Page 27 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

Under the trees the rain did not fall so heavily but dripped on them from the canopy of leaves as they forced a path through the bracken.

When they reached the track, another flash brightened the sky, and a second or so later thunder trembled through the trees.

The animals tugged on their reins, so they stopped to calm them.

Rob looked around. ‘Is there anywhere to take shelter?’ They were far from Drew’s and John’s houses.

‘There’s a charcoal-burner’s cottage somewhere in the woods. It’s never used now. It’s somewhere along the tracks.’

‘We will try to find it then. Right or left?’

‘Left. I would guess it is on the track towards your brother’s mansion.’

The wind blew a shower of raindrops from the leaves. He shook his head, shaking the water from his hair like a dog.

After a few minutes of walking, Caro pointed at something. ‘It’s there. Look. I see it.’

So could he. It was a small, oblong, whitewashed, thatched, single-storey hut.

A flash brightened the sky above them and at the same time it was as if the sky had been torn open as thunder cracked and shook the trees. The mare tried to rear, but Rob held her tight and soothed her.

They led the horses into the clearing before the hut.

There was a lean-to on the side of it, which was broad enough to stable the horses.

He walked the mare over to it. The animals would at least be out of the rain and hopefully feel more secure.

He tied the reins of both horses on a wooden post in the frame, water dripping from his hair.

Then released the girth straps under the horses’ bellies and lifted off their saddles.

Caro stood to one side, her arms clutching across her chest as though she were cold.

‘Let’s go inside,’ he suggested. It was still raining.

When he pushed it, the door of the hut swung open. ‘Go in,’ he urged Caro.

There was a dirt floor, and a bed made from wooden boards. It was a labourer’s hut.

Caro’s eyes widened as she looked around, then she turned and looked at him.

The sudden thrust of thirst he had become used to caught in his throat. Her hand rose to the back of his neck. ‘I apologise to you now,’ she said as she drew his lips to hers.

‘You are forgiven,’ he said in the moment before the kiss began. This would most likely be their last kiss. He would treasure these moments with Caro for the rest of his life.

Her tongue danced around his with more urgency than usual.

His hands rested at the back of her wet habit on the damp velvet.

Another flash and another clap of thunder rattled the hut. The horses whinnied.

Her arms wrapped about his neck, drawing his attention away from the storm.

The heaviness in his groin solidified and his erection pressed against his trousers.

The thirst he knew the night she came to the library raged in his blood. Today, he did not have the excuse of liquor.

She broke the kiss. ‘Touch me.’

‘I am.’

‘I mean, touch me as you did the night of the dance.’ She pulled at the sodden cotton of his shirt, tugging it free from the waist of his trousers. ‘I want to know this again before you leave.’

Lust screamed.

Her fingers touched the skin at his waist, they were cold.

He cupped her breast. It filled his palm and his fingers splayed as he kneaded her flesh through the damp cloth, remembering the feel of soft skin, as his lips pressed down on hers.

She broke their kiss again. ‘May we lie down?’

He kissed her temple. ‘Yes. But I doubt we will be comfortable on that wooden bed.’

‘I do not care. Would you help me remove my habit? It is heavy and awkward.’

Her hands shook as she struggled to release the small buttons at her chest. He took over the task, then helped her peel off the soaked dress from her shoulders and arms.

She wore only a chemise beneath it. She must have left off her corset due to the heat. The chemise was wet through and translucent; it clung to her dark-pink nipples and the curves of her breasts. ‘Step out of the dress and I will hang it from a rafter so it will dry a little.’

She lay a hand on his shoulder as he held the dress and she stepped out of it.

The damp cotton of her chemise clung at her hips, bottom and thighs; he could see the dark hair at her groin. She was not wearing the modern drawers that some women now wore; she wore nothing but the chemise.

Sensations tore through his body from his chest through his stomach to his groin. It was Harry’s addiction – lust.

Mine is Caro. What will I do in London without her…?

He hung her dress, then turned and reclaimed her, kissing her firmly and backing her towards the narrow bed, his tongue thrusting into her mouth .

‘Wait.’ She stopped him and freed the small buttons at the front of her chemise as he watched. It hung open, revealing the amber cross she wore and the first curve of each breast.

When she lay down the little cross slid to the left. ‘You have held back since the night of the dance, Rob. Do not hold back any more. Let us make a memory today.’

He watched her lift her hips and work up the hem of her chemise to the top of her thighs.

She lay there, exposed for him. There was only space on the bed for him to lie with his legs between hers, and his body over hers.

‘Take off your shirt. You are wet too.’

He did, pulling it awkwardly over his head, because it was wet and would not slide easily. He hung it up beside Caro’s dress.

She rested up on an elbow, reached for his hand and brought his hand to her breast. ‘This is what I want.’

He knew what she wanted. He rested a knee between her parted legs, on the hard wood, and held the bedframe beside her shoulder bracing his weight. Then his other hand closed about her breast. She parted her legs wider, making space for his other knee.

His imagination cried out for him to do a hundred different things as he leaned forward and took her nipple between his teeth through the damp cotton.

Outside, another flash lit up the sky, but the rumble of thunder came long after.

He pulled the cotton aside with his teeth, then kissed her bare breast, before cradling her nipple on his tongue and sucking it fiercely as he had done that night.

She arched beneath him.

It still poured with rain outside, its rhythm hammering on the roof of the hut .

His instincts – the dry need in his throat and lust in his groin – called for him to progress as her body continually lifted, pressing up against his erection.

Caro’s fingers ran over his shoulders and down across his back to the waistband of his trousers.

The tips of her fingers slipped beneath the band, reaching towards his buttocks, as she pressed her pelvis up against his erection, urging him to do things he should not.

The lust and thirst inside him gathered like the storm. He let her nipple slip from his mouth, raised himself up and stared down at her as her hips dropped back.

‘We should cease this.’

‘No.’ Her head shook, brushing her damp hair on the filthy wood.

‘It can be nothing more than this.’

‘I know.’ Her eyes were pools of emotions. ‘Just this once. We will not have this chance again.’

She was part naked beneath him and he was half naked above her, and his body shouted for him to progress.

Her hand reached down between them and freed a button that secured his flap. Then another. He caught hold of her hand to stop her freeing the next.

‘Let me. Let us,’ she urged.

He breathed out heavily. I should not. Lust was a drug, it was heady and confusing; it made his blood thick, his skin hot and his mind pulp.

‘There will be no harm done,’ she said. ‘I am not an innocent woman.’

Her words pierced through his chest, but he would not tell her – I am innocent .

‘Let us have this memory,’ she urged again, her hand escaping his and releasing another button, and the next .

He felt conquered. He could not fight this any more. He had no wish to.

Her hand slid into his underwear and wrapped about his erection. He had fantasised about such things since the night of the dance and woken in tangled sweat-dampened sheets.

He lowered his head and kissed her as her hand worked, moving up then down. Her thumb brushed across his tip and his whole body jolted. Then he began working himself into her hand, sliding through her fingers. It became harder to kiss her while he moved.

‘Lower your trousers and underwear,’ she said. ‘They are too wet for me to remove.’

How far did she wish him to go?

As he knelt up, to be able to push the garments to his hips, her hand lifted her chemise and revealed the intimate place between her legs.

He breathed heavily as he came back down on top of her. She took him in her hand again. As he kissed her lips then her neck, she moved the head of his erection between her thighs.

His head lifted, as he clung to sanity by his fingernails. ‘Would you have me be entirely indecent?’

‘Yes.’ She held him, as though she treasured him. ‘Just this once.’

His heart pounded like a drum in his chest.

The dryness of the carnal thirst clutched at the back of his throat. ‘ Just this once ’. His body ached for it. But he was not ready yet. He knelt up again, to be able to look at her.

The back of his fingers ran up her inner thigh as he remained kneeling before her. He touched her between her legs, exploring with his fingertips.

She closed her eyes, her expression telling him she enjoyed his touch .

He dipped one finger within her; she was hot and moist. He slid two fingers deeper within, and she sighed, her mouth opening. Her mouth remained open as he withdrew his fingers, then pushed them in once more with a gentle stroke.

‘What will happen when I visit here next?’ he said, as his fingers learned her internal plains. ‘How will we be with one another after this?’

Her eyes opened. ‘We will be friends. But I do not think of what will happen then now. I have no expectation beyond this, I promise. I know you cannot stay. I am not asking you to stay, you have a life to live. I just want this, Rob. I have missed it since my marriage ended, and I care for you, and I want to experience this with you.’

Care for… He cared for her too. But care was not the lustful elemental feelings gripping in his gut.

His fingers entered and withdrew, stroking deep inside her.

‘I cannot make promises.’ This did not feel honourable, yet she was offering herself and he had sentimental feelings, something had grown between them from a seed to a flower.

‘I am not asking for promises.’

His fingers slid out of her as he watched, then back within her warmth.

‘This is what you will do in London,’ she said. ‘You will have affairs before you settle. So why not do this now with me?’

She was still trying to persuade him, but he no longer needed to be persuaded.

His fingers worked more steadily as he watched what he did, learning about the responses of her body, as she arched her back and her breasts rocked.

Weeks ago, he had hoped to see her laugh and dance… now this. He could never have imagined enjoying this ecstasy with her .

He doubled over and licked between her legs, his hands holding her thighs. They were made of the softest flesh, but the flesh between her legs was satin and velvet combined.

She touched herself, her fingertips playing near his tongue. He kissed one of her fingers, then licked her, then sucked her fingertip.