Page 8 of A Lady Trapped in a Lustful Storm (Lust and Love in High Society)
Chapter 8
Joseph poured himself a glass of spiced port from a cabinet in the library and settled into a comfortable lounge chair on the balcony. The rain had been relentless all evening but had decreased to a light mist over the past hour. He put his feet up on the stone bench inside the railing and enjoyed the late-night peacefulness.
As midnight passed beneath the hands of his pocket watch, he chuckled to himself. What a day this has been! He could never have known that his impulsive decision to take a quick dip in a secluded hot spring would lead to an equally impulsive marriage proposal to its outspoken nymph.
Lydia was brash and opinionated. She was fearless and forthcoming. And the woman was a mesmerizing beauty from head to toe.
Joseph laid his head back against the chair and replayed his first vision of Lydia as she’d scolded him from the bank of the spring. In his mind’s eye, he could see her bare feet, her ankles, and a hint of her calves below her shift. The misting rain cooled his skin as he imagined what it would be like to slowly slide the fabric of Lydia’s undergarment up her legs to reveal her soft and supple thighs.
Then he envisioned sliding the fabric higher still to marvel at the sight of her sex, where he might dare to dip a gentle finger into the warm juice of her desire and massage it along her slippery bud.
“Do you always sleep on balconies in the rain, my lord?”
Lydia’s voice startled him so deeply that he yelped and leaped to his feet. His arms splayed out with such force that he nearly tossed his glass of port over the railing to shatter on the ground below.
“My lady, you should always give a man warning before you sneak up and disturb his quiet reverie!” Joseph pulled off his black vest and use it in an attempt to wipe the spilled port off his white shirt underneath.
“I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but I was distracted by the sight of you looking so vulnerable and, for once, completely mute.” Lydia grinned, stepping across the balcony to gaze over the side into the dark.
She carried a leather satchel in her arms and wore the same golden ball gown she’d had on all evening.
Joseph gave up on his shirt and tossed his vest aside. “What’s in the case? Have you brought a marriage contract banning me from ever bathing under the open sky again?”
Lydia laughed and placed the satchel on a chair. “We both know that there will be no marriage between us, my lord. Once the bridge and roads are passable again, I will dissolve our secret agreement by publicly calling off the engagement. Until then, I am grateful to have your protection of my family’s reputation. And you may relax knowing that your mama has halted her pursuit of a wife for her eldest son. For now.”
“I see. Then why are you interrupting my peaceful nightcap? If there will be no marriage, I hardly see the point of granting you a marriage kiss.” Joseph crossed his arms and waited for the delightful indignance Lydia would no doubt provide in response.
She did not disappoint.
“Marriage kiss? You called it an engagement! And since we are officially engaged, I dare say I deserve one. Though it’s not you granting a kiss to me, it is I who grants one to you!”
“Shhh, please keep your voice down! Do you wish us to be discovered out here alone in the middle of the night? Engaged or not, this meeting is quite impertinent, especially since you seem so set on demanding that I kiss you.”
Joseph tried to keep a straight face, but he quickly broke into a smile as Lydia clenched her hands into fists and looked like she might use them on his jaw.
“Oh, you are indeed a beast, Viscount Winstone!” She clamped her hand over her mouth for a few seconds and breathed through her anger, then lowered her voice even more. “It is clear that you find great amusement in vexing me at every turn, but I am here merely for the sake of research and to ask an important favor.”
Joseph’s eyebrows shot up, as did his curiosity. “A favor? What kind of favor? We’ll get to your kissing research in a moment, if you insist.”
Lydia ignored his attempt to rile her again and clasped her hands in front of her chest. Joseph noted how this gesture pressed her full breasts upward to reveal more of her creamy flesh at the top of her enticing bodice.
“I need to know if there is someone on your staff who will get letters through to the nearest post on foot over the next few days. I would like to send a letter, if I may, via their efforts.” Lydia looked down at her hands as if this was an embarrassing request.
“Send a letter to whom, my lady?” Joseph knew what her answer would be but he couldn’t help poking at her yet again.
“That’s none of your business! My goodness, you are my betrothed, not my captor. Can you do me this favor or not?”
Joseph scratched his chin and considered her words. “I’m afraid I am your captor quite by accident, since you are staying in my home with nowhere else to go. But that fact aside, I can grant you your favor at the earliest availability if you grant me one in return.”
Lydia glared at him as the curls around her face loosened from her chignon in the breeze that was growing stronger by the minute. Joseph could feel a new storm brewing, though he wasn’t sure if it was from God’s own hand or caused by the wrath of the nymph on his balcony.
Whatever the source, Lydia’s primped and proper style was losing a battle with her natural wildness. Her hair loosened and her skirts billowed in the wind. Her manners among the ton were all but gone when alone with him, and it made her all the more alluring.
Seeing the real Lydia, the one he met by the spring less than twenty-four hours ago, made his need to touch her in this moment suddenly unbearable.
“I’ve already granted you a favor, my lord. I agreed to our false engagement rather quickly on the spot. And I agreed to kiss you on this balcony tonight even after you attempted to insult my intelligence with your appeal to my thirst for knowledge.”
“Fair lady, I would never believe that your unshakable intelligence could be so easily insulted. Though you must admit that my clever approach is what convinced you to see me tonight, is it not?”
Joseph held steady to where he stood on the balcony, but the scent of Lydia’s wild skin growing wetter as the mist turned to light rain was awakening his every nerve. He could stand only so much of their banter before he would have to pull her into his arms and feel her shapely curves pressed against him.
“Are you quite well, my lord? A vein in your neck is throbbing.” Lydia reached out a finger to point at Joseph’s neck.
He was in such a state of need for physical contact with her that he took Lydia’s reach as an invitation to clutch her hand and pull her close.
“That’s not the only part of my body throbbing right now, nymph. I think you discovered your power over me at the spring and now wield it without thought of the consequences. So, if you wish to study the effects of an engagement kiss, I suggest you do it now while you have me so stimulated that the results of the experiment will be undeniable.”
Lydia stared wide-eyed at Joseph’s parted lips with shock as she wriggled in his arms. “You forget yourself, my lord! I have entirely lost interest in this experiment!”
“Then tell me to let go.” Joseph pressed a hand against the small of her back where her waist sloped down toward her bottom. His breath quickened as he noted the delicate curve and dared to slide his hand just a little lower.
Lydia’s emerald eyes darkened to the color of moss on the forest floor. Her lips quivered, but she did not pull away.
“Tell me to let go of you and I will. Or kiss me now and put me out of my misery.” Joseph struggled to stay calm as his body reacted to hers more strongly by the second. He wavered between hoping Lydia didn’t feel the urgent pressing of his erection against her belly and hoping that she did.
“Are you truly in misery, Lord Winstone? What does it feel like?” Lydia whispered as she scanned his face for signs of distress. When she stopped trying to pull away from his embrace, her eyes widened again as if she’d just discovered the physical signs of his arousal.
“It feels maddening. Please kiss me!”
Lydia pulled her hand from his and smoothed it over his lower lip. “I thought you were going to teach me how. I brought quill and paper to take notes.”
Joseph exhaled a laugh and ran both of his hands down below her spine to boldly cup Lydia’s full ass cheeks and press her groin into his. “It would be my pleasure.”
He removed his hands from her backside and placed them on Lydia’s face, then gently pulled her mouth to his. She kept her lips closed at first, but Joseph’s urged hers open as he turned one kiss into many tiny kisses accompanied by light touches from his warm tongue.
“How does this make you feel, m’lady?” Joseph whispered between soft pecks followed by fully passionate caressing of her mouth with his.
“I’m… I’m getting woozy… and shimmery inside. Like starlight bursting through my veins,” Lydia responded as best she could between each pillowy kiss as her hands pressed against Joseph’s chest and started moving down.
Joseph sighed against her lips and slid his fingers into her chestnut curls as the light rain played a staccato rhythm on their heads. “And what about lower inside you? Deep, deep down where your legs meet your body?”
Lydia didn’t answer. Instead, she kept exploring and observing. Her teeth brushed Joseph’s lower lip and her hands roamed further down his torso, feeling her way past the indentations between each of his ribs and ab muscles.
She boldly touched her own tongue to Joseph’s as her hands reached the tent of his erection. Then she gasped and shoved his body away from hers with such vigor that Joseph tumbled backward over the side of the balcony and landed in the leafy boxwoods about six feet below.
“Oh no! Lord Winstone! Are you hurt? I’m so sorry!”
Joseph could hear her calling to him as quietly as possible as he moaned and tried to wrestle his way out of the bushes without tearing his clothing to bits.
“My lord, please say something!”
Still on his back in the boxwoods, Joseph looked up at Lydia as she leaned over the balcony with her hair falling around her face and her décolleté in full display.
“I fear you might one day be the end of me, little nymph. But you didn’t end me tonight. Take your notes and go to bed. We will send your letter by foot, but you still owe me a favor. In fact, by the looks of the cuts and scratches you have caused me, you might owe me more.”
Lydia bit her lip and frowned. “I really am sorry. But you ought to learn to control your anatomy, for it startled me as much as I startled you. Goodnight, my lord. I have many notes to make indeed.”
When she disappeared from view, Joseph finally rolled himself out of the bushes and sat on the wet lawn to catch his breath. One thing was for certain, there was no controlling his anatomy around Lydia Carter. And it no doubt would find him risking more insult and injury as long as they shared the same roof.