Unrivalled Regency: A Gallant Gamble Part 13

"I suspect that he has some infection from the river water, but we'll know more soon. He'll either cool down or heat up. If his temperature goes much higher, you will be in for a rough time until the fever breaks. Keep him cool, plenty of tepid cloths to keep the temperature down."

Charlotte had said goodbye to the physician not long later and already Geoffrey was warmer to the touch. Tears leaked from her eyes and she couldn't help a sob leaving her lips as she heard the harsh answers to her offers to help him, but she knew that she couldn't let him think that she was going to leave him. He'd need days of care and attention before he would be well enough to leave his bed again and she was going to be the one who gave it whether he wanted her or not. It was her job as his wife to attend to his wellbeing and she would do it to the very best of her ability.

He grimaced and appeared to flinch from her touch. His blackened, swollen eyes, that had opened briefly, closed once again. She took her hand from his shoulder but whispered to him.

"I won't leave you, but I don't know what I did wrong. Please tell me what is it that you want?"

There was silence for a few seconds as he took in rapid, shallow breaths and she realized that he had fallen back into a troubled sleep. She slid from the bed, ready to collapse in the chair once again when she suddenly heard him whisper to himself.

"My wife! I want my Charlotte."

She stopped dead and turned slowly back towards him, wondering if her ears had deceived her, but he looked more peaceful. As she stood there, her heart pounding with possibilities, her mind ran back over his previous hard words and suddenly everything became clear.

He hadn't wanted the harlot to touch him. He'd recoiled from the woman who had drugged him. He had been rejecting the wh.o.r.e's advances not encouraging them.

And then he'd said that he wanted his wife! He wanted her! Charlotte's heart soared, flew upwards, and slammed against her ribs as she watched him toss and turn in his sleep.

The fever broke a few hours later and then the s.h.i.+vers came upon him, violent in their force. His teeth rattled in his mouth and he thrashed the blankets from the bed with the spasms in his legs. Charlotte grew exhausted repeatedly pulling the eiderdown back over his goose pimpled torso.

It was Coalport who had eventually helped her.

"He needs warmth. All the blankets and the hot pans are not helping him. He needs the heat of a body next to him." He looked at her significantly.

Charlotte felt the blush flood her cheeks.

"You mean that I should get in bed with him?"

Coalport raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to do it when he has a perfectly good wife to help him. I mean to say that I would of course help if I thought there was no other option but seeing as there is..." he tipped his head in her direction.

Charlotte nodded.

"Of course." She lifted the covers and made to slide in but Coalport gave a shake of his head.

"He needs body heat...not three layers of silk. If you can't manage, I can ask Louise to come and help you with your dress."

Charlotte's face flushed even deeper.

"Oh!" She gave a surprised gasp but then reached up her back. Fortunately, her gown was a simple one and she pulled the laces with ease as Coalport gave her another encouraging grin before he slipped from the room.

Geoffrey sighed as he felt warmth against his back, and he turned towards it pulling it nearer as the rattle in his head stopped at last. He took a deep breath, wincing slightly as his ribs reminded him that he wasn't completely recovered yet.

He held the breath a moment as conflicting scents filled his nose and smothered him with dread. Onions and...almonds? G.o.d! If he were with that wh.o.r.e again he'd jump out of the window and back into the d.a.m.n river! Rather drown than have her revolting fingers all over him.

He opened his eyes and flickering lamp light revealed that he was in a large, soft bed with clean sheets and curtains surrounding it. A quick glance showed him that the shadowed room was clean and s.p.a.cious, a far cry from the foetid, dismal room in which he had been last detained.

There was a jug of water and a gla.s.s on the bedside cabinet and he reached out, drinking greedily as he realized how thirsty he had become. He drank his fill before placing the gla.s.s back down and turning to see exactly where he was and how he was being kept so warm. It was only as he saw blonde hair fanned out on the pillow beside him that he struggled to move further away.

d.a.m.n her heat, he'd rather freeze to death. He didn't want her anywhere near him! He squinted into the half-light, desperate to catch sight of what were left of his clothes. He had to get out of there before she woke and drugged him again. His stomach roiled as he caught sight of the jug of water and he cursed himself for a fool for drinking without thought.

The woman yawned behind him. He stilled all his movements. Maybe she wouldn't guess that he had woken and leave him be.

"Geoffrey? Are you awake?" A shockingly familiar voice penetrated his fogged brain and he wondered if his head was still befuddled with drugs, or if it was his mind playing tricks on him, but the woman spoke again and he turned his head towards the sweet tones that he'd thought he might never hear again. "Geoff, it's me. You were cold and Coalport said that you needed warmth." Charlotte's quiet voice soothed his uneasy thoughts.

"He did?" His voice felt raw in his throat and he swallowed hard. He felt silk soft hair move over his shoulder as she nodded. Was he still dreaming? He surely couldn't be in bed with Charlotte.

The same beautiful voice spoke again.

"He said that he would have done it if you had been desperate and hadn't a perfectly good wife to do it for you. He wasn't being awkward or anything." She sounded acutely embarra.s.sed.

Geoffrey snorted with laughter and then stopped as his ribs gave him another sharp reminder.

"Ow! Now I know that I must be awake. No one could ever have dreamed up that." He lay silently again as he suddenly realized that he was very warm. Far warmer than if she had lain beside him while wearing her clothes. He stretched out a tentative hand and groaned as his fingertips met velvety flesh.

She stiffened slightly as his palm spread across her naked hip and he removed his hand quickly. He was about to apologize when she suddenly reached out and took his hand, placing it back in place and resting her own over it.

"Charlotte..." he breathed out a sigh as he turned his whole body to face her. Huge blue eyes blinked slowly at him. His hand traced its way from the flare of her hip to the dip of her slender waist and from there up her side. He groaned as his fingertips met the swell of her breast and, with an effort of will that he never knew he possessed, he tried to remove his hand again.

"No," she breathed back at him, her voice a mere whisper in the shadows. "Touch me..."

Silence surrounded them, only their own rapid breaths interrupted the quiet. There was a rustle of sheets as Geoffrey slid his hand out from beneath hers. He moved to lay flat on his back and fisted both of his hands at his sides as guilt and shame covered him.

Although she lay naked beside him, he couldn't be sure that she knew what he had done and he couldn't deceive her. He'd run from her, had become so drunk that he couldn't take care of himself and although what had followed hadn't been his fault, if she couldn't forgive him he thought he might die from a broken heart. Gulping back his fears, he prayed to G.o.d like he had never prayed in his life before. He had to confess what he had done.

"Charlotte...you have to know what happened. I have to tell you...You won't...I..." A finger placed over his lips stopped his stammering as her gentle tones rea.s.sured him.

"They drugged you. Yes, I know what happened...and I also know what didn't."

He nodded and closed his eyes as the memories threatened to engulf him.

"I swear that I never touched them, but they hoodwinked me with contaminated brandy. I've no idea what they put in it but I was completely at their mercy. They attempted to...I didn't...I couldn't..." he swallowed the revulsion and cleared his throat. "It was so awful, but I'd been such a fool and fell into their trap. There was nothing I could do to stop them. Charlotte, I...I, G.o.d I have failed you so badly..." he gave up as she suddenly placed her mouth against his and kissed him so tenderly that he wondered if it was an angel who had brushed his lips instead of the wildfire woman he knew and loved.

His whole being reacted instantly to her touch. From being icily cold, fire suddenly raced through his body, searing him as it licked over his skin. His aching fingers stretched out, touching her as if she were made of the finest gla.s.s, skimming over her skin as he traced her shoulders, her collarbone, her throat and her face. She leaned into his hand and then kissed his palm softly.

"Geoffrey...I'm sorry that you had to marry me, sorry that I am so harebrained and absurd. I'll change, I promise. I'll be a duti..." He placed his finger over her mouth as the ache in her tone had him staring at her questioningly. He could see fire in her eyes, hear wildness in her breaths as she apologised for being the most perfect woman on the earth.

She'd be a dutiful wife. She had vowed in the carriage after they were wed. He nearly cried out in rage at the thought. He caught hold of her shoulders and gave her a small shake.

"I don't want you to change and I don't want a dutiful wife." Tears sprang into her eyes at his rough tone and she attempted to move away from him, but he held her fast and tightened his grip as he carried on "I want a wife who is outrageous and tempestuous, adventurous and brave, scatterbrained and daring. Dutiful be d.a.m.ned. I want you exactly as you are, Charlotte." Her eyes questioned him for a moment before opening wide in surprise.

"You do?" Disbelief clouded her tone.

"I do," he responded as he pulled her closer, their naked skin touching from chest to thigh. His hands inched their way up from her shoulders and he cupped her jaw as her eyelashes swept down to brush her flushed cheeks. He moved her to his side and levered himself up onto one elbow as he stared down at her, marvelling at her beauty as the sheets slipped away.

b.r.e.a.s.t.s so perfect they almost made his eyes water, glistened with a faint sheen of perspiration. Tearing his eyes away from their rosy peaks was almost impossible but he made a gallant effort and his gaze slipped lower. He groaned deeply as her body was slowly revealed to him in all its slender glory.

"Lord alive, you are exquisite," his husky voice filled the s.p.a.ce between them.

She smiled up at him.

"I'm glad that you think so. I would have hated to be a disappointment." A nervous laugh left her lips.

He shook his head quickly.

"Never! Never in a million years could you ever be a disappointment."

She reached up to touch his jaw. The stubble covering his chin grazed her palm, sending subtle s.h.i.+vers of pleasure throughout her whole body. He turned his face into her hand and kissed the centre of her palm before nibbling the delicate skin at her wrist. He left a trail of gentle kisses along the inside of her arm, sucking at the soft skin inside her elbow before whispering a path of fervour up to her shoulder.

Her head fell back into the pillow as his tongue sent spirals of fire along a throat that tasted of fresh fields and sweet meadow gra.s.s and she cried out as he grazed his teeth along the tantalizing skin just below her ear.

She gasped at the unknown sensations.

"Geoff, what are you doing to me? I'm burning all over, my skin is aflame." Her heart picked up an uncontrollable rhythm as he s.h.i.+fted his body slightly, his sculpted leg sliding between her thighs as she melted under his touch. His fingers slipped under the cascades of golden hair and he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, tilting her head upwards as he gazed into her cornflower eyes.

"I'm going to kiss you, all over your body, until my lips have touched every single inch of your perfect skin...and then I am going to make love to you," his voice rumbled through her mind sending her wild with antic.i.p.ation. "I'm going to make love to you for hours and when I have brought you to completion so often that you have forgotten how to count, I am going to begin again, and again, and again. I'm going to make you mine forever." His lips fell onto hers, devouring her as he took her sudden intake of breath and every other thought but him from her mind.

His hand slid along her marble white skin until his palm covered her breast before he dipped his head and groaned out his pa.s.sion as his lips teased her nipple, brus.h.i.+ng the peak and tormenting it into a small berry of desire.

He hadn't been lying when he'd told her what he was about to do and she wasn't about to stop him in his quest. Every inch of her was caressed by his fingertips, every part of her tasted with his tongue and wors.h.i.+pped by his lips. She couldn't tell whether she was dreaming or if some kind of alternate reality had picked her up and immersed her in the agony of ecstasy. Heat and desire poured from her body as Geoffrey made love to her, not leaving one single sliver of flesh untouched.

When he finally pressed her legs apart, she arched her back in desperation for something she had never known, and her hips came up to meet him.

"I love you!" He cried as he entered her, pressing into her deeply in one long slow thrust of devotion. She answered his cry with one of her own and he held her, and held her until the moment of pain had pa.s.sed and she was moving against him, giving him back the love that surged into her.

She held onto his shoulders, ran her fingers down his spine, loving the play of his muscles as they worked in rhythm with his thrusts. She lifted her leg around his hip and fought to give him everything back as something wild and untamed consumed her. Sweat covered both of them as his s.e.x filled her, blinded her to everything else around them. The cords of his throat stood out as his breathing became deeper, his chest heaving as he gave her more and more.

Geoffrey thought he might be losing his mind. The sensations that rocked him were nothing like he had felt in his life before. He was no green virgin but never had his body felt so enraptured. Her tight heat stole his breath and his body became one with hers as she undulated beneath him. A fever of pa.s.sion such as he'd never known swept through every muscle, every nerve and he knew that he wouldn't last much longer. He felt the tingle right through to his spine as his emotions entwined with their raw intimacy and he knew that nothing on this earth could have prepared him for the rush of ecstasy that suddenly engulfed him.

Charlotte hovered on the edge of a sensation she couldn't name. What might have been minutes or hours later, she cared not, something broke over her, inside her, transporting her to a place she never knew existed, blinding her to the room about her and the bed beneath her. Her whole world became one with the man above her as her body pulsed around him and Geoffrey suddenly stiffened, holding himself so deep inside her that she couldn't fathom which part of each of them belonged to whom.

"I love you!" The words fell from her lips as he dropped his head into her shoulder and his whole being shuddered out his release.

It was long minutes before he rolled back on the bed, taking her with him as he fought to catch his breath. Never had he felt anything so exhilarating, so agonizingly pleasurable, so completely life altering. He held her to his chest, not daring to let her go as the beauty of the moment washed over him.

She loves me! She loves me! He wanted to shout it a thousand times. He felt his lips curl into a fragile smile. He had bruised them kissing her, but he didn't care. He would live through a thousand agonies to reach this moment of bliss again, to hold it close to him and to cherish it forever. She was his, totally his and he would never be so stupid as to let her go ever again. He lifted his hand and caught a lock of her hair, twisting it around his finger and tugging gently so that she lifted her head to look at him.

"I cannot believe that I was so stupid as to walk out on you. It was a misunderstanding of the most ridiculous kind. I love you, Charlotte. I have since the day I first lay eyes on you at Ormond. I thought you were too young and I wasn't good enough for you, that you would be embarra.s.sed to be with me, but even if you are, I don't care anymore. You are my wife and I will love and treasure you for the rest of my life and into eternity beyond."

She almost sobbed at the sincerity of his words as she rested her head on his heaving chest and listened to the strong, steady thump of his heart. It was only as she leaned in and pressed her lips to the bulge of his breast that she felt a puff of air brush over her hair. She was about to push up from him when his arm tightened about her and the huff of air came again, this time followed by a soft snore.

She smiled gently and closed her own eyes as she snuggled against him, sleep over taking her quickly as she relaxed by her husband's side for the very first time.

Chapter Eleven.

Terror and Teardrops The clatter of crockery woke him. He yawned widely and squinted as sunlight streamed in through the window. He blinked to clear his somewhat hazy vision and scratched his bristled chin as he wondered where he was. The drapes at the bedside were unfamiliar as were the carpets beside him and the screen at one corner of the room.

The odd scent in the air didn't give him much of a clue either. He knew from the furnis.h.i.+ngs that he was far away from the inn where the felons had held him, but seeing that he was in a finely decorated bedroom, he couldn't fathom why there was the strong scent of onions pervading his nostrils.

He turned curiously as someone gave a short cough beside him.

"Ah! Mr. Talbot. Awake at last!" The valet's delighted exclamation brought forth one of his own.

"Coalport! How unexpected! Might I ask where I am and why the place smells like a stall at the vegetable market." He took the cup of proffered tea and sipped it quickly, grateful for the thirst-quenching liquid as it ran down his throat.

"You are at Lord Caithwell's London residence in St. George Street with your good lady wife, Miss Charlotte, or should I say, Mrs. Talbot now, and the scent of onions is emanating from the large bowl of the sliced root residing beneath your bed. The doctor swears that they absorb bad humours in the air. We have been changing them daily and I only just put a fresh supply beneath the coverlet."

Geoffrey laughed at the thought then immediately winced as his lip split without warning.

"Surely they don't believe that old wives tale here in London? But why should they need to be there in the first place?" He stilled as he realized that some of his flashbacks were more than just nightmares. "d.a.m.nation! May maggots eat their foul and blackened hearts! It wasn't a dream." More visions erupted in his head. Charlotte in her wedding dress...Charlotte out of her wedding dress...Charlotte naked and writhing in ecstasy beneath him. Charlotte shouting his name and declaring her love for him as he came deep within her. He gulped as he remembered it all.

Coalport folded a blanket and lay it in a drawer before coming back to the bed and gently pulling Geoffrey forwards to plump the pillows behind his head.

"No, it was no dream," the man said sorrowfully.

Geoffrey looked at his valet. He had dark circles of tiredness beneath his eyes and Geoffrey noticed the scabs dotting the back of his own knuckles as the man straightened the sheet beneath his hands.

He lay back again and puffed out a huge breath as the realization of the events crashed over him. Perspiration dampened his forehead as pictures of the beating swarmed into his head. He pushed the sheets from his over warm chest to his waist as he shoved the thoughts from his brain. There was no point in going back there. He was here now, at their temporary home and with a wife to consider.

"Though I'm thrilled that getting married wasn't a dream, I'm not so happy about the being drugged and beaten to within an inch of my life part of the adventure...I a.s.sume, from the sc.r.a.pes on my knuckles that part was true too and not some figment of my imagination?" He paused for a second while he waited for Coalport's confirming nod, then smiled before adding. "Though there is the remote possibility that I had a turn of the screws, threw myself from the top of St. Paul's and am still suffering the consequences of doing anything quite so foolhardy."

Coalport let out a sharp laugh as he began pulling fresh clothes from the wardrobe.

"Yes, sir. I would imagine that there is that possibility, but no. Unfortunately, it happened exactly as you suspected. You were beaten to within an inch of your life, though I am happy to report that there seems to be no lasting injury and you appear to be in fine fettle this morning. Needless to say, everyone will be delighted to see you up and about again. The last three days have been far too quiet while you have lain abed fast asleep. If the doctor hadn't been adamant that it was just a short relapse brought on by some slightly too vigorous exercise before you were quite well enough, I think we might all have become quite worried." Coalport gave a small cough of embarra.s.sment.

Geoffrey nearly choked on his tea.

"What are you talking about? I have not been asleep for three days." He rapidly thought back to the previous night and his eyes flew to the sheets as he realized that he had pushed them back a little too far. Though he could see no evidence of their joining, as Charlotte wasn't there with him, he had no desire to cause her any embarra.s.sment and he certainly wasn't going to admit to Coalport what they had been up to the night before. He dragged the covers higher again.

Coalport nodded.

"Absolutely correct, sir. You haven't been abed for three days...You have been in bed for five."

Now Geoffrey really did splutter.

"Five days! I have not been lying in bed for five days. Charlotte was only here last night. She would have said something to me then if I had been lying here for nearly a week." He stopped quickly as he realized that he had admitted that she was with him the night before. He huffed out a breath and lifted his chin as he silently dared Coalport to say anything. Charlotte was his wife after all. It was perfectly natural for her to be in bed with him whenever they felt like it.

Coalport stopped fiddling with the clothes and looked over at his charge.

"Miss Charlotte was here with you three days ago. Unfortunately, you had a relapse. Hardly surprising after the beating you took. Your wife has slept in the chair ever since...and you can stop worrying about the sheets." He raised his eyebrows at Geoffrey's fussing with the covers. "We changed them the morning after she spent the night with you. Poor girl nearly had a fit thinking that she had killed you with a night of pa.s.sion. I did rea.s.sure her that I thought you were not quite so fragile as that." He took Geoffrey's rattling cup. "Better let me hang onto that, sir. Can't be breaking the Master's best china."

Geoffrey gathered his thoughts. It was obvious that he couldn't keep much from his valet. He shook his head and vowed not to worry about it.