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‘You are going?’
‘I must. Brussels will be waking up soon and it will not do for me to be seen leaving a lady’s house.’
She pulled the covers over herself, suddenly aware of the morning chill on her naked skin.
‘Am I still a lady, after what we have done?’
He came back to the bed, his blue eyes glowing hot when he looked at her. ‘You will always be a lady, Mary Endacott.’
She smiled, warmed by his words. It was not true, of course, but she decided not to contradict him.
‘If we are circumspect, it should still be possible to protect your reputation,’ he said as he dressed. ‘And yet I want to show you to the whole world. The Richmonds are holding a ball on Thursday. I will make sure you are invited.’
‘I do not think so.’ She sat up. ‘A schoolteacher at a duchess’s ball and invited at Lord Randall’s behest? That would cause tongues to wag!’
‘Very well.’ He had finished dressing and now knelt on the bed for one last kiss. ‘Then I shall not go. I shall come here instead.’
The kiss was a long one, but at last Randall dragged himself away.
‘I must leave,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘The longer I stay the more chance there is of being seen.’
‘You will return tonight?’ she asked him, as he made his way to the door. She said impulsively, ‘Come and dine with me, I have to go to the market to buy some food, I will buy extra.’
‘Oh, and who will cook it?’
‘I shall. I am quite capable, you know.’
‘I do not doubt it. But what of your servants, what about the gossip?’
‘Jacques has been with my family since he was a boy and Therese is devoted to me. They can be trusted to say nothing.’
‘Very well, until tonight.’
When Randall had gone Mary slipped out of bed and ran to the window, from where she could watch him stride off down the deserted street. She remembered his warning, there could be no going back now, but she had no regrets. Not yet.
* * *
That evening she cooked for Randall. The servants had been given the evening off so he sat in the kitchen and watched her, and when the food was ready instead of carrying it to the dining room they ate at the big kitchen table, sitting side by side on the wooden bench and feeding each other with small mouthfuls from the delicious ragout she had prepared. Afterwards he took her to bed and made love to her. In the darkness he could feel the desire unfurling within her again, she became soft and pliant beneath his caresses. He was hard and aroused as his head moved to her breasts, where he took first one hard nub in his mouth and then the other, his tongue circling and stroking. She moaned softly, firing his desire to a fever pitch and when his hand slid through the triangle of dark curls at the apex of her thighs she gave a little gasp of delight. He cupped her, feeling her hips lifting as she offered herself to him. She was hot and slick and he slid into her easily, struggling to hold back as she tightened around him, her body stroking him. It took every last ounce of will-power to bring her passion to a head without losing control, but he succeeded, spilling himself harmlessly on the soft skin of her belly.
As he settled Mary in his arms and drifted off to sleep, Randall found himself wishing he might stay with her forever. He wanted her at his side for the rest of his life, to be his companion, his lover. The mother of his children.
He wanted to marry her.
The revelation unnerved him: she had turned his world upside down and he was no longer in control.
* * *
Mary stirred sleepily as he left her bed and began to dress in the half-light.
‘Must you go?’
‘My staying is like to ruin you.’
She watched him pull on his trousers.
‘Most probably I am ruined already.’
‘Do not say that.’
