Page 43 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

Caro shivered. The sheets were cold. ‘Warm me up, Rob.’

‘Yes, m’lady.’ His hand ran over her hip, then upwards. He cupped her breast and she rolled onto her back and despite the cold, her arms lifted above the covers as he sucked her breast. His mouth was warm.

The sheets of his bed smelt of him.

His teeth caught her nipple and bit gently. She pulled a strand of his hair in return.

He laughed against her skin, then his kisses pressed across her middle, and ran down to her stomach.

Sunlight poured through a tall narrow window. The clouds had cleared to blue sky in the distance, above the rooftops.

His fingers touched between her legs.

‘I have dreamed of this so many times,’ Rob said, before he moved down the bed.

‘I dreamed of this too.’

He held her thighs gently as his lips, tongue and teeth caressed her.

Her body arched against him. She was not cold any more.

Her mind was completely lost in the sensations of adoration.

The amber cross on her necklace slid across her throat as her body moved, her hips lifting and lowering rhythmically.

She died her little death on his tongue, and her body sank into the soft bed that smelt of him.

Then he was above her, looking down, his legs between hers and his body poised. ‘Caro,’ he said, his voice loaded with emotions. ‘I have wanted you constantly since you came to town.’

Her fingers brushed his fringe from his brow. ‘You have me now.’

He pressed into her.

It was paradise.

He watched her body, her breasts rocking with his movements. It was their first time unclothed in the light.

‘I love you,’ she said.

His lips twisted in a wry smile when he looked up, and then, his fingers curving into the mattress beside her shoulders, he moved more vigorously.

She lifted her legs, wrapping her thighs about his waist. She raised her arms and held the iron struts in his bedhead, so she could hold firm against his thrusts, biting her lower lip to prevent the sounds that longed to escape.

He looked down at where they joined, biting his upper lip, and she knew from his expression, his concentration, he was fighting to avoid his release for as long as possible.

Rob was not Albert – like everything in Albert’s life, what they had done in a bed had been for his benefit. He would not have held back from his conclusion to enhance her pleasure.

‘Oh.’ New sensations caught inside her, as he struck a sensitive spot. ‘Continue like that,’ she urged, as her body arched to find the same contact. ‘Ah!’ she cried out when she fell to the little death again and the release rushed through her veins .

He looked at her with a smile and moved more aggressively, seeking his own completion. When it came, he withdrew from her body and let his seed pulse onto her stomach. A muscle flickered in his jaw as he looked at her. He looked so young at times.

He rolled away, tumbling on to the bed beside her. ‘My conscience knows I should not have let this begun. I have no life to offer you yet, but I cannot regret it.’

‘You need not,’ she said in return, her body satisfied and her heart full. ‘Tell me about your hopes in politics.’

‘My hopes…’ He laughed.

‘Yes. You said you had a plan. Tell me about it. Why do you want to sit in the House of Commons?’

‘I wish to make a difference in the world. I want to speak out for the working class. For those who need a voice most but have no power to speak in Parliament. Most people have no right to vote. They need a voice.’

It was such a Rob-like statement. She rolled towards him and kissed his lips, then fell back smiling.

He turned to his side and lifted up on one elbow.

His fingers ran across her cheek and he tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear.

‘Numerous women who live in poverty are forced to do things they do not wish to do. I will free them from that life if I can. And I wish to free men from being controlled by their employers’ greed; I shall argue for a fair wage.

The current systems favour the wealthy at every turn. It is not right.’

Caro’s admiration for this honourable man grew.

Rob lay on his back.

She shuffled across the mattress to rest her head on his chest. He lay his arm around her shoulders.

‘I am glad you will give them a voice. It will be a good voice. You are a compassionate man, a man people need to speak for them. ’

Albert sat in the House of Lords. She had heard him practise speeches – he’d only ever spoken for the bills that made the rich richer and the landowners more secure.

‘My family would call it idealism, not compassion.’ He laughed as his other arm lifted and his hand tucked behind his head, so his head rested on his palm.

‘But perhaps it is naivety. I had not realised how much money I need to achieve this plan to speak for the poor. Which in its turn makes this bizarre.’

‘Your brother cou?—’

‘Do not say it.’ His hand slipped from beneath his head and covered her mouth. ‘How may I speak for the working class if my brother has paid for my seat? And before you say this too, I know a dozen others do it, but I am not them.’

‘No.’ Caro turned onto her stomach, to look at him, her hand resting on his chest. ‘You are not like them, you are passionate and compassionate, and I love you.’

The clock in the sitting room chimed four times.

‘Rob.’ Caro brushed a hand across Rob’s shoulder to wake him.

They had lain in bed all afternoon and made love twice. She led on the second occasion, using her mouth and sitting on top of him, his palms resting on her thighs, his thumbs brushing over the inner surfaces as she rose and lowered.

‘It is four o’clock, Rob,’ she said, louder.

His eyelids lifted, and dark-grey eyes looked at her. He smiled. ‘Sorry, we have so little time to spend together and I fell asleep.’

‘I slept too.’

His fingers brushed her cheek. ‘Now I must give you up again. At least I think the dark circles that were beneath your eyes when I picked you up have gone.’

‘You have a way with compliments, Rob Marlow.’ She rolled away, got up and reached for her chemise. ‘Where is your chamber pot?’

‘Beneath the bed.’

He lifted up on his side and rested his head on a palm, the sheet and blankets settling low over his hip, displaying the athletic definition of his torso and the dark dusting of hair across the centre of his chest. She felt as though she knew every inch of his body now.

‘You know you are beautiful, you do not need my compliments, but if you wish for them,’ he said, ‘then what I really notice about your eyes is that they turn gold in the sunlight.’

She did not know what to say. The look in his eyes said hers were gold now. She bunched up her chemise, slid her arms into the sleeves, lifted it over her head and let it fall to cover her body.

‘Caro. I want to marry you as soon as I can.’ He had got up in the moment it took to put the chemise over her head.

He embraced her, as the words slid through her soul. She wished for it too. ‘But I cannot have children, Rob.’

‘I do not care. I will ask that we say nothing to anyone yet, though. Let us keep this our secret until I know I can support you without my father’s or John’s help. If my family know, it will prevent us escaping like this. We will act as friends before them and be lovers when we are alone.’

She understood, and what she valued most were these moments with him. ‘Yes.’ She kissed his lips briefly, then pulled free. ‘But now we need to go back. Would you dress in the sitting room so I can use your chamber pot?’

He grinned as broadly as George might as he collected his clothes and walked from the room.