Page 13 of When Jess Wainwright’s Curiosity Was Satisfied (Wainwright Sisters #4)
Chapter Thirteen
“ Y our work on behalf of the mining community when you’re here in Cumbria can’t be very effective,” Jess observed.
“My inventions have given miners better lighting, and eliminated the need for drammers and other child laborers like the one I once was. They’ve also provided me with the resources to bend the ears of politicians and journalists sympathetic to my cause, and given me leverage to insist on certain working conditions before I’ll sell what I’ve made to anyone in the business.”
“How can you be sure they don’t simply revert to their former practices when you’re gone?”
He grimaced at her question. “It’s a risk. But to my knowledge, it’s only happened on one occasion. The owner had a revolt on his hands when he tried to reinstate the previous working conditions. He quickly saw the error of his ways.”
“I applaud your commitment and determination, Mr. Morgan.”
“At least something I’ve done has earned your approval,” he said with a wry smile.
Jess laid her spoon across the top of her bowl and propped her chin in her hands. “I’ve finished my meal, so perhaps you’ll find other ways to redeem yourself. Showing me your library would be a wonderful start.”
He set his own spoon down, crossed his arms and raised a brow. “My library? You mean for me to share my other inner sanctum?”
Jess fluttered her lashes at him. “Good sir, I’ve had multiple reports of its treasures and I am eager to see them with my own eyes.”
Her dinner companion laughed. “My niece and nephew greatly exaggerate its grandeur. But, come along.” He stood and pulled her chair away from the table. Jess slipped her hand through his arm with an eager smile.
When he pushed the heavy oak doors wide open, Jess clasped her hands and whirled about to take it all in.
It was a treasure trove. The gas lamps on either side of the desk and in the corners shown softly on the floor to ceiling bookshelves that lined the walls. Jess strode closer and set her hand against the wheeled ladder propped in the corner.
“May I investigate?”
“Of course. I’m gratified that something else about me has met with your approval.”
“You have so many resources at your disposal, resources that would be extremely welcome in my classroom.”
“I’d not deny your students access.”
“I’d like a closer look at the top shelf - I spy a copy of Desiderata .”
He bowed slightly. “Be my guest. Consider my library yours whenever you need it.”
Jess took her skirts in one hand and climbed to the second step from the top.
There was an entire shelf full of natural sciences translations behind her. She should be focused on them, not the width of his shoulders or the determined glint in his eyes when she turned to face him.
“You just gave me leave to use your library,” she said, her voice laced with suspicion.
“Indeed I did. Do you know why, Jess?”
She gulped and gripped the rung of the ladder at her shoulders. “Because you know the lessons I design for your niece and nephew will be more thorough.”
His laugh was a low rumble. “No, my little pragmatic schoolteacher. That’s not why I offered you full access to my collection.”
Jess could feel the heat flushing her neck and cheeks. “Then I’m sure your reasons were nefarious.”
He stalked closer, until he stood mere inches from the ladder, crowding her space. His thighs brushed against the rustle of her skirts when he placed his hands on the shelves and caged her in. “I’ve been dreaming of doing scandalous things to you while you’re perched on this ladder.”
“Scandalous things?” Jess hated how breathless she sounded.
“Scandalous things,” he repeated as his hand slid up her calf beneath the flannel petticoat.
“I thought we agreed to kisses.”
“This is a kiss, madam,” he said as he pressed his mouth to her knee.
He rubbed his knuckle against her skin and the ribbon securing her stocking. And then his lips feathered across her inner thigh.
“What are you doing?” She eked out.
“Kissing you. As we agreed. Are you brave enough to withstand it?” He asked against her thigh with a wicked smirk and eyes alight with laughter and challenge.
Jess had read of such things, but they’d seemed unimaginable. The scandalous etchings and poetry Arie shared with her sisters after her husband’s death had been titillating, but she hadn’t been able to visualize them until this man kissed her.
“Perhaps such kisses are a bit premature? Perhaps I’m not yet brave enough to withstand them?”
Something flickered in his gaze when he raised it to hers. If Jess hadn’t been so convinced he was a reprobate at heart, she would have called it guilt.
“Then I shall indulge my curiosity in other ways - until yours is as undeniable as mine.”
His fingers were on the buttons running down her back, swift and sure, before she had the chance to protest. Faster than she could blink, his deft touch was against her bare skin, sliding beneath the neckline of her dress to dip into her decolletage.
“I’ve dreamt of kissing you here as well,” he murmured as he pressed his mouth to the flushed skin above her cleavage. “And here,” he whispered against the cotton chemise stretched over the rise of her breasts. “And here,” he said as he tugged her dress to her waist and began unlacing her half-corset, pressing kisses along the path of the strings.
“These kisses seem premature as well,” Jess protested. She closed her eyes against the warmth of his breath on her skin. It was like the heat of the brazier against the soles of her feet on a cold night.
“They are not premature, they are an essential element of my strategy to disarm and disconcert you.”
“My reaction in the coatroom was an anomaly,” Jess insisted.
“Then this should not move you in the least,” he said as he dipped his head to her cotton covered left breast. He curved his palm beneath it and lifted it closer, and then swirled his tongue around the tip.
Jess clenched the ladder so hard she was certain she’d have splinters as a reward. When he pulled the material tight she looked down and her nipple was like a rosebud under the nearly transparent cotton. She tilted her head back and let it rest against the ladder.
“Are you overcome with ardor, yet, dragonfly?”
“Speaking of dragonflies,” Jess answered. Perhaps if she talked about her studies she could focus on something besides his wicked mouth. “Did you know their vision is a complete three hundred and sixty degrees and it’s estimated they may have as many as thirty thousand lenses in their eyes?”
“Are you trying to distract me or yourself? I shan’t be distracted. If you feel the need to spout random facts in the middle of my seduction, I think it’s a sign you’re once again in danger of losing the wager.”
His lips closed over her breast once again, and he rolled the bead of her nipple against the roof of his mouth before he nipped it gently. His hand closed around the other one and tugged gently, until the abrasion of her dress against it nearly drove Jess mad. She clenched her teeth and nearly cried out when she bit her tongue as she tried to swallow a moan.
“I do not think you are unmoved, Jess Wainwright. Can you manage any more facts about your beloved insects without sounding short of breath?”
“The smallest dragonfly,” she paused to regulate her breathing, “has a wingspan of a mere seven tenths of an inch.”
“Go on,” he said as he pulled the ribbon loose from her chemise.
“Some entomologists believe dragonflies were flying about in the time of the dinosaurs.”
“That’s quite a history,” he murmured as he kissed her bared breast. His lips were like satin, and the suction of his mouth made her stomach tight and quivery. She wanted to tangle her fingers in his hair and squeeze her thighs together instead of remaining still as a statue.
“They’ve found some of them encased in ancient amber, preserved to the tiniest detail.”
“I’d preserve these in amber if I could,” he said as he lavished first one breast, then the other.
His tongue stroked over her areola, teasing around the place she desperately wanted to feel its caress again. She steadfastly ignored her instincts and surreptitiously curled her foot around the leg of the ladder, to stop her body from surging forward.
“That’s what sculptures are for,” she retorted. She wanted to bite her tongue, or turn the clock back as soon as she let the words slip.
“Are you giving me leave to sculpt your bosom, dragonfly?”
“You have plenty of women who’d willingly pose for such a scandalous endeavor. I am not among their number.”
“Perhaps I’ll attempt to do it from memory. With the taste and scent of you still on my tongue.”
“You shall do no such thing. I forbid it.”
He scraped his teeth over each nipple. “You cannot stop me. Unless you monitor my every move. Even then, you wouldn’t be able to stop me from creating a memorial to these glorious beauties.”
“They are simply breasts.” Jess was mortified.
“They are not simply breasts. Look at how they fill my palms to overflowing.” His voice grew even rougher, like the sound of a scythe separating chaff from wheat. “Look at the way your nipples harden in my palms, how they’re the color of port. How they pebble at the stroke of my thumb like pert little rosebuds. How the dusky halo of your areola looks against the freckles scattered across your collarbones. They are not simply breasts. They are your breasts - just as perfectly bountiful as I imagined they would be a thousand times.”
“A thousand times?”
“More than that. At least a hundred thousand times. Thinking of the way they would hold the length of my cock. If you’d be too shocked to wrap your mouth around the head and suck as I sucked these little berries to ripe, delicious fruition.” He flicked his thumbs over her sensitive skin, a rough stroke that made it almost impossible to ignore his ministrations.
Every inch of her body felt alive - as if she was on the verge of shattering into a million pieces. But she couldn’t let him win again.
“Your seduction ploy tonight has failed, Mr. Morgan. I have been steadfast and withstood your persuasion. Not a single whimper or moan has passed my lips.”
He placed a lingering kiss on the top of each breast before he rose to his feet.
“I concede to your indomitable will, dragonfly. I will bring one of the lenses with me to Christmas dinner.”
“One of the lenses? Not the entire microscope?” How much more of this was she expected to endure?
“Yes,” he said as he tucked her back into her chemise and retied the ribbon. “One lens. There are three lenses and the microscope itself. For every kiss you remain impervious to, I will deliver a part. I have at least three more opportunities to storm your castle.”
She pushed his hands away and loosely affixed her corset. “I welcome the skirmishes. I am confident I shall emerge victorious, just as I have tonight.”
He tipped her chin up with one knuckle, his gaze roving her face. “You are a much worthier opponent than I thought you would be. I welcome the challenge, dragonfly.”
She frowned. “I wish you would stop calling me that.”
“You may wish all you want, madam. Futilely. I shall call you whatever I please,” he said as he pulled up her sleeves. “Turn around and I’ll button you back up. And you may want to fix your hair in the mirror over the mantel.”
Jess wasn’t a contortionist, so she ignored the warmth of his touch as he made her presentable once again. When she felt the last button slip into place at her nape, she stepped away and stood on the tips of her toes to measure the damage done to her coiffure. Her reflection showed that several of the pins had come loose. She removed them and clenched them between her teeth while she smoothed back the flyaway tendrils of hair. Once she was satisfied with her efforts, she carefully slipped the pins back in place.
“Prim and proper to the core,” her host commented with what she sensed was chagrin.
“Unlike you, I have a houseful of people awaiting my return. A houseful of people you assured of my safety and well-being, might I add.”
“I’ve compromised neither your safety nor your well-being. This is an agreement between adults, and your determination to win tonight’s bout was admirable. I cede victory to you and look forward to our next engagement.”
“I shall see you in two days hence.”
“Not so fast, dragonfly. I will escort you home in my carriage.”
As soon as Jess closed the door behind her, Emily called out. “You’ve returned far earlier than we expected, little sister.”
When Jess rounded the corner, her sisters were all seated at the kitchen table, their cups of tea clasped in front of them, expectant looks on their faces.
“Where are Mac and Thaddeus?” Jess asked.
“They’re both on bedtime duty. We relegated them to reading Grimm’s to the girls.”
“Why? This feels like some sort of ambush.”
“Sit down, Jess. It’s not an ambush. We’re simply worried about your relationship with Mr. Morgan and what his intentions are.”
“My relationship with Mr. Morgan is none of your concern.”
“Jess, we know that he’s the first man you’ve ever truly shown an interest in,” said Vin.
Jess flashed her a warning look. She didn’t want their conversation about contraceptives and blackmail to provide even more fodder for their elder sisters.
Vin gave her an almost imperceptible nod. Letting her know her secrets were still safe.
“And he’s not what we imagined for you,” Emily clarified.
“I’m twenty-eight years of age and I know my own mind. While I appreciate your advice, I don’t require it. I don’t know how much Vin has told you, but Mr. Morgan and I have a bargain. Though it wasn’t one I made fully of my own volition, I am prepared to face the consequences of my actions. Whatever they may be.”
“I always thought you’d settle down with the vicar’s son once he returned from Cambridge. The two of you share a scientific bent of mind and he’s just as uncomfortable in social settings as you are.”
Jess took a deep breath so she wouldn’t say something in anger she’d be forced to regret at her leisure. When her sisters got their hackles up in her defense, as they were doing now, it felt more like intrusion than protection. She longed for Cece’s stalwart support, or for an adventure of her own to finally declare her independence in a way they couldn’t refute.
“Jonathan Trowbridge is a dour, gloomy mud puddle of a man. We have absolutely nothing in common. He is fascinated with igneous rock and volcanoes, and my interests lie in cataloging the insect world. He hates social functions because he thinks he’s above them. I detest social functions because I often feel they are a waste of precious time filled with nothing but silly gossip.”
Arie and Fran exchanged a glance and Jess wanted to skewer them. She knew what that shared amusement meant. That they found her naive. “Why don’t you spend more time on these two?” She asked as she gestured toward Vin and Emily. “In case you haven’t noticed, they are more firmly on the shelf than I am and show no inclination to settle down.”
“Their day of reckoning will soon be at hand. They are not currently the object of my concern. You are. I will accept your assurance that I needn’t worry on your behalf, but I do so with reservations. I’ve been putting your welfare before my own most of my life, and it’s a habit I find difficult to break,” Arie said.
Jess took her eldest sister’s outstretched hands. “I understand. All of us appreciate the way you took care of us when mother died and father neglected us. But just as we told you when you insisted you needed to remain in your dead husband’s household - we all need to seek our own happiness and make our own mistakes. I want the chance to find my own way. Just as you and Fran have and just as Cece is doing.”
Her other sisters stood and each of them hugged her in turn.
“We’re sorry for making you feel like a rebellious child, Jess,” Fran apologized.
“And Emily and I are sorry for demanding an accountability we’re not entitled to,” Vin whispered into her ear as she hugged her.
Jess took a seat at the table with them after the embrace, and helped assign roles for the festivities that would begin in the morning.