we’ve ever had.”