Page 16 of Miss Thornfield’s Daring Bargain (The Troublemakers Trilogy #1)
26 Grosvenor Square
London
B asil stared at the small, deep brown glove on his cluttered desk. He wasn’t exactly proud of stealing his wife’s glove but in his defense, it hadn’t been intentional. Somehow during the journey from his parents’ home to her brother’s, her glove had ended up in his pocket and her bare hand was in his. He had been in such a state of confusion that day, elation that his feelings were shared and despair at the prospect of letting her go. Richard thought him an idiot, but there was no doubt in his mind that if Ada knew she could walk away, she would. It would be a scandal, of course, but not one from which she couldn’t recover. Not with all her virtues and the dowry that Richard would no doubt secure for her. The thought of a life without her produced a dull ache in his chest that he didn’t dare to examine. How had she managed to sink herself into his skin the way she had?
It was ridiculous how much he missed her. There was no logical reason for it. He’d spent the last fifteen years of his life emotionally self-sufficient. It had never been a hardship to be alone. One of his favorite aspects of his friendships with Leo and Richard was their ability to entertain themselves without encroaching on his mental and emotional space. All of them knew how to share a space while working independently. It had taken less than a week to destroy all of that. His mental discipline was in tatters.
All it had taken was one twenty-year-old girl. He’d made the judgment and a promise but staying away from Ada was taking every ounce of his energy and control. He wanted her to fall asleep against him, wrap her arms around him. He wanted to smell that scent of violets. Christ above, he wanted to kiss her again. It had been days since that kiss in his parents’ London home, and he still couldn’t shake the sensation of her in his arms, her slender hands in his hair, and her mouth moving eagerly against his.
Even now, sitting in the self-appointed office in his modest terrace house, he couldn’t bring himself to focus on the figures in his ledger. Every time he tried, Ada floated into his mind. Either a siren clad in only a nightgown bathed in moonlight and firelight, or asleep against his chest, or with desire clouded eyes and a kiss-swollen mouth. Just the thought of it had his trousers tightening and his breath deepening. He could still feel the cool silk of her dark hair in his hands and the solid weight of her slender body against him. Had he only married her two weeks ago? Sighing in frustration, he scraped his hands over his face, roughly pulled on his hair. He needed time, that was all. Time to purge her from his system and get used to his own company again. The thought was thoroughly unappealing.
The tinny pitch of the doorbell manically ringing jolted him from his ruminations. He glanced in its direction before checking his pocket watch. Nine at night? Who the hell was coming for him at nine o’ clock? At first, he decided to ignore it. Then the thudding began, or rather the pounding. On his front door. At nine o’ clock. As if his life wasn’t in enough shambles. If this went on, the neighbors would notice, and then he’d never get a moment’s peace.
Cursing under his breath, he stood and stalked over to the front door with every intention of beating the idiot on the other side senseless. He yanked the door open, words hot on his tongue, and saw his darling, beautiful… livid wife. It was as if he’d manifested her out of his own yearning. Although it had to be said that if he had dreamt her up, she would have looked more loving, and less like a fire breathing harpy.
“Have a good talk,” Richard called, and Basil looked up to see his friend drive off in a phaeton, leaving him alone with Ada who was glaring at him in a way he’d never experienced before. He’d never really associated Ada with having a temper, but he certainly knew better now.
“I’d like a word with you, Husband,” she said, her even tone at odds with the ferocity in her eyes, before pushing past him to enter his home. He closed the door without thinking, leaving them in the dimly lit atrium, utterly alone. A rustle of fabric and the gleam of white skin told him that Ada had removed her cloak.
“Is something wrong?” he managed to choke out as his palms began to sweat.
“That is exactly what I came to ask. Why did you leave me at my brother’s house without a word?”
Shit . “Ada…”
“Why haven’t I heard from or seen you since then? I’ve been waiting for you for over a week.”
Hadn’t her brother spoken to her? He didn’t have a ready response to that.
“Shall we, um, go to my office?”
“Fine.”
He led her back to his cluttered office with the books and papers scattered over every piece of furniture. When he turned to face her, however, he immediately regretted not staying in the dark hallway. She had always been beautiful, but the image of her in that confection of a dress, her slender shoulders on display, and her full breasts peeping out the top of the neckline with fire in her eyes and a passionate flush on her cheeks had his breath caught in his throat. Under any other circumstances, he would have crossed the room in seconds to devour her. However, as it was…
“I’ll clear a place for you to sit down.” Anything to keep his hands occupied.
“There’s no need. I’m not in the mood to sit,” she snapped, folding her arms, her head tilting to the side expectantly.
Don’t look down, don’t look down. “You seem upset about something.”
“Do I?”
“I don’t know why exactly.” That wasn’t entirely true, but he’d hoped she wouldn’t have decided to push the issue.
“You don’t know why? You kissed me, dropped me off at my brother’s without a word, and you can’t understand why I would be upset?”
“That’s not quite true.”
“I wrote to you. I wrote to you constantly, and you never responded to any of my letters. Did you not receive them?”
“I… I received them.”
“Then what the hell are you doing?” she replied, prowling over to him with a glint in her eye that made him a little nervous. “Do you look down on me so much that you think you can treat me like a piece of baggage to be picked up and put aside at your leisure?”
“Of course not,” he replied, hoping to calm her down. Clearly, he had miscalculated.
“Then what?”
“I’ve been speaking to a solicitor,” he said.
“About what?” Her confusion was disconcerting.
“About the annulment?”
“So, you are annulling me?” Her entire expression changed then to dull outrage. If he’d thought himself in danger before, he’d been mistaken. It was now. He was in danger now.
“I agreed that we would annul our marriage after—”
“We did agree. But then you kissed me in the middle of your parents’ house, so I naturally assumed that perhaps you were no longer considering that course of action.”
“That was a mistake.” A mistake he had been paying for every night. He still couldn’t get the taste of her out of his mouth or forget the feel of her body under his hands.
“A mistake?”
This wasn’t going well. “Perhaps that isn’t the right word. Ill-advised.”
“Yes, that sounds much better,” she sniped, her eyes narrowing slightly.
He swallowed past his dry throat and took the long way around his desk. He needed to maintain distance between them, partly because she looked capable of anything, and partly for his sanity. She was truly dazzling in a temper, even when her ire was directed at him.
“What I mean is that I shouldn’t have done it. You deserve better than what I can offer, Ada. With your temperament, your accomplishments—”
“My dowry,” she interjected, closing in on him.
“That as well, yes. You don’t need to settle for me. We agreed to an annulment, and you shouldn’t be cheated out of what you deserve because of a momentary indiscretion on my part.”
“A—” she stared at him in bafflement, her brow furrowing, and her mouth slightly parting.
“You would regret such a mistake.”
She let out a short, mirthless laugh and shook her head. “Regret…Basil, you never claimed to be the cleverest of men, but I didn’t actually think you were a fool.”
That froze him. A fool? How was he a fool for thinking of her happiness and wellbeing? “I beg your—”
“Settle? You think I am throwing myself at the first decent man available because I’m too simple to know better. Do you have any idea how insulting your words are?”
“I didn’t—”
“I know exactly who I am and what I’m worth, and I have no intention of compromising my prospects for anything or anyone.”
“I just want you to be happy. My family… you wouldn’t be happy with them.”
“But Felicity Ashwood would be, is that right?”
His brain seemed to stop dead in its tracks. “Miss Ashwood?” He hadn’t thought of her in so long, it took him a moment to remember what she had been to him.
“I know that you’ve taken back up with her.”
Taken back up? What the hell had Richard told her? “I have—what are you saying?” He took a step forward.
“Stop lying!” she cried desperately. The tears in her eyes sliced into his heart.
Never in a thousand years had he ever imagined being the one who made her cry, who put that look in her eyes. He stepped closer and carefully reached out, laying his hands on her bare shoulders. He tried not to focus on the silken texture of her skin “Ada, I am not lying. What are you talking about?”
“I know your mother has been attending the opera with her and Lady Ashwood, making sure she is seen with her future daughter-in-law.”
“That is—” Nothing to do with me.
She shook off his hold and clasped her hands at her waist lifting her head to meet his stare. “I wouldn’t have argued if you wanted to annul me and patch things up with your fiancée. I gave you my word, and I would have kept it no matter how much it pained me. But you had no right to ignore me like this. To take up an alliance without having the decency to look me in the eye and end this first is so unlike what a man ought to be.”
“Ada.” He wanted to say more but her words kept sucking the air right out of his lungs. He could see in those depths how much he had hurt her, how badly he had miscalculated the effect his actions would have.
“I know you never wanted or intended to marry me. I know I am not what you wanted or what your family wanted. I knew when you came to me you were doing it for Richard, that you were acting as a friend to him more than anything else. But I thought… I thought that your feelings had grown past that. When you stayed with me that night, when you held my hand, I thought you were doing it for me, because you cared for me.”
“I have. I do.” The words sounded feeble and insipid to his ears. They couldn’t come close to expressing the fathomless depths of what he felt for her.
“When you kissed me, I thought it was because you wanted me. I didn’t see it as a mistake, and I didn’t realize you did. I haven’t come here to stop you. If Miss Ashwood is what will make you happy, then…” Then?
She looked down at her hands and gnawed at her bottom lip as he stood there watching, terrified to touch her and incapable of turning away. She wouldn’t say it. Perhaps she couldn’t wish him well with someone else. Then she lifted her head and those dazzling dark eyes met his with determination and made his heart ache.
“I just wanted to tell you that a man should fulfill or end his commitments on his own. No one can do it for him.” She pulled on her finger and then opened her palm to reveal her wedding ring. The ring he’d put on her hand only a fortnight ago. “This belongs to you.”
He stared at the circle of gold in her small white palm and couldn’t bring himself to take it back. It was what he’d claimed to want. He didn’t trust himself to take care of her, didn’t believe he had what it took to protect her from his father and brother. But if he didn’t take it back, wouldn’t it be another misdirection? Another unintentional way to hurt her? How could he explain that in his heart that ring was hers? That the moment he’d put it on her finger, he’d never thought of taking it back. “I don’t want it,” he whispered past his constricted throat.
“I cannot keep it, Basil. It was meant for your wife, for Miss Ashwood.”
“I’m not marrying Miss Ashwood,” he said.
She blinked in incomprehension. “What did you say?”
“Miss Ashwood is engaged to someone else. I am not marrying her.”
She watched him with an indecipherable expression for one long moment and then lunged forward. He had just enough time to take a breath before her hands linked behind his neck and dragged his mouth down to hers. The shock of the contact left him frozen as her lips moved innocently against his. Her words reverberated in his chest. She drew away, her eyes unfocused and a little anxious.
What was his excuse now? There was no overpouring of emotion as he’d claimed, nothing to distract from the truth of what was before him. Ada standing here, setting him free with her words and begging him with her eyes to never let her go. A man should fulfill or end his commitments on his own. No one can do it for him . Whatever his reasons, he had married her. His heart had accepted her as his wife the moment he’d put that ring on her finger. He’d made a commitment to her with his deeds even if he’d been too much of a coward to admit it. No one can do it for him.
It was what Richard had tried to tell him. No one else could be Ada’s husband but him. No one.
He took in her flushed face for one more moment and then yanked her up onto her toes and kissed her.
*
Ada was certain of one thing. She wasn’t leaving this room until she was dead certain she would remain Mrs. Thompson. Nothing was beneath her. She would call on her brother, his mother, and the House of Lords to ensure it. Fortunately, however, her first resort of kissing him still seemed to be working out well. She pulled at his cravat, the buttons on his waistcoat, the hem of his shirt all the while kissing him as if her life depended on it. She couldn’t move fast enough, couldn’t decide what she wanted to focus on more. She couldn’t think about what she was doing. If she allowed herself to consider her actions, she would sink into mortification. All she knew was she had to make sure he understood what she wanted. She had to make sure he couldn’t leave her behind again.
“Ada,” he murmured against her mouth, and she panicked instantly, kissing him harder, clinging to his shoulders as she fought to stay on her toes. Over and over, he attempted to calm her frenzied actions until finally his arms came around her, trapping her arms against her squirming body. “It’s all right, Ada,” he whispered into her hair, as he held her against him.
She squeezed her burning eyes shut and pressed her face into his shoulder, waiting for him to push her away. After a moment he adjusted his hold and drew her back before tilting her face up to his. Still, she kept her eyes shut, afraid of what she’d see. Then his mouth was on hers, kissing her slow and deep, leaving no more doubts in her mind or strength in her legs. He was going to take what was his. Finally.
His lips left hers to taste the skin of her jaw, her neck, and shoulders while his hands wandered everywhere, tangling in her hair, running over her breasts, and waist. She pulled open his waistcoat and cravat, pressing her mouth against his bare throat.
His groan reverberated against her as his hands tightened convulsively on her body. “Let me take you upstairs.”
“No, no. Take me now.”
“Darling.”
She pressed her brow against his and held his face in her hands as she strained upwards to kiss him. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
He moaned against her lips, his tongue pushing past them to taste her mouth. She shivered at the sensation, her fingertips pressing into his short beard. Her hair gave way to his hands as pins clattered onto the floor. His fingers worked along her back, unhooking her bodice and pulling it away from her. Next came the skirt of her gown, followed by petticoats and her crinoline until she stood before him in her chemise, stockings, and pantalettes. She helped him remove his waistcoat, shirt, and trousers, leaving him in his linen drawers. His body was so entrancing she didn’t have time to be bashful about her own scantily clad form. She’d seen his bare chest before, but never this close. And she certainly hadn’t touched him like she was doing now, taking in smooth skin and the slight roughness of the dusting of hair on his chest.
When she met his eyes again, they were fixed on her with an electrifying level of intensity. He pulled her against him, drugging her with deep and languid kisses while she slid her arms around his neck in total acceptance of whatever he chose to do. She loved his kisses, she loved the feel of his body, his scent, the low noises he made in the back of his throat. He hoisted her up into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her over to the sofa. He dropped to his knees, setting her down on the cushions before removing her evening slippers, sliding his hands up her legs to remove her pantalettes and her cotton stockings. The first time his slightly roughened fingertips touched the bare flesh of her legs, her breath caught in her throat. How could she have known it would feel so wonderful to have a man’s hands on her skin like that? How could she have known how sensitive the insides of her thighs could be?
His mouth raced over whatever bare skin was available, pausing to kiss her breasts and tease her nipples over her linen chemise. She gasped, arching into his mouth, and running her hands over his bare shoulders. She wanted him to stay exactly where he was but more than that, she wanted him to keep going. His mouth traced over her stomach before reaching her calf, the inside of her knee. His tongue flicked against the inside of her thigh, and she collapsed against the back of the sofa, her hands still clinging lightly to his hair. The further his mouth climbed, pushing her chemise out of the way, the harder her breath came until he finally reached her sex. When his tongue flicked against a spot of incredible sensitivity, the sensation exploded throughout her body. A loud cry burst from her panting mouth, and her eyes squeezed shut against the intensity.
He groaned in response, sliding her leg over his shoulder, and putting his hands under her bottom to hold her writhing body in place while he sucked and licked and swirled his tongue all over the epicenter of all sensation in her body, building a delicious tension in her limbs. He slid a finger inside her and the shock of the fullness had her fingers curling into a fist in his hair. A second finger slid in beside the first and the chord within her snapped, sending her body into spasms as she churned her hips against his mouth and onto his fingers, chasing every ounce of sensation. When she came back to herself, she could feel his beard still against her thigh, his breath on her sensitive flesh.
She drew his face up to hers, and he complied eagerly, kissing her with growing hunger as he pulled her closer. He drew her down to straddle his lap, bending his head to devour her neck and shoulders as she curled herself around him. He petted her between her legs, his fingers probing and stroking that wonderful ache back to life. It wasn’t until he pressed something blunt and wide against her entrance that she realized he was naked under her. That her bare bottom was resting on his naked thighs. He sank into her slowly, his teeth clenching onto her skin as his clever fingers kept their attentions between her legs. Even with all those wonderful sensations, it was impossible not to notice the discomfort of his thick flesh stretching her beyond what she thought she could bear. There was a sharp pinch that made her wince in near pain as he progressed within her until he was fully seated. She struggled to catch her breath as her body acclimated to the impossible fullness.
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” she gritted out. “It’s not hurting really but it burns, almost like there’s too much in there.”
He let out a short, weak burst of laughter, before capturing her mouth in a quick, hard kiss. “Not too much. Just give it a moment, darling.”
“What should I do?”
“Let me distract you for a bit,” he said pulling her chemise up over her head and leaving her as exposed as he was.
She opened her mouth to ask another question, but then he was kissing her neck, his hand fisted in the hair at the base of her skull. He suckled on the spot where her neck met her shoulder, and every thought went clean out of her head. It was like being devoured by a famished beast or a sailor on leave if Regina’s books were to be believed. His mouth, teeth, and tongue moved over her skin with a steady urgency that left her breathless and tingling all over. Her skin seemed alive with sensitivity, magnifying the contrast of his soft mouth and the scrape of his beard. He took the tip of one of her breasts into his warm mouth, and she nearly choked. When he began to suck, her core clenched down hard on him. She winced at the discomfort, but it didn’t last long. The more she clenched down on him, the less painful he felt inside her. It was as if she were melting around him, from her muscles to her bones until she felt the first stirrings of pleasure between her legs since he’d entered her.
Curious, she began to shift her hips experimentally to see if she was ready for more. He groaned loudly into her shoulder, and she felt his sex flex inside her. He nipped at her skin, his breath coming in deep gusts as his hands shifted to her hips. For a few moments, he guided her movements, showing her how to tilt her hips to hit that elusive spot within her that always made her breath catch in her throat.
“Do you like that?” he whispered into her ear, sending shivers throughout her body. She nodded weakly, her eyes clenched shut, and her hand tightened convulsively on his shoulders. “What about this?” He moved underneath her, the angle setting every nerve ending in her core alight.
She gave a sharp gasp before a guttural groan left her mouth. Delicious heat raced through her as they moved together. She rocked against him with single-minded purpose, her head falling back weakly as bursts of pleasure detonated between her legs where he ground into her. Without warning, a starburst of sensation sent her reeling, and she cried out, her entire body going rigid in his arms while she struggled to catch her breath. As it faded, she collapsed against him, kissing him ravenously.
He fell backward, drawing her down on top of him as he caressed her naked flesh. Her midnight hair fell around them as she braced one hand on his chest over his thundering heartbeat and the other on the plush carpet beside his head. She ground down onto him and his head fell back as he arched into her with a shout. That made her eager for more as much as the ghost of her previous climax lingering in her body. Between what felt good for her and the sounds he made, she found her rhythm, rocking and swirling her hips. His hands moved up her torso, glancing over her stomach and her ribs to tease her sensitive nipples as he watched her with glittering eyes.
Her throat was raw with her cries, her mouth dry and chapped from her panting breaths and biting her lips. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment as the wave of pleasure built again with even more force, threatening to leave her hollowed out and bruised in its wake. She searched blindly for his hands on her breasts, clinging to them in an attempt to stay grounded, and then she heard him call her name.
“Ada.”
A shiver raced through her at the rough desperate tenor of his voice.
“Ada, look at me. I want to see you.”
Her heavy eyelids lifted just as the wave crested and she called out again, riding him hard and fast, desperate for the torturous pleasure to fade, desperate for her body to stop seizing so she could catch her breath. Basil bucked up into her body and she heard his cries of ecstasy before he spilled inside her, hot and thick. She fell forward onto him, sweat-slicked and trembling. His hands came up to her face, pushing her hair back as she tasted his mouth again, unwilling to give up such a treat even for air.
A thought rose up within her, unbidden and unanticipated. What happened now? Was she supposed to go back to her brother’s house to wait? She wasn’t ready for this to be over. She wanted him to stay just like this against her, inside her. Her eyes stung with tears as his wonderful mouth raced over her forehead to her cheek and jaw, kissing and tasting her skin.
“Don’t let go,” she begged as she pressed her face into his neck, panting for breath and desperate for comfort after that delicious ordeal.
“Never,” he growled against her skin. “Never. You’re mine now.”