AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You are certain?’ Gray looked at her intently, every ounce of his formidable attention focused on her.
‘Yes.’ It was foolish in the extreme, of course, and not for any reason that a moralist would give her for avoiding such behaviour. How could she seek for a father for her child, her heir, if she was enmeshed in an affaire with Gray? But surely this was simply a flare of passion, an instinctive desire? Satisfying that desire would end the compulsion, it would burn itself out and his presence would no longer fill her senses and disturb her dreams and she would be able to think clearly about what—and whom—she wanted.
‘Then come with me now?’ She could not escape the heat in those eyes she had thought so hard, so cold. When she nodded, he knocked on the carriage roof and, when it halted, dropped the window glass, leaned out and called something up to the driver. ‘My town house,’ he said as he slammed the glass back up and reached for her again.
Gaby slid her hands under the lapels of his coat, felt his heat and the hard movement of his muscles under her palms, arched into his kiss as his hand slipped up her leg, over silk, over the ribbons of her garter, over bare skin towards her heat and her secrets.
The windows were unshielded, and they were trotting demurely through fashionable, crowded Mayfair and this controlled, disciplined man was giving way to his desire for her in the most uninhibited, dangerous manner. She loved it. Her hands pushed at his coat, wanting him, wanting to touch his skin as he touched hers, burning.
Her skirts were heaped in her lap now, there was cool air on her thighs, his hand—
The coach turned a corner, slowed and they fell apart.
‘I’ve lost my mind.’ Gray closed the blind beside him with a jerk, leaned across her as Gaby fought her skirts into decency and dealt with the other, then tugged his coat back into place and pushed his hands though his hair. ‘And, what’s worse, I cannot seem to care.’
‘No,’ she agreed. She found her bonnet on the floor, put it on and pulled down the veil that, thank goodness, Jane had insisted she pin to it. ‘Am I fit to be seen?’
Gray released a blind, letting some more light in as the carriage came to a halt. ‘Yes, we will pass muster.’
Considering that she was trembling like an aspen leaf in a faint breeze, Gaby thought that she managed to dismount from the carriage and climb the front steps of Gray’s town house with admirable composure. She had no idea where they were, the view through her veil was blurred and she was too agitated to ask.
The door was opened by a small man in a butler’s formal black with a striped waistcoat. ‘My lord. Madam.’
‘Fredericks, this is Miss Frost, Lady Orford’s niece visiting London from Portugal. I am assisting Miss Frost in finding a house for a few months, so doubtless you will be seeing a great deal of her.’
‘Miss Frost, welcome to England. My lord—’
‘Miss Frost and I have business to discuss. Pl
ease have refreshments sent to the study and then see that we are not disturbed.’
‘My lord,’ the butler said again with enough emphasis to stop Gray’s march down the hall. ‘Mr Pickford is in residence. He arrived last week and, as you told me before you sailed that you had offered him open house, I did not hesitate to accommodate him in the Chinese suite.’
‘Gray!’ A cheerful voice floated down from the landing, followed by a pair of long legs in pantaloons and Hessian boots which belonged, Gaby saw, to a younger, fairer, shorter version of Gray. ‘You see, I made up my mind to take the plunge and hazard my new future and I am heartily glad of your offer to stay while I put it all in place.’ He stopped in front of Gaby, who had flipped back her veil. ‘Ma’am.’
‘Miss Frost, my cousin Mr Pickford. Henry, Miss Frost, Lady Orford’s niece from Porto. Lady Orford, you will recall, is my godmother.’
‘Who can forget?’ Henry Pickford thrust out his hand and shook Gaby’s. ‘Are you staying with the old battleaxe, Miss Frost? Or...er...perhaps she is your favourite relative, in which case I apologise most heartily for the description.’
‘Please, do not apologise, Mr Pickford. I quite agree, Lady Orford can be...demanding. Lord Leybourne is assisting me to find a house in town for a few months so I can live there with my own household and companion.’ She managed a smile and to put warmth into her voice and could only hope that he was a very unobservant young man. If he wasn’t, then the best she could hope for was that he might think that her colour was naturally high and that she suffered from some kind of breathing complaint.
Beside her, when she glanced up, Gray was wearing one of his most deceptive smiles. So much for an afternoon of sin amid the teacups on the desk in the study... Or perhaps there was a sofa in there. Or his bedchamber led off it.
She was not going to find out today. Perhaps she never would if the pair of them came to their senses and pretended this had not happened, that Gray had not had his hands on her bare thighs in the carriage, that she had not been trying to tear off his coat and scratch her nails down his naked chest.
Somehow she found herself in the drawing room, making polite conversation with this member of Gray’s family. Or rather, she was making polite conversation—he obviously felt a pressing need to unburden himself to anyone who would listen.
‘I am definitely going to America to make a fresh start there, in Boston. My father left me heavily in debt when he died last year, you see, Miss Frost.’
‘I, um... I am so sorry for your loss.’
‘Thank you. We were not close, far from it.’ He grimaced. ‘It has taken me all this time to sort matters out, everything was in the most appalling state and there was such a scandal.’
Gaby cast a frantic glance at Gray, but he merely shrugged.
‘Father embezzled money from the bank, you see.’
‘Oh,’ she said faintly.
