Page 91 of Only a Mistress Will Do

“Ahh.” She arched and panted.

Her sounds drove him mad with wanting to sink himself into her. Still, the beauty of her face as pleasure built inside her intrigued him. He’d seen her at different times during the throes of passion, but never at the ultimate moment. Always he’d wait for her to reach the penultimate moment, then close his eyes and lose himself in her as passion took them. While almost heart-stopping, his actions had robbed him of the pleasure of seeing her face at the moment of completion. He’d promised himself he would see that beauty tonight.

“Oh, Tris.” Gasping, she writhed on the bed, raising her hips to meet his finger, still stroking her round and round. “Lower. Inside me.”

“Your wish, my love.” His heart hammered and his cock strained as he slid his digit inside her warm, wet channel.

“Ahh.” Her moan began as a guttural sound, then rose to high pitched squeaks. Her face flushed, a lovely pink staining her cheeks and forehead, where fine beads of sweat glistened. She tried to reach his very ready member, but he stayed her hand, all the while stroking in and out. “Now, Tris. Put yourself inside me now.”

“I want to watch you, love, as the passion takes you.” He kissed the damp forehead and added a second finger. “Then I will join with you.”

“Ahh. Ahh.” She closed her eyes, her ragged breath timed with his thrusts. The slow, sure rhythm pushed her toward the edge, each stroke met with an increasingly louder moan.

He sped up his thrusts, intent on the flushed face.

Fisting her hands in the sheets, she opened her blazing eyes, and shrieked, “Oh, God,” as her body clutched at his fingers. “Tris, oh, Tris,” she cried as her face took on a glow, a radiance of beauty he’d never glimpsed before.

Scarcely missing a beat, he climbed on top of her and thrust home. She gripped him now and he closed his eyes, her face still before him, gave two thrusts and spent himself deep inside her. The memory of her face at that moment in time would remain with him always.

She continued to moan as her body clasped him and he remained inside her until she stopped, both of them completely spent, now eternally knit together as one.

Chapter 34

Warm lips pressed against hers. Violet reached the edges of consciousness and cracked an eyelid to see Tris bending over her, tucking the rumpled covers more securely around her.

“Shh. Go back to sleep, love. I will return shortly.” A fleeting kiss and he was gone.

She sank back into the warm bed, drifting off as tantalizing images of Tris during the night lulled her back toward sleep. Where was he going so early? Not the privy. Although the room had but faint lights of the dark before dawn, she’d seen he’d been fully dressed. Was he going to meet the marquess for an appointment this morning? He would return soon he said. That was good. She missed his comforting weight beside her in the bed. Turning over, Violet rubbed the pillow next to her, the indentation where his head had lain a shadowy crater. Why did he need to go before first light? Nothing happened this early in the morning except—

“Susan!” Violet screeched and bounded up in the bed. “The duel. That stupid duel.” She flung the covers back and leaped out of bed. Where were her stays?

“My lady, what’s wrong?” Slowly, Susan limped into the bedchamber, a pitcher of water in her hand.

“The duel. He went without me.” Cursing under her breath, Violet grabbed the first dress to hand out of her trunk, her brown traveling gown and jerked it over her head. “Quickly. He will not do this without me there.”

Susan settled the gown over her and swiftly laced the back.

A rumble of wheels sent Violet stumbling to the window. The marquess’s carriage pulled out of the inn yard, gathering speed.

“Tris!” She beat her hand on the window. “Tris! Wait. Wait for me.” Head spinning, she reeled back into the room, grabbed the stomacher and jammed it into the bodice. “Go tell them to bring Tris’s carriage.”

Eyes wide and frightened, Susan nodded and hitched out of the room, calling for a pot boy.

Violet pulled on her half boots and tied the laces with fingers that shook. Why would he leave her behind? Had he a premonition? Did he see his own death and wish to spare her seeing him die? Stupid fool. Did he think life would matter a tinker’s damn if he was not here with her? That she would wait calmly at the inn while he was fighting for his life? If he survived Simon Harper’s blade he might well fall by her hand for his idiocy.

“Susan,” she called as she passed the maid’s door, running down the steep staircase at a frenzied pace.

“Here, my lady.” Susan waited at the bottom of the steps, Violet’s cloak in her hands. “They’re bringing the carriage around now.” She pulled the garment around Violet’s shoulders.

Scarcely waiting for the maid to settle the cloak, she sped out into the cold inn yard, Susan following after her. The sun had at last peeked over the roof of the stables, bathing everything in a delicate pink light.

The carriage rolled up in front of them. “Stokes, do you know where Lord Trevor was to fight this morning?” Violet fixed the elderly man with a glare designed to make him quake in his boots.

“Y-yes, miss. That is, my lady. Tate, the coachman to the marquess, asked me last night if I knew where this pond was he’d be going to this morning. I did, and I told him.” Stokes’s face seemed to wither, his mouth quivering. “Will you try to stop him, my lady?” The hope in his pale blue eyes tugged at her heart.

“No.” As swiftly as she could, she helped Susan into the carriage. “I understand Lord Trevor must fight the duel, but by God, I will be there to see him do it.” She clambered in after Susan, slammed the door, and the vehicle lurched into motion.

The journey back to Harper’s Grange had the same air of unreality as her earlier flight from it. Violet clenched her hands in her lap and stared out the window, seeing nothing of the countryside flashing by her in the brightening light. What must she do when she arrived? If the duel was over she would quietly have a fit and cry on Tris’s shoulder. She doubted that would be the case. She’d been too quick behind him. Most likely they would have just begun.